scholarly journals The Temple on the Coins of Bar Kokhba – a Manifestation of Longing or a Political Programme? A Few Remarks

2021 ◽  
pp. 21-31
Author(s):  
Jerzy Ciecieląg
Keyword(s):  
Basic Question ◽  
The Political ◽  
Historical Fact ◽  
Temple Mount ◽  
The Temple

The article is an attempt to answer the question of whether the building on coins issued during the Bar Kokhba revolt, usually interpreted as the Temple in Jerusalem, was a testimony of the control of Jerusalem by the rebels or a manifestation of the political programme of the revolt. This meant that perhaps also worship on the Temple Mount was resumed. The image of the building itself is analysed against a comparative background composed of other sacred buildings shown on earlier Jewish coins, in particular those coming from the period of the First Jewish War with Rome. Coins from other areas where similar buildings are represented were also used as comparative material. Consequently, the answer to the basic question of whether the possible Temple on Bar Kokhba coins was a confirmation of the historical fact of taking power over the Jewish capital or was it only a manifestation of longing – firstly after the loss of the Temple in 70, and secondly after the restoration of Jerusalem as the spiritual and political centre of the Chosen Nation – clearly leads to the second conclusion.

Neurotic Fantasy: The Third Temple As a Metaphor in the Contemporary Israeli Art of Nira Pereg and Yael Bartana

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 238-251
Author(s):  
Sigal Barkai
Keyword(s):  
Extensive Study ◽  
Israeli Society ◽  
The Political ◽  
Historical Discourse ◽  
Religious Rituals ◽  
Jewish Art ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
The Face ◽  
Temple Mount ◽  
The Temple

In the political reality of Israel, some symbols lie at the heart of the political, religious, national, and historical discourse that characterize the peoples and cultures living on the Israeli-Palestinian soil. Among these, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is one of the most complex and conflictual symbols. The multiple religious claims to the Temple Mount—Jewish, Christian, and Muslim—are the subject of extensive study, but this article focuses on their reflection in contemporary Israeli art. In traditional Jewish art, the visual representations of the Temple or of Jews praying nearby expressed the longing of the Jews for generations to return to the Mount. In contrast, Yael Bartana and Nira Pereg view the multiple socio-political currents and religious rituals surrounding the Temple Mount as a reflection of the internal public debate regarding the face of the Israeli society today. This article discusses the contribution of their visual art to a conscious and aware discourse about the Israeli society and the underground currents that shape its contemporary identity. The analysis of their work tracks a “politics of aesthetics”—interpretation of the images within a socio-political context—and draws upon Israeli sociology, art history, and visual culture. In-depth personal interviews with the artists also inform the analysis.

Religious Innovation under Fatimid Rule: Jewish and Muslim Rites in Eleventh-Century Jerusalem

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 203-226
Author(s):  
Daniella Talmon-Heller ◽  
Miriam Frenkel
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Sacred Space ◽  
World View ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Spiritual Leadership ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
The Political ◽  
Temple Mount ◽  
The Temple

Abstract This paper describes religious innovations introduced by Muslims in the (arguably) holy month of Rajab, and by Jews on the High Holidays of the month of Tishrei, in eleventh-century Jerusalem. Using a comparative perspective, and grounding analysis in the particular historical context of Fatimid rule, it demonstrates how the convergence of sacred space and sacred time was conducive to “religious creativity.” The Muslim rites (conducted on al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf / the Temple Mount) and the Jewish rites (on the Mount of Olives) shared a particular concern with the remission of sins and supplication on behalf of others, and a cosmological world view that envisioned Jerusalem as axis mundi. The Jewish rite was initiated “from above” by the political-spiritual leadership of the community, was dependent on Fatimid backing, and was inextricably tied to specific sites. The Muslim rite sprang “from below” and spread far, to be practiced in later periods all over the Middle East.

Time, Power, and Religion

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-123
Author(s):  
Jocelyne Cesari
Keyword(s):  
National Identities ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Minority Religions ◽  
National Community ◽  
Temple Mount ◽  
The Temple

Abstract The main argument of this paper is that the sacred time and space of the nation has displaced the meaning of sacredness of the religious sites, and legitimized the national community. By comparing the Temple Mount and Ayodhya disputes, the paper exposes the tensions between two polarities, sacred/profane and religious/political, which helps explain the influence of national identities on the contested sacredness of religious sites. The competition over the Temple Mount is nested within a “thicker” context of conflicting political claims over Jerusalem and national territory between Jewish groups on one hand and between Jews and Muslims on the other. The Ayodhya disagreement is related to the political tensions between the dominant and the minority religions, which have turned the religious dispute over a holy site into a debate on the sacredness of the national community.

