THEY ARE GOING TO TRY
TO REBUILD THE TEMPLE
(part one)
Monday, June 08 2009 @ 11:13 PM BST
Views: 716
No matter what your religious orientations, one thing’s for certain: the criminal Jewish network, now well on its way towards finalizing its New World Order project, intends to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem -- imminently -- for its anticipated Jewish 'Messiah,' or 'Moshiach.' The notion, which is unfortunately embraced by deeply misled 'Christian Zionists' (which, like 'Judeo-Christianity,' is a contradiction-in-terms), presupposes the destruction of the two Islamic mosques currently perched atop the temple mount -- a move that would undoubtedly set the entire Muslim Middle East ablaze.
For a handful of recent media reports from a variety of sources that point to the looming reality of this scenario, READ MORE.
‘Third Temple’ booster snags boldface names for Savannah parley
The Jewish Daily Forward
October 27, 2006
Along with sweet accents and sweeter food, this city is known for its graceful sweep of Spanish moss dangling from thick, gnarled trees old enough to have heard every story there is to tell.
This, however, may be a new one: An Israeli businesswoman living in nearby Bluffton, S.C., dreams of rebuilding the Third Temple in Jerusalem and causes a local stir by bringing a collection of Israeli officials to town for a conference on the future of the Jewish state.
The businesswoman, Orly Benny Davis, organized a three-day conference at the Savannah International Trade & Convention Center this week, which attracted two local Republican congressmen; leading center and right-wing American Jewish commentators, and current and former Israeli officials, including senior Likudniks and other hawks.
Though the lineup boasted many speakers opposed to making concessions to the Palestinians, it included the Atlanta-based Consulate General of Israel to the Southeast of the United States, the Savannah Jewish Federation and the local chapter of Hadassah as co-sponsors, in addition to several groups associated with rightist positions on Israel, including the Zionist Organization of America, Christians’ Israel Public Action Committee and American Friends of Likud.
At least one prominent Jewish local, Savannah’s Reform rabbi, Arnold Mark Belzer, did not attend or promote the event, titled “Convergence: Claims and Challenges of Israel’s Future in the Middle East,” saying he objected to Benny Davis’s politics. And two national leaders of the liberal group Brit Tzedek v’Shalom co-authored an op-ed in the Savannah Morning News rejecting Benny Davis’s “personal agenda, regardless of the merits of the conference sessions.”
At issue was the lead role that Benny Davis played last year in organizing a meeting that brought 1,200 people to Jerusalem to support Jewish sovereignty over the city and the dream of building the Third Temple -- a project that critics say would require destroying the mosques situated on the Temple Mount. Benny Davis disagrees -- the Temple Mount, she told the Forward, covers 44 acres, enough space to construct the Third Temple without harming the mosques. To boot, she kicked off the conference with the wish that “the dove of peace will fly again.”
At the start of the conference, Moises Paz, executive director of the Savannah Jewish Federation, approached the Forward to engage in what he acknowledged to be a form of damage control.
“The agenda for the conference was not the Temple Mount,” he said, calling the issue irrelevant and divisive. Of course, at the same time, the conference touched on plenty of issues that could be considered divisive.
“The federation is proud to support all responsible views and opinions regarding Israel, and we had a marvelous opportunity to bring in some internationally renowned speakers, policy-makers and thinkers on the Middle East,” Paz said. “We thought that the ability to bring in these outstanding personalities outweighed any downside” and enabled citizens of Savannah “to meet firsthand some of the people that you would only read about.”
Drawing on what she described as personal connections and friendships, Benny Davis said she selected the speakers based on their smarts, not on their party or affiliation. According to Benny Davis, all the Israeli notables spoke free of charge, including Ra’anan Gissin, former prime minister Ariel Sharon’s media adviser who served in the same capacity for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert; Likud lawmaker Yuval Steinitz, former chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee; Moshe Ya’alon, the former chief of staff of the Israeli military, and Giora Eiland, national security adviser to Sharon.
Also attending was Ambassador Reda Mansour, a Druze who serves as Israel’s Consul General to the Southeast; Morton Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America, and several Christian Zionists. Middle East analyst Daniel Pipes was scheduled to attend, but he took ill.
Much of the formal discussion centered on the usual fare among meetings of Jews grappling with Israel’s security: the nuclear threat from Iran, parallels between Israel’s and America’s wars against terrorism, and the struggle to improve Israel’s image in the media. A prominent theme was the notion that all concessions to the Palestinians should be halted -- an idea at odds with governments in Jerusalem and Washington that still envision eventual Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank in pursuit of a two-state solution.
“We are going to have an endless war if we want to exist,” said Arieh Eldad, plastic surgeon and National Union Knesset member. Eldad called the internationally sponsored road map peace plan a “road map for Israel’s extermination.”
“The issue is the very existence of the State of Israel,” he said.
“It’s not very easy to accept, but I tell you as a physician -- it’s the first step to fight the cancer,” he added, referring to the need to halt concessions. “Land for peace is the wrong medication for a misdiagnosed disease.”
Ya’alon made a similar point in his keynote address Sunday night.
“Israel shouldn’t initiate any unilateral withdrawal,” since concessions only encourage the “jihad against the West,” he said, calling the two-state solution an unclear model. “We should look for a new paradigm to allow the Palestinian people a better life and the Israeli people a more secure life.”
Asked to outline the new paradigm, Ya’alon said he didn’t have one.
Much of these remarks were greeted with quiet nods of approval. In part that’s because the audience was so small -- fewer than 200 people, with fewer than 70 attending most panels.
But according to Benny Davis, they were the right people -- the influential ones.
The event was billed as being “directed to members of the Jewish communities of Savannah and South Carolina’s low country, as well as others interested in the current status of Israel’s relationship with its neighbors and the United States.”
