Hebrew Voices #4 – Triumph Over Terror (Rebroadcast)

Keith Johnson, Yehudah Glick, triumph over terror, freedom of worship, Temple Mount, Yehovah, name, 1 Chronicles 23:25, 1 Kings 8:41-43, 2 Chronicles 33:4, 2 Chronicles 33:7, 2 Chronicles 6:6, 2 Kings 21:7, bfa international, Deuteronomy 31:10-13, Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Dome of the Rock, knife, knife attacks, nehemia gordon, Numbers 6:24-27, Psalm 122, Sukkot, temple mount truth project, Terror, terrorism, terrorist attacks, Yehuda Glick, glick , Zechariah 14:3-4

In this episode of Hebrew Voices, Triumph Over Terror, Nehemia Gordon speaks with his old friend and “Pearls Partner", Keith Johnson — an African American Methodist pastor who came to Israel to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Yehuda Glick’s survival of an assassination attempt by a Muslim extremist. Glick is an Orthodox Rabbi and human rights activist who works to make the Temple Mount accessible to people of all faiths. The attempted assassination aroused Jews from all walks of life to proclaim triumph over terror through freedom of worship on the Temple Mount.

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Hebrew Voices #4 – Triumph Over Terror

You are listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

Nehemia: Shalom, this is Nehemia Gordon with Hebrew Voices, and I am here with a special guest, Keith Johnson. Shalom, Keith.

Keith: Am I a special guest, Nehemia?

Nehemia: You are a special guest who flew all the way just for this discussion, from America. Is this why you came? Actually, why did you come here?

Keith: I actually came here because I got a phone call from a very interesting man that many people talk about here in Israel, and actually, sometimes even all over the world. His name is Rabbi Yehuda Glick. And Rabbi Yehuda Glick called me as kind of a last-minute thing, and he said, “I want to know if you would help me.” And I said, “What do you want me to do?” He says, “We’re having the one-year celebration of the fact that…” as he says it, “he got a hug from heaven, that God literally reached down and told him he had more work to do.”

For those that don’t know Rabbi Glick, some people would actually say that he is a part of the reason that we’re in the situation we’re in now, which we’re going to talk about. But there was an assassination attempt last year, not far from this spot, at the Menachem Begin Center…

Nehemia: A 10-minute walk.

Keith: A 10-minute walk.

Nehemia: And that’s what I want to talk to you about today, is really - why is this happening? In Israel, we call this “hamatzav”, the situation. And by “the situation”, that’s the euphemism for… You know, there is this spate of attacks against Jews, knifing attacks, shooting attacks. And just yesterday, the day before we’re recording this, last night there was this terrorist attack in Beer Sheva.

So why is this happening? You know, I’ll have conversations with people when I’m about to leave the house and they’ll say, “Well, what are you carrying?” They’ll say, “I have a sharp screwdriver.” And literally, I showed you this right here - we’re in my living room here in Jerusalem - and I have this tiny little hammer that I sometimes walk around with, because one of the things that’s really different about this round of attacks is, we’ve had bombings before, but they usually were in population centers. It was like a crowded bus, or a crowded café.

And what’s happening now is, I mean, a 13-year-old kid riding his bike was attacked. They’re attacking people everywhere, there’s nowhere that’s safe. Or at least, that’s the feeling that people have. And so it’s actually really different, and a lot of people are asking, “Why is this happening?” What have you heard in the Western media?

Keith: Before I got here, the message was being sent that basically, this all has to do with the Temple Mount, and specifically, it has to do with Israel changing “the status quo”, which I don’t think people really know what the status quo is. But Israel’s changing something on the Temple Mount, and that they’re storming the Al Aqsa Mosque, and Jews are coming in, and they’re going to take away the Al Aqsa Mosque.

Nehemia: This is what the Arabs are saying, or what the people are saying?

Keith: This is what the Arabs are saying, but it’s being interpreted by people that are actually carrying their water, as I say, carrying their message and saying, “Yeah, Israel is going to change the status quo.” And Netanyahu stood up and said, “No, that’s not the case.” But there have been things that have changed, and they’re pointing to those things and saying, “This is why there’s an …” they’re using the word, an “uprising”.

Nehemia: So let’s back up. So Yehuda Glick - and I didn’t know this actually, until yesterday at this event, that you were one of the hosts of this event. It was the year-anniversary of the assassination attempt on Yehuda Glick. An Arab drove up to him on a little motorcycle, a motorbike, in front of the Begin Center, which is, like I said, a 10-minute walk from here, in Jerusalem, and he shot him. He shot him what, four times?

Keith: Yeah, four times, he shot him right in the chest.

Nehemia: He shot him four times and Yehuda survived…

Keith: Yeah.

Nehemia: …which is unbelievable. But why did they shoot Yehuda Glick? Why him? Like, last night in Beer Sheva, it was a random attack. The guy who was killed was a 19-year-old Israeli boy. And it wasn’t entirely random, he was killed because he was in an army uniform. But they could’ve killed anybody in a uniform and been just as happy.

In fact, as soon as I saw that, it said he was in Golani, the person who was killed last night in Beer Sheva, and the first thing I did is, I wanted to know, “Is that my nephew?” who’s also in a Golani uniform. So why is this happening?

Keith: Specifically, as it pertains to Yehuda, there are a lot of people that are interpreting that his voice of calling more and more Jewish people to ascend, but not only Jewish people to ascend…

Nehemia: To ascend the Temple Mount.

Keith: To ascend the Temple Mount. That basically, he became the voice for that call. And Israel has given statistics to say there has been a huge increase, a huge increase in the last five years of more and more Jewish people that are ascending the Temple Mount. And what the Palestinian voice is saying is, “They’re increasing more and more Jews to come to the Temple Mount because they’re going to take the Al Aqsa Mosque. They’re going to split the Al Aqsa Mosque. They’re going to stop us from worshipping.”

And so you’re using that information. So Yehuda became, if I can say, the symbol of the Jewish right to ascend, and he began to get death threats. I mean, there were death threats that were coming daily for him, and he actually went to the Israeli government and said, “Listen, something’s going to happen. Blood’s going to be spilled.” And sure enough, the situation took place where this man came to him and said, “I’m sorry, but you’re an enemy of Al Aqsa.” And then he shot him four times, and now the rest is history.

