Temples (Synagogues), Mosques, AND.......

The Temple; The Beit HaMikdash; The Ctowning Achievement of King Solomon; and...

THE Temple in Jerusalem was the dream of King David. A divine edict had forbidden him from building it. A generation later, his son did accomplish this feat at a great cost. The Temple was built as a permanent home for the Ark containing the “Ten Commandments”.

This Temple was described as being approximately 180 feet long, 90 feet wide and 50 feet high. Not great-grand by today’s standards [which we will consider later], but Solomon spared not expense and when he order the quantities of cedar from King Hiram of Tyre, along with blocks of the choicest stone quarried, it ended up costing him twenty towns in the Galilee to pay his debt.

When complete, King Solomon inaugurated it with prayer and sacrifices to which he invited non-Jews to join him and participate in giving thanks and to add their prayers with those of the Jewish people. For, “Thus all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and revere You, as does Your people Israel; and they will recognize that Your name is attached to this House that I have built.” Remember that this was accomplished approximately 950 B.C.E. - keep that date in mind.

The Babylonians destroyed The Temple about 400 years later in 586 B.C.E. Some 70 years later [516+/- BCE] the “Second Temple” was built. Again The Temple was destroyed, this time by the Romans in the year 70 C.E. The Ark and the Holy Tablets were lost when The (1^st) Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians.

As an aside, many years later The Dybbuk , a Yiddish play, conveyed, in a monologue by a Hasidic rabbi, a sense of what the Jewish throngs must have experienced while worshiping at The Temple. Something that we have never had the privilege to experience and know. Anything to do with The Temple has been taken from us. Three times! First by the Babylonians, next by the Romans and now... well now we find a mosque - in fact we find two mosques have been built on the site of The Temple.

Now is it common practice of the Muslim [a ‘faith’ which did not exist until about the year 600 C.E. - or about 1550 years AFTER The Temple was first built!] to build a mosque on the site of other people’s holy places (in order to demonstrate that Islam therefore is dominant and has supplanted the former)! As it now stands the Jews cannot build our Temple anew [on this Holy site] as it would without question lead to a world wide jihad. And while Orthodox Jews pray three times daily for The Temple’s restoration; it is unlikely in the foreseeable future - baring the arrival of The Mashiakh.

Which brings us to New York city in the 21^st C.E. In a sense America’s Temple(s) were destroyed, along with over 3000 souls, on 9/11 and we find that the Muslim intends to build a Mosque on that site. And it is not lost on us that this is clearly intended to show that Islam is supplanting America, freedoms, democracy and our Republic. This “proposed” 15-story, or 13-story, Mosque - renamed Park53 (Cordoba House) far over-reaches The Temple, and while the Muslim argues that the “proposed site” has no relationship to the Twin Towers and is, indeed, located on a site of a building which [the Muslim claim] is of no particular ‘value’ as it is not “the Chrysler building... or the Woolworth Tower”.

And this brings us to question many things. Some of them are-

• Are we being Islam-phobic?
• Are we refusing “rights” granted under our Constitution?
• Are we in danger of losing our self-same rights? [observe what is happening in Europe]
• Is there a “need” for a Mosque to exist in this location at this time?
• Are there other locations more suitable and less ‘explosive’?
• Is America at war with Islam [in actuality]?
• If so - should America allow any Islamic/Muslim activity on our soil?
• Is Islam a “religion” or a life of hate?
• Islam sees America (all America) as “infidels” - can we co-exist at all?
• How do we reconcile our traditional American beliefs with denying the Muslim?
• Should this be put to a National vote?
• Remember that Napoleon said that 10 men speaking make more noise than 1000 silent men. Let us see what the collective American and the collective Jewish voices say. And remember that there are many more questions to be asked and many more voices to be heard.
• My personal views are-_____________________________________