The man responsible for Jews being allowed to pray on the Temple Mount

[rylah]

The quiet revolution on the Temple Mount casts a spotlight on Rabbi Shimshon Elboim, one of the leading Jewish Temple Mount activists.

Part of a larger effort by the Matte Irguni HaMikdash, an umbrella group uniting various Temple Mount activist groups, Israeli authorities now meet regularly with activists to coordinate policy, as the number of Jews visiting the Temple Mount every year increases.

Restrictions on visitors have gradually been eased, including an unofficial end to the prohibition on Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.

One of the key figures responsible for these changes is Rabbi Shimshon Elboim, a long-time activist and son of Rabbi Yosef Elboim, one of the first Jews to visit the Temple Mount after Israel liberated the Old City of Jerusalem in June 1967.

According to his close friends, Rabbi Shimson Elboim first visited the Temple Mount when he was a baby, brought there by his father. Today, he is one of the main activists working to make the holy site more accessible to Jewish visitors, and sits at the helm of the Matte Irguni HaMikdash.

To help strengthen the Jewish presence on the Temple Mount, click here to donate to the Matte Irguni HaMikdash.

The Matte carries out extensive public relations work to increase public awareness of the history and Jewish law relating to the Temple Mount, organizes group visits, and coordinates policy with Israeli authorities.

Among its other activities, the Matte Irguni HaMikdash operates a joint steering committee with Israeli police. Established under the leadership of Rabbi Shimshon Elboim, the steering committee keeps a line open for dialogue between authorities and activists, allowing them to resolve issues as they arise, and enables activists to coordinate their activities with the police.

The establishment of the steering committee has led to significant changes in police policy regarding Jewish visitation to the Temple Mount, ending what had been a tense relationship between the police department and Temple Mount activists. Muslims who harass Jewish visitors to the Mount are now detained by police and often are barred from the Temple Mount for months at a time.

In addition, police now, unofficially, permit quiet Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, something previously prohibited.

Rabbi Elboim credited the growing numbers of Jewish visitors to the Mount for the changes.

“The credit goes to the tens of thousands of visitors to the Temple Mount, to the police commanders, to the recent Public Security Ministers, and to the members of the steering committee. Everyone together are responsible for the changes on the Temple Mount, which make it possible for anyone to visit, to experience the holiness and to bring Israel closer to the site of the Temple, which was neglected by the government for 48 years after its liberation.”

Berale Crombie, a strategic adviser and advertiser who has been visiting the Temple Mount regularly for the past few years, told Arutz Sheva that “Every time I visited the Temple Mount, I met Rabbi Elboim at the entrance. He’s always there, in any weather, with a smile on his face, and makes sure everything goes as it should, and courteously goes with visitors to guide them.”

“If someone deserves an award for their work on behalf of Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount, it is Rabbi Elboim, who has helped to significantly increase the number of visitors to the Temple Mount, and is responsible for the fact that Jews can now have more pleasant visits to the Mount. He is the man responsible for Jews being able to pray on the Temple Mount. This is the life’s work of a modest man who is totally dedicated to the cause of the Temple Mount.”

The man responsible for Jews being allowed to pray on the Temple Mount

The quiet revolution on the Temple Mount casts a spotlight on Rabbi Shimshon Elboim, one of the leading Jewish Temple Mount activists.

www.israelnationalnews.com

(Comment)

Tish'ah B'Av starts tomorrow night,
the day we mourn the destruction of the two Temples.

However, though the moth of Av is currently the most sorrowful in Jewish calendar,
it is also set to be reversed into the happiest one, and specifically Tis'ah B'Av to become a day of celebration.

One of the greatest sorrows is that we don't even realize the extent of our loss, the numb heart yearns for something it has only a vague distant recollection of what it was, like unsettling love for a woman from lives away...

But with all this heaviness, I just can't help but notice the increasing excitement of anticipation in the air. Especially to see the kids ascend the Mount and prostrate for the elders to see and awaken the nation.

Just think about it - there're now more Jews present on the Mount in a decade,
than throughout the last 2000 years.

 

[Gdjjr]

Who cares?

 

[rylah]

Who cares?

Apparently you...

 

[Gdjjr]

Apparently you...

You'd be wrong- I came here hoping to read something informative.

 

[rylah]

Apparently you...

You'd be wrong- I came here hoping to read something informative.

So what's the point,
to troll threads that don't interest you to begin with?

 

[Gdjjr]

Then what's the point, troll on another thread.

It's an open forum. I'll read and comment on what "I" want to.

 

[rylah]

Then what's the point, troll on another thread.