One year later, we’re back at the exact same spot. I like to say, this is triumph over terror. We’re there. This event’s going to take place. And I just have to say, Nehemia, and I know this is Hebrew Voices, this is your new thing. But I understand, now you’re writing for the Times of Israel as a blogger. You’re big on iTunes, and all this.

What Yehuda asked me, he said, “Keith, would you please be an ambassador for this message every chance you get?” So here, can I tell the story of why it is that we’re sitting here right now?

Nehemia: Sure.

Keith: I’d like to tell this story. So Yehuda calls and he says, “Keith, would you be willing to do something?” He said, “Would you come and interview people from diverse backgrounds, that I would like to send up to you, and you would sit there with Jerusalem Old City in the background? And would you be willing to interview them?”

I said, “Yehuda, I’ll do whatever you want me to do,” because last year this time, when this happened, I made a commitment. I said, “You know what?” I asked God. I said, “God, if there’s any way You can save his life, I’ll do whatever I can do.”

Nehemia: That was after Yehuda Glick was shot.

Keith: After he was shot last year. So anyway, I’m at this event. Now, you have to understand, this is a pretty intense situation. We’re at the Menachem Begin Center.

Nehemia: It’s the same place he was shot.

Keith: It’s the same place he was shot.

Nehemia: A year later.

Keith: So first, you’ve got the police coming in. And then you’ve got the soldiers coming in. And outside, you’ve got soldiers checking the area around the Menachem Begin Center. Why? Because during this time, many people would say, “This would be the perfect place to come and ‘finish the job.’” In fact, Yehuda made this public not even two weeks ago, when he went to go and visit with the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister said this to him, 10 times. The Prime Minister said to Yehuda, “Yehuda, they’re trying to kill you.” And Yehuda’s talking about…

Nehemia: Netanyahu said this to Yehuda?

Keith: Netanyahu… this is public knowledge. Netanyahu said 10 times, “Yehuda, they want to kill you. Yehuda, be safe.” This was about four weeks ago, I’m sorry. So now it’s time for Yehuda to decide if he’s going to have this event.

Nehemia: This is after he’s shot, they still want to kill him.

Keith: Absolutely, they said, “The job was not done.” He shared publicly one of the statements they made. But let me get to the point. They say he’s going to do this event, and then, just after he makes the decision it’s going to happen, two weeks later, all this stuff blows up, which we’re going to talk about. So I’m at the event…

Nehemia: And I’ve got to stop you. For those who don’t know what’s happening, because maybe people will be listening to this a year from now, and they won’t remember. But there is this series of… I mean, daily. It really is, for me - I lived here during the second intifada and literally, the news would begin, “The following were the terrorist attacks for today.” And we’re back to that situation.

Keith: We’re back to that situation.

Nehemia: Literally, a few days ago, last week, and I posted this on Facebook - it was the front cover of the Israeli newspaper, and it had four different photos with different times throughout the day, where there were four terrorist attacks in different parts of the country. And those were terrorist attacks where people were killed.

Keith: Absolutely.

Nehemia: They weren’t even reporting, and I heard from eyewitnesses, of a terrorist attack where the guy started rampaging with a knife, and he was arrested. And it didn’t even show up in the news. I mean, there’s not enough space. There’s four where they were successful. Ten more where nobody was killed, they’re not going to even report.

And so we’re back, and so people are saying, “Is this the third intifada?” And really, what will determine that, and people will look back and say, “You didn’t know you were in the third intifada?” Or “You thought that was the third intifada?” What will determine it is whether they run out of steam or not, the Arabs.

Will this just be something that happens for a few weeks. Or is this something that’s going to continue for five years, like the last one?

Keith: And that was the point. And so here two weeks ago, once this really started to increase in the beginning of Sukkot, the question was, is this event going to still happen? My wife, Andrea, was like, “Well, now that this is going on, surely, you’re not going to be going to Israel.” And I’m like, “Well, I told Yehuda that I would come.” She asked, “What will you be doing? Surely, you’re not going to be behind any cameras. Surely, you’re not going to do anything that’s media focused.” And I said, “Well, honey, I already said what I would do. So my word is my word.”

Long story short, I get to the event. Now, I’ve got to tell you something. I get to the event. First, there’s the first check, then there’s the second check. Then we go upstairs, and there’s this glass door, folks. There’s this glass door where you’ve got to put a code in, because the director of the Menachem Begin Center is up there, and where I’m going to be is upstairs on a balcony. Three levels of security. So I’m there and I’m doing interviews. And all of a sudden, there’s this whisper. I look over, and here’s the Times of Israel blogger, Nehemia Gordon, in my secure area. Like, “What’s he doing here?”

Nehemia: I’m Israeli, it’s not a problem.

Keith: So all of a sudden, Nehemia’s there, and at that point, we’re doing these interviews with people. In fact, the actual event was livestreamed, and they’re going to be getting it up again so you can watch it, hopefully by the time this comes out.

Nehemia: And we’ll share the link…

Keith: We’ll share the link as soon as we have it.

Nehemia: …so you can watch the video. And you interviewed some really interesting people…

Keith: Very interesting people.

Nehemia: …who came to support what Yehuda was doing.

Keith: Christians…

Nehemia: Most importantly, you interviewed Rabbi Yehuda Glick himself.

Keith: Yeah.

Nehemia: And I don’t think people realize this. You were the co-host of the event. It was Rabbi Yehuda Glick and Keith Johnson.

Keith: And actually, the reason for that, honestly, is because he really did ask me in the last month or so, he said, “Would you…” It was really at the beginning of Sukkot is when he asked me.

Nehemia: Really?

Keith: Yeah.

Nehemia: And I said, yes, I would do it. I’d already agreed that I was going to come to be at the event. But the point was that what he’s asked me to do, he said, “Keith, every chance you get, would you please help bring clarity to what we’re really doing.”

Keith: So bring clarity, because here’s the perception of the world. And even from a lot of people in Israel, and there’s this little cartoon I posted on Facebook, which really, it’s in Hebrew and it expresses the Israeli perception. It shows this rampaging Arab, he’s all red hot in the cartoon. And he’s shouting, “itbakh al Yehud,” which is Arabic for, “kill the Jews,” or “death to the Jews.” And the two Israeli reporters, the one Israeli reporter who doesn’t know Arabic asks the first reporter, “What is he saying?” Because he doesn’t know, “itbakh al Yehud.” And he says, “Oh, he’s upset that Jewish extremists are going up to the Temple Mount,” and a few other things. And he said, “And the economic situation in Jaffa, and that the reality TV singing show has really bad contestants.” He was trying to be funny.

