Honoring Maimonides' Ascent to the Temple Mount

today is the sixth day of the hebrew month of march van and we are celebrating the 856th anniversary of rambam maimonides ascent historic ascent to the temple mount which he writes about personally in a letter uh celebrating his time on the temple mount which we'll discuss a little bit later as you see we are all ascending with song of course once we get on the temple mount we can no longer sing here we are entering i am speaking now as i'm watching the video that i took because when i'm on the temple mount i don't like to be talking to myself or talking i like to be listening and hearing here is rav ariel rabbi israel of the temple institute and he is also with us today many hundreds of people went up in the morning this is the afternoon time that we can go up and he is talking a bit about rambam right now and about the temple mount where we can go where we can't go even though i see that most everybody up here with me are veterans of of the temple mount everybody knows exactly where we can go and where we cannot go and again where we can go and where we cannot go and how we conduct ourselves is all described by rambam by mahmoud himself in his magnum opus mishna torah in the section in that called of the chosen house the chosen house being the beta mikdash the holy temple and chapter 7 of that particular book he gives in detail all the rules and regulations about how to go up to the temple mount even even when the holy temple is not there even after the destruction and before it's rebuilding it is a commandment a positive commandment to go to the temple mount and to be present there it's called muramik dash which best translates as showing reverence to hashem in the place of his holy temple and again rambam describes this in his mishna torah great detail uh why it's a commandment to go up and how to conduct yourself when you do go up and he himself as we're going to be talking about as we make our way around the temple mount today he himself went up in here 11 65. in the year 1165 he set sail from morocco where he was living after his family had to flee from spain where he was born because islamic rule at that time became very uh antagonistic towards you they in fact were compelling jews either to convert or die or leave and so of course rambam's family chose to leave so here he has set sail from morocco i'm just going to interrupt myself for a moment you see right now we are we enter it in the southwestern corner of the temple mount to the magravi gate also known today as the the halal gate after ariel no relation to israel ariel who was murdered by a terrorist a number of years ago and her parents took it upon themselves to dedicate their lives and her memory toward encouraging people and leading people onto the temple mountain we have renamed to that gate the halal gates so we are in the south southern end of the temple mount heading from west to east there is the dome of the rock and that is where the holy temple stood and that low-lying wall in the distance is probably the exact location of the hail which is where people who had not been treated by the ashes of the red heifer could not go beyond that point again so to our left right now is the place of the holy temple to our right we just saw the building a moment ago you see it again right here that is the al-aqsa mosque it's way on the southern end of the temple mount and we are passing by it you'll see there's muslim people and there's jews here no problem right there's only prop when politicians and terrorists decide to uh stir things up you see those that low rock at the bottom many people feel that is a remains of the high level the actual built low low wall that stood in the time of the temple there's some pillars there on their side who knows from what era they're from and the distance is uh the amount of olives i've just turned around again anyway rambam uh set sail from morocco in the year 1165 arrived in akko after a storm at sea in fact he writes about this storm at sea and this is what he says on the night of the first week the 14th day of the month of er which was may 5th 11 65 i set off to see on shabbat in the tenth of the month of er in the year four four nine two five the hebrew year since the time of creation we were confronted with great waves which nearly drowned us all as a violent storm arose at sea i took upon myself a vow that each year i would fast a complete public fast to commemorate these two perilous days of the storm as with all the members of my household i am instructing my children to do so likewise until the end of time and think of charity according to their ability uh he survived that storm of course and landed in akko a northern seaport in israel and uh from there he there he met a rabbi by the name of yafit and later on they would they would walk they would travel down to jerusalem um where he would go up to the temple mount and and may 23 11 65 and again this is what he writes i left the ship in peace at the port of akko having me delivered from destruction and arrived in the land of israel i made a vow that this would henceforth be a day of joy and happiness in which i will enjoy a festive meal and give charitable gifts to the poor as would my household until the end of time on tuesday fourth day of the month of marchesvan in the year 4926 again 11 65 still from the time of creation i left akko and set out for jerusalem encountering many dangers along the way i entered the great and holy house and prayed there on thursday the sixth of the month of march fun october 26th october 21st 1166 the great and holy house is an expression that we use until to this day to this day in some of our liturgy in the beer and the grace after meals we refer to the holy temple as the as the uh a great and holy house now some people say what are you talking about there was no temple there i'm going to interrupt myself again we've we've stopped we've reached the eastern extremity of the temple mount we're about to turn north uh and rabbi arya ravariel has decided to stop and give us a little lesson a five-minute diva torad just discussing the temple mount and the police