A group of prominent rabbis sent a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu, requesting that a Passover offering be allowed on the Temple Mount.
Rabbi Hillel Weiss, the former spokesman for the Sanhedrin, emphasized that a Temple structure is not needed in order to bring the Passover sacrifice and a temporary altar that can be assembled and disassembled in one day would suffice.
Rabbi Weiss suggested the possibility that the guilt of preventing the Passover sacrifice may have led to the political troubles plaguing both Trump and Netanyahu over the last year.
As per Trump’s Deal of the Century, the Sanhedrin petitioned the Israeli government, filing to receive permits that would allow priests to perform the ritual of the Pesach (Passover) sacrifice temporary altar that will be transported to the temple mount and removed immediately after the ceremony. If the government grants the permits, as it should, based on Israeli and international law, this will be the first time since the destruction of the Second Temple that an altar has stood in its proper place on Judaism’s holiest site: the threshing floor purchased by King David.
For the past eight years, the Sanhedrin has been conducting reenactments of the Temple service as a means of preparing for the actual reinstating of the service. These reenactments are held before each of the Biblically mandated feasts by kohanim (Jewish men descended for Aaron the high priests) dressed in the proper Temple garb.
The reenactment of the Pesach offering has special significance as the commandment has great import. There are only two mitzvot (Biblical commandments) for which non-compliance receives the most severe punishment mandated by the Torah, karet (being cut off from the community, or excommunicated): brit milah (circumcision) and the korban Pesach (Passover sacrifice).
Constructing the altar (courtesy: Sanhedrin)
“Despite various issues of Jewish law, such as ritual impurity and lack of a high priest, Jews are still required and technically able to bring the sacrifice,” Rabbi Hillel Weiss, the spokesman for the Sanhedrin told Breaking Israel News. “The only thing preventing the Jewish People from performing the Passover sacrifice is the Israeli government.”
The Sanhedrin recently performed an intense study concerning the current status of the Passover offering and concluded that at this juncture, one sacrifice made at the Temple Mount brought in the name of the entire Jewish people would suffice. The Sanhedrin held a special meeting on Wednesday to discuss the Pesach offering reenactment as well as contingency plans should the government permit the actual ritual to be performed on the Temple Mount at the proper time.
As they do every year, the Sanhedrin submitted requests for permits to perform the reenactment to be held on the Temple Mount three days before the holiday. They also submitted a separate request for the actual sacrifice to be held on the Temple Mount on the holiday. Included in this request is the plan to bring a stone altar to the Temple Mount.
The Passover sacrifice can only be offered in one place; on the Temple Mount. The sacrifice does not require an actual Temple structure but it does require an altar that is built to adhere to the Biblical requirements. Such an altar was constructed last year and stands ready.