scholarly journals The Role of the Temple Mount / Al-Haram Al-Sharif in the Deterioration of Muslim–Jewish Relations

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Ma'oz
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
National Movement ◽  
Old City ◽  
Palestinian Arab ◽  
Mutual Relations ◽  
Temple Mount ◽  
The Temple ◽  
East Jerusalem

For both Jews and Muslims the Temple Mount and the Old City of Jerusalem constitute highly important religious, cultural, political and national centres. For centuries Jews in the diaspora prayed in the direction of Jerusalem, vowed never to forget it (‘If I forget thee Jerusalem, may my right arm wither’); and blessed one another ‘Next year in Jerusalem’. The Zionist-Jewish movement (since the 1880s) – although predominantly secular – has considered Jerusalem (Zion) as the political and cultural centre of the Jewish people.By comparison, the Palestinian-Arab national movement has, since the 1920s established its national and political-cultural centre in East Jerusalem, while the Haram al Sharif, particularly the Al-Aqsa Mosque, has continued to be a top religious shrine for Muslims. They termed it Awla Al-Qiblatayn (the first prayer direction before Mecca); Thani Masjidayn (the second mosque after Mecca); a place where Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven (Isra’ and Mi’raj).This article will examine the changes in Muslim–Jewish mutual relations, especially since 1967, at both government and public levels. Special attention will be given to the development of both Islamic Judeophobia and Jewish Islamophobia, which have been associated with the dispute over the Temple Mount and East Jerusalem. 

The Fratricidal Hasmonean Conflict and the Murder of Onias

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vered Noam
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Original Version ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Babylonian Talmud ◽  
Political Stance ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Temple

This chapter examines the story of the internecine struggle between the two Hasmonean brothers, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, which brought the Hasmonean commonwealth to its end. Only in Josephus is the story of the murder of a righteous man, Onias, juxtaposed to the central tradition regarding the siege of the temple during this war, although this too was clearly an early Jewish tradition. In the rabbinic sources, the story of the siege and the sacrificial animals underwent multiple reworkings, and it is the Babylonian Talmud that reflects the more original version and message of the story. If in Chapter 2, we saw the “rabbinization” of the figure of John Hyrcanus, here the story itself underwent this process and its original moral message was replaced by multiple halakhic implications. In both corpora, this dissension between brothers is seen as the leading cause of the downfall of the Hasmonean dynasty. This was in contradistinction to the political stance represented in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which interpreted the Roman occupation as proof of the sinfulness of the Hasmonean state from its very inception.

Midrash, Myth, and Bakhtin's Chronotope: The Itinerant Well and the Foundation Stone in Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Adelman
Keyword(s):  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Time Space ◽  
The World ◽  
Dome Of The Rock ◽  
Temple Mount ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Foundation Stone

AbstractThroughout the midrash Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer (PRE), motifs are recycled to connect primordial time to the eschaton. In this paper, I read passages on the well “created at twilight of the Sixth Day” in light of Bakhtin's notion of “chronotope” (lit. time-space). The author of PRE disengages the itinerant well from its traditional association with the desert sojourn and links it, instead, to the foundation stone of the world (even shtiyah) at the Temple Mount. The midrash reflects the influence of Islamic legends about the “white stone” around which the Dome of the Rock was built (ca. 690 C.E.). Over the course of the discussion, PRE is understood in terms of the genre “narrative midrash” and compared to classical rabbinic literature in order to illustrate changes in both form and content arising from the author's apocalyptic eschatology.

Between the Temple Mount/Haram el-Sharif and the Holy Sepulchre: Archaeological Involvement in Jerusalem's Holy Places

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-288
Author(s):  
Gideon Avni ◽  
Jon Seligman
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Public Concern ◽  
Academic World ◽  
Holy Places ◽  
Temple Mount ◽  
The Temple

Archaeological involvement in the holy places of Jerusalem has become a focus of professional and public concern during recent years. The two sacred areas of the Temple Mount and the Holy Sepulchre combine their role as historical and architectural monuments of supreme importance with their daily use as central religious sites. The connection between scholars, mainly archaeologists and architects, who studied these monuments, and the local religious authorities in charge of the holy sites has accompanied research on Jerusalem since the mid-nineteenth century. The main issues to be analyzed in this paper are related to the ways archaeologists and other scholars are involved with the major holy sites of Jerusalem: how the 'owners' of the Temple Mount and the Holy Sepulchre viewed these scholars and their research; to what degree they were prepared to cooperate with them; what their motives were for doing so and how archaeologists and other researchers operated and adhered to scholarly interests in such complex sites. The Jerusalem case study is used to investigate the larger scope of interrelations between the academic world and the religious 'owners' of holy sites in other locations.

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