A house of prayer for all peoples?

On Simchat Torah (Festival of the Rejoicing of the Law / Last Great Day) I went up to the Temple Mount with my Bible to pray. Although I don’t usually wear a kippa (cap), I did take one.

My first challenge was passing the guards near the entrance to the Temple Mount; if they saw me with my Bible they wouldn’t let me in. I prayed silently all the way to the site of the Temple of God twice, and it will be rebuilt for the third and last time, to be able to enter. I passed the guards.

Are you saying that Jewish guards prevent Christians and Jews from exercising their religious right to pray on the Temple Mount? That’s how it is! Only Muslims have unlimited access to the holiest place in Judaism. Only the Quran is allowed inside. The Tanakh (Jewish Scripture, known throughout much of the world as the “Old Testament”) and the Christian Scriptures (the New Testament) are prohibited. However, Israel claims to respect the religious rights of all people.

Israel has no law against Christians and Jews who pray or read scripture on the Temple Mount. However, it has an unwritten agreement with the Wakf (Muslim religious authorities) that prohibit this. There are no signs that say: “Warning! Christian and Jewish prayers are prohibited! Muslim religious authorities do not allow the entry of Bibles. Proceed with caution!”

I do not accept that Muslims have the authority to forbid me to read the appropriate Psalms or the New Testament account of Jesus performing the Water Libation Ceremony (Psalms 120-134, John 7:37). My question was, where should I read those passages? I ended up between the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aksa Mosque, just to the right of the place where Muslims wash their hands and feet. I was on the other side of the raised platform there, if you are in front of the Mosque of Omar.

First, I nervously sat down and read. Then I put on my black kippa, stood up and started reading for a few minutes until I was distracted by fears of being attacked by Muslim guards. I sat down, took off my yarmulke, and continued reading. Then one of the Wakf guards noticed me and asked what I was reading. I replied, “Yes, it is my book.” He took it from me and saw that it was a Bible. He demanded to know if I was a Christian or a Jew. When I told him I was a Christian, he asked me why I was wearing a David (Star of David) mage.

I didn’t feel compelled to explain that it was a gift from my mother and younger sister, and I said, “Give me back the Bible.” He ordered, “You have to go now!” Again I said, “Give me back my Bible.” When he refused, I demanded his strongest return. He raised his fist as if to hit me and warned me not to raise my voice. This caught the attention of some passing tourists, who gathered around us. I said, “This thief has stolen my Bible!”

The Wakf guard told me to leave again and threatened to beat me. He said he would give me back my Bible outside. Since there was no reason for him to confiscate it in the first place, I told him to give it back to me at that point and that I would go. At that point, he radioed an Israeli policeman, who came running. The Israeli handcuffed my right hand, which I raised and showed the assembled tourists, saying, “This is Israeli democracy!” I asked the Israeli repeatedly: “What law have I broken?” knowing that I had not broken any laws, but that they treated me like a common criminal.

It amazes me that the Jewish police in the Jewish State help maintain Muslim rule on the Temple Mount by suppressing Christian and Jewish religious rights there. Is it the Temple Mount or the Mosque Mount?

An Israeli policeman took me. I told the bewildered tourists: “This is what happens to a Christian or Jew who wants to read the Bible where the Holy Temple was. This is what happens to Christians and Jews who want to pray where our prophets and patriarchs prayed. , and where Jesus and his disciples taught. “

Why exclusive religious rights for Muslims? And does Israel want to hand over control of Rachel’s tomb, Bethlehem and Joseph’s tomb to the Muslim religious authorities? Are they crazy or what?

At the Western Wall Plaza police station, officers wanted to know who else was with me. They were relieved to find that he was alone. (They should have known he was fulfilling a mitzvah [religious commandment]). The police said they arrested me for my own protection. I told them they should have arrested the Wakf guard who threatened me! Why not eliminate, once and for all, the threat of Muslim violence? Why reward Muslim extremists?

The police laughed in disbelief when I told them that I am a Christian and that my Bible includes the New Testament, which they returned to me. A Druze official said: “But you must respect other religions.” He was silent when I asked him, “Where was your respect for mine?” I explained that our biblical goal is to allow everyone to come and pray on the mountain where the Temple of God was, and in the Temple when it will be rebuilt. It is prophesied that it will become a “House of Prayer” for all nations.

The police told me that I could go back to the Temple Mount as a tourist, without my Bible. I said I don’t want to go up there just as a “tourist”; I want to pray there. When they asked me how many times I had been there, I said “a thousand”. They wrote it in their report. They said I could make a short statement for the record. I said something along these lines: “Is it too much to ask during this 3,000th anniversary of King David’s Jerusalem to peacefully read his inspired words on the Temple Mount?”

When I left the police compound, one of the policemen told me that I had done something good. Once outside, I was greeted by some Jews who saw the incident and congratulated me.

I pray that this unfortunate encounter raises awareness about Israel’s religious discrimination against Christians and Jews. The situation must change. It will when enough people yell “Enough!” (Italian for “enough!”).

May the day come soon when Christians, Jews and Muslims can say: “My House will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” (Isaiah 56: 7). The Bible says

Also, as for the foreigner, who is not from your people Israel, but comes from a distant country because of your name, because they will hear of your great name, your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm, and he will come and pray toward you. this house. Hear you in heaven, your dwelling place, and do according to everything the stranger asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as (do) your people of Israel, so that they may know that your name he is invoked on this house that I have built. “(I Kings 8: 41-43)

“And to the foreigners who join the Lord to serve him and love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, all who observe the Sabbath, I will take them to my holy mountain and rejoice in my house of prayer His burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, because my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples. ” (Isaiah 56: 6-7)

“And it will come to pass at the end of the days, that the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established on the top of the mountains, and it will be exalted on the hills, and the peoples will rush to it. And many nations will go, and say: ‘Come Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord … and He will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths, ‘because the Torah will come from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (Micah 4: 1-2)

(This article was originally published in the Jerusalem-based Root and Branch Association newsletter, January 1996).

See the 1967 Israel Holy Places Protection Act which they did not enforce and refused to respect.