The Jerusalem Temple And Its Older Brother

The Jerusalem Temple (Beit HaMikdosh) and the Ka’ba, the House of God (Baitullah) in Mecca are the two most well-known sites for monotheistic pilgrimage in the world. The Islamic Hajj to the Ka’ba in Makka, and the Jewish Hajj to the Temple in Jerusalem, have been alternate swings of a single sacred pendulum connecting earthly humans to one monotheistic Divine source in the heavens. The Ka’ba was the original site of the Islamic Hajj. Destroyed in the days of Noah, it was later rebuilt by Abraham and his son Ishmael. After several centuries it was desecrated by later generations of idol worshipers. During the centuries while the Ka’ba was desecrated, Prophet Solomon built a Temple in Jerusalem for Jewish Haj on the site where Abraham bound his son Isaac as an offering to God. Four centuries later the Temple of Solomon was destroyed in 587 BCE by the Babylonians. Then the Temple was rebuilt with the support of Cyrus the Great, King of Persia, and lasted for almost six centuries. As the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 BCE – c. 50 CE) states; Jewish pilgrims came to Jerusalem from the ends of the earth, and from all the compass points. But with the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE, the pilgrimage Hajj aspect of the week-long harvest festival of Hag Sukkot, began a gradual decline in the spiritual consciousness of the Jewish People. The first time Hag/Hajj is mentioned in the Torah is in that famous scene when Prophets: “Moses and Aaron told Pharaoh; ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go into the wilderness, that they may hold a feast (Hag) for me.’” [Exodus 5:1] or better: ”And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh; ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a Hajj/pilgrimage feast for me in the wilderness.’” But that one-time Hajj never occurred because Pharaoh refused to free the Jewish People thus incurring Divine wrath. The normative annual two Jewish Hajj week-long pilgrimages was the liberation celebration of Haj Passover; and especially the gratitude celebration of the harvest festival of Haj Sukkot. The Torah declares: “Celebrate Hajj Sukkot for seven days after you have harvested the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns…Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place He will choose: at the Hajj of Matzah (Passover), the Hajj of Weeks, and the Hajj of Sukkot.” (Deuteronomy 16:13-16) Hajj Sukkot was so important during the centuries when Solomon’s Temple stood that the holy week of Sukkot was often called simply “the Hajj” because of the very large numbers of Jews who came up to the Temple in Jerusalem. Hajj Passover is also celebrated as a weeklong pilgrimage. The third Hajj of Weeks is similar to Islamic Umrah, the non-mandatory lesser pilgrimage made by Muslims to Mecca, which may be performed at any time of the year. Although they share common rites, Umrah can be performed in less than a few hours; while Hajj is more time-consuming and involves many more rituals. The third Jewish Hajj of Weeks, like Umrah is much simpler than Hajj Passover and can be performed in less than a few hours; on any one day during the seven weeks following Hajj Passover. The Sacred Mosque (Masjid al-Haram) is the largest mosque in the world and surrounds one of Islam’s holiest places, the Kaaba. Unlike other mosques which are gender segregated, men and women can worship at the Al-Masjid Al-Haram together. The Holy Temple (Beit ha-Mikdash) of Jerusalem had two successive Temples on the Temple Mount where now stands the Dome of the Rock. The Jerusalem Temple complex was separated into different areas where male priests, men, women and non-Jews could all come to worship the one God. Why is the Ka’ba the older brother of the Jerusalem Temple? Prophet Abraham is connected to both sacred sites. Prophets Abraham and Ishmael rebuild the destroyed Ka’ba; and Prophets Abraham and Isaac are tested on the hill where the Jerusalem Temple will be built by Prophet Solomon. Since Islam is the last of the Abrahamic religions it is the most universal of them. Since Judaism is the first, and for over twelve centuries the only ongoing monotheistic religion, it is the least universal and the most pluralistic and tribal of them. Prophet Abraham, the Hebrew (Geneses 14:13) was the first, and only prophet, to successfully establish, through the descendants of his own two sons, three ongoing monotheistic religions, that have lasted into the 21st century: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; witch now make up about half of the world’s population. Judaism discourages people who are interested in converting to Judaism by believing that Judaism is the only true religion. Indeed, most non-Jews who become Jewish do it to unify a marriage or because they have a Jewish ancestor even it they do not yet know it. Judaism is not a missionary faith and so doesn’t actively try to convert non-Jewish people (in many countries anti-Jewish laws prohibited converting to Judaism for centuries). However, the modern Jewish community increasingly welcomes would-be converts. A person who converts to Judaism becomes a Jew and is just as Jewish as someone born into Judaism. As Prophet Micah (4:5) states: “For all the (other) peoples walk each in the name of its god; but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever.” Five hundred years before the birth of Prophet Muhammad, Rabbi Yishmael, one of Judaism’s most important rabbis, was recorded as saying: “In the future, the sons of Ishmael (the Arabs) will do fifteen things in the Land of Israel … They will fence in the breaches of the walls of the Temple, and construct a building (the Dome of the Rock) on the site of the (ruined by the Romans) sanctuary”. Prophet Zechariah even includes those who were previously Israel’s enemies: “Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem, will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate Hajj Sukkot.” (Zechariah 14:16)

