"Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at
Anne Lieberman had an excellent post last week about the
Mike Kaplan of
Oleg Grabar’s Leisure & Arts article . . . extols the beauty of the Dome of the Rock (located on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount) and its importance to Islam, yet minimizes the significance to Judaism of its holiest site (Temple Mount) established by the Jewish nation more than a thousand years before Islam came into existence.
For example, he explains that the Dome is on the “vast platform of the Haram al-Sharif, ‘the Noble Sanctuary,’ the Muslim space in the third holiest city in Islam. That space is also called ‘the
Temple Mount ,’ because of its association with the second Jewish. . . .” Temple
The failure to mention the primary importance of the site to Judaism (the location of the
First Temple — built by King Solomon — and the) suggests that for Mr. Grabar, the notion of the holiest site for Judaism is trumped by the notion of the third most holy site for Islam. Second Temple
Readers deserve to be informed that while
is not mentioned even once in Islam’s Qur’an, it is mentioned more than 600 times in the Hebrew Bible and more than 100 times in the Christian New Testament. While Mr. Grabar uses the Arabic name (Haram al-Sharif) and its translation (Noble sanctuary), he fails to use the Hebrew name (Har HaBayit) for the same site ( Jerusalem ). Temple Mount
Peter Borregard of
Prof. Grabar glibly says that the site on which the Dome of the Rock is built is “also called the
Temple Mount ” because of its “association” with the Second Jewish. Temple
That’s like saying that the North and South towers had an “association” with the
. It’s true, but not the whole truth. But then there’s an old Yiddish saying, A halber emes is a gantze lign — a half truth is a whole lie. World Trade Center
One might say that that Judaism’s holiest site is “occupied” by a relatively recent sanctuary, built in a city not mentioned in the Koran. But that would be only a half truth.
The other half is that a religious monument of another faith has been preserved and protected within
When the Arabs controlled the site, they precluded Jews from visiting it; when the Jews regained control, they protected access for Arabs. Years later, the Arabs would use a visit by Ariel Sharon to the
UPDATE: Anne’s remarkable post this morning includes this summary of the role of the Temple Mount in Jewish ritual:
“On Yom Kippur, the morning Torah reading deals with the service in the Temple and the Avodah during the Musaf service relives in awesome detail the Yom Kippur rituals in the Temple in Jerusalem. Every Shabbos and holiday we recall the offerings brought for the community at the Temple. Chanukah is based on the rededication of the Temple, Succot we celebrate a remembrance of the Temple Service. On Pesach we remember the Korbon Pesach lamb which was eaten with matza and maror. The Pesach seder and the Ne’illah service (at sunset on Yom Kippur) both end with the proclamation, “Next Year in Jerusalem.” On Tisha B’Av we fast and mourn the loss of the Temple and long for its rebuilding. At every brit milah, we begin by saying, “Happy is the man You choose and bring near to dwell in Your courtyards; we will be satiated with the goodness of Your House, Your Holy Temple.” At every wedding we break a glass to recall that our joy is not complete while the Temple is still unbuilt. The Kotel, or Western Wall, remains to this day the focus of our attention and the place where we aim all our payers.”
A brief excerpt from a post worth reading in its entirety.