Arab League seethes over Jewish prayer on Temple Mount
Personally, I don't go onto the Temple Mount. My rabbi doesn't permit it. But some Jews do and apparently some of them were 'caught' praying on Sunday. And the Arab League is seething about it. Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, head of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, led the guided tour on the Temple Mount. While guards on the mount have a policy of preventing Jewish prayer or religious gestures such as kneeling or bowing, Rabbi Ariel's group managed to briefly pray at the site.But this isn't even the first time it's happened.
"This is the first time since 1967 that Jews have conducted prayers on Al-Aksa during the month of Ramadan,” Moussa declared. “We condemn this act,” he added, in the name of the 22 countries belonging to the League.
The prayer session was “a serious blow to the holiness of the site,” Moussa claimed, adding that Jews should not be allowed to pray at the site "whether it is Ramadan or any other time of year.”
Rabbi Chaim Richman, another Temple Institute leader, said Moussa was misinformed. Rabbi Ariel's prayer was not the first of its kind – in fact, Jews pray on the Temple Mount whenever they can, he said, and always have.I know some of you aren't taking this very seriously. But you should. If you look at the description of Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount in September 2000, you'll find some similar rhetoric. The 'intifada' followed within a day or two.
“There's a positive commandment for Jewish people to pray on the Temple Mount,” Rabbi Richman explained. "I was on the Temple Mount on Wednesday, and I prayed.”
Far from being a violation of international law, Jewish prayer at the site is a fundamental human right, he said. “We go there out of a deep desire to express the most basic human right that we have, which is to pray to G-d.”
We'll know by Friday if this is something serious or not. It's Ramadan now.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:57 PM
7 Comments:
Carl - if you did daven on the Temple Mount, who would if offend? Certainly not G-d. The Arabs are offended by the sight of any Jew praying on it. Perhaps its time to life the rabbinical proscription, if only to give the Arab League an enduring case of bad heartburn.
Heh
When Jews do something spiritual, its provocative. Israel tells its soldiers to respect Arab religious sensitivities. But the other side does not extend similar courtesy to Jewish religious commitments. The hell with them!
Hopenchange=same
It's Har Habait, not Al Al-crapsa mosque.
It's time to kick the muslims out and put them in their place; OUT OF ISRAEL
NormanF,
I do what my rabbi tells me, and my rabbi says no going up there without being sprinkled with the ashes of a red heifer first. So no going up there for me. For now.
CiJ, I've never come in contact with a cadaver before, but I don't believe in covert davening anyways. When G-d is ready for this kind of prayer I am sure accommodations will be made. Like you, I am willing to wait.
Norman, while many people will not yet go on the Temple Mount (me, too, different rabbi than Carl but same ruling), that doesn't mean that Israel should allow non-Jews, especially its most ardent enemies, to do so.
At a minimum, the Temple Mount should be desolate of anyone's presence at the moment. We have a way to go before we are deserving of at least that level of re-establishing Jewish reign on the land of Israel. This is all a reflection of our current spiritual malaise.
The problem will be resolved when we get some resolve.
I can understand Carl's and Shy Guy's reasons for not going up there. Still, I think Shy Guy is right, if the proscription will not be lifted as I think is right, then at the very least Arabs must be barred from being able to do what is not allowed to Jews. Impure heathens must be allowed to desecrate the Holy of Holies. I concur with Shy Guy that when Jews finally honor G-d as He ought be honored, then Israel will know peace - and true peace comes not with one's enemies but within oneself and within one's own gates.
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