I came across an article by Leo M. Abrami on Father Alexander Glasberg. Father Glasberg was part of the French Resistance during World War II and worked to save Jewish children during that turbulent time. He helped create the State of Israel and received the Yad Vashem Medal of the Righteous posthumously.
https://www.tribunejuive.info/2016/04/26/la-mission-de-labbe-glasberg-par-leo-m-abrami/
With
all that being said, there are those
who argue against the “status quo” and
for Jewish freedom to pray on the Temple Mount. In a recent opinion
piece, Michael
Freund insists there is no
Temple Mount “status quo” because the Wakf and Palestinians trampled it. Jeremy
Sharon reports that Israeli
Police have been allowing Jewish worshipers to prostrate and pray on the east
side of the Temple Mount in recent weeks; this practice is said to have begun
around 2018 but has increased since August 13, 2024.
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| Jewish worshippers prostrate themselves on the Temple Mount during a prayer service at the holy site, August 28, 2024. (Jeremy Sharon/Times of Israel) |
I came across three articles that discuss the theme of the "land promise" made to Israel in the Old Testament and how they relate to the present state of Israel’s existence in the Middle East. All three articles are dated November 17, 2023, thus all three were written following the Hamas’ attack against Israel on October 7th of that same year. Gregory Beale's article is titled “On the Expected Universalization of the Old Testament Land Promises,” Darrell Bock’s article is entitled, “On Israel’s Role in the Land Promise,” Gerald R. McDermott's article is titled “On Why the Land Promises Belong to Ethnic Israel.”
McDermott argues against supersessionism—that is, the idea that the Christian church has superseded the Jewish people of Israel. Rather, the land promises belong to ethnic Israel. McDermott claims, “Jesus predicted a time when Jews would have political control over their capital. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say the beginning of Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem could be seen as a fulfillment of prophecy by the New Testament Jesus.”
Beale investigates the land promise to Israel in the Old
Testament. He sees that the promises
were meant to extend beyond the ancient borders to envelop the "whole
earth." The ancient location of the
land promises in Canaan evolved to encompass the whole earth. This “eschatological expansion of Israel’s
borders” was part of “God’s predestined plan.”
In this present age, the promises have already begun to be perfected
spiritually in Christ, and the land promises will find their ultimate physical
fulfillment in the new heavens and new earth.
Thus, Beale concludes, “none of the references to the promise of Israel’s
land in the Old Testament appears to be related to the promises of ethnic
Israel’s return to the promised land on this present earth. What’s going on in
Israel today is in God’s predestined plan, but it’s not any kind of fulfillment
of his promises in the Old Testament.”
Block argues, "Whatever else happens with the Christ promise, whatever expansion the promise involves, it doesn't involve the elimination of the original commitments." He asserts, "The New Testament stresses Gentile inclusion not Israelite exclusion from the promise." Block insists that the New Testament hope includes Israel, which is found in texts such as Matthew 19:28; Luke 13:34-35; 21:20-24; 22:30; Acts 1:6-7; 3:18-22; 26:7; and Romans 9-11.
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| YMCA - Jerusalem, Israel |
As Tisha B’Av 2024 approaches—this is a fast day that
remembers the destruction of the First Jewish Temple by the Babylonians in 586
BCE, and the razing of the Second Jewish Temple by the Romans in 70 CE—Israel awaits the reports that Iran could launch an attack on Israel this week. At the time of this post, I am watching the Western
Wall Live camera in Jerusalem. The time
stamp is 23:52. There are many gathered
at the wall. There are some Jews who argue
that the Jewish Temple belongs to Israel’s past. However, not all agree. Rabbi
Sam Millunchick argues that,
On Tishah b’Av, we grieve not only for the physical
loss of the Temple but also for what that loss represents — our current
distance from the ideal relationship with the Divine that the Temple embodies.
We yearn for a day, soon to come, when we are again worthy of God’s presence.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Iran is planning to attack Israel on Tisha B’Av, which begins this month on Monday, August 12th, and ends Tuesday, August 13th. On Tisha B’Av, the first and second temples were destroyed. On this day, Jews fast, mourn and remember the destruction of the temples in Jerusalem. The planned attack is said to be in response to the assassination of the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Iran.
Jews Have Worshiped and Visited the Temple Mount for Nearly
2500 Years
I came across an interesting video. I wish to share it with you. It is an interview between Adam Scott Bellos
and Rabbi Yehuda Levi who is the Director of Outreach for Yeshiva Har HaBayit. They discussed the importance of ascending
the Temple Mount and the almost “2500 year unbroken chain of connection [of]
worship and visiting of the Temple Mount by Jewish people.” The video of the
interview can be seen here. Rabbi Yehuda had written an Opinion piece for
Daily Wire titled “Temple Mount Is Judaism’s Holiest Site, And It Always Has
Been. Here’s Everything You Need to
Know." In this interview, Rabbi Yehuda
discusses this history. When Adam Scott
asks the Rabbi to summarize Judaism, his response is in large part “Love your
fellow man as yourself” (22:41 min).
“I know that the Lord has given you the land.”[1] The historical context for the above saying is from the Book of Joshua, where Rahab speaks to the two spies sent to Jericho to investigate the land just before the conquest in the 13th century BCE. When I read from Joshua today, I imagined what it would be like for Palestinians to say, “I know the LORD had given you the land of the Haram Al-Sharif.” This view was once held by the Supreme Moslem Council in A Brief Guide to AL-HARAM AL-SHARIF, dated 1924. It states,
Its identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple
is beyond dispute. This, too, is the
spot, according to the universal belief, on which “David built there an altar
unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.[2]
In recent years, some Palestinians
have denied any connection between the site and Solomon’s Temple. I found this out firsthand from conversations
with Palestinians when I visited Jerusalem, Israel in May 2017. However, in a recent report, a new book
entitled, The Noble Sanctuary Book, is
claiming the historical connection. The
work is by the Jordanian photographer Bashar Tabbah and the scholar Dr. Robert
Schick; the book is a photographic and historical exploration of Jerusalem’s
Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Al-Haram Al-Sharif.[3] According to Arnon Segel, “Despite the Arab
tendency to deny the Jewish past of the mountain, it is interesting that this
book actually mentions the existence of the two Jewish temples there.”[4]
[1] The Holy Bible: New
Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers,
1989), Jos 2:9.
[2] A Brief Guide to Al-Haram Al-Sharif
Jerusalem (Franciscan Printing Press: Jerusalem, 1925), 4. * #
I came across an article by Leo M. Abrami on Father Alexander Glasberg. Father Glasberg was part of the French Resistance during World War I...
