WOW - Har
HaBayit!
It is not often
that I get such a gripping, spiritual wake up call. Even with the three prayer services a day,
and the cycle of holidays - major and minor - which dot the Jewish calendar, it
is not often that I say “wow” to the Divine.
However, this morning I visited the
Wow, that was a
holy experience. Wow, I touched, and was
touched by the Divine. Wow, it’s the
I wasn’t expecting
to be wowed this way. After all, I’ve
seen arial photos and schematics, and the
The purification
process and prayers preceding the ascent did heighten the sense of
expectation. The fact of doing something
new, and in a certain sense, somewhat dangerous, did lend a sense of excitement
to the adventure. However, at the end of
the day I am just stupified by the fact that I was standing on makom hamikdash
(the holy place of the temples). I was
standing in; I experienced standing in the holiest place in the world. Like a Jew in the sukkah, but how much more
so, I was enveloped in the lap of kedusha.
I was in the zone. And I as a Jew
could do this – commune this way with my Lord – be one with my Lord, and, no one could stop me. I was truly empowered by this feeling of
being at one with HaKadosh Baruch Hu.
Like my first time
at the kotel, like the first time I held my baby daughter, I am bowled over by
the nexus of past, present and future.
By the collision of what was, what is, and what will be. Jewish past, present and future. My own past present and future. The march of endless time, almost stopping
for the hour or so we were up there, like it stopped the time I first held my
baby girl. As if we were living in
celestial time. Eternity and my relationship with the Divine all colliding in
one place at one time, and stopping for a moment.
I’m not sure
whether the Temple Mount has intrinsic holiness (kedusha) which sparked
something deep within me, or whether its constant presence in Jewish history –
from the creation of the world, to the akeidah, to the two Temples, and to the
third which will be built, b`mheirah b`yameinu – has granted it a
kedusha-uniqueness with which we by cherishing it, and halakhically
cicumscribing it, endow it . However,
either way it is a place to be cherished, a place to be treasured, and a place
which is uniquely linked – and, can not fail to be uniqely linked – to the
emotional and historical story of the Jewish people. It is a place where eternity stops – and the
Jewish people (man, woman, and child) meet with G-d. And, that is where I met him today.
While G-d may also
meets us at other junctures in our lives, and during certain prayers. Nowhere
else does he enwrap us in his love, and enjoin us to be his house guests. Nowhere else is his love felt so powerfully
and so sincerely (Do I/you get it, yet? Have I found the words?), for on the
Mount he is one with every one of us and
one with the whole Jewish people. That, in my opinion, no matter how you define
it, is kedusha. Wow!
Har HaBayit B`Yadeinu – Har HaBayit B`Libeinu
In Psalm 27,
L`David Hashem Ori V`Yishi, we recite for over a month and a half the sentence
“Only one thing do I ask, of Hashem: To sit in the House of the Lord and visit
his dwelling place (lit. palace).” Until
this morning, I always read that verse as metaphorical, as a plea that Hashem
allow us to sit in his batei midrash and batei knesset and learn Torah and
commune with him. For the first time
this morning I was able to finally realize the literal meaning of the
verse. This morning, G-d granted me the
one thing that, quite unbeknownst to me, I have quite literally requested for
years – to visit his dwelling place.
This morning, along
with a group of my neighbours from Beit Shemesh, I got up at four in the
morning. My neighbours and I waited in
small groups on the streets for our rides.
We ritually purified ourselves in a mikveh. We davenned Shaharit at the Kotel, and
together, though sometimes, singularly alone, we visited the Temple Mount. We stood as close as one can halakhically
approach to the Holy of Holies. We saw
the makom hamikdash. We stood on the
other side of the Kotel HaMa`aravi; The spot which anyone who has stood at the
Kotel has yearned to see.