It's an open forum. I'll read and comment on what "I" want to.

So then what made you read it?

 

[Gdjjr]

So then what made you read it?

I like to read- is that okay with you?

 

[RoccoR]

RE: The man responsible for Jews being allowed to pray on the Temple Mount
⁜→ rylah, et al,

(COMMENT)

I never quite understood the objection and rationale for not allowing anyone to pray on the Temple Mount. I am quite confused about the entire issue; especially an objection posed among the Abrahamic Religions.

Which set of faith-based followers objects to which practitioners to commune to the deity (the object of worship)?

I'm not a very knowledgeable person on the issue, but I cannot get around the fact that the worship of the "God of Abraham" is the same deity as that worshiped by Isaac and Ishmael (the sons of Abraham). Or am I wrong here?


Most Respectfully,
R

 

[rylah]

So then what made you read it?

I like to read- is that okay with you?

I just don't understand people who enter threads
then complain they didn't care in the first place.

Do you have a point?

 

[rylah]

RE: The man responsible for Jews being allowed to pray on the Temple Mount
⁜→ rylah, et al,

(COMMENT)

I never quite understood the objection and rationale for not allowing anyone to pray on the Temple Mount. I am quite confused about the entire issue; especially an objection posed among the Abrahamic Religions.

Which set of faith-based followers objects to which practitioners to commune to the deity (the object of worship)?

I'm not a very knowledgeable person on the issue, but I cannot get around the fact that the worship of the "God of Abraham" is the same deity as that worshiped by Isaac and Ishmael (the sons of Abraham). Or am I wrong here?


Most Respectfully,
R

Most Jewish scholars ruled against ascending the Mount,
because there're places where it is forbidden to enter in impurity,
specifically impurity of death, even if other forms of impurity can be treated with Mikveh immersion, to remove death's impurity, which is upon all of us, we need the Red Heifer.

However, this is on a personal level, but on a wider scale, there's a principle in Jewish law called "Tuma'h Hutrah Batzibur' i.e. "Impurity was allowed in audience", and this is learned from the verse talking about the Passover offering: "Let the Israelite people offer the Passover sacrifice at its set time" (Bamidbar 9): and " you shall take care to offer to Me at its appointed time" (Bamidbar 28). And our sages explained in Tractate 'Pesahim'- "at its appointed time and even in impurity".

And so, even Rabbi Kook Ztz"l, the founder of Chief Rabbinate, who ruled against it as well,
actually planned in detail the first rulings to be made in the Gazit court on the Mount once the Temple is rebuilt. It were much different times, then he used to fight for Jews to be allowed to merely pray at the Western Wall. The situation has changed long way since then.

The first group prayer on the Temple Mount after 2000 years, occurred in 1967,
and organized by the Chief Rabbi of IDF, Rabbi Goren Ztz"l and the soldiers, with whom he ran through the street battles just hours ago, holding only a Ram's horn and a small scroll of Torah.

What happened next, was that the Muslim Waqf was welcomed back with the status of a shared guardianship of the site - which was interpreted as a sign of weakness, rather than respect, resulting in total disregard for any Jewish connection while extorting from the international community, under the guise of "status quo", leaving then mostly secular govt reluctant to do what was right.

Many things have changed since then.

There's a public discourse arising about transition to a parliamentary-monarchy,
about the synchronization of the legal system with the institute of Hebrew court,
and a totally different demographic trend showing the next generation shift towards
a more Orthodox young majority.

It becomes more visible and clear in practical terms, to the point that the notion that reconstruction of the Temple can be a result of Knesset passing a basic law,
is no more viewed as a far fetched dream, but the natural order of things.

We might already see that bill pass before the end of the decade.
And and if not total construction, then at the least placement of the altar.

 

[ESay]

to remove death's impurity, which is upon all of us, we need the Red Heifer.

How this requirement (commandment) can be explained? Or you just take it as it is, as some commandment which should be taken without explanation?

 

[rylah]

to remove death's impurity, which is upon all of us, we need the Red Heifer.

How this requirement (commandment) can be explained? Or you just take it as it is, as some commandment which should be taken without explanation?

The Red Heifer?

King Shlomo A"H was the wisest of men - he didn't understand the Red Heifer.
For example, why the one who burns the Heifer, and the one who sprinkles the blood,
purify the nation, but themselves get impure?

Though Judaism is very analytical in it approach - we don't understand every commandment.

There's a whole set of questions discussed in the Gmarah, which the sages summed up with the abbreviation - 'TEIKO", i.e. 'the question will remain standing until the future when comes Tishbi', as in prophet Elyahu the Tishbi.