But the truth is, many Israelis see these stabbings in Beer Sheva last night and all over the country, and their perception is, “Well, these crazy extremists like Yehuda Glick and his folks, they got us into this, because they want to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque.”

So is that true? Does Yehuda Glick want to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque?

Keith: He’s been very clear that he does not want to do that under any circumstances. He continues to quote Isaiah and says, “This will be place of prayer for all nations.” Isaiah says this.

Nehemia: That’s Isaiah 56, that’s our favorite passage.

Keith: He talks about it all the time.

Nehemia: We did Prophet Pearls on it.

Keith: And he says that it is not about removing anybody, it’s about everyone who wants to call on the one true God, that they would be able to do it in peace, and they would be able to come. And he’s now made this an issue where he’s saying, “Look, this is an issue of human rights. Where would you go in the world, where all you want to do is pray and as a result, you’re terrorized?”

And for people who don’t know what actually happens, for the last, I think it’s 17 years or so, Yehuda’s been going to the Temple Mount. This is not something that just a year ago he decided, “I’ve got a great idea. Let’s go to the Temple Mount.”

But what he would say is this. Ten years ago, there were maybe 3 rabbis that agreed, because you know about the sign that’s out in front of the Temple, tell them about the sign in Hebrew and in English.

Nehemia: So what I was taught growing up is, we are not allowed to ascend the Temple Mount. It’s a place that’s too holy, and we are today, all in a state of ritual impurity because we don’t have the Red Heifer of Numbers chapter 19. And so we can’t even go to the Temple Mount.

Keith: Absolutely. There’s this sign that says Jews are forbidden.

Nehemia: And there’s actually a sign at the entrance, the one entrance that Jews are allowed to enter the Temple Mount, there’s a sign in Hebrew put up by rabbis saying that it’s forbidden for Jews to enter the Temple Mount for religious reasons.

Keith: So, 3 rabbis 10 years ago, 20 rabbis 8 years ago, 40 rabbis 5 years ago, now there are over 300 rabbis that are telling their people, “We must go to the Temple Mount.” Not to go to the Temple Mount to cause problems, to take over, but this is the place where God placed His name forever.

Nehemia: Come on, with that!

Keith: And it should be a place that we would go to. And so he’s been promoting this. A year ago, they tried to take him out. They said that was what their goal was. Now, a year later, he would say that that event actually took his activity to 10 times a larger base.

Nehemia: And I saw it, I was there last night at this event, celebrating his survival of the terrorist attack on him, and I was very impressed with the number of people and the diversity of people.

Keith: The diversity’s amazing.

Nehemia: And I’m pretty sure if you would have been at the same event a year ago, there would have been a much narrower group of people, because for a lot of people, “Yeah, some crazy fanatic was going up on the Temple Mount. And even the ultra-Orthodox Jews don’t want to go there. And this Jew in a knitted kippa, he’s not ultra-Orthodox, what’s he doing there? He really must have some political agenda. He doesn’t really want to pray.” That’s the perception from a lot of Jews.

And now, I think the perception has changed. You know, the biggest mistake they made was trying to kill this man, because they turned him into a martyr. And now, people are saying, “Wow, if he’d lay his life on the line, what is this all about? Let’s find out about this. Oh, here’s a man who actually…”

Keith: More people would say that, yeah.

Nehemia: And what you find out when you actually hear him talk is, here’s a man who is saying, “I just want to go up there and meditate. I just want to have the right to pray. I want to be in the presence of the place which is the holiest place on planet Earth for a Jew.” You know, in Islam, it’s the third holiest site. In Judaism, it is the only holy site.

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: It is the holiest place in the world because God put His name there forever. And here’s the irony of it. So those 300 rabbis who said, “Jews are allowed to go up on the Temple Mount,” they still teach, as far as I understand, that Jews are not to go into the Dome of the Rock. And that’s not out of respect for the Muslims, it’s out of respect for the Torah. It’s about, again, this issue of Numbers 19, if you’ve ever touched a dead body, if you’ve ever been to a cemetery and touched a grave, you are not permitted to go into the holy place unless you’ve been washed with the solution which has the ashes of the Red Heifer, which we don’t have today.

And really, the revolution that you’re talking about in this thinking of rabbis, where it went from 3 to 300, was understanding, and they simply didn’t know. They said, “Oh, the Temple Mount. That whole place, every inch of it, that was the original Temple.” And what we actually know from ancient sources, from Josephus and the Mishna and other sources, is that on the Temple Mount there was an area that you were only allowed to enter in a state of ritual purity. The Temple Mount was much larger than that area, and specifically – and this is a side point, I’m really excited about this. I was in Istanbul a few months back, about six months back, and I went to the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. And in the Archaeological Museum they have this sign written in ancient Greek. And Josephus mentions the sign. It’s this giant stone, literally etched in the stone, and it talks about the uncircumcised being forbidden from passing the line of the stone. There was a series of these stones, they found two of them so far in archaeology, and they were written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek. We only found two Greek ones, but Josephus mentions they’re in those three languages. And they say, “Gentiles who are uncircumcised may not pass this point.”

But that was a very small part of the Temple Mount, roughly the area where the Dome of the Rock is. There’s actually a flight of steps to get up there, it’s a higher place than the rest. That lower area where Yehuda Glick goes, and the others go, that actually was called the Court of the Gentiles, because even if you were an uncircumcised Gentile in Temple times you were allowed to go there, and that’s the place for all nations. That’s where Yehuda wants to go. He’s not even trying to get into the Dome of the Rock.

Keith: And you know, it’s interesting, one of the things that did happen at this event was the English version and the Hebrew version of a book called Arise and Ascend, which actually, a Russian author created the Russian version, and they translated it into English and Hebrew, so that’s available now.

Nehemia: And it’s a guidebook around the Temple Mount.

