Things have been getting scary over here in Israel. To explain about the war and to explain about the historical and political causes, what actually happened and what you can do, I made this video playlist.
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Also don’t forget to donate to United Hatzalah:
We discuss the continuing story of the First Exile, the exile to Babylon. We will answer the following questions:
Was the Land left Completely empty?
Who was exiled?
What changed about Judaism in Babylon?
We refer both to the Biblical history, as recorded in the Bible and the Book of Ezekiel. We also refer to the archaeological record.
This is a continuation of both a Biblical, Archaeological and Historical podcast about Judaism and the History of
the Jews.
But first we find out about the first Diaspora Community in Egypt.
We follow the final part of the collapse of Judah after the Destruction of the First Temple, the tragedy at the new capital in Mitzpeh, and the assassination of Gedalyah. Why is this such a significant event in Jewish History? What effect does this have on Judaism? Why fast on the fast of Gedalyah?
I chose recently to make a new video (See bottom of the page) about Islam and the Temple Mount and answer the question:
“Why is the Temple Mount (Haram El Sharif) important to Muslims?” A day before I made the video the following thing happened:
I was standing in Synagogue, a guy turns around to me and asks “What do you do?”. I told him that I am a tour guide.
He says: “I hope that you’re not one of those guides who tell people that Muslims have anything here”. He went on to say that guides who do this are in fact “sellouts”, that the Temple Mount is only holy for us Jews and everyone else can get lost.
The truth is, the Temple Mount is the only place in the world that is truly holy for Jews, the place the first Temple stood, the place the Second Temple stood. Every time a Jew turns and prays it is to Jerusalem and the site of the Temple. Every Orthodox Jew prays 3 times a day for the rebuilding of the Temple. However, that is far from the “whole story” and far from what a decent tour guide who studies the texts should tell you in its entirety.
People come to Jerusalem and hire a guide to hear from an educated person the story and history of Jerusalem. If you were introducing the history of Jerusalem it would be irresponsible and really silly to leave out the various periods of Muslim rule; in total over 1000 years of rule. Did this man honestly expect me to leap from “The Romans destroyed the Temple in the year 70…. now we have a Jewish State”? Islam is a part of the history of Jerusalem, it takes a shockingly insecure person to try and ignore their history.
I accept that the Temple Mount has become entwined in the conflict between Israel and Palestine. May Israelis and Palestinians have lost family and friends. It becomes very difficult to stick to the facts or to divide cold history from our feelings and desires to protect ourselves, not to sell out, to be true to ourselves and be proud Israelis.
As a religious Jew, I have no problem with other religions finding Jerusalem to be important. I actually think that this is how a future Messianic Age will come about. As Isaiah wrote:
“For My house will be a House of Prayer for All Nations”
כי ביתי בית תפילה יקרא לכח העמים
Isaiah 56:7
Jerusalem is the center of my world and it should be the center of the world for all nations, not divide us in arguments about whose buildings should be destroyed, rather Jerusalem should unite us to better our global condition.
My video ” Why Israel is Restricting access to the Temple Mount” has been so successful that I am now over the 100 subscriber mark, finally. It was a great video to make, I talk about the various reasons anybody would be restricted from visiting the Temple Mount:
Political reasons: to do with the Israel / Palestine conflict.
Legal Reasons: Tracing the history from the British Mandate and treaties made then until the present situation where The Supreme Court has given control of access via something called the “Balance formula” to the Israel Police Force.
Religious Reasons: I am part of the stream or really an “attitude” of religious Judaism that has a self-imposed restriction on entering the Temple Mount. I explain in the video why I limit myself from entering the Temple Mount and what the different Halachic positions are, meaning what are the different opinions in Jewish religious law.
I need to get to 1000 subscribers before I can monetize, due to COVID-19 I am an out-of-work tour guide, and I could do with the extra revenue from all of this extra work. One way to do this is to get to 1000 subscribers on Youtube. Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and if you want to really help contribute using the “buy me a coffee” Ko-fi button or Patreon button below.
Hover the arrow over the blue gazelle icon (that’s the Scoutisrael icon) next to the title on the video – “Why Israel is Restricting access to the Temple Mount”, the red “subscribe” button should magically appear for you to click on!
If this fails just search for “scoutisrael” on Youtube and click on “subscribe”!
I have just finished uploading all of my Podcasts to my Youtube channel.
Due to the Coronavirus, all of my tours being cancelled and currently being in quarantine I can no longer justify the time and money involved in creating a podcast. But this will not be the last of my podcasts because of your contribution. Save this podcast!
My latest History of Judaism Podcast, all made possible by the kind donation from some of my friends. This podcast covers the role of Prophecy in the story and in ancient Judah. We focus specifically on the Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah (mainly Jeremiah). We find out what is the role of the Prophet, how Jeremiah differs from Isaiah and what is his part in the story. We’ve been graciously granted another year of podcasts, but don’t forget to donate to improve sound quality and so I can pay my own running costs.
I am also including the next two podcasts, commemorating the 9th of the Hebrew Month of Av, the date of the destruction of the Temple of Solomon.
My latest Podcast about The Judean rank and file and their role in the Biblical narrative.
I need your contributions to make sure that this is not my last Podcast for the foreseeable future. Coronavirus has taken all of my regular work and I can’t afford the subscription anymore.
Unlock with Patreon