"'I stood there in the place where the High Priest would enter once a year, barefoot, after five plunges in the mikveh,' he remembered later. 'But I was shod, armed, and helmeted. And I said to myself, 'This is how the conquering generation looks'.' The last battle had been fought, and Israel was now a nation of priests; all Jews could enter the Holy of Holies. The whole Israeli army, as Rabbi Cook repeatedly pointed out, was 'holy' and its soldiers could step forward boldly into the Presence of God."
Karen Armstrong, "Jerusalem"