Keith: It’s a guidebook. What I love about it is its biblical historical information, and archaeological information. And actually, as far as I know, this is one of the few times where you actually have the ability to go beyond just okay, here’s the pictures and whatever. It’s a wonderful little guidebook. It’s available at Temple Mount Heritage.

Nehemia: Temple Mount Heritage.

Keith: Yeah, templemountheritagefoundation.com, it’s at Temple Mount Heritage. And I’m actually coming… you know, Nehemia, I’m doing this interview, I’m not even thinking about BFA. And for those who don’t know, BFA International…

Nehemia: It’s BFA? I’ve never heard of that.

Keith: Yeah, so I’m going to do this.

Nehemia: No, tell people.

Keith: I will tell people, Biblical Foundation Academy International, bfainternational.com.

Nehemia: And that’s your ministry.

Keith: That’s our ministry. And we actually have a video that caused quite a stir, and the video is from Shavuot, where I actually went with Yehuda and 50 Jewish people up on the Temple Mount…

Nehemia: That’s on your BFA website?

Keith: That’s on the BFA website, on the front page. It says Temple Mount Truth, you click it and you go there, and there’s the video there. But let me say something. This book that we were trying to be as instrumental as we could, to help people get this book out, and it was actually made available yesterday at this event. So yeah, the book being made available, it’s a one-year celebration.

But the world is also calling Israel to check itself on whether or not it’s changing the status quo, because this is what everyone’s angry about. I was in an Arab neighborhood, Nehemia.

Nehemia: Tell me about that.

Keith: I was in an Arab neighborhood when I got here, and I watched TV. And I did this on purpose. You would not believe the message.

Nehemia: You were in an Arab home, okay.

Keith: In an Arab home, and I’m watching what they’re listening to, Al Quds TV, the Hamas has their TV. There are three different stations and they’re all doing the same thing. Guess what they’re doing?

Nehemia: What are they doing?

Keith: They’re showing in the right-hand corner some image about their calling for intifada. The second thing is, they’re giving pictures of the martyrs who’ve already died as a result of trying to stab Jews, that have been killed or slaughtered by the Israelis. And these images are being put up, and I just, just heard, the Ambassador to the UN, the Israeli Ambassador to the UN saying, “You know, here’s what the children are being taught.” In America they say, “You want to be a hero? Become a football player. Become an actor. Become the President.” In Palestine, what do they call it, in the Palestinian areas? You want to be a hero - kill a Jew.

Now, this is not being dramatic. I saw it with my own two eyes. So that’s what’s happening, and they’re using the Temple Mount, they’re using the work of…

Nehemia: Well, you spoke to these Arabs that you were visiting, and you asked them, “Why is this happening?” What was their answer?

Keith: Their answer was, “Because the Jews are taking over the Temple Mount. They want to cut it in half. They want to come in and storm the Al Aqsa.” And what I’m very concerned about is that the nations are actually falling right in line with the same thing. “We better bring in an international group to come and monitor the Temple Mount.” You know what’s going on. The people know what’s going on there.

Nehemia: I don’t know that they know what’s going on. So this whole series of stabbings, these series of attacks, began over Sukkot

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: …which was a couple of weeks ago. Let’s talk about that for a minute. Let’s just finish up.

Keith: Definitely that time, we you want to say that basically that was the time where things went [claps] like this. I mean, it just literally went through the roof.

Nehemia: Right. So what happened? Why did that happen? And I have my theory. So basically, the official explanation is that the Muslims are saying, “Jews are changing the status quo.” And here’s where it’s true, and here’s where it’s not true. In other words, Jews since 1967 have had the ability to go up to the Temple Mount. By Israeli law, they’re actually not allowed to pray. If they see a Jew moving his lips on the Temple Mount, he can be arrested, because they’ll say he’s moving his lips, that’s in prayer to God. And so if he prays, it has to be in his mind. If he goes up with a Bible, the Bible will be taken away, or he won’t be allowed to go up.

Keith: Women can’t wear a menorah in their earrings.

Nehemia: Wow. Seriously? I didn’t even know that. Wow.

Keith: No, this is true. You can’t have any symbol of anything.

Nehemia: What if you’re Christian and had a cross?

Keith: Well, it’s really interesting, for the Christians, they give them a little leeway. The leeway is this - no Bibles, no praying or anything like that. But you can do that. It’s the Jewish people, that as soon as they get there…

Nehemia: I actually understand that if they have a cross that’s visible, they’ll make them hide it.

Keith: Oh, okay. Okay.

Nehemia: That’s what I’ve been told. So that’s actually always been the case - that Jews are allowed to go up to the Temple Mount, and Christians, but out of sensitivity for the Muslims, Israeli regulations say a Jew isn’t allowed to pray there.

Keith: The Supreme Court has actually ruled now, five times in the last few years, that Jews can pray on the Temple Mount. The only reason they can’t pray - and this is what I want to challenge people to do - the only reason they can’t pray is because the Israeli police say it is a threat to public order. What the actual status quo says is this. Here’s what it says… you’ve got to read it. It’s Article 19, or something. I read this thing, it’s amazing. Do you know what it says?

Nehemia: Article 19 of what?

Keith: Of the treaty between Jordan and Israel regarding the holy places. What it actually says is that they will work together to be sure that all faiths will have inter-faith respect as they visit…

Nehemia: Really?

Keith: Would you do me a favor, now that you’re working for the Times of Israel?

Nehemia: I didn’t know about this.

Keith: I would love for you to read…

Nehemia: So this is in the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan?

Keith: Yeah. You actually go and look at Article 17 or 19 or something. While you’re looking for that, it’s under the section of holy places. I’d love you to read it, because if you read that, you’re going to say, “So where does it say that Jews can only go one day? And where does it say you can only have 10 Jews at one time? And where does it say that…” all of these things that have been added. The one thing that Israel has changed - while you’re looking for that - is this.

Three weeks ago, at the time of Sukkot, the new Security Minister made a decision, and this was after much discussion. There are couple of groups that are on the Temple Mount who are paid, transported by terrorist organizations, to come to the Temple Mount, and they have one job. Israel already knew this. Their job is that as soon as you see the Jews, you harass them. You spit at them and curse them.

Nehemia: So these are agitators.

Keith: They’re agitators.

Nehemia: This is the lady who threw a shoe at you. At Yehuda they threw a shoe.

