The Threshing Floor: Temple Mount's Importance to Jews But Also to Muslims and Christians

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

The Temple Mount is policed by Jordan's representatives.  They do not let Jews pray here, even though it is where Solomon's 1st Temple was built, and restored as the 2nd Temple. 

Moshe Dayan (1915-1981) In 1948 appointed Commander of the Jerusalem region; Chief of general staff of the Israel army from 1953-1958 and in 1956 responsible for the Sinai Operation. 'Elected to the Knesset in 1959.  Just before Six Day War was Minister of Defense.  He resigned in 1974.  Moshe was son of Russian Shemuel Dayan who entered Palestine in 1908 and a founder of Deganyah and Nahalal, leader of a moshavim cooperative settlement group and represented Mapai in Knesset 1949-1959.  He was from a family of leadership.  

 Jordan was given this honor by Moshe Dayan, who realized that there were 2 mosques standing on the Temple Mount.  It was the Six Day War of 1967 and he had had enough of fighting.  He was the general.  

              4 days ago a surprise visit to Jordan to see King Abdullah

Today with Netanyahu's government which is made of many orthodox/ observant Jews, this is a problem.  Allowing Jews to pray here was probably a promise of the new government.  Since June 1967, it hasn't been allowed, leading to a lot of stone throwing by the young Muslim men that hit Jews there.  Dayan was not an observant Jew, and Netanyahu is probably not, either, though both most likely kept kosher.  I feel that Netanyahu knows his history inside and out, but Dayan may not have.  Netanyahu just returned from Jordan for a talk with King Abdullah.  

    One place Jews can pray, the Kotel (the wall).  

     Jerusalem; Temple Mount and East Jerusalem (Muslim Quarter)

In 638, the city fell to the caliph Omar who set up a place of prayer in the Temple esplanade which was rebuilt in 691 as the Dome of the Rock by the Umayyad caliph, Abd-el malik.  Under Arab rule, the Jews were allowed to return, but the city began to decay after the transfer of the center of Abbasid rule to Baghdad in 750.  The Fatimids of the 11th century built the 2nd mosque, El-Aksa, on the Temple site.                            

During this surprise visit to Jordan, King Abdullah, who the royal court said, underlined the need for Israel to respect the status quo of the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.  

                   New Minister:  Itamar Ben-Gvir

What had happened that ignited  the need for these leaders to talk was the fact that "Far-right Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir toured the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which Jews revere as the Temple Mount, under heavy security this month. The visit angered Palestinians and caused an outcry among Arab states.                     

 The compound is Islam's third-holiest site after Mecca and Medina, and Judaism's most sacred site.

The Dome and Al-Aqsa Mosque are both located on the Temple Mount, the site of Solomon's Temple and its successors. The Dome of the Rock was built between AD 685 and 691 by the caliph 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, not as a mosque for public worship but rather as a mashhad, a shrine for pilgrims.                             

Abraham (born about 1945 BCE)  was stopped by an angel, and would not ever do this again.  Here's where sacrificing humans stopped in Jewish tradition.  

When Abraham was commanded to prepare his son Isaac for sacrifice, the father and son went up to “the place that G-d chooses” – Mount Moriah, and to its peak – 

The Foundation Stone is the threshing floor of the Jebusite, Araunah.  David bought it from Araunah.  

the Foundation Stone – where the binding of Isaac took place.

Of course, we have a disagreement about this with the Muslims who say that Abraham was to sacrifice Ishmael, his son by Hagar, Sarah's handmaid who was a princess.  

The Islamists claim its importance is because Mohammad landed here on his flying horse and then flew away, a slightly different tale where it's usually a carpet used for flying in stories.  The Buraq  is a heavenly equine in Islamic tradition that served as the mount of the Islamic prophet Muhammad during his Isra and Mi'raj journey from Mecca to Jerusalem and up through the heavens and back by night.  According to Islamic tradition, the Night Journey took place ten years after Muhammad announced his prophethood, during the 7th century. Muhammad had been in Mecca, at his cousin's home (the house of Fakhitah bint Abi Talib), when he went to al-masjid al-harām "the inviolable/sacred temple" (Al-Haram Mosque). While he was resting at the Kaaba, Gabriel appeared to him bringing the Buraq, which carried Muhammad in the archangel's company, to al-masjid al-aqṣá "the farthest/distant temple", traditionally held to be in Jerusalem and identified with the Holy Temple (Bayt Al-Maqdis).  After reaching Jerusalem he alighted from the Buraq, prayed on the site of the Temple, and then mounted it again as the creature ascended to the seven heavens where he met Adam, Jesus and his cousin John the Baptist, Joseph, Enoch, Aaron, Moses and Abraham one by one until he reached the throne of God. God communicated with him giving him words and instructions, most importantly the commandment to Muslims to offer prayers, initially fifty times a day. At the urging of Moses, Muhammad returned to God several times before eventually reducing the number to five.                                     

 Orthodox Jewish tradition maintains it is here that the third and final Temple will be built when the Messiah comes. The Temple Mount is the place Jews turn towards during prayer. Jewish attitudes towards entering the site vary. Due to its extreme sanctity, many Jews will not walk on the Mount itself, to avoid unintentionally entering the area where the Holy of Holies stood, since, according to rabbinical law, there is still some aspect of the divine presence at the site.

It is the rock at the center of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. It is also known as the Pierced Stone, because it has a small hole on the southeastern corner that enters a cavern beneath the rock, known as the Well of Souls.

