Time To Get Serious About Safeguarding The Temple Mount
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So in addition to the Waqf’s policy – facilitated by the Israel Police against the position of the Israeli Supreme Court – of preventing all non-Muslims from praying or expressing any religious sentiment at the site, the Waqf “caretakers” also exercise a free and heavy hand in the deliberate destruction of antiquities. While archeologists are prevented from investigating the site, work also is carried out without permit and any archeological supervision. It is one thing to prevent exploration; bulldozing ancient structures and using heavy machinery without any supervision is another thing.
The sages of Israel teach that the prayers of all mankind assemble together in the Foundation Stone before ascending to Heaven. This succinct teaching sums up the essence of what the vision of the “house of prayer for all people” (Isaiah 2) is really all about.
The Temple Mount is har habayit, “the Mountain of the House.” It is the house – the home. It is not just another issue. It is our center; its future represents the hope of all humanity. And it is a reflection of the honor of the God of Israel in this world. But a house built on a weak foundation will not stand.
We mourn over the site’s past; we yearn for its glorious future. But it is high time we honor the vision of the Holy Temple by safeguarding the beleaguered Mount and by stemming the tide of its present destruction.
Rabbi Chaim Richman is international director of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem.
tell a friendAbout the Author: Rabbi Chaim Richman is director of the International Department of the Temple Institute.
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When Moshe Dayan won the Temple Mount for all of Israel and immediately gave it back to the Arabs, he ended the 2000 year old dream to reclaim the Temple Mount as the firm foundation for the Jewish and concerned Christian populations Now Israel is stuck made out by its own stupidity in returning the Temple Mount. This also ends the holiday of Tisha b Av as the holiday has proven itself meaningless. No sense pining for something that you gave away. It's time to move on and abandon the Temple Mount.
"It's time to move on and abandon the Temple Mount" the holiday has proven itself meaningless.
NO it is not meaningless, and no Tisha b AV will eventually pay off.
The history of 1967-Dayan is not the only close call to re-building the Temple.
The Emperor Julian (361-363) permitted the rebuilding and an earthquake stopped the work.
Later on, the Sassanids permitted the rebuilding for two years, then the Byzantines tore down the construction and made it a garbage dump.
Under previous Muslim rule there was a synagogue on Temple Mount.
Impatient zealotry against Romans caused the destruction of the Temple and the Jewish state in Judea.
Patience of thousands of years is better than either foolish zealotry or cynical despair.
It is about time to tell islam to wakf the mount and keep going east where they belong – and it is high time the authorities in Israel were man enough to do the job they left in the incapable and fumbling hands of Dayan who did not comprehend what he was doing at the time – wakf and keep going – east!