First Time: Temple Mount Priestly Blessing on Jerusalem Day

[rakovsky]

6/2/11

Hundreds of religious Jews from all streams were able to happily commemorate the 44th anniversary of the first-ever entry of Israeli soldiers onto the TempleMount. For the first time in the history of Israeli restrictions on Jewish entry to the Temple Mount, the recitation of the Priestly Blessing was permitted there.  It happened on Wednesday, Jerusalem Reunification Day, when hundreds of visitors – all of whom immersed in a mikveh (ritual bath) prior to coming and took other precautions required by Jewish Law – were allowed to enter the Temple Mount in groups of 30-40.

Among them were several Cohanim (descendants of Aharon the Priest).  They spread their hands in the customary manner and recited, “May G-d bless and watch  over your… May G-d shine His countenance upon and show you grace… May G-d raise His countenance towards you and grant you peace” (Numbers 6, from the portion to be read aloud this week in synagogues throughout the Jewish world).

...
The visitors specifically noted the fair and pleasant attitude displayed by the police, as well as the preparations and security precautions they implemented for all those wishing to ascend to the Temple Mount on this date... Despite the close proximity of the Moslem Waqf policemen and their obvious anger, the visit went off nearly without a hitch. One Israeli policemen yelled angrily and threatened the Jewish visitors, but that incident ended relatively quickly.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/144701

"Pleasant attitude"  & "obvious anger?" OK....

I think it's nice that they can celebrate there. I think the serious theological problems come up more if and when Temple sacrifices are reinstated. Political problems would probably come first though, because they would probably have to deal with the mosque.

[akimori makoto]

Can't they just solve the problem by making the mosque a secular "museum"?

That's only phase 1, of course.

[podkarpatska]

There is a large difference however, between the Temple Mount issue, the Golden Dome and Hagia Sophia. In the case of the Golden Dome it was built on the site of the Temple centuries after the Temple was destroyed by the Romans. The Hagia Sophia was stolen intact by Mehmet II and turned in a mosque. Converting it into a museum was one way to 'placate' all factions while pleasing none. If we start with this sort of argument, then the next subject will be Muslims demanding that the European Union restore the Mosque of Cordoba (Islam's fourth holy site) and displace the medieval Catholic Cathedral there. That was part of Bin Laden's grand plan it I recall.

[Jason.Wike]

There is a large difference however, between the Temple Mount issue, the Golden Dome and Hagia Sophia. In the case of the Golden Dome it was built on the site of the Temple centuries after the Temple was destroyed by the Romans. The Hagia Sophia was stolen intact by Mehmet II and turned in a mosque. Converting it into a museum was one way to 'placate' all factions while pleasing none. If we start with this sort of argument, then the next subject will be Muslims demanding that the European Union restore the Mosque of Cordoba (Islam's fourth holy site) and displace the medieval Catholic Cathedral there. That was part of Bin Laden's grand plan it I recall.

It was the Cathedral of St. Vincent before it was ever Mosque, not just after.

[podkarpatska]

There is a large difference however, between the Temple Mount issue, the Golden Dome and Hagia Sophia. In the case of the Golden Dome it was built on the site of the Temple centuries after the Temple was destroyed by the Romans. The Hagia Sophia was stolen intact by Mehmet II and turned in a mosque. Converting it into a museum was one way to 'placate' all factions while pleasing none. If we start with this sort of argument, then the next subject will be Muslims demanding that the European Union restore the Mosque of Cordoba (Islam's fourth holy site) and displace the medieval Catholic Cathedral there. That was part of Bin Laden's grand plan it I recall.

It was the Cathedral of St. Vincent before it was ever Mosque, not just after.

and before that it was a pagan temple site as well...."When Abd ar-Rahman arrived, Córdoba was divided between Muslims and Christians, and the Cathedral of St. Vincent was already a dual-use building—half cathedral, half mosque. Abd ar-Rahman bought the Christian half of the Cathedral in 784, and over the next two centuries, he and his descendants transformed the Cathedral of St. Vincent into the Aljama Mosque." http://travelblog.goaheadtours.com/spain-in-an-afternoon-the-story-of-the-mezquita/

[kijabeboy03]

"If we start with this sort of argument, then the next subject will be Muslims demanding that the European Union restore the Mosque of Cordoba (Islam's fourth holy site) and displace the medieval Catholic Cathedral there."

Everywhere is Islam's fourth holy city/site :-). Ethiopia's Harer (religious center of Islam in the Horn of Africa), Palestine's Hebron (home of the Ibrahim Mosque, formerly a church on the site of the Cave of the Patriarchs), Syria's Damascus (with its Umayyad Mosque - formerly the Church of St. John the Baptist), Tunisia's Kairouan (with its Uqba Mosque, which didn't takeover a previous religion's holy place)...

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