{"id":111157,"date":"2013-09-26T09:04:36","date_gmt":"2013-09-26T13:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?p=111157"},"modified":"2013-09-26T09:25:26","modified_gmt":"2013-09-26T13:25:26","slug":"praying-jews-flock-to-the-temple-mount-world-notices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/09\/praying-jews-flock-to-the-temple-mount-world-notices\/","title":{"rendered":"Praying Jews flock to the Temple Mount; world notices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

If there is a \u201cGround Zero\u201d for the world\u2019s three Abrahamic religions \u2014 Judaism, Christianity and Islam \u2014 it would be the Temple Mount, or\u00a0\u201cHaram Al-Sharif\u201d<\/em> (\u201cNoble Sanctuary\u201d) in the center of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Jews revere it as the site of the First and Second Temples, wherein the \u201cHoly of Holies\u201d was contained. Christians revere the Temple as the place where Jesus walked and reasoned with the rabbis \u2014 as well as chastised the Pharisees and money changers. Muslims view the site as\u00a0the the third holiest location in Islam, the location of the Prophet Muhammad\u2019s journey to Jerusalem and ascent to heaven.<\/p>\n

Within the space of two days, two prestigious newspapers have covered the relatively recent phenomenon of more and more Jews, mostly Israelis, visiting the Temple Mount and praying, usually surreptitiously. Though captured by the Israeli Defense Forces in the 1967 \u201cSix-Day War,\u201d the Temple Mount was almost immediately returned to Muslim control, and Jews were advised not to visit.<\/p>\n

No longer, says\u00a0The New York Times<\/a><\/em> and the\u00a0Christian Science Monitor<\/a><\/em>, both of whose Jerusalem correspondents have investigated. Both stories document the relatively quiet return of worshipping Jews to the site, the occasional protests of Muslims there, and the now-increasing warnings from local Islamic leaders that unless the Israeli government does something, matters could get out of hand.<\/p>\n

From Jodi Rudoren at the\u00a0Times<\/em>:<\/p>\n

For decades the Israelis drawn to the site were mainly a fringe of hard-core zealots, but now more mainstream Jews are lining up to enter, as a widening group of Israeli politicians and rabbis challenge the longstanding rules constraining Jewish access and conduct. Brides go on their wedding days, synagogue and religious-school groups make regular outings, and many surreptitiously skirt the ban on non-Muslim prayer, like a Russian immigrant who daily recites the morning liturgy in his mind, as he did decades ago in the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

Palestinian leaders say the new activity has created the worst tension in memory around the landmark Al Aksa Mosque and Dome of the Rock, and have called on Muslims to defend the site from \u201cincursions.\u201d A spate of stone-throwing clashes erupted this month: on Wednesday, three Muslims were arrested and an Israeli police officer wounded in the face. And on Friday thousands of Arab citizens of Israel rallied in the north, warning that Al Aksa is in danger.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe reject these religious visits,\u201d Sheik Ekrima Sa\u2019eed Sabri, who oversees Muslim affairs in Jerusalem, said in an interview. \u201cOur duty is to warn,\u201d he added. \u201cIf they want to make peace in this region, they should stay away from Al Aksa.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Writing for the\u00a0Monitor<\/em>, Crista Case Bryant reports:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty left-wing Orthodox and even I think there\u2019s no reason Jews shouldn\u2019t be allowed up here,\u201d says Mark Shayne, a financial consultant from New York who visited last week on the eve of Sukkot,\u00a0<\/strong>one of hundreds of Jews who have visited the Temple Mount during the Jewish holidays this month. \u201cIf you can\u2019t share a holy place, there will never be peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Islamic\u00a0waqf<\/em>, which governs the Haram al-Sharif, endorses the idea of Jerusalem as a \u201cjewel of peace\u201d for Muslim, Christians, and Jews, and are happy to welcome Jews as tourists to the Noble Sanctuary, but they are pressuring Israeli police to prevent access to the area for Jews with religious or political motivations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are asking the Israeli police not to provide permission for the huge numbers of Jews who visit and especially to bar the extreme Jews from entering the Noble Sanctuary,\u201d says Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, director of the\u00a0waqf, in between a flurry of phone calls about the rising tensions amid the Jewish High Holidays. \u201cThese extreme Jews \u2026 are trying to create new facts on the ground.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bryant, however, stumbles when trying to fold in a passage of Scripture \u2014 \u201c\u2026for mine house shall\u00a0be called an house of prayer for all people\u201d \u2014 into the mix:<\/p>\n

