In the depths of Siberia, in the coldest, darkest nights of winter, a Jew bowed his head in prayer. He prayed for freedom, for the right to live where he wanted, practice his religion as he believed and openly display what was in his heart. In time, his wish was granted and he left Siberia and made his home in Israel.
When the Soviet government told the Jews of the Soviet Union that they could not pray, that they could not openly identify themselves as Jews, millions of Jews around the world demanded that the Soviets "let my people go." Jews met in secret for holidays, took circuitous routes in order to be able to meet and practice their religion. The more they were persecuted, the louder came the message from the Jewish people. If you are not prepared to give them freedom of religion, we told the Soviets, let our people be free. Ultimately, the Jews of the former Soviet Union were given the right to emigrate and the right to pray anywhere they want in Russia.
When Jewish houses of worship are desecrated in France, Israel and world Jewry put the French on alert. Treat our people right or we will encourage them to come here. What an insult, cried the French, and yet government leaders quickly condemned the anti-Semitic attacks. Jews have a right to pray anywhere they want in France.
There are few places in the world today where Jews have to fear praying in the open. There is anti-Semitism, and yet there is also a general acceptance that hatred of Jews will not be openly accepted as it once was. Those who wish to practice anti-Semitism often find they have to couch their hatred in more politically correct terminology, and so they rail against Israel and say they are only anti-Zionist. But where Jews can be found, the right of the Jew to pray when and where he needs to, is not argued or disputed in any place except one.
Here, in the capital of the Jewish State, on our holiest of holy sites, Jews may not pray. They cannot cluster in groups of ten, as they are required to do, to recite the mourner's prayer, psalms of praise, words of supplication. So strong is the rule preventing a Jew from praying on the site of the Holy Temple, that a Jew is not even allowed to move his lips as if in prayer. At best, they will be forcefully removed; at worst, they will face arrest and police questioning, or harassment from Arab worshippers.
"What farce is this?" you might justifiably ask. What absurdity? What hypocrisy? We, as a people, have fought for the right to pray, to practice our religion to the very edges of the four corners of the earth and beyond. Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut, traveled into outer space and there recited the Kiddush, the blessing over wine we say each week as we celebrate the coming of the Sabbath. In outer space, Jews can pray.
At the White House, rabbis have stood to recite the blessings over the Hanukah candles and pray for world peace. In Washington, Jews can pray. We have prayed in Auschwitz, in the depths of our despair, and in Siberia, in the depths of exile.
When the world was worshiping idols, we Jews turned our hearts and words to the heavens and prayed. But not in our own city, not in the capital of our country, not in the one place that remains of all that we once were. All that Ariel Sharon says about the sanctity of Jerusalem as the eternal and undivided capital of our country is meaningless if a Jew cannot even whisper a prayer on the Temple Mount.
On Sunday, the Hebrew month of Nissan begins. Nissan is perhaps the most important month for the Jewish people. Rosh Hashana takes place on the first day of the month of Tishrei. This is the anniversary of the birth of the world, the creation of mankind. It is a universal celebration. A year has ended; a new one has begun. But Nissan is for the Jews alone. Though it announces the arrival of spring, it also commemorates the day that we as a people were given our first commandment, to celebrate the first day of this first month as a free people.
How ironic that the Israeli government has chosen this day to enslave itself, to deny freedom of prayer and movement to its own people, to deny any claim we have to the holiest of sites.
Over the years, I have seen many Muslim men bow to the ground in prayer. When I lived near Tel Aviv, it never surprised me that the Arabs knelt to the ground facing to the east. It is what I do each day, what I see my husband and children do. To the east, to Jerusalem, I thought, but I knew that it was to Mecca and Medina as well.
When I moved to Maaleh Adumim, which sits to the east of Jerusalem, I noticed something strange. The Arabs here do not pray to Jerusalem. They do not bow to Jerusalem. They bow with their heads facing to the east, leaving another part of their bodies pointed to Jerusalem. Mecca and Medina call to them. Jerusalem is a pale third, and yet we yield them total control and claim only a small portion of the outer retaining wall of what is left of our Temple.
In Hevron, at the Cave of the Patriarchs, where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and Sarah, Rifka and Leah are buried, we share the Tomb. Each day, Arabs and Jews manage to pray separately, in designated areas of the building. And then, on certain days, the site is closed to worshippers from one or the other of the religions. On our most sacred days, only Jews are allowed to enter and have full control over the entire Tomb, and on their most sacred days, Jews are barred from entering so that they may feel freedom to come in great numbers.
A just and fair solution to the Temple Mount area can never be found so long as Jews are not permitted the freedom to ascend and pray there. As holy as the Tomb of the Patriarchs is to our religion, it pales compared to the central and undisputed Temple Mount as the single most holy place in our tradition. To be fair and just, the only solution is for the Temple Mount to be closed to Moslems on our holiest days, as is done in Hebron. And, in an attempt to have peace in our land, we will have to accept that on their holiest days, we will be forbidden there. Any other solution reeks of weakness and hypocrisy.
In Jerusalem, on days when we would celebrate our birth as a nation, the Israeli government has decided to once again prevent Jews from entering the site completely, lest some Jew inadvertently anger the Arabs by daring to pray, daring to put action behind the pathetic and meaningless sound bites the government tries to announce to the world regularly. The decision to close the Temple Mount on Rosh Hodesh Nissan is simply another example of the impotent, ghetto mentality that plagues the Sharon government, and shows that Ariel Sharon is no longer a man that can lead our nation in strength and pride.
