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Temple Service Could Be One Week Away
as Sanhedrin Appoints High Priest
Aug. 29….(Breaking Israel News) A significant step was recently taken towards reinstating the Temple service when the nascent Sanhedrin selected Rabbi Baruch Kahane as the next Kohen Gadol (high priest). The selection was made as a precaution for Yom Kippur. If the political conditions should change, allowing the Jews access to the Temple Mount, they will be required by Torah law to bring the sacrifices. Rabbi Kahane is confident that if that should happen, Temple service could begin in less than one week.
The
altar built by the Temple Institute to be used in service in the rebuilt
Third Jewish Temple. (The Temple Institute)
Rabbi Kahane is a prominent
scholar, knowledgeable in the complicated laws pertaining to the subject of
the Temple Service. He is part of the Halacha Berurah Institute, established
by Rabbi Avraham
Isaac HaCohen Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Israel, which
deals with the elucidation of Jewish law from its Talmudic sources (Oral
Law) and commentaries. He has played a prominent role in all the
reenactments of the Temple services performed to date.
This year has already seen
much Temple-oriented activity: the Temple Institute has created a registry of kohanim;
established a school for
educating men of the priestly class in the details of the Temple service;
and performed reenactments on all the holidays, including the especially
significant Passover sacrifice.
WEEK OF AUGUST
21 THROUGH AUGUST 27
Palestinian Mufti: All of Jerusalem is
Islamic!
Aug. 22….(Israel Today) The Palestinian Authority-appointed
Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, declared on
Sunday that the
entire city belongs to Islam and the Arabs, and must be defended against the
Jews.
Speaking on the 47th anniversary of an arson attack
against the Al-Aqsa Mosque by an Australian man, Hussein urged all Arabs
living in the area to surround Jerusalem’s Temple Mount to prevent further
visits to the holy site by Jews and other non-Muslims.
That despite the fact that the Temple Mount, as clearly
documented by the Bible and numerous historical resources, has been
Judaism’s holiest site since long before the advent of Islam.
But the Muslims have so thoroughly rewritten history to
fit their agenda that even a top religious leader like Hussein can assert
that “each floor of the holy city, every remnant of the city, and every
centimeter attest to the fact that it is an Arab and Islamic city, whose
roots lie deep in history and culture.”
Two days earlier, Friday prayers
at the Al-Aqsa Mosque were led by Sheikh Ismail Nawahada, who likewise
rejected any historical Jewish connection to Jerusalem, and insisted that it
was forbidden for Muslims to cooperate with the Jews in their “conquest” of
the city.
WEEK OF AUGUST 7 THROUGH AUGUST 13
Israel’s Let-down: Putin-Erdogan Hook-up with Iran
Aug. 12….(DEBKA) The talks between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Reccep Erdogen in St. Petersburg scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 9, are causing trepidation among Israel’s policy-makers and military leaders. Their summit takes place on the sidelines of the G-20 summit, concluding nine months of hostility between the two capitals that was sparked by Turkish jets shooting down a Russian SU-24 warplane over the Syrian border on Nov. 24, 2015. The feud was put to rest on July 17 - two days after Erdogan suppressed the attempted military coup against his rule. The Turkish ruler decided there and then to exploit the episode to expand his strength and use it not only for a massive settling of accounts with his critics, but also as a springboard for parlaying his reconciliation with Moscow for a strategic pact with Russia. In Israel, the worry is that while turning his back on the United States and NATO, Eerdogan will go all the way to bond with Russia to which Iran is also attached as a partner. Indeed, Erdogan has scheduled a trip to Tehran and a meeting with President Hassan Rouhani a few days after his talks with Putin. The Turkish president’s latest moves look like spawning another new Middle East bloc that would consist of Turkey, Russia, Iran, Iraq, Syria and indirectly the Lebanese Hizballah terrorist group. This prospect would upend Israel’s key policies for Turkey and Syria. The Israeli détente with Ankara in recent months hinged on Turkey’s continuing to maintain its close military and intelligence ties with the United States and its integration in an anti-Iran Sunni alliance in partnership with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. But the Putin-Erdogan meeting Tuesday threatens to throw American, Israeli and moderate Arab rulers’ plans to the four winds. Turkey appears to have opted to line up with a Russian-Shiite front led by Tehran in preference to an anti-Iran Sunni alliance. Therefore, the expanded military and intelligence cooperation which the Israeli-Turkish rapprochement was to have heralded will be low key at best for two reasons: 1. Israel will beware of sharing its military technology with Turkey lest it find its way to Iran. During the talks with Ankara for patching up their quarrel Israel was constantly on the lookout for indications that Turkey was prepared to break off its ties with Iran. 2. For the sake of keeping Iran and Hizballah away from its borders, Israel entered into arrangements with Russia, some of them never published, at the start of Moscow’s military intervention in Syria last September. Those arrangements included coordination of their air force operations over Syria. Now, Israel finds itself suddenly up against a Russian-Turkish partnership aimed at strengthening Iranian domination of Syria – the exact reverse of the Netanyahu government’s objective in resolving its dispute with Ankara and forging deals with Moscow.
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