Such a high-level Israeli contingency seemed like a slightly curious development for these parts. And not just because Savannah, where even the pungent smell of paper mills has its charm, is the type of place where one goes to get away from it all. After all, the G8 recently held its summit in Savannah. But this is a small Jewish community, if an old and storied one.
Although a Jewish food festival in one of the city’s landmark squares is slated for this weekend, the community numbers just 4,000. In fact, Savannah’s Jewish federation has launched a campaign urging Jews to move here to secure the city’s Jewish future.
With feeble attendance, the convergence conference felt less town hall, more Camp David.
Still, those who made the trip felt it was well worth it.
For one thing, it made news. But it was also a networking opportunity.
Gissin said that he used the opportunity to “create a coalition of interests” and an “alliance of potential victims” among Israel and people and nations of similar values against the threat of terrorism. Klein gushed with relief over finding support for opinions he has long voiced -- that concessions beget war. As these theories have borne out, he says, he has found increasing acceptance.
“I can really say anything now. Nobody’s mad anymore” about ZOA’s opposition to Israeli pullouts, Klein said.
“What am I extremist about?” he asked, with a laugh. “I don’t trust the Arabs?”
The above article can be found at: http://www.forward.com/articles/5998/
The Temple Mount is in his hands
Haaretz (Israel)
March 6, 2007
A few years ago, Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, the chief rabbi of Ramat Gan and one of the leading candidates for chief rabbi of Israel, ruled in a halakhic article (dealing with religious law) that the laws regarding a moser (someone who informs against or hands over another Jew) and a rodef (someone who pursues a person with the intent of killing him) do not apply to the present-day Israeli government. According to religious law, these crimes are punishable by death.
Last week, his brother, Rabbi Israel Ariel, head of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, was arrested and held for questioning by the Jerusalem District police. Along with four of his colleagues, Ariel, 68, the head of the Sanhedrin beit din (rabbinical court) on matters of religion and state, sent a letter to the head of the Israel Defense Forces Central Command, Major General Yair Naveh, in which he accused Naveh of being a moser for signing eviction notices for 20 outpost residents.
In the letter, the Sanhedrin beit din referred the general to the law of damages in Maimonides, which states, "if he is determined to be a moser, he must be killed for fear that he will hand over others" and "it is permitted to kill the moser anywhere, even at present when we do not rule on matters of capital punishment, and whoever kills him first is praiseworthy."
"Your successful actions at present in Judea and Samaria in defense of the country should not be forgotten," stated the letter. "But these things cannot make up for even one outcry of a child whose father has been expelled from his home, and the tears of a woman who cries out over her husband's expulsion."
Ariel's rabbinical court has already passed several controversial rulings in the past year, such as prohibiting a member of the military prosecution, who participated in a legal proceeding against outpost residents, from being summoned to the Torah. But there is no question that the focus of Ariel's activity for years has been the Temple and awareness of the Temple.
To date, over a million people have visited the Temple Institute in Jerusalem: students, soldiers and even members of the Shin Bet security services and police, who came to learn about the philosophy of revolution to gain a better understanding of the ideology driving members of Temple Mount movements.
The late Prof. Ehud Sprinzak, an expert on extremist movements, once described Ariel as one of the three "undercover revolutionaries" in Israel. Ariel may be a revolutionary, but he is also a phenomenon.
According to any criteria, the extent of his knowledge and expertise on the history, structure, rituals and vessels of the Temple is tremendous, and few share his expertise on the practical aspects of Temple worship. Ariel also managed to bring together a team of innovative rabbis and researchers. Only recently, they finished a 10-year project that involved producing precise reconstructions of the High Priest's garments: breastplate, vest, gold headband and blue coat with bells and pomegranates.
Rabbis, scholars, researchers, artists and other experts were all involved in the restoration work, which was based on Jewish sources: the Torah, midrashim, the Mishna, the Talmud et al. Over the years, the institute has reconstructed around 70 Temple ritual objects, including a gold candelabrum, a gold altar, a showbread table, shovels, the mizrak for collecting and pouring blood and incense. They plan to recreate another 150 such items.
Linking past and present
Temple mahzorim (holiday prayer books), Temple siddurim (daily prayer books) and books about the Temple, which are published by the Temple Institute, have become must-have items in many Religious Zionist homes, and are some of the most popular bar and bat mitzvah gifts in this sector.
This literature is rich in information, illustrations, diagrams and drawings, which bring the Temple ritual to life, and turn it into something concrete. This literature is the essence of Ariel's work and ideology: the link between the ancient Temple and the present. For Ariel, the Temple is relevant, and the goal of the Temple Institute is to create the infrastructure and foundation to facilitate building the Third Temple.
According to Temple Institute regulations, "it is a positive commandment written in the Torah: 'And they will make me a Temple and I will dwell among them.' On this assumption, according to halakha, this mitzvah (commandment) applies every day, and the association will work to have this mitzvah observed as soon as possible. The Israeli government, in a statesmanlike and dignified manner, will take on this difficult assignment by itself, or through the residents of Israel."
Rabbi Shlomo Aviner is one of Ariel's most bitter ideological rivals. Aviner believes that the Temple's importance supersedes everyday reality. He preaches gradual redemption, "little by little," and strictly forbids his students from going up to the Temple Mount.
Aviner makes do with the monthly "round of gates" around the walls of the Temple Mount, as an act to foster awareness and closeness to the Temple culture. He relies on the approach of Rabbi Abraham Hacohen Kook, who determined "it is a Torah commandment that until the day of the resurrection, we are not permitted to even enter the courtyard of the Temple."
Ariel, however, relies on other works by Kook. Take, for example, "Mishpat Kohen," in which the rabbi wrote that sacrifices can be renewed even without a king and a prophet. The Sanhedrin beit din decision last week to purchase a flock of sheep, in the hope that conditions will be ripe by Pesach to sacrifice a Paschal Lamb on the Temple Mount, is a faithful reflection of how Ariel has behaved for many years: "We have to prepare and behave as though the Temple will be built tomorrow." His endless search all over the world for the "red heifer," whose ashes were used in Temple times for purification after contact with the dead, is part and parcel of this approach.
