Miriam Elman has a detailed summary of the bizarre rules that govern Jewish visits to the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. I strongly urge you to read the whole thing, especially if you're not familiar with the situation. But I found especially intriguing Miriam's summary of an essay by RabbiMeirSoloveitchik.
In an important essay for the online journal Mosaic
this past November, Meir Soloveichik, the Director of the Straus Center
for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University in N.Y., writes
that Israel’s 1967 “status quo” arrangement is one of the “most
misguided in Israel’s history”.
Instead of setting aside a designated section on the Temple Mount for
Jewish prayer—one that wouldn’t have interfered with Muslim worship and
would’ve also been appropriate according to halakhah (Jewish
religious law), which forbids Jews from visiting certain portions of the
Har HaBayit—the government’s decision “set in place a policy that
resulted in the worst of all possible worlds”:
First, many Jews who continued to visit the Mount did so
without any rabbinic guidance, entering areas where according to
halakhah they should not have set foot. Second, Israel’s self-imposed
ban on Jewish prayer persuaded both the Waqf and the Palestinians and
Arab world in general that Israel’s leaders lacked any attachment to or
reverence for the site”.
According to Soloveichik the indifference has merely reinforced the
“foul false narrative” that the Jews never worshipped God on the Mount,
that the Temples never existed, and that the Jewish nation has no
historical legitimacy.
It’s a sentiment echoed recently by the indefatigable Vic Rosenthal. Writing in Abu Yehuda, a “blog about the struggle to keep the Jewish state”, Rosenthal claims that Israel now either has to “exercise sovereignty” on the Temple Mount “or lose it”:
When Israel conquered the Old City in 1967, the Arabs
expected that they would be kicked out. After all, that is what they did
to the Jews in eastern Jerusalem in 1948. That is what a victorious
people in a national conflict over possession of land have always done,
if they didn’t kill or enslave the population. But that is not what
Israel did. When Israeli law was extended to eastern Jerusalem in 1967,
Arab residents were offered Israeli citizenship. Most refused and became
permanent residents, with the right to vote in municipal elections,
health and social security benefits, etc…When the IDF took control of
the Temple Mount, IDF Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren wanted to build a
synagogue there…But Defense Minister Moshe Dayan had other ideas: he
prohibited Jews from praying on the Mount, and placed its administration
in the hands of the Jordanian waqf…Thus were the seeds planted
for the current situation, which includes absurdities like Israeli
police officers arresting Jews who are seen to move their lips when
visiting the Mount, and shrieking Arab women confronting Jews who want
to just stand there”.
We have only ourselves to blame. But then, it's not surprising. Anyone who has read Michael Oren's account of the Six Day War is aware that the government did not want to liberate Jerusalem and the Temple Mount - only the late Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren was interested in doing so. Unfortunately, the government of Israel has never reconciled itself to being in control of the Mount.
Too good not to share: Rabbi Meir Soloveitchik's Shabbos Tshuva Drasha (Sabbath of Repentance speech)
With apologies to those of you who won't get this no matter how much I try to explain (and if you're Jewish and you don't get it, you ought to learn more about your heritage - at least try Googling).... Shabbos Tshuva (the Sabbath of Repentance) is the Sabbath between Rosh HaShanna and Yom Kippur, and it is traditionally a day on which pulpit rabbis make major addresses to their congregations (at least in the Orthodox world).
Rabbi Meir Soloveitchik - for those who have forgotten - gave a benediction at the Republican National Convention this summer.
This was shared with me by Debbie R and I suspect it's true.
Rabbi Meir Soloveichik opened his Shabbos Shuva drasha as follows:
I flew to Tampa, Florida a few weeks ago for the Republican National Convention. When I arrived, I was escorted into a large room where all the Convention speakers of the day gathered along with Congressman, Senators, Governors and other politicians.
A woman approached me, stared at me, and then asked "Who are you??" I responded politely, "I am Meir Soloveichik.". "Are you from Florida," she asked. "No," I said, "I am from NY".
She looked puzzled and confused, which I found confusing, since I figured most people knew there were a lot of Jews who lived in NY. Anyway, she smiled and walked away. She then approached me again just a few moments later with her husband. She said to me, "Meir Soloveichik -- I'd like to introduce you to my husband, Congressman Walker." The Congressman and I shook hands. Then the woman asked, "Can you please tell me what city in NY you are the Mayor (Meir) of??"' (After the KJ Congregation roared with laughter, Rabbi Soloveichik continued as follows...) 'And that, Ladies and Gentleman, was the first time in my life that a person was more impressed with my first name than my last name!!!'