Just as the Ka’ba has always welcomed all Muslims who answer the call: “Call upon the people for Hajj. They will come to you on their bare feet, or riding any weak camel, and they come to you from every far desert. [Qur’an 22:27].

When all those, both near and far, who revere this place as a standard, share it in love with everyone else who reveres it, then I will do as Abraham requested, and “Make this a land of Peace, and provide its people with the produce of the land”. [Qur’an 2:126]. Then will all the children of Prophet Abraham live in Holiness, Peace and Prosperity. Every year Jews in synagogues worldwide read Genesis chapters 21 and 22 on the first and second days of the Jewish New Year Festival (October 2-4, this year). Jews read about Prophet Ishmael as well as Prophet Isaac because the patriarch of the Arab people is part of our Jewish tradition and Chapter 21—the story of the birth and banishment of Ishmael—establishes our Jewish connection to God’s non-Jewish children. Can this be a good model for family reconciliations today by forgiving old hurts? And can it also become a model for the descendants of Prophet Ishmael and Prophet Isaac, contemporary Arabs and Israeli Jews, to find forgiveness and reconciliation. Yes. It is time to choose reconciliation rather than retribution between Jews and Arabs in this world. The time for enmity is over.

Everyone knows how important fasting during Ramadan, and daily worship and prayer are in Islam; but few know that Islam considers reconciling people better than many acts of worship. Prophet Muhammad said: “Should I not tell you what is better in degree than prayer, fasting, and charity.” They (the companions) said: “Yes.” He said: “Reconciling people, because grudges and disputes are a razor (that shaves off faith).” (Ahmad, Abu Dawood, and At-Tirmithi)

Even more amazing, Prophet Muhammad said: “The one who reconciles people is not considered a liar if he exaggerates what is good or says what is good.” [Ahmad]

This is an excellent guide to dealing with the three-generation old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rather than focusing mostly on what the other side did to us, we all should focus on how the conflict has hurt all of us, and how much better our future would be if we could live next to each other in peace.

If the descendants of Prophet Isaac and Prophet Ishmael negotiate a settlement that reflects the religious policy that “…there is no sin upon them if they make terms of settlement between them – and settlement [reconciliation] is best.” [Quran 4: 128]

Prophet Muhammad said: “He is not a liar who seeks to reconcile between people and says [only] good things.” (al-Bukhaari, 2490) This is because the Qur’an refers to Prophet Abraham as a community or nation: “Abraham was a nation/community [Ummah]; dutiful to God, a monotheist [hanif], not one of the polytheists.” [Quran 16:120] If Prophet Abraham is an Ummah then fighting between the descendants of Prophets Ishmael and Isaac is a civil war and should always be avoided.

After all: “Righteousness is not in turning your faces towards the east or the west. Rather, the righteous are those who believe in Allah, the Last Day, the angels, the (holy) Books, and the prophets; who give charity out of their cherished wealth to relatives, orphans, the poor, ˹needy˺ travelers, beggars, and for freeing captives; who establish prayer, pay alms-tax, and keep the pledges they make; and who are patient in times of suffering, adversity, and in ˹the heat of˺ battle. It is they who are true ˹in faith˺, and it is they who are mindful ˹of Allah˺” [Quran 2:177]

Rabbi Simeon ben Gamliel declared that all nations will in the time to come gather together in Jerusalem (Avot d’Rebbe Natan 35) where non-Jews were permitted to enter to pray in the Temple of Solomon. An ancient Jewish legend predicts that when the Messiah comes and resurrection day occurs; the Ka’ba in holy Mecca, will go to join the Temple Mount’s Foundation Stone in holy Jerusalem, bringing with it the inhabitants of Mecca, and they shall be joined together. God willing the new Jewish New Year (5785) will be the beginning of a joint development to make from the river to the sea an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate. I believe we can make it truly aspirational by making it focus on people first and the land second. May it be from the river to the sea Palestinians and Israelis should be freed of hatred and suffering by ‘a two state for two peoples sharing of the land peacefully’ solution.’