Traditional Jewish sources mention the stone as the place from which the creation of the world began. Classical Jewish sources also identify its location with that of the Holy of Holies or the axis mundi, the center of the world and the place where the physical and spiritual worlds connected

The Jewish Roman-Era midrash, Tanhuma sums up the centrality of and holiness of this site in Judaism:

As the navel is set in the centre of the human body,

so is the land of Israel the navel of the world...

situated in the centre of the world,

and Jerusalem in the centre of the land of Israel,

and the sanctuary in the centre of Jerusalem,

and the holy place in the centre of the sanctuary,

and the ark in the centre of the holy place,

and the Foundation Stone before the holy place,

because from it the world was founded.

Ancient Jewish references to the Temple Mount are:

In the days when Selichot are recited, in the days leading up to Rosh Hashanah until Yom Kippur, the supplications include the following references:

טענתנו גפי קרת נתונים, ישבתנו שן סלע איתנים

You carried us and placed us on the [Holy] City’s height, You settled us on the Patriarch’s rocky peak.

רבוצה עליו אבן שתית חטובים ...שמה בתוך לפני מזיב מאשנבים

Upon it lying the stone from which the foundation was hewn… Who gives ear from which the waters flow [i.e. the foundation stone "from which flow all the waters of the world"].

During Sukkot, the following references to the Foundation Stone are mentioned in the Hoshanot recital:

הושענא! – אבן שתיה – הושענא

Please save! – Foundation Stone – Please save!

הושענא! – תאדרנו באבן תלולה – הושענא

Please save! – Adorn us with the elevated Stone – Please save!   

How David Used the Threshing Floor to put an end to a plague taking lives 

David saw from his palace a vision of an angel at the threshing floor of Araunah. Standing between heaven and earth, with sword drawn, the angel was ready to strike Jerusalem next. Falling to their knees, the elders and David pleaded for the plague to stop. For things to be made right, the angel sent word to David to go up to Araunah’s threshing floor on Mount Moriah and build an altar of sacrifice. Though Araunah wanted to gift the threshing floor, plus the oxen, grain, and sledges as wood for the sacrifice, David insisted on paying for it. There, David built an altar, offered sacrifices, and called on God for mercy. 

The last Jebusite (Canaanite) king was Araunah (II Sam. 24:15).  The Jebusites remained in the city under David and became tributary under Solomon.  In the course of time, they appear to have been assimilated.  Interestingly, Araunah’s threshing floor marks an important place in history, for it became the site on Mount Moriah where Solomon would build Yahweh’s temple in Jerusalem. In the same place where David offered sacrifices at Araunah’s threshing floor, his son Solomon stood before a new bronze altar, and as sacrifices were made, he dedicated the newly finished temple. As mentioned in 2 Chronicles 3:1,

Then Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

This temple would play a pivotal role in the social and economic life of the Jewish people from c. 957 BCE until its destruction at the hands of the Babylonians in 587, as would the Second Temple on the same site from c. 516 BCE until its destruction by the Romans in 70 CE. Furthermore, the same Temple Mount area - over Araunah’s threshing floor - is still considered a holy site for Jewish, Christian, and Islamic people today.                     

The Temple Institute - King David and the Elders don sackcloth and implore G-d to end the plague afflicting Israel, as a Heavenly fire 

 hovers above the offering, as is written: “[David]

As the account tells, God answers by sending fire from heaven onto the altar! The plague ceased.

Arabic QUBBAT AS-SAKHRAH, also erroneously referred to as the MOSQUE OF OMAR:  This shrine in Jerusalem is the oldest extant Islamic monument. The rock over which the shrine was built is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. The Prophet Muhammad, founder of Islam, is traditionally believed to have ascended into heaven from the site on his flying horse. In Jewish tradition, it is here that Abraham, the progenitor and first patriarch of the Hebrew people, is said to have prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Jordan lets Christians pray here, but not the Jews, yet Israel is their neighbor.

Israeli flag seen near the Dome of the Rock | File photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad

Amman presents list of demands with regard to the flashpoint site, which includes limiting visits by Jewish groups and replacing Border Police officers with Waqf security. Nevertheless, one Israeli expert says maintaining Jordan's status in Jerusalem is in Israel's interests.  Of course, the Temple Mount is in the center of Jerusalem which is the capital of Israel and always has been since King David.  It's obvious that Jews should be allowed to pray in their own capital on top of Mount Moriah.  Then again, that would take King Abdullah to ease up. Neither man wants a war over this.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Mount

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_Stone

https://home.adelphi.edu/~dy21045/thewesternwall.html#:~:text=When%20Abraham%20was%20commanded%20to,binding%20of%20Isaac%20took%20place.

https://www.bu.edu/mzank/Michael_Zank/Jerusalem/domeoftherock.html#:~:text=The%20Dome%20and%20Al%2DAqsa,mashhad%2C%20a%20shrine%20for%20pilgrims.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/despite-report-hed-delay-ben-gvir-visits-temple-mount-for-1st-time-as-minister/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buraq#:~:text=The%20Buraq%20(Arabic%3A%20%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%92%D8%A8%D9%8F%D8%B1%D9%8E%D8%A7%D9%82%20%2F,heavens%20and%20back%20by%20night.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Mount

https://www.israelhayom.com/2022/05/20/jordan-fully-determined-to-end-jewish-prayer-on-temple-mount/

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2050/threshing-floors-of-the-bible/

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/king-abdullah-meets-israeli-pm-netanyahu-surprise-jordan-visit-royal-court-2023-01-24/