Still waiting for sappers
Ariel has never concealed from the world his cool attitude toward democracy: "When the democracy created here does what is written in the Torah, it is a good democracy, but when it does things opposed to the words of Torah, it is a bad democracy." [As Michael A. Hoffman has pointed out, “Torah” is often used in public statements as code for “Talmud.” I suspect this is the case here -- 800]
However, he emphasized that the Temple that he is working so hard to build can be built only with the consent of the people and the government -- not through subversion. "There will be no shortcuts and skipping stages. It will not be possible to jump three steps at once. For every step, we will break our heads eight times in a difficult process. We will fulfill our role as though we were artillery softening up a target that is fortified and hard to capture, before the infantry goes into action. At a certain stage, the other arm, sent by the state, will arrive and use the tools that we have built and the path that we have prepared for it."
Ariel, No. 2 on the Kach [an extremist Jewish terrorist organization] Knesset slate in the mid-1970s, served as the head of the yeshiva in Yamit during the evacuation, and was the first rabbi in Israel who called on soldiers to refuse orders. A military court sentenced him to six months of conditional arrest, and in 1983, a year after the evacuation of Yamit, he was arrested together with a group of yeshiva students from Kiryat Arba, on suspicion that they had formulated a plan to take control of the Temple Mount and entrench themselves there. Although the Jerusalem District Court exonerated them of all blame, this arrest gave rise to the Temple Institute.
Ariel told the yeshiva students, with whom he was arrested, about the Jew whom Russian authorities arrested for the crime of observing mitzvot and putting on tefillin: "'Until now,' said the Jew to his guards, 'I didn't know what a Jew was, but now that I know, I will circumcise myself.' The man took a teaspoon, sharpened it into a knife, and circumcised himself."
"Until now," Ariel said to his students, "we didn't deal seriously with issues concerning the Temple Mount, but after they accused us of conspiracy, let us ... begin to study the subject of the Temple thoroughly."
But Ariel's special connection to the Temple Mount began much earlier. During the Six-Day War, Ariel, then a young Israel Defense Forces chaplain, was sent to guard the entrance of the Dome of the Rock, assumed to be the site of the Temple. "I was convinced," he said later, "that the Muslim prayer hall would remain empty of people until the state sent sappers with explosives on their backs to remove the mosque." But the sappers did not come, and Ariel is still praying for the situation on the mount to change.
The above article can be found at: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/833145.html
Temple Institute announces: High Priest's crown is ready!
Arutz Sheva (Israel)
December 2, 2007
The Temple Institute in Jerusalem announces the completion of the Tzitz, the High Priest's headplate -- now ready for use in the Holy Temple.
The tzitz is made of pure gold, was fashioned over the course of a more than a year by the craftsmen of the Temple Institute, and is ready to be worn by the High Priest in the rebuilt Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
The words "Holy for G-d" are engraved on the headplate, in accordance with Exodus 28:36. A short video clip presenting the tzitz can be viewed here [LINK PENDING].
Rabbi Chaim Richman, International Director of the Temple Institute, explained to Arutz-7 that until it can actually be used, the tzitz will be on view in the Institute's permanent exhibition display, together with other vessels and priestly garments fashioned for use in the Holy Temple by the Institute.
Legal sspects: Impurity and Hekdesh
Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, Director of the Institute, explained some of the Halakhic [Jewish legal] aspects of the fashioning of the vessels for the Temple. "For one thing," he said, "they are made in impurity -- for now we are impure, and will remain impure until we are able to have a Red Heifer whose ashes can be used in the Torah-prescribed purification ceremony. If no Red Heifer is available, then the High Priest must even serve in the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur in a state of impurity."
Asked whether the fact that the vessels are dedicated for the Temple does not render them hekdesh (consecrated) and therefore forbidden for any other use, Rabbi Ariel explained, "There are two stages. First of all, we make it very clear to the donors and to the craftsmen that the ultimate purpose of these vessels is not to be used for exhibitions or the like, but rather for the fulfillment of Torah [Talmud] commandments in the Holy Temple. They must know this in advance.
However, to gain the actual status of hekdesh, we similarly make it clear that this does not happen until the vessel is actually brought in to the Temple Mount for use in the Temple. This means that someone can try on and measure the headplate, for example, without worrying that he is benefiting in any way from something that has been consecrated to the Temple."
Menorah moves closer to Temple Mount
Rabbi Richman noted that in less than two weeks from now, on Rosh Chodesh Tevet, the famous Menorah (candelabrum) -- suitable for use in the Holy Temple, familiar to visitors to the Cardo section of the Old City of Jerusalem -- will be relocated to the landing of the wide staircase that leads down from the Jewish Quarter to the Western Wall. It will be protected inside the same type of glass structure that now houses it.
The new tzitz is an improvement on one made several years ago, in that it has a backpiece, in accordance with some commentators and the account of Josephus. In addition, it has a locking mechanism so that it will not slip off the Priest's head, and can be adjusted to fit heads of different sizes. The old one will be preserved, of course as a "spare," in keeping with the Mishnaic account that several models of various vessels were kept in the Temple, in case the need arose to replace one.
Asked what project they're working on at present, Rabbi Richman said, "We have begun work on 120 sets of garments for 'regular' priests, not the High Priest. This involves special thread from India, etc. In addition, we have begun work on architectural blueprints for the Third Temple, including cost projection, modern supplies, electricity, plumbing, computers, etc."
Bringing G-d into our world
"At present," Rabbi Richman explained, "people are in despair, and wonder if we're not dreaming futilely while around us our leaders are planning to give the country away. We say to them: It appears that those who went to Annapolis are the dreamers, thinking that their efforts to make peace will succeed, or that the public is with them in their efforts to give away our Jerusalem, our Temple Mount, and other national historic assets."
