TEMPLE MOUNT ADDRESS

TOM NISANI OF TEMPLE MOUNT HERITAGE FOUNDATION¦ HIS FIRST HAND REPORT ON CURRENT AND ON GOING CONFLICT ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT. 

 Temple Mount, Jerusalem, Temple Mount Heritage FoundationLanguage English Can we be allowed on the Temple Mount Watch as Tom Nisani CEO, Founder and Director of the Temple Mount Herritage Foundation in his interview provide first hand information on the Current and ongoing conflict on the #TempleMount.  Question is 1. Are #Jews allowed freely onto the Temple Mount? 2. Does #Christians allowed freely onto the #TempleMount? 3. Does #Tourist  allowed freely onto the Temple Mount area? 4. Does #Israeli Government support Temple Mount projects? 5. What's the current role we as Nations going to play.  Here from Tom Nisani Director, Founder and CEO of TMHF.  TOM NISANI OF TEMPLE MOUNT HERITAGE FOUNDATION¦ HIS FIRST HAND REPORT ON CURRENT AND ON GOING CONFLICT ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT. 

 The present site is a flat plaza surrounded by retaining walls (including the Western Wall) that was built during the reign of Herod the Great for an expansion of the temple. The plaza is dominated by three monumental structures from the early Umayyad period – the al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock and the Dome of the Chain – and four minarets. Herodian walls and gates, with additions from the late Byzantine and early Islamic periods, cut through the flanks of the Mount. Currently, it can be reached through eleven gates, ten reserved for Muslims and one for non-Muslims, with guard posts of Israeli police in the vicinity of each. According to Jewish tradition and scripture, the First Temple was built by King Solomon, the son of King David, in 957 BCE, and was destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE; however, no substantial archaeological evidence has verified this. The Second Temple was constructed under the auspices of Zerubbabel in 516 BCE, and was destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 CE. Orthodox Jewish tradition maintains it is here that the third and final Temple will be built when the Messiah comes.

 The location is the holiest site in Judaism, and is the place Jews turn towards during prayer. Due to its extreme sanctity, many Jews will not walk on the Mount itself, to avoid unintentionally entering the area where the Holy of Holies stood, since according to rabbinical law, there is still some aspect of the divine presence at the site. Among Muslims, the Mount is the site of one of the three Sacred Mosques, the holiest sites in Islam. Amongst Sunni Muslims, it is considered the third holiest site in Islam. Revered as the Noble Sanctuary, the location of Muhammad's journey to Jerusalem and ascension to heaven, the site is also associated with the Jewish biblical prophets who are also venerated in Islam. Umayyad Caliphs commissioned the construction of the al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock on the site. The Dome was completed in 692 CE, making it one of the oldest extant Islamic structures in the world. The Al Aqsa Mosque rests on the far southern side of the Mount, facing Mecca. The Dome of the Rock

currently sits in the middle, occupying or close to the area where the Holy Temple previously stood. In light of the dual claims of Judaism and Islam, it is one of the most contested religious sites in the world. Since the Crusades, the Muslim community of Jerusalem has managed the site through the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf. 

The Temple Mount is within the Old City, which has been controlled by Israel since 1967. After the Six-Day War, Israel handed administration of the site back to the Waqf under Jordanian custodianship, while maintaining Israeli security control. It remains a major focal point of the Arab–Israeli conflict. In an attempt to keep the status quo, the Israeli government enforces a controversial ban on prayer by non-Muslims. Terminology The concept of the "Temple Mount" gained prominence in the first century CE, after the destruction of the Second Temple. 

Although the term "Temple Mount" was first used in the Book of Micah (4:1) – literally as "Mount of the House" – it was not used again until approximately one thousand years later. The term was not used in the New Testament. The term was used next in the Talmud's Tractate Middot (1:1–3, 2:1–2), in which the area was described in detail.The term was used frequently in Talmudic texts thereafter. Location and dimensions Topographical map of Jerusalem, showing the Temple Mount on the eastern peak. 