Keith: They threw it at Yehuda. So they decided just before Sukkot that they’re going to remove that group.

Nehemia: Really?

Keith: And that’s been interpreted as they’ve attacked the Muslim worshippers. The second thing they did that was even more serious is they found out that there was a planned attack on Sukkot, for Jewish people that would come to the Temple Mount. They were going to throw Molotov cocktails, they had it all set up. They actually had a warehouse, it’s called the Al Aqsa Mosque, where they had spent the night, a true story. They had spent the night, and Israel security found out about it, and early in the morning, Israeli security went up – this was shown all over the world - they went up, confronted these young terrorists, they were going to terrorize these people, and they averted a major attack. When that happened, Abbas and everyone else said, “They’ve stormed the Al Aqsa Mosque. We must defend the mosque.”

There are some other things that happened, which you’re going to talk about, but what people don’t realize is, the status quo was about…

Nehemia: Wait, let’s back up.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: So you had these Muslims who went into the Al Aqsa Mosque and they had Molotov cocktails, and various weapons, and they wanted to attack the Jews that were going up to the Temple Mount.

Keith: Absolutely. I want to say something radical, though.

Nehemia: What’s that?

Keith: I’m not even going to say, “Muslims”. I’m going to say this. These were Palestinian young people who were sent to do terror.

Nehemia: These were agitators.

Keith: Agitators.

Nehemia: Okay, or even “terrorists”.

Keith: That’s what I would say. Hamas has definitely tried to take over the Temple Mount.

Nehemia: And they have a political agenda, probably. They’re masking it in religion, but…

Keith: Absolutely.

Nehemia: And maybe there is a religious element, but definitely, there’s a political... So here’s what did change. After Yehuda was shot, all of a sudden you had Jews throughout Israel who start paying attention to the Temple Mount. And then, this last Sukkot, 950 Jews…

Keith: Unheard of.

Nehemia: …during the week, went up to the Temple Mount. And that doesn’t sound like a lot, because on one day, the Muslims will have 100,000 people there on their holidays. But there have never, since 70 AD, when the Romans destroyed the Temple, there have never been 950 Jews on the Temple Mount. Think about that, for a second. Since 70 CE or AD, that’s how many… we’re in 2015, I’m bad at math, help me out here. That’s nearly 2,000 years - 1,950 years plus - there haven’t been 950 Jews up there on the Temple Mount. There’s never been that many, there’s been 1 or 2, and maybe 10 or 20. That’s the largest number in a period of weeks. And the Muslims must have seen this, or the people on the Temple Mount must have seen this, and maybe they legitimately…

Keith: Someone’s going to listen to this and they’re going to say, “Well, that must have been overwhelming, that there were 950 Jews there up on the Temple Mount.” Let me tell you something. You know how many people go per day? There can be 400 or 500 people per day, and of those 400 or 500 people per day, maybe 50 of them are Jewish people. So it’s not like there’s this overwhelming… The fact is…

Nehemia: And there are busloads of Christians.

Keith: Oh, busloads of them, lines and lines.

Nehemia: And they’re not concerned with this. But what they are concerned about is, all of a sudden…

Keith: The increased number of Jewish people…

Nehemia: They see all these Jews.

Keith: …that are beginning to understand that that’s a place that is a place that’s significant for them. And so again, I don’t think people understand….

Nehemia: So in other words, there were probably something like 4,000 or 5,000 people who were not Muslims, who went up that week.

Keith: Yeah.

Nehemia: And of those, maybe 25 percent were Jews, maybe 20 percent.

Keith: What I would charge Yehuda, where he’s caused a problem, is that his message has begun to get to people, Jewish people and others, that you know what? The more that we’re there, the more there’s going to be a…

Nehemia: And this isn’t a takeover, right?

Keith: Absolutely not.

Nehemia: The purpose of his message is really - we want to have basic human dignity, the right to pray to our God in the place where we believe our God put His name forever.

Keith: And not to stop others from doing the same thing.

Nehemia: Right, wow.

Keith: That’s the thing. And you know, he relates to Christian folks. He’s got Jewish people. He’s even got a Methodist that’s helping him.

Nehemia: Really? Who’s the Methodist? That’s you.

Keith: I talk to people from, what is it called? The International Embassy…

Nehemia: International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem, ICEJ. They’re the ones who put on the big Sukkot event every year.

Keith: Yeah, 5,000 people this year.

Nehemia: Yeah, so I think there’s a misperception from the side of the Arabs. And maybe there are people who want to blow up the mosque, but that’s not Yehuda. That’s not those people.

Keith: No.

Nehemia: The people who are going up, they don’t even go to the Dome of the Rock. They have no interest in the Al Aqsa Mosque.

Keith: No.

Nehemia: The Al Aqsa Mosque was a covered market at the time of Herod. It wasn’t even an important place. It was the least important part of the entire Temple Mount. It’s where the money changers were doing their business. It was the least holy part of the Temple Mount.

Keith: What I was going to say, Nehemia, really what intrigued me about talking to you about this one is when Yehuda said to me, “Every chance you get, every chance you get, talk to people about what’s going on,” especially people like yourself that are putting together, I think, a really phenomenal platform, where you’re going and getting these different voices. But you know, one of the things, Nehemia, that’s really - how can I say this? - really interesting to me, and I hope you’re going to share this, is your perception of the timing of what happened with Sukkot.

I think some trains came into the station all at the same time. Now, I call this “maestro”. I think maestro in heaven is allowing some things, if I can get biblical on you…

Nehemia: Get biblical.

Keith: I’ve watched the nations do what they’re doing. Zacharia chapter 14… I’m not saying we’re in that last day. I’m not saying that, but there are certain things that you see in Scripture…

Nehemia: Are we getting close?

Keith: No, you see in Scripture, and you just say, “Wow. That seems really, really, really familiar.” But there are some other things that happened that were not normal, that you have to share. And why I’m intrigued about this is that I think the things that are happening, there’s a certain amount of legitimacy to the Muslims saying, “Wait. What’s happening here?” Not that it’s changed the status quo…

Nehemia: And here’s where they’re missing the point from the Jewish perspective. So, there’s no question that Jews believe that that Mosque will be torn down and the Temple will be built in its place. But I think Yehuda Glick and every Jew from every perspective who believes that this will happen, believes that this will be part of a supernatural series of events.

