Authentic Jewish Leadership for Israel

The Jewish Leadership Weekly Newsletter 24 Tishrei, 5769 (Oct. 23) Issue 6902 Print this update and distribute in your community. Click here to download a 1 PAGE SHORTENED printer friendly version

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In this Issue:

Sukkot on Temple Mount: Resuscitation Commenced Israel's Establishment Needs the Arabs: By Moshe Feiglin Feiglin Meets Hundreds Over Sukkot Join the Team!

Sukkot on the Temple Mount: Resuscitation Commenced

There is no doubt that something very good happened this Sukkot holiday. Over one thousand Jews ascended to the Temple Mount - despite the extensive preparations necessary beforehand and the extensive wait before actually entering the Mount. It seems that the deep Jewish longing for the Temple Mount has finally come to the surface. The line of people waiting to enter the Temple Mount stretched all the way to the gate of the Old City.

The Temple Mount is the heart of the Jewish people. Until now, we have been suffering from a national cardiac infarction. On Sukkot, our national resuscitation commenced in earnest.

Getting into the Temple Mount was anything but simple. The police were very surprised and pressured by the unusually large amount of people waiting to ascend to the Mount and they did all that they could to make the visit as frustrating and unpleasant as possible. The Arab wakf also felt the change and reacted with verbal violence and open derision. Nevertheless, we were exhilarated and inspired to be on the Mount on the Sukkot holiday. From the physical and spiritual heights of the Mount, the day when the Third Temple will be rebuilt and the Nation of Israel will return to its own identity seemed almost tangible.

Shabbat Shalom,

Moshe Feiglin

On the Temple Mount with Moshe Feiglin: By Michael Fuah

With praise to G-d, we actually managed to enter the Temple Mount complex. We waited in line for two hours, while the police allowed only 15 Jews in at each interval. Yes, it was frustrating. The police announced that in another half hour the Mount will be closed, and we were still waiting in line. At the last minute, the Manhigut Yehudit group managed to enter, with Moshe Feiglin as our intrepid guide. We gingerly ascend the Mount, trying not to show our lips moving as we quietly utter the Shir Hama'alot Psalms. We pass through the gate and stand beneath the plaza, which is dominated by the Dome of the Rock; the Foundation Stone that was part of the Holy of Holies in the Second Temple lies inside the Dome. It is hard to integrate the destruction and shame. Tears begin to well up and flow naturally down my face. A wakf guard jumps on me and shouts, "It is forbidden for you to pray here!" An Israeli policeman hurries over and tells me in no uncertain terms that I had better stop praying - or else. Moshe Feiglin intervenes and maintains that we have every right to cry on the Temple Mount. The shame burns throughout my entire body. It is forbidden for me to pray in the holiest place on earth - just because I am a Jew. If I was an Arab, for example, I could play soccer on the Mount, pick olives and even enjoy a picnic, as the Arabs do while we try not to show them just how much the sight hurts us.

The Temple Mount is an awesomely spiritual place. As I touch the giant wooden beams from the First Temple, stand at the entrance to the stairway to the Hulda Gates and imagine the Jewish pilgrims streaming forth, continue with them east till the entrance to the courtyard and even manage to hear a surreptitious Priestly Blessing, my heart brims over with excruciating pain and lofty exhilaration.

The wakf keep up a constant barrage of epithets, trying to impress upon us that they are the masters of the Mount. Moshe Feiglin takes advantage of the brief absence of the policeman and quickly prostrates himself on the holy ground. The wakf run toward him, furiously shouting. The policeman, who had evaporated when the Arabs were harassing us, comes running. Moshe, pleased that he had the opportunity to bow down on the Temple Mount quickly gets up and continues with his explanations as if nothing has happened. "Next time, please make sure that the Arabs do not disturb us," he says to the policeman. The wakf guards fall silent. They understand Moshe's language.

We silently mumble the Shema Yisrael and Aleinu L'shabeach prayers at the place closest to the Holy of Holies to which access is permissible according to Jewish law. We pray for Jonathan Pollard and Gilad Shalit and most of all - for the redemption of Israel and the building of the Holy Temple. We exit at the western gate, keeping our faces turned all the while to the Holy of Holies, singing and dancing with hope and prayer that the Temple will speedily be built.

The Temple Mount is the site of the most extreme desecration of G-d's Name. 24/7. Ascending the Mount according to Jewish law does not decrease the desecration. It may even cause it to be expressed in a more tangible manner. But the ascent to the Temple Mount expresses our unequivocal desire to rectify the humiliating situation. And the power of that desire is gaining momentum.

 

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