"We are now approaching the holiday of Chanukah," Rabbi Richman continued, "which is the holiday that commemorates the re-dedication of the Holy Temple. We're not just building beautiful vessels; we're interested in granting G-d the dwelling place that He wants in this world; the Temple is not merely a building, but a way of bringing G-d into our lives in a very real way. And that is what we aim to do. This tzitz is G-d's Chanukah present to us, and our Chanukah gift to the Jewish People."
The above article can be found at: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/124443
Temple Institute readies crown for new high priest
Israel Today
December 3, 2007
The Temple Institute in Jerusalem this week announced the completion of the solid gold crown the Bible instructs Israel's high priest to wear while conducting his duties at the Temple, reported Israel National News.
The crown took craftsman carefully following descriptions contained in the Bible, Jewish holy texts and various historical sources more than one year to make.
The crown will be on display in Jerusalem's Old City until the time that the Third Temple is built on the Temple Mount and Israel's priestly caste resumes its activities there.
The Temple Institute has for decades been preparing the garments and articles needed for the day the Temple is rebuilt.
Temple Institute Director Rabbi Chaim Richman told Israel National News the next task is the completion of architectural blueprints for the Third Temple, including cost projections and detailed electrical and plumbing schematics.
The above article can be found at: http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=14713
Historian demands action on powerful doomsday cults
By Henry Makow
June 9, 2008
A Munich-based historian Wolfgang Eggert, 46, has launched an Internet petition to demand action on powerful Jewish and Christian cults that want to instigate a nuclear holocaust to fulfill Biblical prophesy.
He thinks religious fanatics must be exposed and removed from power. He points to the Jewish Chabad Lubavitcher sect that wants to hasten Armageddon to facilitate the intervention of the Messiah. Eggert quotes a Lubavitcher rabbi who says: "The world is waiting for us to fulfill our role in preparing the world to greet Moshiach" (i.e. Messiah.).”
Their members include Paul Wolfowitz, the architect of the Iraq War which began with an attack named after a Cabalist deity, "Shekinah" ("Shock and Awe"). Especially worrisome now is Chabadnik Joe Lieberman who visited Israel in March with his buddy John McCain. There is concern over Sen. Carl Levin who is Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Other prominent Orthodox Jews who might be part of this cult include Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff and former Pentagon Controller Dov Zakheim, implicated in the disappearance of "trillions" of dollars.
While the Chabad Lubavitchers are his focus, Eggert is also concerned about Christian Evangelists like Jack Van Impe and Timothy LaHaye who are close to the Bush administration. Their desired scenario includes the destruction of the al-Aqsa mosque and the restoration of the Third Temple on its site; the rising to heaven of the 144,000 Chosen Ones; the battle of Armageddon; mass death among Israeli Jews and the Final Coming of Jesus Christ.
The power of the Lubovitchers seems uncanny. (Apparently they are rich.) On March 26, 1991, the US Senate commemorated the birthday of founder Rebbe Menachem Schneerson as "National Education Day." It also acknowledged the validity of the Talmudic "Seven Noahide Laws." This is at a time when all Christian symbolism is being assiduously removed from society.
When Schneerson died in 1994, he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his contribution to "global morals." According to Eggert, Schneerson taught that Jewish and Gentile souls are fundamentally different. "All Jews are good by nature...Jews are the pride of creation, the Goyim (Gentiles) are the scum."
According to Schneerson, the Goyim still have a role in serving the Chosen ones. The Jews are the Priests while the Noahide Laws provide "a religion for the rank and file." Quoting the Lubavitcher rabbi: "When examining the chain of frightening events [since 9-11] with a Chassidic eye, we see that the US is being pushed toward fulfilling its historic role of teaching the Sheva Mitzvos [i.e. Noahide laws] to the world."
According to Eggert, Freemasons have always called themselves "Noachids" and incorporated the statutes into their Constitution as early as 1723.
Here is a 2004 picture of Barack Obama meeting with Rabbi Yossi Brackman, Director of the Chabad Jewish Center in Chicago [PENDING]. If you look, you can find pictures of many major politicians in the West posing with this sect. This website features more than a dozen of them. In this You Tube [PENDING] the current Chief Rabbi of the Chabad boasts of his rapport with Vladimir Putin. Eggert says Putin's mother is Jewish, which makes him Jewish, and that President Medvedev is Jewish on both sides. It's hard to say if they are beholden to the Chabadniks.
Eggert, who studied History and Politics at universities in Berlin and Munich, is the author of eight books on hidden history. He believes that all of modern history is influenced by a Cabalistic plot to fulfill Biblical Prophesy. However, he is careful to distinguish between the Lubavitchers and other Hasidim who think it is a crime to "force God's hand" and "hasten the redemption."
Nevertheless, as Eggert surveys modern history, the Lubavitchers seem to be in control.
"Every part of modern history is linked to another and in itself to Zionism, state intelligence, lodges and the like. Without the Balfour declaration, there would have been no democratic revolution in Russia and no America into World War One... We may start at any historical point (even with the American revolution or more far back Oliver Cromwell) [and] we´ll see, that the maker (or profiteer) of all this is Cabalistic Judaism. All serves their plan, to implement biblical prophecy."
Eggert cites World Zionist VP Max Nordau's speech at the 1903 Zionist Convention predicting "a future World War [and] peace conference where with the help of England a free and Jewish Palestine will be created." (Eggert, "Israel's Geheimvatikan" Vol.2, pp.21-22)
He says the Zionists sabotaged Germany in WWI (strikes, revolts) because it wouldn't play ball on Israel. He cites a book in Hebrew, "The Historical Moment" by M. Gonzer: "We even find nations who are slow on the uptake and who find it difficult to understand certain relations unless the rebbe -- that is world history -- gives them some sensible bashes which makes them open their eyes." (Israels Geheimvatikan, vol. 1, p.47.)
