Posted on 07/23/2009 9:38:31 AM PDT by TaraP
Hundreds of right-wing activists are intending to attempt to march up to the Temple Mount next Thursday morning, Tisha Be'Av, in protest of the US demand to cease construction in east Jerusalem.
March organizer Gershon Salomon told the Jerusalem Post that as opposed to previous years when only a few dozen participants at most tried to go up to the mount, this year he was hoping for hundreds to protest the "US pressure to stop settlement activity, and east Jerusalem construction in particular, and also the apparent weakness of our leaders," which he said he feared would lead to a "division of Jerusalem and the loss of the Temple Mount."
"We're concerned that in the end, the Temple Mount will be part of a Palestinian state, with US backing," he told the Post. "We will say to [US President
Obama, 'Get your hands off Jerusalem and the land of Israel!"
He said flyers about the protest contained the message that "we'll let Barack Hussein Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu know that we're not moving from here," as well as the words: "Go to the Bible to find out to whom this land belongs!"
Salomon expressed hope that unlike previous years, this time the security forces would allow the group to ascend the mount.
"What a tragedy that police have made it off limits to Jews," he lamented, "There is no [Israeli] flag, no talit, no siddur - and our requests to hold a reading of the Scroll of Lamentations there on Tisha Be'av were turned down."
He said that the site had effectively been taken over by the Wakf.
Salomon said that the demonstration was set to begin at the gates of the Temple Mount at 11:30 on that morinng of Tisha Be'Av (Thursday), while the attempted ascent would begin at approximately 1:30 p.m.
On Wednesday, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon added to the pressure on Israel to freeze east Jerusalem construction.
"I urge the government of Israel to commit fully to its obligations, including to freeze settlement activity and natural growth," said Ban in a message to a United Nations meeting in Geneva on the Middle East. "If Israel continues settlement activity, it will not only be acting contrary to international law but also to a strong international consensus."
He said if Israel did freeze settlement activity, it would "facilitate a new environment of cooperation and common purpose from the countries in the region."
is this really wise? what is the point?
Barry has a long reach. He wants his hands on everything. Good for them.
Obozo think’s he is *President of Earth*.....
I thought that no Jewish person was to go up to the Temple Mount until it was ritually cleansed?
None have entered at this point....
TEA parties don’t escalate into regional wars however. The Temple Mount is not the same as Capitol Hill on a symbolic level.
http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/23636/
Does The Halacha Permit Us To Ascend The Temple Mount?
by Rabbi Efraim Sprecher, Dean of Students Diaspora Yeshiva Jerusalem
Does Jewish law permit us to ascend the Temple Mount today? This may seem only like a halachic question, but it has far reaching political consequences as well.
Shortly after the Six Day War in June 1967, the Chief Rabbinate posted a large sign at the entrance to the Temple Mount stating that it is forbidden to enter the Temple Mount according to Halacha. This prohibition was reiterated by Chief Rabbis Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger in January 2005. As a result, many Jews have not entered the Temple Mount area for the past 40 years.
But does Jewish law really forbid Jews to go up to the entire Temple Mount, our holiest site? The most important source is found in Mishnah (Kelim: 1:6-9): “There are 10 degrees of holiness. The Land of Israel is holier than any other land The Temple Mount,The Rampart (an area of 10 cubits surrounding the Holy Temple itself). The Court of the Women, the Court of Israelites is still more holy”
Halachic authorities have tried to determine if these 10 degrees of holiness still exist today. The reply is dependent upon a disagreement in the Talmud (Shavuot 16a) and on a difference of opinion between the Rambam and the Raavad in Mishneh Torah (Beit Habechirah 6:14). According to the Rambam, the original holiness that King Solomon bestowed on First Temple was holy for its time and for the future, but, according to the Raavad, the First Temple was holy for its time and not for the future.