In the depths of the cold winters in Auschwitz and Siberia, starved and cold, beaten and imprisoned, Jews prayed. The shame of the Israeli government can know no bounds if in the free state of Israel, in the capital of our country, on the holiest of holy sites, Jews cannot gather and pray.
When the Soviet government told the Jews of the Soviet Union that they could not pray, that they could not openly identify themselves as Jews, millions of Jews around the world demanded that the Soviets "let my people go." Jews met in secret for holidays, took circuitous routes in order to be able to meet and practice their religion. The more they were persecuted, the louder came the message from the Jewish people. If you are not prepared to give them freedom of religion, we told the Soviets, let our people be free. Ultimately, the Jews of the former Soviet Union were given the right to emigrate and the right to pray anywhere they want in Russia.
When Jewish houses of worship are desecrated in France, Israel and world Jewry put the French on alert. Treat our people right or we will encourage them to come here. What an insult, cried the French, and yet government leaders quickly condemned the anti-Semitic attacks. Jews have a right to pray anywhere they want in France.
There are few places in the world today where Jews have to fear praying in the open. There is anti-Semitism, and yet there is also a general acceptance that hatred of Jews will not be openly accepted as it once was. Those who wish to practice anti-Semitism often find they have to couch their hatred in more politically correct terminology, and so they rail against Israel and say they are only anti-Zionist. But where Jews can be found, the right of the Jew to pray when and where he needs to, is not argued or disputed in any place except one.
Here, in the capital of the Jewish State, on our holiest of holy sites, Jews may not pray. They cannot cluster in groups of ten, as they are required to do, to recite the mourner's prayer, psalms of praise, words of supplication. So strong is the rule preventing a Jew from praying on the site of the Holy Temple, that a Jew is not even allowed to move his lips as if in prayer. At best, they will be forcefully removed; at worst, they will face arrest and police questioning, or harassment from Arab worshippers.
"What farce is this?" you might justifiably ask. What absurdity? What hypocrisy? We, as a people, have fought for the right to pray, to practice our religion to the very edges of the four corners of the earth and beyond. Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut, traveled into outer space and there recited the Kiddush, the blessing over wine we say each week as we celebrate the coming of the Sabbath. In outer space, Jews can pray.
At the White House, rabbis have stood to recite the blessings over the Hanukah candles and pray for world peace. In Washington, Jews can pray. We have prayed in Auschwitz, in the depths of our despair, and in Siberia, in the depths of exile.
When the world was worshiping idols, we Jews turned our hearts and words to the heavens and prayed. But not in our own city, not in the capital of our country, not in the one place that remains of all that we once were. All that Ariel Sharon says about the sanctity of Jerusalem as the eternal and undivided capital of our country is meaningless if a Jew cannot even whisper a prayer on the Temple Mount.
On Sunday, the Hebrew month of Nissan begins. Nissan is perhaps the most important month for the Jewish people. Rosh Hashana takes place on the first day of the month of Tishrei. This is the anniversary of the birth of the world, the creation of mankind. It is a universal celebration. A year has ended; a new one has begun. But Nissan is for the Jews alone. Though it announces the arrival of spring, it also commemorates the day that we as a people were given our first commandment, to celebrate the first day of this first month as a free people.
How ironic that the Israeli government has chosen this day to enslave itself, to deny freedom of prayer and movement to its own people, to deny any claim we have to the holiest of sites.
Over the years, I have seen many Muslim men bow to the ground in prayer. When I lived near Tel Aviv, it never surprised me that the Arabs knelt to the ground facing to the east. It is what I do each day, what I see my husband and children do. To the east, to Jerusalem, I thought, but I knew that it was to Mecca and Medina as well.
When I moved to Maaleh Adumim, which sits to the east of Jerusalem, I noticed something strange. The Arabs here do not pray to Jerusalem. They do not bow to Jerusalem. They bow with their heads facing to the east, leaving another part of their bodies pointed to Jerusalem. Mecca and Medina call to them. Jerusalem is a pale third, and yet we yield them total control and claim only a small portion of the outer retaining wall of what is left of our Temple.
In Hevron, at the Cave of the Patriarchs, where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and Sarah, Rifka and Leah are buried, we share the Tomb. Each day, Arabs and Jews manage to pray separately, in designated areas of the building. And then, on certain days, the site is closed to worshippers from one or the other of the religions. On our most sacred days, only Jews are allowed to enter and have full control over the entire Tomb, and on their most sacred days, Jews are barred from entering so that they may feel freedom to come in great numbers.
A just and fair solution to the Temple Mount area can never be found so long as Jews are not permitted the freedom to ascend and pray there. As holy as the Tomb of the Patriarchs is to our religion, it pales compared to the central and undisputed Temple Mount as the single most holy place in our tradition. To be fair and just, the only solution is for the Temple Mount to be closed to Moslems on our holiest days, as is done in Hebron. And, in an attempt to have peace in our land, we will have to accept that on their holiest days, we will be forbidden there. Any other solution reeks of weakness and hypocrisy.
In Jerusalem, on days when we would celebrate our birth as a nation, the Israeli government has decided to once again prevent Jews from entering the site completely, lest some Jew inadvertently anger the Arabs by daring to pray, daring to put action behind the pathetic and meaningless sound bites the government tries to announce to the world regularly. The decision to close the Temple Mount on Rosh Hodesh Nissan is simply another example of the impotent, ghetto mentality that plagues the Sharon government, and shows that Ariel Sharon is no longer a man that can lead our nation in strength and pride.
In the depths of the cold winters in Auschwitz and Siberia, starved and cold, beaten and imprisoned, Jews prayed. The shame of the Israeli government can know no bounds if in the free state of Israel, in the capital of our country, on the holiest of holy sites, Jews cannot gather and pray.