Eggert is approaching prominent Jewish figures personally because he believes their support is most needed. So far he has a few prominent signers but has met with some official interference. Eggert wrote to me last week:
"My attempts to find prominent signers in advance were duped. I´ve written to 120 Jewish dissidents in America and Israel; everyone got a separate personal mail. It took me three days. In the first say two or three hours of my campaign there were regularly mails coming back, with thanks or criticism or messages, that the addressee was absent. Quick answers came from Noam Chomsky and the nuclear "spy" Vanunu and a high ranking security officer of the United Nations ordered all my books -- but then, immediately after and within one moment all resonance stopped. And since then I haven't received any more answers, although I kept on sending one mail after the other. I think that some guys are blocking or filtering my mailbox."
Conclusion
As we weather the election hurricane season, it is useful to remember that the same people control both parties. Sarah Palin is a distraction. A confection. A cosmetic blush. Her convention speech was written by one of George W's stable of speech writers. She was vetted and approved by AIPAC and Rabbi Joe Lieberman. Rothschild cut-out George Soros funds and controls Obama.
That's why I'll be signing Wolfgang Eggert's petition. It's important that they know we aren't all rubes, mesmerized by their tired old shell game.
The above article can be found at: http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2008/09/06/p28404
First World Noahide Conference begins
Israel National News
June 29, 2008
The First World Conference of the Noahide Nations is underway in Florida.
The conference is taking place at the Ft. Lauderdale Airport Hilton Hotel, and is designed to bring Jews and Noahides together. The organizers stated that for this purpose, the location was specifically chosen for its proximity to a large Jewish populace.
The conference speakers include Israe lNational Radio (INR) director Yishai Fleisher, speaking on "INR Support for the Future of the Noahide Movement," and show host Rabbis Chaim Richman, and other rabbinic scholars.
The four-day event features workshops and symposiums led by Jewish and Noahide scholars in the fields of Torah [Talmud] study, science, history and government.
Conference organizer Ray Pettersen, of the Dallas-based Noahide Nations, said, “Our world is plagued with violence and diminishing human dignity. Yet, we are also blessed with an unprecedented outpouring of Torah knowledge that is both timeless and even technological. That knowledge, coupled with a heightened sense of the need for community is the underlying theme of this summer’s conference."
On display at the conference is what the conference organizers call the "Golden Crown of the High Priest of the Third Temple." The crown is actually a headplate known as the Tzitz, fashioned out of pure gold by the Temple Institute in the Old City of Jerusalem and completed last December. The Temple Institute stated at the time that the Tzitz "is ready to be worn by the High Priest in the rebuilt Holy Temple in Jerusalem." The words "Holy for G-d" are engraved on the headplate, in accordance with Exodus 28:36.
Last month, Rabbi Yaakov Cohen, Sheikh Abdaal Salaam and Reverend Michael Kroop addressed a Hebrew University audience on the topic of how the Seven Noahide Laws can help bring world peace. Rabbi Cohen, of The Institute of Noahide Code, who organized the conference, said the goal was to "use the Noahide laws as a starting point for dialogue between representatives of different traditions."
The seven Noahide laws, by which Gentiles are bound according to Torah law and which are being accepted by increasing numbers of non-Jews, are the following:
1. Belief in one G-d; no idol worship
2. Respecting G-d: Do not blaspheme His Name
3. Respect for human life: Do not murder
4. Respect for family: Do not commit immoral sexual acts
5. Respect for others’ rights: Do not steal
6. Creation of a judicial system
7. Respect All Creatures: Do not eat live animals or be cruel to them
At the Florida conference, Pettersen presented Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight with the Zedekah Award for his charitable efforts and public support for the State of Israel, and Vendyl Jones received the Noah Award for his lifetime of work in spreading Torah and the Seven Laws of Noach. Other speakers include Rabbis Y. Hollander, Joel Bakst, and Michael Katz, as well as Dr. Andrew Goldfinger, Judge Rabbi Sander Goldberg, Jim Long, and more.
For more information, see http://www.noahidenations.com/
The above article can be found at: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126662
Third Temple preparations begin with priestly garb
Jerusalem Post
July 1, 2008
Wearing a turban and a light blue tunic threaded with silver, a man stands in a workshop in Jerusalem's Old City beside spools of white thread affixed to sewing machines. A painting of high priests performing an animal sacrifice beside the First Temple illustrates the function of the room.
On Monday, the Temple Institute started preparing to build a Third Temple on Jerusalem's Mount Moriah, the site of the Dome of the Rock and the Aksa mosque, by inaugurating a workshop that manufactures priestly garments.
After Efrat Chief Rabbi Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, a Kohen himself, gets measured for his own set of Kohanim garments, Aviad Jeruffi, the clothing's designer, strums "To Ascend to the Temple Mount" on his guitar in celebration.
Priestly garments have not been worn since the destruction of the Second Temple by Rome in 70 CE and cannot be functional until a Third Temple is constructed.
Kohanim, priests directly descended from Moses's brother Aaron, are recognized by the Institute as such if their paternal grandfather observed the tradition. Today, they have special religious responsibilities; in days of yore they performed the most significant duties within the Temple.
Approximately one-third of the commandments in the Torah cannot be accomplished without a temple, including the obligations of the Kohanim.
But a Third Temple seems a flighty dream with nightmarish political implications to many, as both a shrine, the Dome of the Rock, and the Aksa mosque, Islam's third holiest structure, currently stand on the Temple Mount.
Rabbi Yehuda Glick, director of the Temple Institute, says he assumes Muslims will be supportive when the Temple is ready to be built:
"We already have some Muslims who are secretly in touch with us," he says.
When the Temple is rebuilt, Kohanim must wear the proper outfit to perform their obligations, Glick continues.