The Democratic Party didn’t quite succeed in banning God from its platform, but it did its best to ensure that no-one would listen to him by putting a liberal clergyman who talks about anything except God in front of a deserted stadium. That checked the God box without allowing the Maker of Heaven to get a word in edgewise.
Rabbis from the wrongly named Conservative movement are used to preaching to empty rooms, but there was something surreal in the image of the Los Angeles Sinai Temple’s Rabbi David Wolpe blessing a deserted stadium late Wednesday night long after the Democrats had departed. Named by Newsweek the most influential American rabbi, Wolpe beamed empathy and gestured eloquently to the vacant stadium. After the last-minute vote by acclamation to return God to the party platform, Wolpe’s benediction had deep symbolic overtones. Clint Eastwood talked to an empty chair, while Wolpe talked to ten thousand empty chairs.
...
The whole of the Republican convention delegates remained in place to hear Cardinal Dolan after Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech, unlike their Democratic counterparts, who walked out on Rabbi Wolpe. Viewers of CNN, though, did not hear Cardinal Dolan, because Wolf Blitzer was too busy trolling the punditeska for instant comments on the Romney speech to allow Dolan to be heard. Fox News carried the cardinal’s benediction rather than the pundits.
The opening invocation at the Republican convention came from the Orthodox Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, before whom the whole mass of delegates stood with bowed heads.
...
One difference between the two addresses is the fact that the whole Republican convention heard Rabbi Soloveichik, while no-one but the cleaning crew was there for Rabbi Wolpe. There was a also a world of difference in the content. Rabbi Wild and Wonderful preached social work and psychobabble, while Rabbi Soloveitchik linked God’s revelation to Moses and the American founding, much closer in spirit to Cardinal Dolan than to the progressive Rabbi Wolpe.
It’s no surprise that progressive Judaism is imploding. In the past decade, the Reform and (poorly named) Conservative movements have lost 30% to 40% of their members by various estimates. If Judaism boils down to social work, why not do the social work, rather than bother with the laborious practices of an ancient religion? Progressive Jews have the lowest fertility rate of any identifiable (heterosexual) segment of the United States population, and half of their children intermarry. The American Jews will be a smaller, but far more devout, community a generation hence.
It is perhaps indicative of how seriously 'progressive Jews' take their religion that an image search for "Wolpe benediction" in Google turns up more pictures of his most famous congregant - Monica Lewinsky - than of the 'most influential rabbi in America,' Rabbi Wolpe himself. Pretty sad.
Two rabbis were honored to deliver invocations at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. One is
an anti-Israel radical who bears nothing but hatred for traditional Judaism. She’s supped with Iran’s genocidal president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and worked with Jewish Voice for Peace, a front group for Israel-haters. She has urged that America boycott, divest, and sanction Israel.
The other, writes Ben Shapiro,
is a member of the famed Soloveichik family, which gave American Jews one of their most famous rabbis, Rabbi Joseph Baer Soloveichik. He founded the Yeshiva University philosophy, which merges Western philosophy with Jewish Talmudism. Meir is his grand nephew. And Meir has spoken out on political issues including abortion (anti), gay marriage (anti), and Obamacare (anti, thanks to its discrimination against religious institutions). Most of all, though, Rabbi Soloveichik is pro-Israel.
Which one is which? Lynn Gottlieb, a member of rabbis for Obama, delivered the invocation at the Democratic National Convention. Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, who is currently under consideration to become the Chief Rabbi of England, delivered the invocation at the Republican National Convention.
The rabbi, a grand-nephew of the late Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, mentioned as a possible successor to Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks of England, also took the opportunity to mention Israel and told the delegates, referring to HaShem, “You have called us to be a beacon of the world and an ally of free countries like the state of Israel, an island of liberty, democracy and hope."
The invitation by the Romney campaign to Rabbi Soloveitchik to deliver the opening prayer was a clear statement of the Republican party’s desire to assure Jews of his support for Israel.
Rabbi Soloveitchik quoted in Hebrew a Biblical verse that is inscribed on the Liberty Bell and asked HaShem to bless Mitt Romney, a Mormon, who was officially nominated Tuesday night as the Republican presidential candidate, and his presumptive running mate Paul Ryan, a Catholic.
The GOP chose New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan to deliver the closing benediction.
Rabbi Soloveitchik and the Catholic Church previously have spoken out against President Barack Obama’s program to require religious institutions to include contraceptives in health insurance for their employees.
Rabbi Soloveitchik be a huge change for England too....
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
