Showing posts with label holy site. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holy site. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

A New Wailing Wall - Tsvi Sadan ISRAEL TODAY

A New Wailing Wall

Tuesday, February 09, 2016 |  
Tsvi Sadan  ISRAEL TODAY
The Israeli government after years of deliberation has granted permission for non-traditional Jews to pray as they see fit at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site. 
For a thousand years, Jews who prayed at what is known in Hebrew as the Kotel did so in a traditional manner, including gender separation. Since the 1980s, however, Reform and Conservative Jews have challenged the consensus by demanding recognition of their right to pray as they wish.
Small in number though they be, these non-traditionalists, most recognizable among them the Women of the Wall (pictured), finally convinced the Israeli government to allocate the southern portion of the Temple Mount's western retaining wall for their use.
That marked a bitter compromise for the Western Wall's chief rabbi, who called the new arrangement "the lesser of two evils." 
The rabbi stated that "ever since this marginal and tempestuous group of the Women of the Wall started its media campaign, the Western Wall has transformed from a unifying place to a wrestling arena. It will take years to amend the sacrilege this group has caused." 
This new arrangement, he continued, "is the result of legal constraints and fear of further escalation in this fight to break the walls of holiness. We must do whatever we can to leave this horrid affair behind us."
Reform Rabbi Uri Regev wasn't too happy, either. "We are talking about a painful compromise. While the Orthodox occupation of the traditional Western Wall continues, the liberal constituency will have to travel to Robinson Arch [the southern portion of the wall]," he complained.
The new area, called Azarat Yisrael, is to be located in the archeological garden at the southern foot of the Temple Mount. The future prayer plaza will be built around the archeological site and will have its own separate entrance. In other words, the Israeli government has effectively created a new holy site for non-traditional Jews that will be separated from the Western Wall.
Little wonder that even lenient rabbis like Haim Navon think that this is a clumsy and expensive arrangement that will solve nothing. He rightly warns that the clashes instigated by the non-Orthodox with the Chief Rabbinate are designed to impose a particular liberal worldview, which is why such confrontations won't end with the new prayer plaza, but will simply be refocused on other issues.
Navon also touches upon the issue of the of minority groups' right to impose their practices on the public space that can't be easily divided. 
The Western Wall, he argues, is a national symbol out of which no one has the right to cut a piece for himself. The Wall can't be equally divided, and demands for an egalitarian holy site can only result in egalitarian disputes where, in the name of minority rights, petitions to the Supreme Court may come to absurdities. Nothing of value can come when common sense gives way to the discourse of rights, he said.
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Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Get a Menorah in Time for Chanukah! ✡ "Seven Lamps Are Upon It" - ISRAEL365,

I see and behold - there is a menorah of gold with its bowl on its top; its seven lamps are upon it, and there are seven ducts for the lamps on its top.

ZECHARIAH (4:2)
 

רָאִיתִי וְהִנֵּה מְנוֹרַת זָהָב כֻּלָּהּ וְגֻלָּהּ עַל רֹאשָׁהּ וְשִׁבְעָה נֵרֹתֶיהָ עָלֶיהָ-שִׁבְעָה וְשִׁבְעָה מוּצָקוֹת לַנֵּרוֹת אֲשֶׁר עַל רֹאשָׁהּ

זְכַרְיָה ד:ב

ra-ee-tee v'-hi-nay m'-no-rat za-hav ku-la v'-gu-la al ro-sha v'-shiv-a nay-ro-te-ha a-le-ha - shiv-a v'-shiv-a mu-tza-kot la-nay-rot a-sher al ro-sha

Today's Israel Inspiration

Our Sages in the Talmud refer to Jerusalem as "the light of the world." The symbol of this holy spiritual light was the Menorah (Temple lamp) which emanated light through the unusual windows of the Sanctuary. The windows were made narrower on the inside - bringing less sunlight into the Sanctuary, but maximizing the spiritual light that burst forth to the world. Enlighten yourself this season with a beautiful Menorah from the Land of Israel.
 

This Israeli Arab Woman Deserves a Standing Ovation!

We're spellbound by this speech before the Israeli Knesset by Sara Zoabi, a proud Muslim ISRAELI who urges her fellow Israeli Arabs to wake up and realize that Israel is a paradise with equal rights, freedom of speech and worship.
 

Christians Stand Up for Rachel's Tomb as a Jewish, not Muslim, Holy Site

Last week, UNESCO approved a Palestinian resolution to change the status of Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs from Jewish to Muslim sites. A Christian group is fighting this "disinformation that attempts to destroy the Israelite connection to these holy sites."

Bronze Dreidel

This beautiful bronze dreidel is decorated with colorful jewels and engraved with a skyline of Jerusalem. It is decorated on all four sides with the four Hebrew letters corresponding to the phrase “a great miracle happened here.”

Today's Israel Photo

Today's photo shows the golden Menorah which sits at the top of the steps leading down to the Western Wall. Incredibly, this Menorah is biblically-accurate, made of pure gold according to all the specifications of the Torah, ready and waiting to be used in the future Temple!
 

Yesterday's Photo Trivia

You got it! Yesterday's photo showed an Israeli soldier who just finished his beret march at the top of Masada. In Hebrew, "Masada" means "fortress." This is one of Israel's most popular tourist destinations!

Thank You

Today's Scenes and Inspiration is sponsored by Nancy Blank of Germantown, Maryland. Todah rabah!
 

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RabbiTuly@Israel365.com
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Friday, October 16, 2015

Palestinian rioters set fire to Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus - TIMES OF ISRAEL

Palestinian rioters set fire to Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus

PA forces douse the flames and disperse some hundred rioters, who caused heavy damage to the West Bank holy site

 October 16, 2015, 4:54 am
Screenshot from the fire started by Palestinian rioters at Joseph's Tomb in Nablus, in the West Bank, on October 16, 2015.
Screenshot from the fire started by Palestinian rioters at Joseph's Tomb in Nablus, in the West Bank, on October 16, 2015.

The Walla website also reported that PA security forces had brought the fire under control and dispersed the rioters. The blaze caused major damage to the women’s section at the site, the website said.

There were no reports of any injuries in the incident, which followed a day of relative calm in Israel and the West Bank after weeks of deadly Palestinian terror attacks and clashes.

A large group of Palestinians set fire to the compound containing Joseph’s Tomb in the West Bank city of Nablus.

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Channel 2 television said Palestinian Authority security forces dispersed the hundred-strong crowd and managed to douse the fire at the tomb, believed to contain the remains of the biblical patriarch Joseph. Israel Defense Forces troops arrived at the scene once the confrontation was over and the fire was out, the television station reported.
“The burning and desecration of Joseph’s Tomb last night is a blatant violation and contradiction of the basic value of freedom of worship. The IDF will take all measures to bring the perpetrators of this despicable act to justice, restore the site to its previous condition and ensure that the freedom of worship returns to Joseph’s Tomb,” IDF Spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said in a statement Friday morning.
Israel has bolstered its troop presence in Jerusalem and the West Bank in the wake of the violence. As in previous weeks, only women, of all ages, and men over the age of 40 will be allowed to enter the flashpoint Temple Mount for Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Watch videos: Torching of Joseph's Tomb - TIMES OF ISRAEL