The New Temple Institute Visitor Center in Jerusalem

The Temple Institute Build a brand new Visitors Center. located just above the Yehudah HaLevy stairs which lead from Jerusalem's Old City Jewish Quarter down to the Western Wall Plaza facing the Temple Mount.

The new exhibition includes a highly advanced, state of the art presentation of the Temple-ready sacred vessels created by the Institute, garments of the High Priest, oil-paintings depicting aspects of the Divine service of the Holy Temple and model of the Holy Temple Complex.

Letter to Netanyahu: Who Really Owns Temple Mount? I was surprised to learn that the MK Miri Regev-led Knesset Interior Committee and I, a Knesset member, were not allowed to visit the Temple Mount. By: Moshe Feiglin

Shalom u’verachah.

I was pleased to hear in your answer to my question at the recent [Likud] faction meeting that the agreements between Jordan and the Palestinian Authority on the Temple Mount and Jerusalem issues are insignificant because the state of Israel is the exclusive sovereign power on the Temple Mount and Jerusalem.

Despite that, I was surprised to learn that the MK Miri Regev-led Knesset Interior Committee and I, a Knesset member, were not allowed to visit the Temple Mount due to security considerations. Can’t the police enforce the law and allow members of Israel’s Knesset – who represent the sovereign power on the Mount – to visit there? And if the police are too lazy to do so, why don’t you, the prime minister of Israel, direct them to allow Knesset members to ascend the Mount so that we may perform our duty there as representatives of the sovereign power?

It is impossible to not think that the reason that I was personally barred from the Temple Mount, as were Knesset committee members, is because in the eyes of the wakf we represent Jewish sovereignty on the Mount. I wonder how the wakf’s threats to riot if we visit the Temple Mount actually dictate your approach to the issue. How is it that you, the prime minister of Israel, break these laws of the state of Israel: the Immunity for MKs Law, the Jerusalem Law, and the Personal Honor and Freedom Basic Law? How do you surrender, de facto, our sovereignty in the very heart of our eternal capital, Jerusalem – because of the wakf’s threats?

This apprehensiveness can raise many doubts as to the ability of your government to deal with much larger and greater powers than the wakf.

I know that you did not create the difficult situation on the Temple Mount, but continuing to bury our heads in the sands of security considerations creates a situation in which the government of Israel loses its sovereignty at the rock of our existence. If you do not clearly act to change the situation, you are liable to find yourself going down in history as the prime minister under whom Israel lost its sovereignty over the Temple Mount.

I am sure that the Israeli police and security services will know how to prevent any disturbances or to nip them in the bud if and when you direct them to do so.

JEWISH PRESS: The Eternal Connection of the Jews and Temple Mount; Despite PA claims that no Jewish connection existed, many Muslim religious sources throughout history have accepted the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount area By: Rachel Avraham

The picture no one seems to remember: Jewish soldiers celebrating the liberation of Temple Mount, 46 years ago Friday.

The Jewish connection to the Temple Mount as a sacred Jewish holy site has existed since ancient times.
The Jewish people have a historical, religious, spiritual, and nationalconnection to the Temple Mount area dating back to antiquity. For the Jewish people, it is the holiest site on the entire planet. It was the location of the creation of Adam, the binding of Isaac, as well as both the First and Second Temples. When the Jewish Temple existed, all Jews used to visit there to perform sacrifices to G-d three times per year, as commanded by G-d. It was the sacred building that housed the Ark of the Covenant in which the Ten Commandments were stored.

Archaeological treasures found there demonstrate that a Jewish Temple used to exist on the Temple Mount. While the Islamic Waqf has attempted to destroy such evidence, Israeli archaeologists have been able to rescue some of it, such as a fragment from a Herodian style Second Temple era sculptured stone that used to stand on the Temple Mount; a Babylonian arrow head attesting to the destruction of the First Temple; and the seal of a First Temple-era priestly family. The Western Wall also still stands today, as a visual reminder that a Jewish Temple used to exist on the Temple Mount.

Despite PA claims that no Jewish connection existed, many Muslim religious sources throughout history have accepted the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount area. According to GLORIA: the Global Research in International Affairs: “In Sura 17:1 of the Koran, the “Farthest Mosque” is called the al-masjid al-Aqsa. The Tafsir al-Jalalayn, a well-respected Sunni exegesis of the Koran from the 15th and 16th centuries, notes that the “Farthest Mosque” is a reference to the Bayt al-Maqdis of Jerusalem. In Hebrew, the Jewish Temple is often referred to as the Beyt Ha-Miqdash, nearly identical to the Arabic term.”

Furthermore, GLORIA notes, “In the commentary of Abdullah Ibn Omar al-Baydawi, who authored several prominent theological works in the 13th century, the masjid is referred to as the Bayt al-Maqdis because during Muhammad’s time no mosque existed in Jerusalem. Koranic historian and commentator, Abu Jafar Muhammad al-Tabari, who chronicled the seventh century Muslim conquest of Jerusalem, wrote that one day when Umar finished praying, he went to the place where ‘the Romans buried the Temple [bayt al-maqdis] at the time of the sons of Israel.’”

Even upon the destruction of the Jewish Temple, Jews have continued to journey to the Temple Mount area, in order to weep pver the destruction of their holy site. According to the Cairo Genizah, following the Arab conquest of Jerusalem in the seventh century, seventy Jewish families relocated to Jerusalem and lived very close to the Temple Mount. The Cairo Genizah claimed that they established a synagogue in Warren’s Gate, that wealthy Jews used to contribute money to pay for the upkeep of the Warren Gate synagogue, and many Jews used to go on pilgrimages to the holy site, until the Warren Gate Synagogue was destroyed during the First Crusade.