Many authorities have ruled on the basis of the Talmud and the Rambam that it is still forbidden for a Jew to enter the Temple Mount today. In the words of the Rambam, “lest he wander into the forbidden area of the Court of the Israelites which is punishable by Karet (premature death) even today.” This is because we have all contracted ritual impurity by being in contact with a dead body.
However, we know from many sources that Jews continued to enter and even pray on the Temple Mount from the first through the 15th centuries. Many Rabbis of the Mishnah entered the Temple Mount area in the first and second centuries.
Ben-Zion Dinaburg proved that there was a Jewish house of prayer and study on the Temple Mount between the 7th and 11th centuries. Rambam himself visited the Temple Mount on the 14 of October 1165. Rabbi Menachem Hameiri of Provence (1249-1315) testifies, “ and the custom is to enter the Temple Mount.”
Rambam has ruled that those who have contracted ritual impurity from a corpse are not forbidden to enter the entire Temple Mount area. However, they are forbidden to enter the Rampart and the Court of Women, and the penalty of Karet applies only to those who enter the Court of Israelites and beyond.
If we can define the sanctified section of the Temple itself on what is today called the Temple Mount, we will perhaps be able to determine where it is permissible to enter. Indeed Rabbi David Ibn Zimra (1479-1573) and at least ten modern Rabbis, including Rabbis Hayyim Hirshinson, Rabbi Hayyim Dovid Halevi, Rabbi Shlomo Goren, Rabbi Yosef Kafah and Rabbi Shlomo Risk in, have ruled that it is permissible to enter some parts of the Temple Mount today.
The main sources for the boundaries of the Temple Mount during the Second Temple period are the Mishnah, Tractate Middot and Josephus. There are contradictions between these sources, but there is general agreement among rabbis and archaeologists regarding two basic points.
1. The Temple Mount today is much larger than the Temple Mount described by Josephus and the Mishnah. It is clear that the southern area, south of the Mughrabi Gate, and all of the northern area north of the raised platform around the Dome of the Rock, were added by King Herod. Therefore, these areas are not included in the sanctified area of the Temple Mount mentioned in the Mishnah.
2. The Huge Rock underneath the Dome of the Rock is the “Foundation Stone” which was located under the Holy of Holies, or it is the foundation of the Altar of the Temple.
In 1967 the Israeli Government gave the Muslim Wakf control of the Temple Mount. Since then the Wakf has made a concerted effort to obliterate the remnants of the Jewish antiquities on the Temple Mount. Furthermore, when the Wakf expanded the Aksa Mosque in 1999, they illegally removed 250 truckloads of dirt containing thousands of years of Jewish historical antiquities. Bar Ilan University’s Dr. Gabbi Barkai, a member of the Committee Against the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount is now sifting through this dirt and recovering thousands of ancient Jewish artifacts. The Wakf was able to get away with this plunder, because Jews do not visit the Temple Mount, and they don’t visit because of the Rabbinic rulings, cited above. Also, former Chief Rabbis Abraham Shapira and Mordechai Eliyahu agree that entering the Temple Mount is prohibited. Rav Shapira has ruled that anyone who ascends the Temple Mount is violating a prohibition whose punishment is Karet (a heavenly death sentence). Thus, we are left with a major dispute among the Rabbis regarding the Temple Mount.
Rebuild the temple Israel and this time rebuild it with its original or even better splendor. Send the prophet and his horse out to pasture.
next year in Jerusalem...
The Temple Mount is not the same as Capitol Hill on a symbolic level. Actually, it is much bigger. The Jews have been fighting for their rights on the Temple Mount for Milena. We have been fighting the Liberal termites for control of Capitol Hill for only the century or so Woodrow Wilson became the first bona-fide socialist friendly president.
There is no movement in any part of the Jewish religion to “retake” the Temple Mount. It’s a crazily provocative thing to even speak of, and no one does except a very small group of raging lunatics, of which apparently this Salomon is one. I can well understand why the Likud government refused his request for a permit.
Notice that Salomon is attacking Netanyahu and Obama in the same breath as being opposed to his mission. He’s a loon.
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