In my minds eye I
saw the Kohen Gadol at his service on Rosh HaShanah, the courtyard filled to
the overflow with Jews praying. I saw
the witnesses come to declare the sighting of the new moon, and the declaration
of the new year. I saw the pilgrims come
up the Southern side of the Mount and prepare to enter the temple area. I saw our holiest site -- the only sight in
the world where a Jew must ritually purify himself or herself before entering.
I saw those holy five hundred amot by
five hundred amot which make up the original Temple Mount, before Herod
expanded it. The only site in the world
parts of which are so holy that Jews today can not halakhically go there,
because we do not yet have the ashes of the red heifer to purify ourselves
with.
I am not writing a
political tract, for I am writing about a religious expereince. I will not tell you about the wakf officials
who eyed us like hawks and got very upset when we stopped silently for a
moment, or when one youngster on the tour started swaying. Apparently, they are afraid we might
pray. I will not tell you about the
policeman, who smiled like a man holding his new born baby daughter, when we
began singing “V`L`Yerushalayim,” after we exited from one of the doors
enclosing the mount. I will not tell you
about the Wakf official, who tried to slam the door in our faces when we did
this, and the same policeman who kicked it open, and told the Kadi that we were
praying by the rules. No praying on the
Mount; Yes praying off the Mount. The
door stays, and stayed open.
As our leader told
the policeman who greeted us when we began the ascent to the Mount, we were a
bunch of “high tech workers.” True, we
were religious, but we were a genuine slice of middle Israel. The slice which has upscale or educated jobs,
pays its taxes and serves in the army.
We were not a group of radicals looking to reconquer the Mount today ,
looking to stage a protest, looking to make trouble. We were just a group of average Jews who felt
that the time had come to fulfill a certain part of our religious destiny. We wished to bring our own and the hopes and
dreams of the Jewish people to a
slightly greater level of fulfillment.
Like Neil
Armstrong’s small step, it was a step which reverberates on many different
levels; however, I do not think that the most important one of them for us
should be the political. For, ultimately
given the police presence all over Har HaBayit it is quite clear that the
Temple Mount is in our hands, and everybody on the Mount knows this. Our visits
may ensure, Jewish sovereignty being expressed on the Mount; however I am far
more concerned about our own, Jewish, realization that Har HaBayit is ours
(what`s above ground and what`s below), and that ignoring that fact is ignoring
the very source of ourselves as Jewish, spiritual beings.
Let us recognize,
that when we pray for the rebuilding of Zion and Jerusalem, we are not praying
for a new building on the Hebrew University campus, or for an extension at
Sha`arei Tzedek hospital. Both of those
are worthy signs of renewal and rebuilding in and of themselves. However, we pray for a renewal of the Temple,
makom mikdasheinu, the only place where we can get so close to HaKadosh Baruch
Hu that we can almost touch him. The
place where according to tradition, miracles were a fact of life. The place where G-d’s presence was, and is,
so overwhelming. The place where kedusha
once was, and, more importantly still is. As the Gemara reports, the holiness
which the Olim of Babylonia imparted to the Land when they renewed it, will
never disappear. So no matter what other buildings may be covering the ruins of
Hashem’s ancient house, the ground is still sacred, and still is evermore
sanctified by our coming to it and cherishing it as makom hamikdash.
Har HaBayit, and
our dreams about it, are the basis for our dreams of a renewed, spiritual life
in this land. And normal, middle
Israelis are beginning to wake up to this fact.
How we will deal with the Islamic mosques which are already there, and
how we will deal respectfully with other religions and ideologies is another
issue. First, we must wake up to the
truth which is inside us, as individual Jews and as the Jewish people. Only after doing this, can we deal with those
who disagee with us or with those who with every fibre of their being oppose
us. First, we must be true to our
unique, spiritual destiny. First, we
must repeat those immortal words “Har HaBayit B`Yadeinu” , mean them, and act
upon them, for only then can we truly take our place as a unique nation, among
the other unique nations of the world.
