Attempted Animal Sacrifice On Temple Mount For Passover Puts Spotlight On Desire For Rebuilt Temple
April 21/2014
An attempt to slaughter an animal for a Passover sacrifice atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem has led to the arrest of eight Jews and brought the desire of many Jews for a rebuilt temple back into the spotlight.
According to local media, eight Jews were taken into custody Monday as they ascended the mount, considered the holiest site in Judaism where two of God’s temples once stood. They were carrying a goat and were reportedly seeking to slay the animal in accordance with biblical instructions.
Historically, Passover first debuted in Old Testament times when God commanded Moses and the Israelites to offer the sacrifice as they embarked on the Exodus out of Egyptian slavery. God said he would “pass over” the Israelites who obeyed his instructions, while He would slay the firstborn children and animals in Egypt.
The animal sacrifice was continued in the New Testament, as Jesus Himself ate a Passover meal along with his apostles at the famous “Last Supper,” among other instances.
“The sacrifice is supposed to take place on the Temple Mount, which is the site of the two former Holy Temples of Jerusalem but which today is occupied by the Islamic Al Aqsa Mosque complex,” Israel National News reported. “By order of the Islamic Waqf authorities who administer the site, Jews are forbidden from praying or carrying out any other religious rituals on their holiest site, in what activists have repeatedly condemned as a capitulation by police to Muslim extremists.”
The paper noted the Temple Organizations Headquarters, which represents several Jewish-rights groups, condemned the arrests as “a severe blow to freedom of religion, the Basic Law of Freedom of Worship, the holy places and the rule of law in Jerusalem.”
“The time has come to allow Jews to act as a free people in the State of Israel, without worrying about or surrendering to Islamist threats,” the group continued, referring to threats of violence by Islamist groups if Jews are granted equal prayer rights on the Temple Mount.
Many Jewish groups see equal prayer rights on the temple mount as the first step towards progress in rebuilding the temple.
According to Yizhar Beer’s recent research, “about 12 official groups are working in Israel today to establish the temple. Some of them receive funding amounting to hundreds of thousands of shekels from the State of Israel. One of the main groups is the Temple Institute.
The Temple Institute, according to usnews.com, holds “various training sessions meant to educate and raise consciousness. But they also work on the pragmatic level. The institute has the holy menorah, a modular altar that could be quickly taken apart and reassembled at the temple, the bronze basin, the showbread table and no less than 40 sets of priestly garments, which will be the prototype for the thousands of sets to be sewn in the future.”
Arnon Segal, a journalist dedicated to following developments in the plan to rebuild the third temple, says preparations are “based on very in-depth research…it’s an entire research project of the past 20 years.”
There are also blueprints which include both modern changes and old essentials. Rabbi Yehoshua Friedman, director of the school for priests, Nezer Hakodesh, says, “The third temple will mostly look like the second temple, and there is an organized plan for the Chamber of Hewn Stone, the seat of the Sanhedrin… but there will be no entryway in the sanctuary.”
Modern changes include “a computer with a database and law decisions available for every judge, an electric mixer and an electric oven may be added for mixing fruit and grain offerings and roasting the Passover sacrifice.”
One change could create some difficulties: “The temple subsisted on the half-shekel tax. This money became sanctified when it was transferred to the temple. Today, when payments are made by direct deposit, they will only be numbers in bank accounts and there is no actual sacred currency.”
Avivi adds, “One thing is certain: The third temple will have cameras that will transmit what’s happening there to the whole world.”
Everything is ready except for having the Ark of the Covenant in hand and ready, but Segal says the Second Temple didn’t have a the Ark either.”
Friedman claims its location is in the tunnels under the Temple Mount and when the time comes to place it, it will be retrieved.
As for geography, despite the obvious impedance of the Al-Aqsa Mosque’s (Dome of the Rock) current position on the Temple Mount, Segal notes, “The location of the altar where sacrifices are allowed on the Temple Mount is not within bounds of Al-Aqsa.”
This 20- year endeavor has not just produced articles of temple operation, but now there is a school for priests, Nezer Hakodesh, which started operating this year.
Avivi says, “The intention is to train hundreds of priests that would be needed to work at the third temple.”
For a fully operational temple, where the people would “bring their own sacrifices, it’s a place where hundreds of priests work daily.”
According to Friedman, “The rabbis say that the minimum necessary is 13 priests in the temple to carry out the mandatory sacrifices.” He adds, “In the days of old, a father and grandfather would teach the grandson and son how to be a priest, the commandments and laws. Today, they have to take a course. The prayer to establish the temple has no meaning if we don’t actually prepare for it. Think what would happen if tomorrow you got a functioning temple and don’t have the priests.”
“The Jewish presence on the Temple Mount is gaining ground in Jewish-Israeli discourse, members of the Knesset and rabbis are ascending to the Temple Mount more frequently and today a third of Israeli public believes that when the day comes, the temple should be erected. This number is only growing,” adds Avivi.
Considering that the only thing holding back the establishment of a third temple is the inability to access the holy spot in which it may be built (due to the Jewish, Christian and Muslim sensitivities) it is interesting that there is now talk about compromise regarding the Temple Mount.
Muslim pundit, Sinem Tezyapar, posted on jewishpress.com on 3/12/13, the following: “Freedom of worship is an essential issue. The Temple Mount, where the First and Second Temples stood, is the holiest place to the people of Israel. However, it is no less holy to both Muslims and Christians. Since this is a location that God has announced to be a “house of prayer for all nations,” it should be a place of festivity for all believers. As all who call on the God of Abraham are our brothers, Jews and Christians should be able to offer prayers there in dignity and peace along with Muslims…”
Robertm75 expounded on this idea on 4/12/14 at redstate.com, “Solutions to this impasse involve establishing different prayer times for Jews and Muslims on the same actual grounds of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Writing in the Foreign Policy Journal, Ramzy Baroud, no friend to Israel based on the descriptions he uses for the claims made by Israel, says that Likud Party member Miri Regev wants to introduce what is called the Ibrahimi Model to the Temple Mount. “We will reach a situation where the Temple Mount will be like the Cave of the Patriarchs, days for Jews and days for Muslims,” she said. The great fear among many Orientalists is that Israel is already in the process of building a Third Temple. Many in Iran are paranoid that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is actually helping Israel build a Temple.”
He adds, “This, above all other issues surrounding the discussions between Israel and Palestinians, is the biggest sticking point. This issue, the establishment of a Third Temple, strikes at the heart of culture and society for both civilizations, Jewish and Muslim. Until this can be resolved, no amount of talking is going to go anywhere. There is no indication that US negotiators take this as seriously as the interlocutor for the two negotiating parties, after all the people at the State Department in charge of these talks do not seem to take religious aspects of culture seriously within the US so why should they think “…that others in foreign states do either. Despite this conceited view from the US officials, the Israelis and the Palestinians certainly do and it is going to take a mediator who recognizes this to broker a deal.”
Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/April21/213.html#1MIHQ8Lhv1h63GdJ.99