David Ben-Ariel
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 Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2005 12:36 pm Post subject: Jerusalem's Temple Mount |
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The Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Israel is destined to
become the center of world attention! Soon the
Israelis and Jews will build the Third Temple. This enlightening
article helps to pave the way for that long-awaited Day!
- DBA
[b:fd04f788e9]The Issue of the Temple Mount[/b:fd04f788e9]
by Rabbi Levi Zipperstein
Introduction
The common knowledge of our time is that the vast majority of Rabbis
of this generation have prohibited the Jewish people from entering
the Temple Mount (Har HaBayit), the holiest site in Judaism. The
Temple Mount is the site of where the Beit HaMikdash (the Jewish
Temple) once stood and the place where the Moslems have erected one
mosque, the al-Aqsa and a site of pilgrimage, the Dome of the Rock.
The supposed restriction of Jewish entrance imposed by the rabbis has
been proclaimed because under usual circumstances, when the Temple is
standing, a level of holiness must be attained before permission is
granted to a Jew to enter the area. There are greater and lesser
restrictions according to the place one seeks to go on the Temple
Mount. The Rabbis state that since the actual location of the Temple
structure is not known for certain, it is unclear where a Jew may go
without first attaining the most extreme level of purification
(mandated by Jewish Law when entering the confines of certain areas
of the Mount and when the areas are either under the sovereignty of
the Jewish people or the Temple is standing). Therefore, a rabbis
have pronounced the prohibition that a Jew must not walk on the
entire area of the Temple Mount. The assumed conclusion regarding the
Temple Mount is that no Jew should shoulder the risk of incurring the
punishment of Kareit. Kareit is the divine punishment of cutting off
of one's soul from the World to come and is imposed upon a Jew
entering the confines of certain areas of the Temple Mount in an
impure state. These laws apply during normal circumstances. Let it be
clear that normal circumstances in Jewish law assumes the existence of
the Temple and the practices that accompany it.
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