object they said you're not allowed to stop here and ravario system i've been going up to the temple mount for 50 years now i know exactly what i can do not giving in and you'll see that the police with all his protests has to stand back stand down and allow the rabbi to talk it's absurd that this is what we have to argue about and what we have to struggle for and fight for these ridiculous little little details i mean we're on the temple mount we're not bothering anybody we have limited time there because of the current rules and he wants to stop here and speak here so what he is talking about is something very similar to what i'm going to discuss now and i will tie it in um the great and holy house is an expression for the holy temple some people say well there was no holy temple there so obviously he's talking about a big synagogue well there were no synagogues big or otherwise except for little holes in the wall in jerusalem at the time it was crusader time the jerusalem population of jews was very small at that time and very very difficult conditions very hostile conditions in fact rambam himself was risking his life uh by traveling through israel at this time um and uh so clearly he did not think there was a a holy temple there at the time and clearly would have not have prayed inside the holy temple because the only people who ever entered the holy temple uh when it was when it existed i'm just speeding up the video here a bit so we can move along we're about 45 minutes in a temple mount we're not going to take that much time in this video um the only people who ever could go into the holy temple were the kohanim the temple priests when they were purified with ashes of the red heifer so of course he wasn't stating that he was he was praying in the holy temple but it was an expression the great and holy house for the temple mount and as the ramp as as ravi i was explaining a moment ago to people the red bus was a later rabbi four four centuries later uh in answers to questions that people are asking where can we go into temple now where is it permissible he answered them in detail because he knew the topography of the temple now which has not changed in terms of the physical architectural structures on the man hasn't changed in those 500 years hadn't changed since the time of rambam just 800 years ago so it's the same same uh same layout there so we know exactly from the red buzz where we can go and can't go and the rabbaz at the time the time when he was there and also the time of rambam many jews referred to the dome of the rock as hamikdash the temple sits where the temple sat they didn't think it was the temple but they referred to it as the temple it was sort of shorthand for temple so what rob arya was explaining a minute ago is that there's certain terminology that the buzz used which was common he was answering people's questions so was using the common terminology and you have to understand that in order to understand exactly what he's saying because some now you see this policeman right here we're praying now and he stopped that young man because he was moving too much it's insane it's absolutely insane you see that man bowed there it's part of the prayer service we are all now praying minha who's the amidah the amidah prayer for minha image we stand and pray silently this is now permissible i put you know on the temple mount according to the insane rules that status quo they call it the guide limit jewish conduct on the temple mount but we have made great headway and you see we are here all praying facing we're due east of the of the where the temple stood and we have a minion more than 10 men are required to pray in a minion you'll see in a few minutes the police will try to rush us along we're not done yet so again there's a lot of resistance that's how it goes that's how we take a step forward as you may have heard last week a judge actually recognized jewish rights to pray in the temple mount and no sooner had this judge recognize jewish rights than the police minister and the government of israel appealed her decision and basically had the next judge over overturn that decision so again as far as the government would like to to to make it look we're praying here because of the you know the grace the good the good the good grace of the police it's not the case actually it's the law in israel that we have the right to pray here and actually it's the law the jewish law that we have the right to pray here and the responsibility to pray here nobody can take that away from us so the police like to play a game and they like to harass us and limit us again we had a few years where we had a very uh friendly minister of police minister of internal security who allowed us to make tremendous progress right now in the current government the minister of internal security is on record for being against any jews on a temple mount so we're back in uh back in the trenches here a bit but we are praying and that's not going to stop and we'll continue to expand our rights our presence and our prayer in the temple mount as we go along anyway as i started to say earlier ravario's explaining that and you know some people again today who are skeptical or who are against uh people going on a temple mount she's going in a temple mount they'll try to pick apart what the red bus said who was a 16th century rabbi he was a rabbi uh part of his life in cairo part of his life in jerusalem and part of his life in sfat and of course when he was the rally of jerusalem he was he was getting these questions from people obviously were going up because otherwise they wouldn't be asking the questions uh they're not theoretical questions and he answers them in great detail and again you have to understand the language at the time you have to study it in reality today there is no argument halal between any rabbis those who are for or against going on to the temple mount about whether it's permissible to go up under certain conditions obviously going to a mikvah uh not wearing leather shoes and a number of other ways in which we must conduct ourselves the argument today is limited to those who uh for political