Jewish tradition teaches that the house of God shall one day be a house of prayer for all nations, but some say the Jewish people need to get their own house in order first.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s not Jewish tradition,\u00a0per se<\/em>, but rather Jewish (and Christian) Scripture, Isaiah 56:7, that teaches this.<\/p>\n

By contrast, Rudoren, who has drawn criticism<\/a> from former\u00a0Deputy National Security Advisor Eliott Abrams, among others, gets the spiritual dimension of the controversy exceptionally right. On the one hand, she reports the angst some Jews and Israelis feel about having unified Jerusalem, but facing restrictions at its heart:<\/p>\n

Over the last few years, a cause long taken up by only a fringe group of far right-wingers has increasingly been embraced by the modern Orthodox \u2014 known here as religious Zionists \u2014 who have also gained political power. At three recent Parliament hearings, religious lawmakers and cabinet ministers questioned the status quo, in which non-Muslims can enter the site only for a few hours five days a week, and those identified by the police as Jews are separated, escorted by police officers and admonished not to dance, sing, bow down or even move their lips in prayer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Temple Mount is in our hands \u2014 but is it really?\u201d asked Michael Freund, a Jerusalem Post columnist who visited the site as a child in 1977 and returned for the first time last year, with 50 members of his synagogue. \u201cIt particularly offends me that the Israeli government puts into place restrictions which prevent Jews from fulfilling their basic right to freedom of worship.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the other hand, she documents the discomfort Palestinians feel:<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore, it was some settlers from here, some extremists from there; now we start to hear it from the real officials,\u201d said Adnan Husseini, the Palestinian governor of Jerusalem. \u201cWhen they get inside with this big number, it\u2019s sure that they will make some kind of religious activities and there will be more friction between them and the people inside the mosque.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Palestinians have complained to the United Nations, the Arab League and Secretary of State John Kerry, most recently after Wednesday\u2019s clash, when the chief Palestinian negotiator wrote to Mr. Kerry saying the issue \u201ccould inflame the situation and undermine the current opportunity to move toward peace.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is interesting to see this issue gain more attention, particularly at a time when there\u2019s more focus on what\u2019s happening in the region. Kudos to both papers for getting the story largely right, and alerting readers to an important issue.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If there is a \u201cGround Zero\u201d for the world\u2019s three Abrahamic religions \u2014 Judaism, Christianity and Islam \u2014 it would be the Temple Mount, or\u00a0\u201cHaram Al-Sharif\u201d (\u201cNoble Sanctuary\u201d) in the center of Jerusalem. Jews revere it as the site of the First and Second Temples, wherein the \u201cHoly of Holies\u201d was contained. Christians revere the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1629,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,28,63,12,24],"tags":[2336,15468,1664,326,15473,877,1033,366],"class_list":["post-111157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islam","category-judaism","category-middle-east","category-religion","category-world","tag-al-aksa","tag-islam","tag-jerusalem","tag-new-york-times","tag-religious-liberty","tag-temple-mount","tag-ultra-orthodox","tag-zionism"],"yoast_head":"\nPraying Jews flock to the Temple Mount; world notices<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If there is a "Ground Zero" for the world's three Abrahamic religions -- Judaism, Christianity and Islam -- it would be the Temple Mount, or\u00a0"Haram\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/09\/praying-jews-flock-to-the-temple-mount-world-notices\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Praying Jews flock to the Temple Mount; 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