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: It’ll be God who will send the Messiah, who will do these things, and if the Muslims are afraid of God, then there’s something wrong with them. Like, it’s not going to be some political movement where we pass a law and we say, “Okay, we’re bringing in the bulldozers to tear down the Dome of the Rock.”

Keith: That’s not it.

Nehemia: That will never happen. Nobody wants that to happen. That’s not what we’re saying. What we’re saying is, if we’re faithful to God in His timing, that the King Messiah will come, and I believe it may be those very people - maybe it’ll be even those ladies, the ones who dress in black and were harassing the Jews with their religion - maybe those very same women will repent, and they’ll be the first ones to tear down the bricks of the Al Aqsa Mosque themselves. They’ll be in shame for what they did, shouting the name of their God in an act of violence. They’ll say, “We need to bring down this building and put up a building of peace.”

Keith: What’s interesting also, I just think that when I think about adding the God aspect into this, when you open Scripture… My son said something to me, and actually you were here when this happened last year, when I heard about Yehuda being shot. I was sitting at the table, it was Nehemia, my son, Kyle, and me. And I had an overwhelming feeling of emotion. I couldn’t sit at the table anymore; I’m weeping and crying.

And my son Kyle says to me, “Dad, next time you go to Israel, will you just do me one favor?” I said, “Kyle, what is it?” He said, “Would you get me just one thing?” And I’m thinking, “What’s he going to ask for? Like a David’s sling? What’s he going to ask for?” He says, “Just get me one thing.”

Nehemia: What’s that?

Keith: A picture of the Temple Mount.

Nehemia: Wow. That’s all he wanted.

Keith: That’s all he wanted. A picture of Temple Mount. So I got it for him, I came back and we framed it. So for him, when he looks at it, he doesn’t see that as… he doesn’t see that as a Jewish place. He doesn’t see it as a Muslim place. He sees it as the place that God placed His name, and that He is a foreigner, because he reads the Bible too. When Solomon said, “And when the foreigner comes from a faraway land,” 1 Kings chapter 8, whatever that verse is, “hear his prayer.” God said, “My eyes and my ears are there perpetually.”

So why am I involved in this? People ask, “Keith, what are you doing? There are many, many causes. Why are you involved in this?” You know, this is where I’m going to put you on the spot, you were actually there when this started for me. I’m representing Yehuda telling me to talk about this, but I want to share this again.

I go down into the basement, underneath the Wall, the Western Wall, and there’s these huge, huge, huge, huge stones, I’ve told the story a thousand times. That’s where the vision of the idea of having a biblical foundation for faith, for people’s faith, would rise. That’s what would happen.

Nehemia: Because those were the foundations of…

Keith: Those were the foundations.

Nehemia: …of the platform that held up the Temple Mount.

Keith: So for all these years, we’ve been dealing with those stones.

Nehemia: And just to give people an image, so there’s the big stone which is 600 metric tons.

Keith: 600 metric tons.

Nehemia: And they say it’s the length of a bus.

Keith: It’s the length of a bus, yeah. And the height… I mean, it’s huge.

Nehemia: Right. And basically, they didn’t use mortar, so they had to have these really big stones to hold the foundations in place, and the image that you explained to me when you got there was if people had solid foundations like this from the Bible, then that could be the basis of some really powerful faith.

Keith: And here’s my point, from Yehuda and the people that still have questions. I have a biblical reason for my passion and compassion…

Nehemia: What’s that?

Keith: …and for my conviction. The biblical reason is, God said He placed His name there just for 1,000 years.

Nehemia: He didn’t.

Keith: No, He said, “I placed My name there forever.” And people say, “Well, we shouldn’t care now, because of the Muslims.” Listen. Read Scripture.

Nehemia: Can I read it?

Keith: You see it over and over again. Please read it.

Nehemia: 2 Kings 21 verse 7, it’s talking about King Menashe, who actually defiled that place. And it says, “He did it in the house where Yehovah said to David and to Solomon, his son, ‘In this house…’” And by the way, when we say “Temple”, the Hebrew word is just “house”, “the house of Yehovah”. “In this house and in Jerusalem, that I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will place My name le’olam,” “forever”. And this really surprises me, when I’ll speak to some Christians and they’ll say, “Oh, well that doesn’t apply anymore. That’s been done away with. That was nailed to the cross.” And I say, “It says ‘forever’.” I don’t understand, why does forever not mean forever?

1 Chronicles 23:25, “Ki amar David heniyakh Yehovah Elohei Yisroel le’mor,” “For David had said, ‘Yehovah had given peace to His people, Israel.’” “And He dwelt in Jerusalem le’olam,” “forever.” 2 Chronicles 33:4, it’s talking again about Menashe. It says, “And he built the altars in the house of Yehovah.” These are the pagan altars. And it says, “which Yehovah said, ‘In Jerusalem, My name will be forever.’” And in 2 Chronicles 33:7 is actually a repeat of 2 Kings 21:7.

I’ll read you just one more, there’s a whole bunch, I didn’t bring them all. 2 Chronicles 6:6 says, “I chose Jerusalem,” “lehiot shemi sham,” “for My name to be there. And I chose David to be over My people Israel.” In the Tanakh, in the Hebrew Bible, there’s this duality, there are these two pivotal issues. There is the Temple and there is the Messiah. You have David and you have the Temple, and they’re connected, because David’s capital is the City of David, which is just below the Temple, and the Temple is up above. And so this promise of the Davidic line and the Temple, those are these two things, and sometimes you’ll hear about David and the High Priest, you know, the line of David and the line of Aaron. So there are these two anointed ones in the Tanakh way of thinking, the two sons of oil in Zacharia. And so the Messiah and the Temple, those are intertwined in the Tanakh way of thinking.

Keith: You know something? I have an agenda.

Nehemia: What’s your agenda?

Keith: Yesterday, when you came to the event, I thought to myself, “It would really be awesome if Nehemia could take all that he knows, biblically, archaeologically, practically, in your ministry, all the things that you’re doing, and to be able to take this subject matter of the Temple Mount. Because, you know what? For years, you used to say this to me all the time. “Keith, you’ve got to be careful about that Temple Mount.”

Nehemia: And now, I want to tell people the story.

Keith: “You got to be careful about that Temple Mount.”

