Will Israel Start Animal Sacrfices Again

This goat was about sacrificed, just was rescued at the last minute by an Israeli official. Courtesy Israeli Police hide caption

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Courtesy Israeli Police

This goat was well-nigh sacrificed, but was rescued at the last minute by an Israeli official.

Courtesy Israeli Constabulary

For the last 10 years, on the eve of Passover, the Federman family has loaded a young male goat into their motorcar and driven from their farm in a West Bank Jewish customs to the Former City of Jerusalem, where they hoped to slaughter the animate being in the ritual cede prescribed in the Bible.

The family unit is not alone in its mission. The number of Israeli Jews budgeted Jerusalem with goats prepared for sacrifice has been growing in recent years, according to the Federmans.

"Thank God, more people are trying to carry out this commandment," said Elisheva Federman, who has a herd of about 15 goats. Whenever a male goat is born, she does not vaccinate or brand information technology because that would make it ineligible to be sacrificed. Co-ordinate to the Book of Leviticus, an offering must be "a male without blemish."

Merely each yr, police prevent the Federmans and others from slaughtering goats on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. They fear such an human activity on this site, sacred to Jews for once housing the ancient Jewish temples simply as well home to Islam's tertiary holiest site, could ignite tensions between State of israel and the Palestinians. Muslims refer to the hilltop compound, home to the iconic Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque, every bit the Noble Sanctuary. They believe the Prophet Muhammad journeyed to sky from there.

To keep these tensions in check, Israel and Jordan, which oversees religious diplomacy at the holy site, take agreed on certain policies. Israel bans non-Muslims from praying in that location. Only Muslims tin can enter the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque, a rule set past the Jordanian Waqf, or religious trust.

Seeing this arrangement as a violation of their right to religious freedom, and eager to assert a Jewish presence on the Temple Mountain, a growing number of religious Jews effort to pray, hold weddings and even carry out brute sacrifices at that place. A number of far-correct Israeli politicians support such actions and abet for increasing Jewish admission to the expanse. But many politicians (and Israelis) see this stance equally fueling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This calendar week, co-ordinate to Israeli media, police detained at least 17 people heading for the Temple Mount, including two members of the Federman family unit, and confiscated six babe goats, saving them from being sacrificed.

1 of those arrested was 22-year-old yeshiva student Dov Jacobs from the West Banking company settlement of Hashmonaim. In a scheme that took weeks of planning in attempts to avoid police detection, Jacobs came to a certain address in Jerusalem's One-time City on Monday to pick upwardly a goat. The goat was brought into the ancient walled city from a farm a week earlier, when police were less likely to be on the sentinel for animals intended for cede, Jacobs said.

Jacobs was to comport the baby goat to the Temple Mount, where his cohorts would be waiting with priestly habiliment, a portable chantry and tools needed for sacrifice, all specially fabricated according to biblical requirements.

"Merely from the commencement the police were post-obit me," Jacobs said. "I had to sneak around for a couple of hours just to get inside of the house. And so after walking out of the house with the caprine animal for 30 seconds, constabulary stopped me and arrested me."

Jacobs was eventually released from detention just a couple of hours before the outset of the Passover seder meal. The caprine animal was turned over to the city'southward veterinary services department.

"They will probably even question the goat," quipped Jacobs, who will need to appear in court later this month on charges of conspiring to commit a criminal offense.

Animal sacrifice was once a central role of many cultures, including that of ancient Israel. The Bible allowable in smashing detail daily offerings likewise as special offerings for holidays like Passover and for personal reasons, such as committing a sin. Both goats and sheep are acceptable for sacrifice, co-ordinate to Jewish law.

The do ended for the most office when the Second Temple, which like the First Temple in one case stood on the Temple Mountain, was destroyed in the yr 70. At present, rather than daily burnt offerings, religious Jews offer daily prayers.

Jews had no access to the Temple Mount between the 1948 and 1967 wars. That inverse after Israel gained control of the Old City in the 1967 Mideast War. And the thought of reviving sacrifices has gained traction. Some religious Jews cite writings by the 12th century philosopher Maimonides, who argued that some sacrifices can be made without a temple. Although they remain a minority and are considered a radical fringe by mainstream Judaism, some Israeli rabbis argue that Jews today are still obligated to bring a Passover sacrifice to the Temple Mount because not doing so results in divine punishment.

But the established rabbinical position remains that Jews should not set human foot on the Temple Mount because it once contained the "holy of holies," the part of the temple that was so sacred that just the high priest entered — and just once a twelvemonth, on Yom Kippur, the twenty-four hour period of atonement.

For more than a decade, organizations that hope to somewhen build a tertiary temple in Jerusalem have been holding what they call a "practice drill" for the Passover cede. An creature is slaughtered by someone wearing priestly clothing, with trumpets bravado in the groundwork, and the blood is scattered on an chantry; merely it is not considered an actual cede considering police accept never immune it to be held on the Temple Mountain.

This year, in a surprising move, police allowed the re-enactment to exist held inside the Old City walls for the beginning fourth dimension, in the main square of the Jewish Quarter, about a quarter of a mile from the Temple Mount. About 200 people attended the event, eating the meat of the slaughtered lamb, co-ordinate to Israeli media reports.

Simply all other attempts at ritual slaughter have been stopped this year. The confiscated goats were given to the metropolis's veterinary services department, which is caring for the animals while the police and the ministry of agriculture investigate the incidents.

"The goats were in very adept health," said Frayda Leibtag, the Jerusalem mayor's adviser on international affairs and media. "And they are in good hands at present." She said that once the investigation concludes they will be given back to their owners "or good new homes will be institute."

Federman said officials have never returned their confiscated goats in the past. The family has lost at least 10 goats this way over the years, a monetary loss totaling thousands of dollars.

"So for us," she says, "it actually is a cede."

Sara Toth Stub is a Jerusalem-based announcer who has written for The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires, The Associated Press and other publications. Contact her @saratothstub

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Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/04/13/523770582/goats-are-rescued-on-their-way-to-being-sacrificed-in-jerusalem

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