Monday, May 2, 2022

Prayers: -Not In Hands Of the People, Only Politicians As it Stands

 Nadene Goldfoot                                       

         Al-Aqsa Mosque or El Aksa, the mosque built in the Temple area of Jerusalem by the caliph abd el-Malik (8th century) to mark the site of the legendary flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Jerusalem on his flying horse.  The Dome and Al-Aqsa Mosque are both located on the Temple Mount, the site of Solomon's Temple and its successors.

The Mosque sits over the site of a Roman temple that is over the 2nd Temple that is the building over the 1st Temple of Solomon. 

It is also said that the Mosque of Omar sits over the Temple.  The Ayyubid Mosque of Omar is an Islamic place of worship in Jerusalem. It is located opposite to the southern courtyard of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Muristan area of the Christian Quarter. That's not on the Temple Mount.  

The plaza is dominated by three monumental structures from the early Umayyad period – the al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock and the Dome of the Chain – and four minarets,  Dome of the Chain is an Islamic free-standing domed building located adjacently east of the Dome of the Rock in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is one of many small buildings that can be found scattered around the Temple Mount. Its exact historical use and significance are under scholarly debate.           

                 Aeriel view of Temple Mount-Dome of Rock 

The Roman Temple sits over Solomon's Temple, king of the Jews.

Solomon's Temple sits where God instructed David to build an altar at Araunah's threshing floor, so David purchased the location from Araunah for a fair price, even though Araunah offered it to him freely.  (This seems to be a theme running through the Torah of outsiders offering land for free but Jews refusing the gift and paying for it.) The point being, I imagine is to never be beholding and owing favors to these people).  

So (G-d)Adonai sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, so that 70,000 men of the people died from Dan to Beersheba. When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Adonai relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was destroying the people, 

“Enough! Now withdraw your hand.” The angel of Adonai was then by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” (2 Samuel 24:15-16)                              

”So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver. Then David built there an altar to Adonai, and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. So Adonai was moved by prayer of entreaty for the land, and restrained the plague from Israel. (2 Samuel 24:18-25)

King David bought that land fair and square, under the instruction of God, and it was on that site the first temple was built. And then after that, the second one. And today, the Al Aqsa Mosque stands in its place.

Prayer has come to the political side of life in Israel in that Jews are not allowed to pray on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  Two reasons keep them from doing so.  

To pray:  1. Man's appeal to G-d: a.  a request, b: in thanksgiving

a. Please G-d, don't let my child die from Covid  b. Thank you G-d, for allowing him to live through this vile virus by getting the vaccine when called for.  It's the pestilence again !  

1. The rabbis feel that they would be standing on the Holy of Holies, an inner santum, the area in the First and Second Temple that was exclusively set aside for the High Priest, chief official in the Temple, Aaron's descendants,  and contained the Ark of the Covenant.  It had a raised floor and was windowless.  A small cedar altar overlaid with gold stood at the entrance to the holy of holies.  Of course, since its destruction in 70 CE, a Roman Temple has stood over it,  the Al Aqsa Mosque. 

 Today the Temple Mount, a walled compound within the Old City of Jerusalem, is the site of two  structures: the Dome of the Rock to the north and the Al-Aqsa Mosque to the south. In the southwest stands the Western Wall—a remnant of the Second Temple and the holiest site in Judaism.

Jews were not able to visit the area since 1948 when Jordan kept the land until they lost it in the 1967 War when they and many other Muslims nations attack Israel and lost.  Jews have been allowed to pray at Herod's Wall, also called the Wailing Wall or Western Wall or in Hebrew, Kotel which is down below the Temple Mount.   

         Terrorist Muslims attacking visitors on mosque grounds

2. Jordan does not allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount.  If they are even seeing moving their lips in prayer, they can be arrested.  The  government officially allows non-Muslims to visit the site for several hours each morning on the condition that they not pray there. Though no Israeli law explicitly bars Jewish prayer there, Jewish visitors who attempt to pray there have historically been removed or reprimanded by the police.

The Masjid al-Aqsa of Jerusalem is linked in the Quran to the story of the night journey of Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem.  This is their reason of why it's a site of constant conflict.  