Nehemia: This is before you met Yehuda, and you actually did go up to the Temple Mount and you did a little video. Didn’t you say like the Priestly Blessing up there, or something, in Hebrew? Okay… he’s a Methodist. Shall we edit that out?

Keith: No, it’s okay.

Nehemia: And you were trying to convince me to go with you and I said, “Keith, I don’t feel safe…” I’d never been to the Temple Mount at that point in my life. It was you who convinced me to go up there. It was your example that convinced me. But at that point, I’d never been to the Temple Mount and I said, “You could start a war.” And what I had in mind is when Ariel Sharon in the year 2000 went up to the Temple Mount, the Arabs used that as an excuse for the Second Intifada.

Now, let’s be honest. They were going to have the Second Intifada anyway. And what they’re doing now, they were going to do anyway. But what this does do is, it makes it more intense, because the leadership wants a war, but it’s hard to convince the people to go to war.

Well, here’s something they can point to the people and say, “This isn’t for us you’re doing it. You’re doing this to defend the Al Aqsa Mosque.” So it’s a way of convincing the people, but let’s be honest, they wanted a war. You know, in 1929, they massacred the Jews throughout Israel. Was that because Jews were going up to the Temple Mount?

Keith: Right.

Nehemia: They weren’t even allowed to go the Western Wall, barely. They weren’t allowed to gather 10 men at the Western Wall at that time, or blow the shofar at the Western Wall, which was a tiny little alley in the Old City. So the Temple Mount wasn’t even on the agenda. 1936 to 1939, for three years they rampaged, killing Jews. What did that have to do with it? You can read in history about how they were knifing Jews - literally knifing Jews and slaughtering Jews with swords, and murdering them, you know, going back 1,400 years.

Now, the latest excuse is the Temple Mount, but they’ll find other… I mean, that’s an excuse.

Keith: Well, what’s interesting is, Yehuda himself has not physically been up to the Temple Mount for over a year.

Nehemia: Really, since he was shot?

Keith: Before he was shot, he was banned from the Temple Mount.

Nehemia: Really?

Keith: Because one of the ladies who does the cursing or whatever said that he…

Nehemia: The Muslim...

Keith: …pushed her down, and she broke her arm. She wasn’t even there on that date. He wasn’t there on that day. They went to the courts… so guess what the police said? “We’re going to keep you off the Temple Mount, because you’re a threat to the public order.” So he has physically not been to the Temple Mount for a year and a month, at least. And so it isn’t obviously because he’s at the Temple Mount. But back to my agenda.

I really think, Nehemia, and we’re watching this happen - more and more Jewish people are realizing the significance of that place. They’re realizing it from a biblical perspective, from a historical perspective and a practical perspective. They’re finding out there’s a way. That’s why this book is so important, Arise and Ascend. It gives people both in Hebrew…

Nehemia: And again, people can get that at the Temple Mount Heritage Foundation.

Keith: Yeah, the Temple Mount Heritage Foundation, there’s free shipping. The great thing about the book - biblical, historical, and archaeological information. I want people to support, obviously, Yehuda and his work. I’m not talking about giving money. I’m talking about people understanding the information, hearing about sharing biblical sources, giving people the sources. And I don’t think there’s a more important piece of real estate in the universe than this particular spot. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we’ve got the nations now coming and saying, “Well, we’ve got to fix it. Israel can’t fix it, we’ll fix it.” And how will they fix it? To continue to play into the hands of Abbas and others, that are using this situation to incite for violence.

So it’s been very sobering for me to be here. But yesterday, when you snuck up and all of a sudden showed up, I thought, “There’s the Times of Israel guy. He’s got to help Yehuda with this message.” I really do think this is important.

Nehemia: I want to go back to what a key point is for me, that this is the place Yehovah put His name forever. His name is still there today, and that’s the name that… You know, the rabbis who are saying to people, “Don’t go up there,” I think that’s part of the ban on the name. They don’t want people going up there, because that’s the place He put His name forever. And you know, I want to kind of segue to something a little bit different.

So, one of the issues that triggered the current crisis is that 950 Jews go up during the week of Sukkot, and that makes the Arabs a little bit scared, and they’re already looking for an excuse for war, there’s no question about that. But then now this is an excuse they can point to, and then there’s some kind of riot where they’re firing firecrackers. And we were talking about this. I saw a video that the Israeli police put out, and they were so proud, because they’d developed this device. It’s a shield that allows them to stop the Arabs from firing these fireworks and Molotov cocktails without hurting any Arabs. And the Israeli police were so proud of this.

Keith: Guess what else it does.

Nehemia: What else does it do?

Keith: It shuts the doors so… The Israeli police don’t go inside the Al Aqsa Mosque.

Nehemia: Right.

Keith: And so basically, they can get close enough to say, “Look, we’re going to keep you in your mosque.”

Nehemia: You want to be in the mosque, stay in the mosque.

Keith: Be in the mosque.

Nehemia: Just don’t attack people outside the mosque.

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: Right. So what was the reaction of the world when they saw this? How did they spin the story in the Western media?

Keith: Oh, that Israel is using excessive force against Palestinian worshippers.

Nehemia: Who are firing Molotov cocktails on them.

Keith: Oh, we don’t talk about that. No, Israel is using excessive force against Palestinian worshippers. But there were some other things that happened during Sukkot which I think, in my opinion…

Nehemia: So yeah, and this was my perspective. And I actually went and recorded this, and we’re going to play a little recording of it. But one of the things I went to, this was during Sukkot, it was the Birkhat Kohanim, the Priestly Blessing. And, you know, that’s very near and dear to me, because I wrote the book, Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence about the Priestly Blessing. It’s the blessing that appears on the silver scrolls at the Israel Museum. It’s the oldest copy of any biblical text. You guys have heard me talk about it. Go read my book, Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence, Open Door series.

But they have this ceremony twice a year, the Birkhat Kohanim. They actually have it every day, at synagogues around the world - or certain synagogues - but specifically, on Sukkot and Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, they have it with about 300 Kohanim who come from all over the world, and these are direct descendants of Aaron, father to son, and they actually participate in this mass prayer, where they proclaim, according to Numbers 6, they proclaim the Priestly Blessing over the people.