Each set has a turban, tunic pants and belt and is individually tailored at a cost of NIS 2,500.
"If it were a bathrobe for watching Saturday Night Live, it would not be worth it. But we're talking about people who have a very strong yearning for working in the Beit Hamikdash [Temple]," says Glick.
Years of diligent research was needed to create the garments in conformance with Jewish law.
Special flaxen thread was imported from India and overseas travel was necessary to obtain the correct colors for the clothes, including to Istanbul, to purchase mountain worms from which the correct shade of crimson is derived.
The secret of the correct shade of blue has been lost since the destruction of the Second Temple, as the identity of chilazon, the snail from which it was extracted, was uncertain until the Ptil Tekhelet nonprofit organization identified it as the murex trunculus, aka hexaplex trunculus, the banded dye-murex found near the Mediterranean Sea.
"The Temple is not a message [just for] the Jewish people. It reunites the world all around one central prayer house. All the prophets say that at the End Times all the nations will be coming to Jerusalem and take part of building [the Temple]," Glick says.
The above article can be found at: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1214726180915&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Priestly garments on sale in Jerusalem
The Associated Press
July 8, 2008
In a stuffy basement off an Old City alleyway in Jerusalem, tailors using ancient texts as a blueprint have begun making a curious line of clothing that they hope will be worn by priests in a reconstructed Temple -- the spiritual center of Judaism destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E.
The project, run by a Jerusalem group called the Temple Institute, is part of an ideology that advocates making practical preparations for the rebuilding of the ancient Temple on the Temple Mount, the holiest place in Judaism and the site of the remains of the last Temple, the Western Wall.
For the past 1,300 years, the site has also been the location of Islam's third-holiest shrine, the Noble Sanctuary, including the golden Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The conflicting claims to this area in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem lie at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Temple Institute has made priestly garments in the past for display in the small museum it runs in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, but those were hand-sewn and cost upward of $10,000 each.
The institute recently received rabbinic permission to begin using sewing machines for the first time, bringing the cost down and allowing them to produce dozens or hundreds of garments, depending on how many orders come in.
If you are a descendant of the Jewish priests, a full outfit, including an embroidered belt 32 biblical cubits (15 meters) long, can be yours for about $800.
"Before, the clothes we made were to go on display. Now we're engaged in the practical fulfillment of the divine commandment," said Yehuda Glick, the Temple Institute's director, at a ceremony marking the workshop's opening last week.
The thread, six-ply flax, was purchased in India, and the diamond-patterned fabric was woven in Israel. The blue dye, which the Bible calls tchelet, is made from the secretions of a snail found in the Mediterranean Sea, and the red color comes from an aphid found on local trees.
The priests, made up of descendants of the Biblical figure Aaron, were an elite group entrusted with the Temple and its rituals, such as sacrificing animals and making other offerings to God. The memory of belonging to that class has been preserved by Jews through the centuries. Their most common family name is Cohen, meaning priest.
The Temple Institute and similarly minded believers think those modern priests will soon have to resume the rituals of their ancestors in a rebuilt Temple, and that by preparing their garments they are bringing that day closer.
"The light of God is coming back, and it's happening before our eyes," Glick said. "By sewing garments for the temple priests, his institute is continuing a process that was neglected for 2,000 years," he said.
The Temple Institute does not advocate violent action and says its activities are purely educational. But groups like the institute, however marginal, have played on Muslim fears that Jews plan to destroy their holy sites to pave the way for rebuilding the Temple.
Adnan Husseini, formerly the top Muslim official at the site and now an adviser on Jerusalem affairs to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, called the work of such groups a provocation.
"If they talk about building the third Temple, what does it mean? It means they will destroy the Islamic mosques," Husseini said. "And if they do, they will make 1.5 billion enemies. It is God's will that this is a place for Muslims to pray, and they must respect that."
The first Jewish Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians 2,500 years ago, and the second was leveled by the Romans in the year 70. Since then, Judaism's focus has changed drastically, from a Temple-centered ritual of animal sacrifice led by priests to a faith revolving around individual study and piety taught by rabbis.
Most Orthodox Jews see the rebuilding of the Temple as a theoretical event to be undertaken by God when the Jewish people are deemed deserving of it, and Judaism has traditionally forbidden making practical preparations of this kind.
But this small group made up of members of a hard-line fringe among Israel's religious nationalists, view that thinking as an excuse for inaction.
"From the moment we see we're ready here, the clothes will be ready and the priests can get to work when the time comes," said Hagai Barashi, an assistant tailor. He wore a Biblical-looking robe, long sidelocks, and a pair of Nike flip-flops.
The first member of the priestly class who came to be measured was Nachman Kahana, a local rabbi. He removed his black jacket, and tailor Aviad Jarufi, a small man in a white robe and horn-rimmed glasses, took out his green measuring tape. The priestly garments can't be sold off the rack -- Jewish law specifies that they must be made to measure.
Yisrael Ariel, the rabbi who founded the Temple Institute, recited a traditional blessing, thanking God for keeping us alive, and sustaining us, and enabling us to reach this time.
Ariel, an expert on Temple ritual who was present as a soldier when Israel captured the Old City from Jordan in 1967, is associated with the extreme flank of Israel's religious settlement movement. In the 1980s, he was the No. 2 man on a virulently anti-Arab parliamentary list that was eventually outlawed for racism.
His institute is dedicated to recreating the implements used in the Temple not only as a historical exercise but as a way to prepare for its reconstruction and, if possible, to speed up the process. In its 20 years of existence, the institute has recreated a golden seven-branched candelabra that cost $3 million, as well as harps, altars and containers for incense.
Many of the objects are on display in the institute's museum, which also has a gift shop selling Temple-themed souvenirs like puzzles, balsa-wood models and board games. There are also posters depicting the Temple in Jerusalem, standing where the Dome of the Rock does now.
Many see the agenda as explosive.