reasons either they are afraid of muslim reaction or they're afraid that some people will go up and not follow the proper rules which by the way jews can go up freely in tour groups not as jews you know not wearing a keypad not any visible signs of being jewish and not and not restricting yourself to the heirs with areas when jews can go so as far as people who might god forbid violate the rules of jewish conduct in a temple mount they can do that anyway it's got nothing to do with jews going on a temple mount according to praying on the temple mount anyway to pray in the temple mount is a fantastic privilege historic privilege 2000 years jews have been longing for this i should actually footnote myself right here there were times many times throughout those 2000 years i hear again the policeman is trying to rush this person happens to be a religious policeman you can see that he has a keep on but you know he's doing his job right there many times throughout the 2000 years when jews were permitted to go up into the temple mount and they would we know that rabbi akiva and his colleagues were on the temple mount it doesn't get better than that of course rambam so rambam was up on the temple mount and prayed there and the two days later he went down to hevron and prayed it to make pilake and i just want to read again from his his letter that he wrote on a sunday the following week following his time on the temple mount the night of the month i left jerusalem and set out for everyone to visit the graves of our forefathers in the cave of the on that day i stood and prayed at the cave may god be praised for everything these two days the sixth and the ninth of the month of march i vowed will be for me life festival days filled with prayer and happiness food and drink sudhat mitzvah we call this in hebrew it's a special thing that you do to celebrate a special event a miracle that happened perhaps a recovery from an illness god forbid uh or from an operation may god help me in all my endeavors and make true for me the verse my vows will i pay unto hashem amen just as i merit to pray in its ruins may i soon see myself in all israel it's comfort referring to the beta mcdodge the holy temple and jerusalem it's comfort speedily amen so he made a vow that he should honor the day that he went up to the temple mount forever with a suit that means fire with a day of happiness and festivity food and drink and that his descendants to the end of time should also do so i have heard that there are some people in the world i'm not sure where they live who can trace their lineage to to rambam to maimonides if you're one of those people wow let me know i'd love to know um and certainly i'm quite confident that you are fulfilling the vow made by your great great ancestor harambam maimonides uh moshe bin baimon in hebrew moshe the son of maimon do you see a man there photographing that's someone from the walk they love to take photographs we post them sometimes they love to keep their eye on us they used to be right in our face again another improvement over the past couple years the police keep them at a distance now they used to be horribly literally in her face and if someone would move or move their lips they would scream he's praying he's praying and the policeman would oblige them by telling that person to stop leading them off the temple mount so that was his personal response reaction to going up at the temple mount we are no less uh delighted to be in the temple mountain no less appreciative of the amazing opportunity this moment in history uh when we have returned to beyond of israel we have sovereignty even though uh our governments repeatedly have have uh resisted actually really imposing our sovereignty on a temple mount it's a consistent problem uh with all the governments and again we have made headway and that's because uh more and more jews are going up to the temple mount in purity it's a shorthand for according to according to the jewish rules and regulations uh there's only so much the police can resist and right now we've moved along and now we're saying all this is fairly new being able to pray like this to the extent that we can of course we still can't go up with a talit or with fill in or with prayer books we can go up with our cell phones or our smartphones and on them people have the prayers so if you see people looking at their smartphones they're not uh they're not texting friends and they're they're not being disrespectful god forbid they are looking at the text of the of the prayer or the psalms or whatever they are reading as you may know uh we always start in the southwestern corner that's not halacha that we need to enter there that's just the one gate of the dozen gates that lead to the temple mount so one gate that's open for non-muslims to enter again another sign of the basically apartheid like uh standards of the status quo and the temple mount that uh jews only and jews and other non-muslims jews and gentiles only have access to one gate and only through very limited hours five days a week whenever there are muslim holidays next tuesday there will be a muslim holiday jews aren't allowed on the temple mount at all so here we are continuing all the way up to the northern extremity of the mount and now we're heading east i'm sorry now we're heading west back uh back toward the western side we used to leave we make a circle around the inner courtyards of the where the holy temple stood this is the area that only people who are been purified by the ashes of the red heifer could possibly ever enter with with uh with their offerings only and and uh other than that the priests the levites would be there and now we are approaching to where the inner courtyard would begin where that low wall is that's as far as we will go i'll give you a panorama of the courtyard now i'm pointing the camera into the inner courtyard where those arches are the eastern end of the courtyard that's more or less where the where the ducan was where the where the nikken or gate was and the levites would stand there and sing we're moving now toward the western extremity that corner there is where the animals will