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Yet, even following the destruction of the Warren Gate Synagogue, Jews continued to travel to the Temple Mount to pray. One medieval Jew, Nachmanides, wrote shortly after making Aliyah to Eretz Yisrael around 1263, “But the loss of all this and of every other glory my eyes saw is compensated by having now the joy of being a day in thy courts, O Jerusalem, visiting the ruins of the Temple, and crying over the desolate sanctuary.” In modern times, many Jews travel to the Western Wall, otherwise known as the Kotel, to pray and place a note to G-d inside the cracks of this ancient wall. According to Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of State, William Seward, Jews were praying at the Western Wall well before the rise of modern Zionism.

ELDER OF ZIYON: "Israeli bride performs Talmudic rituals" near Cotton Gate of Temple Mount

A Jewish bride, apparently on her wedding day, decided to go as close as possible to the Temple Mount to say Psalms.

Along with some friends, she walked down the Cotton Market in Jerusalem during a Muslim prayer time when the market is nearly empty. She was stopped, and protected, at the entrance to the Cotton Gate by Israeli police.

Arabic media is reporting that she performed "Talmudic rituals" and that this was an "extreme provocation." (They also called the bride and her small entourage "settlers.")

Apparently, Muslims can whip out their prayer rugs and worship wherever they want, but Jews don't share that right.

A Christian-Jewish group condemned the peaceful event as well.

In fact, according to Sheikh Nageh Pkarat, any prayers in the area of the holiest spot in Judaism is a"violation of international law" since it is a place for Muslim prayers only.

Pkarat also said that Jewish prayers in the area are against the Jewish religion as well.

It is always nice to have an expert on Judaism around to be authoritatively quoted in the Arab media.

A Second Temple Tour

The Temple Mount In Zohar Representation

From the Zohar, Bamidbar 161A:

Come and see: when G-d created man in the world, He prepared him [below] similarly to the above. He gave him strength and energy in the middle of his body, where the heart lies, which is the strength of the entire body. From there, the entire body gets sustained and the heart is attached to and strengthened from the higher area above, which is the brain in the head that rests above. And one is connected to the other. [The brain is also attached to and strengthened from the heart.]

In a similar pattern, G-d has prepared the world. He made it one body and He assembled the body organs around the heart, the heart in the center of the whole body, and all the organs take their nourishment from that heart that provides the energy to all of them. Everything is dependent on it. And that heart is connected and united to the upper brain that rests above, as was explained before.

Come and see when G-d created the world, He installed the ocean that surrounds the whole inhabitable planet, and the settlement of all seventy nations surrounding Jerusalem. Jerusalem is situated in the center of all this settled area and it surrounds the temple mount. The temple mount surrounds all the temple courts of Israel, and these Temple courts [figuratively] surround the Chamber of Hewn Stone, the seat of the high court of the Sanhedrin. We have learned that there were no seating privileges in these Temple courts, with the exception made to the kings of the house of David. [These 7 levels of importance correspond to the 7 sefirot.]

The Chamber of Hewn Stone [figuratively] surrounds the altar, and the altar area [figuratively] surrounds the Front Entrance Hall. That hall surrounds the Heichal [the "Holy"; Main Sanctuary] and the Heichal[surrounds] the Holy of Holies, wherein are found the Shechina and the Ark Cover and the Cherubs and the Holy Ark.

Here [in the Holy of Holies] is the heart [the Shechina] of the land and the world. From here, all the settled inhabitable areas, which are the organs of this body, get their nourishment. This heart gets its nourishment from the brain in the head [malchut of Atzilut] and they [Shechina and malchut] unite with each other. This is what is written: "In the Sanctuary, G-d, which Your hands have established." (Ex. 15:17) [The Holy Temple below is directly opposite the Supernal Temple above, which You made.]

THE 2ND ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL TEMPLE MOUNT AWARENESS DAY

ELDER OF ZIYON: Muslims freak out over Kotel iPhone app

Recently, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation released iKotel, an iPhone app that lets you see a live camera view of the Western Wall and also allows you to send notes to be placed between the stones. It also helps point the user towards the Temple Mount for prayers.

Muslims aren't happy.

The Al Aqsa Foundation put out a press release, quoted by Ma'an, saying that the Jews - through this app - are attempting to get the younger generation to forge a closer connection to what they falsely call the "Al Buraq Wall."

Palestine News Network quoted them:

The "Al-Aqsa Foundation" said that the Wailing Wall is an integral part of the Al Aqsa Mosque, and it is exclusively Islamic, linked ideologically and religiously fully with the incident of [al-Buraq] with the Prophet Mohammed - peace be upon him - and non-Muslims have no right to it, even to the dust of the Wailing Wall, it is the right of Muslims and will remain so, even though it came under the control of Israeli occupation.

Next week the Al Aqsa Foundation will probably come out with a press release slamming the 1695 Amsterdam Haggadah, which depicts the Second Temple in Jerusalem:

Also, the official WAFA news agency of the Palestinian Authority quotes the Al Aqsa press release with obvious approval of the contents. The PA had previously published a paper claiming that there is no Jewish connection to the Temple Mount.

Is there any daylight between the rantings of the "extremists" of the Al Aqsa foundation and the "moderate" Palestinian Authority?

The Centrality of the Temple Mount in Judaism

The Centrality of the Temple Mount in Judaism


The Knesset held a series of discussions on the the importance of the Temple Mount to Judaism and the struggle to take control of the holiest site in Judaism. As seen on Arutz Sheva. IsraelNationalNews.com