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Knesset member Moshe Feiglin: “If I forget thee, Jerusalem, may my right hand be forgotten”? What is this vow worth?HT: IsraelMatzav.
One of the few MK's with integrity has already announced in a letter to his party colleagues that although he is a member of the Likud, he will not cooperate with the coalition.This Sunday, the 18th of Iyar, the Commander of the David Region called me and told me that by “direct instruction from the Prime Minister,” I would not be allowed to ascend to the Temple Mount the following morning.
At this point, the final mask has been lifted. I could no longer evade the issue and blame lower level officials. Nobody attempted to claim that there was a local security problem. After all, I was notified the day before my planned ascent, when the Mount was completely quiet. The situation became crystal clear: The Moslem wakf terrorizes Israel’s government, decides which MKs will ascend the Mount and which will not – and it is none other than the Prime Minister who implements their directives.
This is not a personal issue. Today, the police informed the Knesset Interior Committee that was scheduled to tour the Temple Mount next Tuesday, the 27th of Iyar, Jerusalem Day Eve, that it will not be able to visit on that day or any other day – due to the wakf’s objections. Whoever represents the sovereignty of the State of Israel in the eyes of the sovereign on the Mount – the wakf, is not allowed to visit there. Once again, the wakf demand is implemented by the government of Israel.
I do not have to explain the severe significance of these events to the Knesset Members of the National Movement. All the red lines of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem have been trampled and breached. This is in addition to the infringement of the law inherent in these decisions, the violation of the Jerusalem Basic Law and other Basic Laws. These decisions make a mockery of the immunity and sovereignty afforded to Israel’s Knesset Members. We are facing a new reality that obligates us all to act in an unconventional manner.
I would like to make it clear that the last thing that I want is to find myself in a conflict with the Prime Minister, who I highly respect and am careful to honor. I clearly have nothing to gain from that. Clearly, I do not wish to create difficulties for the rest of the members of the faction. Just the opposite: When I was elected to the Knesset I made no demands. I was happy to accept the duties and tasks that were offered me and I believe that it was obvious to all that I have put every effort into giving the maximum for our common goals.
But what is all my work in the Knesset worth if the Knesset, as it turns out, surrenders Israel’s sovereignty in the heart of Jerusalem?
Who is the sovereign in Jerusalem when the Moslem wakf determines which Knesset Member is allowed or not allowed to ascend to the most holy of places – to the Temple Mount? Who exactly are we fooling? Have we forgotten our vow, “If I forget thee, Jerusalem, may my right hand be forgotten”? What is this vow worth if we ignore the terrible reality in which the wakf dictates to Israel’s government what to do on the Mount, in defiance of the law?
If we could have deceived ourselves until now that we are the sovereign and the wakf acts as an extension of our sovereignty, it has now become clear that it is the government of Israel that acts as an extension of the wakf. We are paving the way for them to rule the entire Land, as the poet of the National Movement, Uri Tzvi Greenberg, warned: “He who rules the Mount rules the Land.”
A red line has been crossed. It was forced upon me with no chance for discussion and does not allow me (and in my opinion, does not allow you, either) to continue to conduct “business as usual.” How can I face myself if, for the good of my political future, I will abandon the Temple Mount?
With a heavy heart and totally converse to my original intent, I am forced to suspend all my regular parliamentary activity. I know that we have just begun this Knesset term and we all have goals and ambitions to accomplish as much as possible. But there are moments in life when one must put everything aside and act according to his conscience. The Temple Mount, the rock of our existence, is calling us. This is the moment.
Respectfully,
Moshe Feiglin
Naftali Bennett and Co. have an awful lot to learn from Feiglin.Hmmm......Hear, Hear!Read the full story here.
Jerusalem the Eternal Capital of the Jewish
ReplyDeletePeople
The Jews have only Jerusalem, and only the Jews have made it their capital.
That is why it has so much deeper a meaning for them (the Jews) than for anybody else.