be slaughtered um i think i passed too quickly you can go back and you can pause maybe we'll see it again now uh there is a great cupula a great dome that's between the the the golden dome and those arches where the with the levites starting where that grey dome stands is is adjacent really to where the altar stood so from east to west you see the the nickinor gate which was a separation between the women's court which is in the far east which is when we were standing and praying before and the police were trying to rush us along we were we would be facing that the gate leading into the uh women's court but now we're looking at the or just looking at the the inner court it's the court of the israelites and uh where the nicanor gate is and further in where the altar is it's it's it's the priestly court so from from east to west you have the women's the women's court the nicanor gate the the platform where the levites would stand and and play their instruments and sing and a little bit further west they were the great stone altar was where the offerings would be brought up to and a little bit further uh to the west again was the area where the animals were slaughtered i'm facing the camera toward the northern end of the temple mount this is where the antonio fortress would have stood and there are some uh some bedrock in that area which you didn't see in the camera there which uh many people believe is what what it was built upon the antonio fortress does not stand today now we have rounded the corner and we're heading we're in the western side of the temple mount we're heading south we're still far north of where the kotel the western wall plaza is everybody who prays at the western wall is praying in an area that is not even directly facing where the temple stood but south of there right now you see everybody's turning around you'll see in a second uh as we were walking maybe you heard it an arab man who was sitting in the side jumped up and said whoa whoa whoa why you d and he was pointing to this man i don't know what he i didn't see i don't know what he was claiming he did maybe he tried to bow down maybe he did bow down maybe prostrated himself threw himself on the ground or maybe he just walked off to the side a bit so now the policeman is escorting him he's going to take him off and he's going to have a talk with him after we get off the temple mount again just ridiculous it's ridiculous that a man can't freely move on the temple mount i don't know i i can't follow up on i don't know what happened after he was uh taken from the temple he came down with us but he was being escorted by this policeman the whole time and talked to after we got down i don't know if they arrested him i don't know what now we are standing directly west where the holy temple stood in that door where the dome of the rock is you're looking into where the holy of holies was and of course the holy of holies was the inner sanctum of the holy temple where the ark of the covenant was and where once a year the high priest would enter with an incense offering on yom kippur so we often pause here and the people also pray here again i think this is maybe where the man was praying last week or in the police objective you know the police want to determine to us where we can and where we can't pray where we can where we can't stop passive resistance uh is is moving things forward so we're about to uh leave now this is really our last step along the way and we always leave uh through the same we leave to the same gate which is actually still north of where the western wall plaza stands so once we leave we if you want to get back to the western world here you have to do a bit of a walk around but uh this is it so we've been on the temple mount today the sixth day of mahman honoring the rambam it's a modern tradition and i believe it's a modern tradition of about 15 years and i believe that it was a temple institute that uh began marking this day and then celebrating and uh and uh making known that this is a day uh for a pilgrimage to the temple mount and uh at some point took off and how many people saved this data to make a special trip to the temple mount to honor it as you see as you leave the temple mount you don't want to walk off with your back toward where the temple stood so people are walking backwards as they exit and in a moment you'll see after people exit there are a number of people who will then prostrate themselves because uh we're not allowed to by the police to do so on the temple mount it's a commandment god's commandment on the temple mount to prostrate yourself as a expression of here ravario is prostrating himself right now and you'll see someone else in a moment uh is a commandment to do so in a temple mount please will not allow us so there are people as i said who as soon as they come off they will do it okay thank you very much for being with me today we are concluding our video as we leave there's always some song see right behind where we're dancing and singing is the border police uh the police station right there oftentimes if you've been arrested for nefarious crime of uh praying or bowing down or whatever it is that the police decide at that day you're not allowed to do they will take you there for whatever and then sometimes send you on to another police station they can really harass you and uh thank god that the people who go up to the temple mount are fearless and persistent and are always moving forward thanks for being with me today

Channel: The Temple Institute

Views: 6,221

Keywords: Holy Temple, Beit HaMikdash, Israel, Jerusalem, Temple Institute, Torah, Judaism, Bnei Noach, Noahide, Temple Mount, ירושלים, ישראל, בית המקדש, הר הבית, תורה, משה, Offerings, Korbanot, Moshe, Tabernacle, Mishkan, משכן, Avraham, Mikdash, מקדש, Moses, Menorah, Sarah, אברהם, שרה, Yaakov, Aaron, אהרון, Mount Sinai, Para Aduma, Red Heifer, High Priest, Kohen Gadol, פרה אדומה, Altar, Holy of Holies, Genesis, Bereshit, בראשית, Cheshvan, Marcheshvan, Sigd, סיגד, Rambam, Maimonides, Mishnah Torah, רמבם, משנה תורה

Id: xvTsJ9McGZo

Length: 27min 6sec (1626 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 14 2021