A Mountain of Temples 

I used to go to the Temple Mount when I lived in Israel. There were guards, of course. There were always guards. Israeli guards and Waqf guards. I went not to pray, not to disrupt others’ prayers and not to create disturbances. i went to honor the religion of Islam, and to sight-see one of the most spectacular sites in Jerusalem. As I entered the Dome of the Rock Mosque, I followed the appropriate customs as outlined in the pamphlets I had and the instructions outside. 

The inside of the Mosque was beautiful. People milling around respectfully, some trying to take furtive pictures of the people praying or the ornaments and artwork inside. I went almost every time I visited Jerusalem during those years. My memories of those visits are strong and vivid. The beauty of the colors of the inside walls and ceiling. the pillars, carpeting, tile floors, tiled artwork in the ceiling. A masterpiece of art, sculpture and architecture. 

Belief about the religious significance of this place is fascinatingly coincidental. 

Historically, this place once held the Jewish holy temples, the first one built in 957 BCE by King Solomon, destroyed and then rebuilt as the second temple in 165 BCE. It was then destroyed again in 70 CE by the Romans. The Romans then built their own temple, the Jupiter Capitolinus. Fast forward to 691 CE, when the caliph 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan built the Dome of the Rock on the exact same site, originally built not as a mosque but as a ‘mashhad’ - a shrine for pilgrims. 

Jewish belief holds that this site is where Abraham attempted to sacrifice his only son to God, the place where the Jewish Temples were eventually built. Islam holds that this is the exact spot, called Haram al-Sharif, where the Prophet Muhammad began his night journey to heaven. Christianity believes that this is the site where Jesus first argued against the perceived corruption of the temple, an act that led to his death and the beginning of Christianity. Thus, the Dome of the Rock, the Temple Mount, Haram al-Sharif, sits on a piece of land worshipped, adored, and loved by Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Truly an historic and remarkable piece of real estate. 

I haven’t been inside the Temple Mount since the late 1970s. I’ve been to religious buildings all over Jerusalem; Mosques, Churches, Synagogues. I’ve visited dozens of historical buildings and campuses all over Israel. The beauty of the architecture, the art, the historical significance, the spirituality of the members within - it takes my breath away. 

The utter sadness I feel about the situation in Jerusalem shakes me to my core. Not because I have any religious devotion to the sites, buildings, parcels of land. Not because I think Israel is right, Islam is right, the Waqf is right, or anyone is right, or wrong. I am sad because so many cannot marvel in the majesty of that place. So many cannot walk along the stones and feel the history, enter the holy buildings and breathe in the memories of so many generations, going back thousands of years. Each time I go to Israel, I visit the Western Wall, the remnant of the exterior wall of the Jewish temple. I touch the stones and let my mind wander to what it must have been like to have lived then, to have been part of such history. I feel the same sense of awe of majesty in the ornate churches, mosques and other shrines throughout Israel. 

It is not right. It has never been right, what is going on with the Temple Mount. We have come to a place recently in Israel … and I mean over the past 5o years, where spirituality and religious belief are no longer of the people. They are weapons to use against ‘the other’ - they are instruments of politics. Israel handed over the authority of the Temple Mount to the Waqf in 1967, immediately after taking control of all of Jerusalem in a war. Israel decided that this place, this holy place, should be looked after by those who know about it, those who care about. The Jordanian Waqf, who administered the site prior to the 1967 war, was invited to continue their tasks. Moshe Dayan argued, successfully, that Israel was not interested in changing or destroying the mosques. Indeed, Dayan went against some of the Israeli leaders and prevailed in keeping the Haram al-Sharif completely under the administration of the Waqf. To this day, the Waqf administers the site; of course, Israeli guards stand at all the entrances - but the Waqf controls the site. 

Recently, there has been violence on the Temple Mount. Someone shot and killed two Israeli policemen on the grounds, outside the Dome of the Rock. Israel’s response was to place metal detectors by each of the entrances to the holy site. When I heard this, my immediate response was, wait, aren’t there already metal detectors there? There are metal detectors everywhere in Israel. You must go through a metal detector when you go to the movies, the supermarket, a cafe. At every holy site, there are security systems. It seemed incomprehensible that there weren’t metal detectors at the entrances to one of the most holy sites in Islam, and Judaism. When the outrage started, I began to realize that this was not about security. This was not about protecting pilgrims, guests, tourists, and mosque goers. 

Religion is … excuse me, should be, for all people. The artifacts of belief, the products of passion, the results of hundreds and thousands of years of belief should be something to behold, something to cherish, something to share. In all other places, we look to ensure the safety of the guests, the members, the prayerful. This mountain of temples, where the history of religion began, has been transformed to an ugly, dangerous place where the tiniest spark can create a fire of enormous proportions. What Moshe Dayan did was to give the religious authorities control over sacred places. What has happened since dishonors the religion. It dishonors all who believe and cherish the beauty. My sadness is great. 

Neal Elyakin

Ann Arbor, MI 

August 4, 2017