Jerusalem throughout its long and turbulent history, Jerusalem, more than any other city, has evoked the emotions, aspirations, yearnings and religious fervor of civilized Jewish mankind. Yet this homage of the world cannot overshadow the consuming and single-minded passion of one particular attachment: that of the Jewish people. For that people, as no other, Jerusalem is not just its one and only religious centre and source of spiritual life; from time immemorial it has been and, still is, the very heart and core of the people – the tangible embodiment of its nationhood, the lodestar in its wanderings, the theme of its prayers each day, the fulfillment of its dreams for the Return unto Zion and indeed the cornerstone of its continuity.
Many thousand of years ago, it was in Jerusalem that the priests would offer up daily sacrifices in the Temple on Mount Moriah. It was there in the Temple that the Sanhedrin, the great court of 71 Jewish sages, would sit in judgment. And three times a year on the harvest holy-days of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles, the entire Jewish nation would make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It is in the direction of Jerusalem that Jews face when they pray three times daily.
The Jewish prayers themselves contain numerous references to Jerusalem and Zion. In the Amidah, the Silent Devotion, God is praised as the Builder of Jerusalem. In many other places the prayers echo the messianic belief that God will restore the Jewish people to His holy city. On Passover and the Day of Atonement Jews conclude services with the fervent hope: “Next year may we be in Jerusalem!”
The Jewish connection to Jerusalem harks back to Biblical times. Jacob, encountering the site where the Temple would stand centuries later said: “How awe-inspiring is this place! It is the House of God! It is the gate to heaven!” (Gen. 28:17). Jerusalem was “the site that the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes, as a place established in His name. It is there that you shall go to seek His presence” (Deut. 12:3).
Jerusalem began to fulfill the function of a spiritual and national capital when King David conquered the city in the 10th century BCE. King David made it his seat of judgment and brought the Ark of the Covenant to rest there. It was also David who conceived the idea of building a permanent house of God, a Temple, a plan eventually fulfilled by his son Solomon. DESTRUCTION & REBIRTH The story of the Jewish people and Jerusalem has been one of exile, destruction and rebirth.
Jerusalem in its 3000 years of history the city was destroyed 17 times and 18 times reborn.
ReplyDeleteThere always remained a Jewish presence in the city of Jerusalem, and the Jewish people as a whole always dreamt of returning en mass to Jerusalem and rebuilding their city.
When the Babylonians destroyed the city in 586 BCE, the Jewish exiles pledged that they would never forget their beloved Jerusalem: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, and we wept, when we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in its midst we hanged up our harps. For there they that led us captive asked of us words of song, and our tormentors asked of us in mirth: ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion.’ How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I remember thee not; if I set not Jerusalem above my chiefest joy” (Psalms 137:1-6).
The Jewish exiles did not forget their beloved city of Jerusalem. They were to return there and rebuild the Temple under the guidance of Ezra and Nehemiah. When the Seleucids took control over the Land of Israel and placed Greek idols in the Temple, the Jewish Maccabees revolted. They succeeded in recapturing Jerusalem and re-dedicating the Temple in 165 BCE.
The Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 CE. When the Emperor Hadrian began planning to replace it with a shrine to Jupiter, a Jewish revolt known as the Bar Kochba Rebellion broke out.
For the last 2000 years, on the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av, Jews everywhere have commemorated the destruction of their city and Temple with a 25-hour fast. They sit on low stools in their synagogues and recite Jeremiah’s Lamentations. They recite elegies for the city which is “scorned without her glory”.
During the periods of exile Jews throughout the world would be linked as they prayed together in their Hebrew tongue all facing in the same direction, maintaining their affinity with their eternal Jerusalem. Today Jerusalem flourishes once again as the heart and soul of Judaism. It boasts a full range of rebuilt and new synagogues, Talmudic academies and institutes of Jewish research. It is home to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel which administers the life cycle events of the nation’s Jewish citizens. All varieties of Judaism are represented there. Nowhere else is the spiritual element of the Jewish people so visible as in this “place that the Lord has chosen”.
Jerusalem the Jewish NATIONAL CAPITAL for eternity; Jerusalem was never the capital city of any of its conquerors.
YJ Draiman
Jerusalem in its 3000 years of history the city was destroyed 17 times and 18 times reborn.
ReplyDeleteThere always remained a Jewish presence in the city of Jerusalem, and the Jewish people as a whole always dreamt of returning en mass to Jerusalem and rebuilding their city.