But recently the government has quietly allowed increasing numbers of Jews to pray there, a shift that could aggravate the instability in East Jerusalem and potentially lead to religious conflict. This is according to the NY Times.  There is religious conflict now, but not from praying!  

During Ramadan, it has become the custom of youthful Muslims to enter the several mosques on the Mount and from there, attack passing people, tourists and Jews visiting the Mount, with rocks or whatever.  Jordan's religious leadership is responsible for the Temple Mount ever since Moshe Dayan at the end of the 1967 Six Days War give them the responsibility.  In a phone call on Monday, King Abdullah was quoted as saying the cornerstone of peace was a comprehensive Arab Israeli settlement based on a two-state solution whereby a Palestinian state would emerge alongside Israel.  He's using this to push for a 2-State Solution.

He's one to talk,  His country is made up of Palestinians and very few whose ancestors came with Abdullah I.  We already have a Palestine called "Jordan."  The Queen is even a Palestinian. 

            Fatah (P.A.) and Hamas leaders in a rare moment
              Ismail Haniyeh :   The Hamas Gang

 The problem is, the world will not admit it because it is under the rule of a king who has the direct ancestor-ship to Mohammad and who has nothing to do with the P.A, run by Abbas and his henchmen, and Hamas of Gaza, the terrorists.  There you are, one people (Palestinians and 2 or 3 governments-Jordan, PA, Hamas).  The problem lies in Abdullah II wanting nothing to do with anymore Palestinians in his country!  He already had to fight one war with them when they almost took over Jordan.  "Black September (Arabic: أيلول الأسود; Aylūl Al-Aswad), also known as the Jordanian Civil War of September 1970, was a conflict fought in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan between the Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF), under the leadership of King Hussein, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, ..."  

What do you think would happen if a Palestine was created tomorrow right next door to Israel, them sharing one border?  With their present attitude, they would be over it and attacking and killing  Jews left and right.  There is no sense or assurances of maintaining peace.  The PA and Hamas would fight over leadership, causing bloodshed.  Israel would be ruined, in ruins, such as Ukraine looks right now.  Not me.  I'm not for this.  The Muslims don't even stop their own young adults from hiding in the mosques and attacking people outside of it.  This brought harm to the mosques !  How special a place is it to these younger Muslims?  They've already lost their holiness.  

"Both his Majesty and President Biden stressed the importance of continued coordination and work on all levels to prevent a repeat of attacks on the city of Jerusalem and its holy sites and its people that would derail the chances of achieving peace and push towards more tensions," Petra state news agency said.

"The confrontations since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that have coincided with Passover have raised religious passions amid international concerns about a slide back into a wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Jordan and fellow Arab states accused Israel in a meeting on Thursday in Amman of restricting the right of worship of Muslims while allowing ultra-nationalist Jews under police protection to enter the mosque compound.

Israel, which denies it was responsible for the escalation in violence, said on Thursday it was enforcing a long-standing ban on Jewish prayer at the compound of Al-Aqsa mosque, rejecting an Arab League accusation that it was allowing such worship to take place.

As in previous years, Israel halted Jewish visits during the final days of Ramadan.

Al-Aqsa sits atop the Old City plateau of East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in a 1967 war and annexed in a move that has not received international recognition. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as capital of their hoped-for future state.  It's not to be.  Jerusalem is one city, not to be divided.  Frankly, I'm not sure if its the Mosque of Omar or the Al Aqsa mosque that is over our 2nd Temple.  

Israel is not be divided, but the Temple Mount can be controlled.  Rabbis do not want Jews praying there possibly over the holy spot, and Muslims do not want Jews praying near their mosques.  To save a life, we can certainly abide by present rules.  That's not a problem.  Who is going to control the stone-throwing hateful-minded Muslims?  Not Abdullah or Biden.  They're not going to stand guard over the Mount.  It's really the duty of the parents of those breaking the law.  Who's going to watch over them?  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

U.S. News & World Report

Jordan's King Agreed With U.S. Biden on Need to Defuse Jerusalem Tension - State Media

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/24/world/middleeast/israel-temple-mount-prayer.html#:~:text=The%20government%20officially%20allows%20non,or%20reprimanded%20by%20the%20police.

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