"The more awareness you raise, and the more you stress that Judaism isn't real without the Temple, the more you're encouraging conflict over holy space in Jerusalem," said Gershom Gorenberg, an Israeli historian and journalist who wrote ‘The End of Days,’ a book about the struggle over the Temple Mount.
The above article can be found at: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3564897,00.html
Youths contribute to advancement of Third Temple
Ynet News.com
July 31, 2008
Mourning over the destruction of Jerusalem is normal in the month of Av, but at the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faith Movement all focus is on the “big day” -- the day in which the Third Temple will be built.
As part of the preparations, hundreds of teenagers are expected to sign the “Temple Treaty” and to proclaim, “We commit to doing everything in our power to abide by this commandment and to devote at least half an hour a week toward this effort.”
In the youth conference conducted by the Temple Institute in the Old City of Jerusalem, scheduled for Thursday, participants will discuss possible plans of action to further the building of the Temple.
Under the title, “Building the Temple, it’s in Our Hands,” lessons will be given by rabbis identified with the Temple and for the first time ever, a treaty pertaining to the necessity of building the Temple will be revealed.
“God commanded us in his Torah, ‘build me a Temple and I shall dwell amongst you',” as written in the document, “All of Israel must do everything they can to obey this commandment...”
In a conversation with Ynet, Temple Institute Director Rabbi Yehuda Glick vowed that this is the first event in a series that will institutionalize and widen youth activities.
“(Deceased general) Mota Gur said (during the conquest of east Jerusalem in the Six-Day War), ‘The Temple Mount is in our hands’, and I say now the Temple is in our hands,” said Glick.
“The treaty we composed contains a bunch of suggestions like Temple studies, embroidering priestly clothes, illustration for books on the subject, enhancing awareness, fundraising, or any other activity we believe can further the building of the Temple.
“No clause calls for the launching of LAW missiles or the exploding of the mosque at the Temple Mount,” Glick stressed.
Women are also expected to participate in Thursday’s event, during which they will watch a performance intended to encourage them to be active in the advancement of the Temple.
“This Temple is not just something historic stored in a memory chest,” said Glick, “everyone has the opportunity to contribute to this goal.”
The above article can be found at: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3575972,00.html
Dome of the Rock 'erased' from Temple Mount
Ynet News.com
August 15, 2008
"On the eve of Tisha B'Av the serious question is raised whether we should take the opportunity and ascend to the Temple Mount as it stands empty, inviting us to build our dream house on it."
Whoever read this caption which appeared on the cover of the Maayanei Hayeshua movement’s latest pamphlet might have thought that this was a symbolic expression of the expected redemption on the eve of Tisha B’Av.
However, those with a keen eye noticed that the huge picture of the Temple Mount which was spread on the cover page was missing the Dome of the Rock, and that the pamphlet “cleaned” the mount of all Muslim signs.
The Islamic Movement’s northern branch did not like the graphic design work and is attributing the “infiltration of inciting material calling for the obliteration of al-Aqsa in all synagogues in Israel” to this Zionist movement.
On the right side of the photograph, which was taken from the steps leading down from the Jewish Quarter to the Western Wall square, the wall is seen and above it the Temple Mount.
Instead of the mosque and the dome, old Jerusalem houses are seen, “with the goal of expressing the yearning for something else on the Temple Mount,” according to the pamphlet’s editor.
Islamic Movement: worried, yet not surprised
The northern branch of the Islamic Movement claimed in response that the graphic manipulation of the picture was incitement.
The movement’s spokesman, Attorney Zahi Nujidat, told Ynet that he was worried that all the synagogues would adopt this kind of material which implicitly calls for the erasure of the al-Aqsa Mosque.
Moreover, Nujidat said he was not surprised to see the refurbished picture.
“It is no secret that the State and the nation of Israel have an arrow pointing in one direction, building a Third Temple at the expense of the al-Aqsa Mosque,” said the spokesman.
“Just today, I, along with members of the movement took a tour and we were exposed to shocking maps and documents signed by official Israeli bodies. Detailed plans for the construction of synagogues on the western side of the Temple Mount... as if they were public yards, are seen there."
Nujidat added that some public institutions saw the picture of the Third Temple placed “on al-Aqsa’s territory,” and concluded by saying that “in my opinion and in the opinion of all Muslims, the Temple Mount is a mosque and we do not recognize anything else being planned to be built there.”
The chairman of the Maayanei Hayeshua movement told Ynet in response that “Jews throughout the world hope for a day in which the al-Aqsa Mosque will actually be obliterated from the Temple Mount and not just by means of Photoshop software.
“We have been waiting for this day for too long. When it happens, Jews from the entire world will come to Jerusalem in order to build the beloved Temple, and no Muslim will dare open his mouth against it. I hope that Israel is indeed ready for this day.”
The above article can be found at: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3582570,00.html
Undermining faith
Al-Ahram Weekly (Egypt)
August 28, 2008
A network of tunnels beneath the Aqsa Mosque, dubbed by the Israeli media as "tourist sites", has already caused conspicuous cracks in superstructure of the Haram Al-Sharif esplanade which houses many historical sites, including the Dome of the Rock.
"I have no doubt the Israeli government has the will and desire to destroy the Aqsa Mosque. They only want to do it in a way that would make the demolition look as if it was a result of natural causes," said Sheikh Mohamed Hussein, head of the Supreme Muslim Council which oversees the Jerusalem Sanctuary, considered the third holiest place in Islam. "Everything they do here shows they are hell-bent on destroying this Islamic shrine. It is time that Muslim peoples, Muslim governments and Muslim organizations across the world move to stop this blasphemy. Maybe tomorrow it will be too late."
Palestinian and Muslim officials, including the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), have issued numerous warnings about Israeli excavations in the vicinity of and beneath the mosque, but to no avail.