The Holyland Model of Jerusalem, an imagined reconstruction of the city in the late Second Temple period, showing the large flat expanse on the Temple Mount as a base for Herod's Temple, in the center. View from the east. The Temple Mount forms the northern portion of a very narrow spur of hill that slopes sharply downward from north to south. 

Rising above the Kidron Valley to the east and Tyropoeon Valley to the west,its peak reaches a height of 740 m (2,428 ft) above sea level. In around 19 BCE, Herod the Great extended the Mount's natural plateau by enclosing the area with four massive retaining walls and filling the voids. 

This artificial expansion resulted in a large flat expanse which today forms the eastern section of the Old City of Jerusalem. The trapezium shaped platform measures 488 m along the west, 470 m along the east, 315 m along the north and 280 m along the south, giving a total area of approximately 150,000 m2 (37 acres).The northern wall of the Mount, together with the northern section of the western wall, is hidden behind residential buildings. 

The southern section of the western flank is revealed and contains what is known as the Western Wall. The retaining walls on these two sides descend many meters below ground level. A northern portion of the western wall may be seen from within the Western Wall Tunnel, which was excavated through buildings adjacent to the platform. On the southern and eastern sides the walls are visible almost to their full height. The platform itself is separated from the rest of the Old City by the Tyropoeon Valley, though this once deep valley is now largely hidden beneath later deposits, and is imperceptible in places. The platform can be reached via Gate of the Chain Street – a street in the Muslim Quarter at the level of the platform, actually sitting on a monumental bridge; better source needed] the bridge is no longer externally visible due to the change in ground level, but it can be seen from beneath via the Western Wall Tunnel.[citation needed] Religious significance See also: Religious significance of Jerusalem The Temple Mount has historical and religious significance for all three of the major Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

 It has particular religious significance for Judaism and Islam, and the competing claims of these faith communities has made it one of the most contested religious sites in the world. Wall of the Temple Mount (southeast corner) Judaism See also: Temple in Jerusalem The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism, which regards it as the place where God's divine presence is manifested more than in any other place, and is the place Jews turn towards during prayer. Due to its extreme sanctity, many Jews will not walk on the Mount itself, to avoid unintentionally entering the area where the Holy of Holies stood, since according to Rabbinical law, some aspect of the divine presence is still present at the site.It was from the Holy of Holies that the High Priest communicated directly with God. According to the rabbinic sages whose debates produced the Talmud, it was from here the world expanded into its present form and where God gathered the dust used to create the first human, Adam. 2Chronicles  3:1  refers to the Temple Mount in the time before the construction of the temple as Mount Moriah (Hebrew: הַר הַמֹּורִיָּה‎, har ha-Môriyyāh). The "land of Moriah" (Hebrew: אֶרֶץ הַמֹּרִיָּה‎, ʾeretṣ ha-Môriyyāh) is the name given by Genesis to the location of Abraham's binding of Isaac.

Since at least the first century CE, the two sites have been identified with one another in Judaism, this identification being subsequently perpetuated by Jewish and Christian tradition. Modern scholarship tends to regard them as distinct (see Moriah). Presumed to be The Foundation Stone, or a large part of it Jewish connection and veneration to the site arguably stems from the fact that it contains the Foundation Stone which, according to the rabbis of the Talmud, was the spot from where the world was created and expanded into its current form. It was subsequently the Holy of Holies of the Temple, the Most Holy Place in Judaism. Jewish tradition names it as the location for a number of important events which occurred in the Bible, including the Binding of Isaac, Jacob's dream, and the prayer of Isaac and Rebekah. Similarly, when the Bible recounts that King David purchased a threshing floor owned by Araunah the Jebusite, tradition locates it as being on this mount. 

