Jerusalem's time tunnels

Great work A.K. Very detailed.

Enoch.

cool stuff.

Very neat. Good read. Thanks AK.

Dear Friend A.K.: I repeat my claim from an earlier post that his article is a very thorough and detailed one. It is good journalism, and good archeology. On a closer second reading, there is one important detail left out.

The Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich said that his opposition is unlike Rabbi Getz who fought to have access to the Temple Mount.

Getz was in search of the Aaron ha Kodesh (Arc of the Covenant). Rabinovich did state that his opposition to entering the Temple Mount is not political, but a matter of Halachah (Rabbinic Law). That is also true. But the article did not articulate the Halachah. So I shall, to shed some light on the decision of Rabinovich.

Access to the Temple Mount for Jews is presently forbidden for two reasons, according to Rabbinic Law.

First, it leads to the Kodesh ha Kodeshim (Holy of Holy's). This is where the Shecheinah (Divine Presence) is said to reside. Only the Kohen Gadol (Great Priest) is permitted to enter there. And even then, only one time per year. That is on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) to pronounce the Name of G-d (Tetragrammon). Even so, the Kohen Gadol must purify himself ritually by eating dairy and abstaining from meat, wearing only white garments, and other purification rituals.

Second, no one who is Jewish is to enter the Temple Mount until the construction and opening of the Third Temple (Beit Ha Migdash Ha Shlichee). This may only occur, according to Rabbinic Tradition, following the appearance of Ha Moshiach - The Messiah).

I provide this not to stir up any ill will, or controversy.

Other traditions may not follow Rabbinic Law at all, or if they do, may not do so in the same way.

Even within Judaism, there is not universal agreement on the status and the interpretation of Rabbinic Law from movement to movement.

I only add what the article did not follow up on for the close reader here. This is what Rabonovitch meant by this being an issue of Rabbinic Law, not a political one to him.

In other quarters, it is most certainly a political, economic, cultural, and religious sereis of issues from other perspectives. There is complexity to such matters.

Enoch.

This is a very interesting article, and Enoch's knowledgeable explainations and expansions enrich it even more.

Thank you both.