When the Babylonians destroyed the city in 586 BCE, the Jewish exiles pledged that they would never forget their beloved Jerusalem: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, and we wept, when we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in its midst we hanged up our harps. For there they that led us captive asked of us words of song, and our tormentors asked of us in mirth: ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion.’ How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I remember thee not; if I set not Jerusalem above my chiefest joy” (Psalms 137:1-6).
The Jewish exiles did not forget their beloved city of Jerusalem. They were to return there and rebuild the Temple under the guidance of Ezra and Nehemiah. When the Seleucids took control over the Land of Israel and placed Greek idols in the Temple, the Jewish Maccabees revolted. They succeeded in recapturing Jerusalem and re-dedicating the Temple in 165 BCE.
The Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 CE. When the Emperor Hadrian began planning to replace it with a shrine to Jupiter, a Jewish revolt known as the Bar Kochba Rebellion broke out.
For the last 2000 years, on the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av, Jews everywhere have commemorated the destruction of their city and Temple with a 25-hour fast. They sit on low stools in their synagogues and recite Jeremiah’s Lamentations. They recite elegies for the city which is “scorned without her glory”.
During the periods of exile Jews throughout the world would be linked as they prayed together in their Hebrew tongue all facing in the same direction, maintaining their affinity with their eternal Jerusalem. Today Jerusalem flourishes once again as the heart and soul of Judaism. It boasts a full range of rebuilt and new synagogues, Talmudic academies and institutes of Jewish research. It is home to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel which administers the life cycle events of the nation’s Jewish citizens. All varieties of Judaism are represented there. Nowhere else is the spiritual element of the Jewish people so visible as in this “place that the Lord has chosen”.
Jerusalem the Jewish NATIONAL CAPITAL for eternity; Jerusalem was never the capital city of any of its conquerors.
YJ Draiman
Jerusalem the Eternal Capital of the Jewish
ReplyDeletePeople
The Jews have only Jerusalem, and only the Jews have made it their capital.
That is why it has so much deeper a meaning for them (the Jews) than for anybody else.
Jerusalem throughout its long and turbulent history, Jerusalem, more than any other city, has evoked the emotions, aspirations, yearnings and religious fervor of civilized Jewish mankind. Yet this homage of the world cannot overshadow the consuming and single-minded passion of one particular attachment: that of the Jewish people. For that people, as no other, Jerusalem is not just its one and only religious centre and source of spiritual life; from time immemorial it has been and, still is, the very heart and core of the people – the tangible embodiment of its nationhood, the lodestar in its wanderings, the theme of its prayers each day, the fulfillment of its dreams for the Return unto Zion and indeed the cornerstone of its continuity.
Many thousand of years ago, it was in Jerusalem that the priests would offer up daily sacrifices in the Temple on Mount Moriah. It was there in the Temple that the Sanhedrin, the great court of 71 Jewish sages, would sit in judgment. And three times a year on the harvest holy-days of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles, the entire Jewish nation would make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It is in the direction of Jerusalem that Jews face when they pray three times daily.
The Jewish prayers themselves contain numerous references to Jerusalem and Zion. In the Amidah, the Silent Devotion, God is praised as the Builder of Jerusalem. In many other places the prayers echo the messianic belief that God will restore the Jewish people to His holy city. On Passover and the Day of Atonement Jews conclude services with the fervent hope: “Next year may we be in Jerusalem!”
The Jewish connection to Jerusalem harks back to Biblical times. Jacob, encountering the site where the Temple would stand centuries later said: “How awe-inspiring is this place! It is the House of God! It is the gate to heaven!” (Gen. 28:17). Jerusalem was “the site that the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes, as a place established in His name. It is there that you shall go to seek His presence” (Deut. 12:3).
Jerusalem began to fulfill the function of a spiritual and national capital when King David conquered the city in the 10th century BCE. King David made it his seat of judgment and brought the Ark of the Covenant to rest there. It was also David who conceived the idea of building a permanent house of God, a Temple, a plan eventually fulfilled by his son Solomon. DESTRUCTION & REBIRTH The story of the Jewish people and Jerusalem has been one of exile, destruction and rebirth.