An early Jewish text, the Genesis Rabba, states that this site is one of three about which the nations of the world cannot taunt Israel and say "you have stolen them," since it was purchased "for its full price" by David. According to the Bible, David wanted to construct a sanctuary there, but this was left to his son Solomon, who completed the task in c. 950 BCE with the construction of the First Temple. According to Jewish tradition, both Jewish Temples stood at the Temple Mount, though archaeological evidence only exists for the Second Temple. However, the identification of Solomon's Temple with the area of the Temple Mount is widespread. According to the Bible the site should function as the center of all national life—a governmental, judicial and religious center. During the Second Temple period it functioned also as an economic center. According to Jewish tradition and scripture, the First Temple was built by King Solomon the son of King David in 957 BCE and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The second was constructed under the auspices of Zerubbabel in 516 BCE and destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 CE. In the 2nd century, the site was used for a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus. 

It was redeveloped following the Arab conquest. Jewish texts predict that the Mount will be the site of a Third and final Temple, which will be rebuilt with the coming of the Jewish Messiah. 

A number of vocal Jewish groups now advocate building the Third Holy Temple without delay in order to bring to pass God's "end-time prophetic plans for Israel and the entire world." Several passages in the Hebrew Bible indicate that during the time when they were written, the Temple Mount was identified as Mount Zion. 

The Mount Zion mentioned in the later parts of the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 60:14), in the Book of Psalms, and the First Book of Maccabees (c. 2nd century BCE) seems to refer to the top of the hill, generally known as the Temple Mount. According to the Book of Samuel, Mount Zion was the site of the Jebusite fortress called the "stronghold of Zion", but once the First Temple was erected, according to the Bible, at the top of the Eastern Hill ("Temple Mount"), the name "Mount Zion" migrated there too. 

The name later migrated for a last time, this time to Jerusalem's Western Hill. In 1217, Spanish Rabbi Judah al-Harizi found the sight of the Muslim structures on the mount profoundly disturbing. "What torment to see our holy courts converted into an alien temple!" he wrote. Christianity See also: Jerusalem in Christianity The Temple was of central importance in Jewish worship in the Tanakh (Old Testament). In the New Testament, Herod's Temple was the site of several events in the life of Jesus, and Christian loyalty to the site as a focal point remained long after his death.After the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, which came to be regarded by early Christians, as it was by Josephus and the sages of the Jerusalem Talmud, to be a divine act of punishment for the sins of the Jewish people, the Temple Mount lost its significance for Christian worship with the Christians considering it a fulfillment of Christ's prophecy at, for example, Matthew 23:28 and 24:2. It was to this end, proof of a biblical prophecy fulfilled and of Christianity's victory over Judaism with the New Covenant, that early Christian pilgrims also visited the site. 

Byzantine Christians, despite some signs of constructive work on the esplanade, generally neglected the Temple Mount, especially when a Jewish attempt to rebuild the Temple was destroyed by the earthquake in 363. It became a desolate local rubbish dump, perhaps outside the city limits,[50] as Christian worship in Jerusalem shifted to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and Jerusalem's centrality was replaced by Rome. During the Byzantine era, Jerusalem was primarily Christian and pilgrims came by the tens of thousands to experience the places where Jesus walked.[citation needed] After the Persian invasion in 614 many churches were razed and the site was turned into a dumpyard. The Arabs conquered the city from the Byzantine Empire which had retaken it in 629. 

The Byzantine ban on the Jews was lifted and they were allowed to live inside the city and visit the places of worship. Christian pilgrims were able to come and experience the Temple Mount area.[52] The war between Seljuqs and Byzantine Empire and increasing Muslim violence against Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem instigated the Crusades. The Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099 and the Dome of the Rock was given to the Augustinians, who turned it into a church, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque became the royal palace of Baldwin I of Jerusalem in 1104. The Knights Templar, who believed the Dome of the Rock was the site of the Solomon's Temple, gave it the name "Templum Domini" and set up their headquarters in the Al-Aqsa Mosque adjacent to the Dome for much of the 12th century.[citation needed] In Christian art, the circumcision of Jesus was conventionally depicted as taking place at the Temple, even though European artists until recently had no way of knowing what the Temple looked like and the Gospels do not state that the event took place at the Temple.