Last week Jordan, the legal custodian of the Jerusalem sanctuary, asked Israel to stop sabotaging the foundations of the Aqsa Mosque, warning that, "this sensitive issue could set the whole region on fire."
Israel ignored the Jordanian warning, opting to appease religious Jewish groups advocating the demolition of Islamic and Christian holy places in Jerusalem. Israel is also refusing to allow Muslim experts from the OIC and from UNESCO to inspect excavations beneath the mosque on the grounds that such a step would cast doubts on "Israeli sovereignty" over the occupied Arab city.
The Dome of the Rock
The international community, including Israel's closest ally the United States, does not recognize Israel's annexation of Eastern Jerusalem which followed the occupation of the city in 1967. Not that this has prevented successive Israeli governments from building huge Jewish settlements in and around the occupied Arab town, reducing East Jerusalem to a virtual ghetto and effectively cutting it off from the rest of the West Bank. The isolation of East Jerusalem has been completed with the construction of the gigantic "separation wall".
Muslims and Christians from the West Bank are routinely prevented from accessing their holy places in East Jerusalem except for those in possession of special permits from the Israeli domestic intelligence service Shin Beth.
In addition to opening tunnels beneath the Haram Al-Sharif, the Israeli government has also allowed a fanatical Jewish sect, the Chabad movement, to build a synagogue next to the Western section of the Islamic compound. Chabad openly calls for the expulsion or extermination of Palestinians as well as the destruction of Islamic and Christian holy places in Palestine.
Muslim Waqf officials have described the synagogue as "a perpetual source of tension, provocation and harassment" as well as "a foothold" that signals Israel's ill-intentions towards Islamic holy places.
"The decision to build a synagogue in this particular spot shows that Israel is interested in stoking the fire of religious tension," said Adnan Al-Husseini, a high-ranking Muslim official in East Jerusalem.
"Clearly Israel is interested in neither peace nor co-existence."
Israel is not only antagonizing and defying the world's estimated 1.4 billion Muslims but is also suppressing efforts by the Arab minority in Israel to publicize what is happening to Islamic shrines in East Jerusalem.
On 24 August, paramilitary Israeli police stormed and shut down the offices of the Al-Aqsa Foundation in the town of Um Al-Fahm in Israel proper. Documents, including maps and other records pertaining to the Aqsa Mosque, especially the Israeli excavations underneath the Islamic shrine, were confiscated.
The Israeli government claims that the Al-Aqsa Foundation had links with Hamas.
"They are targeting us because of our faith," said Sheikh Raed Salah, the leader of the Islamic movement in Israel. He added that the foundation was operating legally and that it was licensed by the Israeli authorities. He denied Israeli claims that the foundation was "coordinating with Hamas commanders in East Jerusalem," describing the accusations as baseless.
Salah has been constantly harassed by Shin Beth for his activities in defense of Islamic holy places in Jerusalem. Several years ago, during a demonstration in Um Al-Fahm, a Shin Beth agent was caught trying to plant hashish in Salah's pocket.
Palestinian leaders on both sides of the Green Line condemn the "growing persecution by the Israeli state of its Arab citizens". The Legal Centre for Arab Minority rights in Israel has urged Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who issued the decision to shut down the offices of the Al-Aqsa Foundation, to revoke the decision. It says the measure "seriously infringes the freedom of speech and freedom of religion of the entire Arab minority in Israel".
The organization also accused the Israeli government of callousness by shutting down the charity on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan, during which the Islamic movement steps up charity activities.
Israel routinely invokes Hamas connections when it seeks to shut down Islamic charitable institutions both in Israel and in the occupied territories. Earlier this year the Israeli army ransacked Islamic-run charities, businesses, clinics, orphanages and schools across the West Bank, claiming that they were linked to Hamas.
The above article can be found at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/912/re1.htm
The third temple
The Austin-American Statesman
October 15, 2008
It’s the point from which the world expanded to its present form. It’s where God gathered earth to create the first man, Adam. Later, two temples were built there. The second was destroyed nearly 2,000 years ago, but the holiness of the temples sanctified the site for eternity.
During temple times, entry was limited by purity laws, so Israel’s leading rabbis warn Jews against entering the so-called Temple Mount -- a 35-acre complex that comprises one-sixth of Jerusalem’s walled city -- or face divine punishment by untimely death or eternal excommunication.
That didn’t stop a group of about 20 Orthodox Jews this morning. Despite the prohibition, religious Jews are visiting the Temple Mount in growing numbers.
“We know for sure where the temple should not be,” explained Hillel Weiss, who lives in the West Bank settlement of Elkana. Still, they tread softly, some in bare feet, as prescribed by the Torah.
“Our presence with kippot is a demand to rebuild the temple,” Weiss said, referring to the skull caps worn by observant Jews.
The obstacles in the way of a third temple are two Muslim mosques, which have been sitting atop the presumed temple ruins for roughly 1,300 years. The Temple Mount is known by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and is considered the third holiest site in Islam. It is from here that the prophet Mohammad ascended to heaven.
The group circumnavigated the temple, which meant they circumnavigated the gilded Dome of the Rock, a Muslim shrine that is Jerusalem’s most recognized building. But they didn’t see it. They never mentioned it.
“Now, I think we’re closest to the holiest place,” said the leader of the group, Yehuda Etzion, who was jailed for five years in the 1980s in a plot to blow up the two mosques [Why, then, one wonders, is he allowed anywhere near them now? -- 800]
After performing a version of the Hakel ceremony, prescribed after the seventh Sabbath year for the harvest, an Israeli police officer kicked them out. Jews are allowed to enter the Temple Mount, but not to pray.
Just through one of the gates exiting the area, the men held hands in a circle and danced. “May the temple be rebuilt in Zion,” they sang loudly and joyously, referring to Jerusalem. “May the temple be rebuilt in Zion.” Over and over again.
The above article can be found at: http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/washington/olivesandthorns/entries/2008/10/15/the_third_temple.html
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