And it’s pretty cool how they do it, because this is something that goes back to the time of the Temple. The way they do it is a continuation of how it was done during Temple times, where the High Priest would proclaim, he would say, “Yivarekekha,” and everyone would respond. You guys will hear it in a minute, we’ll play the tape. And the whole crowd of Kohanim would respond, and the people would be listening. When I went there… and I waited like an hour for it to actually happen. It’s part of a prayer service, and when they get to a certain point in the prayer, then actually, the lead Priest, he’s not the High Priest, but he’s the lead Priest who’s in charge of it, he came over a loudspeaker and he shouts, “Kohanim,” “Priests,” and everybody kind of gets ready, and they recite certain prayers…

Keith: We’ve got to hear it, let’s hear it.

Nehemia: …to prepare themselves and then, they go through word by word. And what was significant about this is number one, this is during Sukkot, when 950 people are going up to the Temple Mount, and the Arabs already started getting a little bit nervous. But the other thing, and I don’t think anybody in Israel even thought about this. It wasn’t deliberate, it was really, “We’ve got a lot of people here. We’re going to do it over a loudspeaker.”

And now, normally when the Orthodox Jews do prayers, they do it on their holidays, on Shabbat and on the feast days, and one of the rules is you can’t use electrical devices on the feast days and the holidays. So in their synagogues they don’t use a microphone and don’t use loudspeakers. In fact, one of the largest, maybe the largest synagogue in the world is here in Jerusalem. It holds about 25,000 people, and it was designed with acoustics where it wouldn’t need a microphone, because when they come in the High Holidays, on Yom Kippur or whatever, they’re not allowed to use a microphone. By the way, it doesn’t have elevators either, even though it’s like three or four stories.

So they were at the Western Wall, and there were tens of thousands of people there. And look, they do this twice a year, there’s nothing new about it, and they do it over loudspeakers. And I’ve got to wonder if the Muslims – and nobody was thinking about this – but I’ve got to wonder, the Muslims on the other side of that wall, on the Temple Mount, they’re hearing this stuff coming over the loudspeakers, and what they’re used to hearing is five times a day, beginning at 4:30 in the morning, their prayers over the loudspeakers. And all of a sudden, the Jews are shouting their prayers over the loudspeakers, the Priestly Blessing.

So I’m going to play this tape now. This is what I heard. I waited for an hour, just to get this, and here it is.

[recording]

Head Priest: Kohanim

Kohanim: Kohanim

Head Priest: Yivarekheha

Kohanim: Yivarekheha

Head Priest: Adonai

Kohanim: Adonai

High Priest: Vayishmarekha

Kohanim: Vayishmarekha

Crowd: Amen

High Priest: Ya’er

Kohanim: Ya’er

High Priest: Adonai

Kohanim: Adonai

High Priest: Panav

Kohanim: Panav

High Priest: Eleikha

Kohanim: Eleikha

High Priest: Vaykhunekha

Kohanim: Vayhkunekha

Crowd: Amen

High Priest: Yisa

Kohanim: Yisa

High Priest: Adonai

Kohanim: Adonai

High Priest: Panav

Kohanim: Panav

High Priest: Eleikha

Kohanim: Eleikha

High Priest: Vayasem

Kohanim: Vayasem

High Priest: Lekha

Kohanim: Lekha

High Priest: Shalom

Kohanim: Shalom

Crowd: Amen.

[end of recording]

Keith: All I can say, Nehemia, when I hear that, I get chills, because I’m imagining being there. If people have never been to Israel or have never been at the Kotel where this would happen…

Nehemia: The Western Wall.

Keith: Yeah, the Western Wall. You know, you’re hearing this sound, and it’s reverberating. And then you hear it five times a day, as you say, them singing…

Nehemia: The Muslim prayer.

Keith: Chanting the Muslim prayers. So I think there’s something to what you’re saying, but I don’t think it’s just that.

Nehemia: No, it wasn’t just that. But I do want to say, for me what that does is, it brings me back to the 1st century AD, to the Temple. And there’s this amazing account of this priest, his name is Rabbi Tarfon, I believe his name was, and he talks about how he went up on to the dais, there was a platform, with his brother priests to recite the Priestly Blessing. And this is actually really important when it comes to the name.

So during the time of the Temple – and this isn’t disputed in Jewish sources – in the time of the Temple, they originally proclaimed the Priestly Blessing with the Name. Now, you guys just heard the recording, and three times they said, “Adonai,” “Lord.” They said, “Yevarekekha Adonai vayishmerekha,” “May the Lord bless you and keep you.” “Ya’er Adonai panav eleikha vayukhunekha,” “May the Lord shine His face towards you and be gracious towards you.” “Yisa Adonai panav eleikha vayasem lekha shalom,” “May the Lord lift His face towards you and give you peace.”

But in the original Blessing it says, “Yehovah” three times, “Yevarekekha Yehovah vayishmerekha, Ya’er Yehovah, Adonai panav…” You see, I just messed up.

Keith: Yeah.

Nehemia: See, isn’t that interesting? Like we’re so ingrained in the Jewish tradition to say “Adonai,” it’s unbelievable. I just did it. Even after I wrote a book, don’t take this out. This is amazing.

Keith: No, it’s something, you just did.

Nehemia:Ya’er Yehovah panav eleikha, vayukhunekha. Yisa Yehovah panav eleikha…

Keith: I knew he was Rabbinic…

Nehemia: No, look, I grew up hearing this in the synagogue. In my synagogue, they did it three, or whatever, times a year, but not every day like they do in Israel. So isn’t that amazing? Like, I’m 42 years old, and it’s so deeply ingrained, even after I wrote a book about how it’s “Yehovah”, I just still said, “Adonai.” It’s amazing! This is a Freudian slip, so to speak. I mean, wow!

So the point is, in the Temple itself, they did it with the Name. And I got to wonder, this is just coming to me right now. So according to the Talmud, that when you proclaim the Blessing in the Temple, it has to be with the Name. And I wonder if some of them are afraid, if they go up on that Temple Mount, maybe some of those rabbis, the 300 who until now weren’t ready to say it, and there are still thousands of rabbis who tell their Jewish disciples, “Don’t go to the Temple Mount.” I wonder if part of it is, they don’t want them to go up there because if they’re Kohanim who go up there on Sukkot and on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and they’re moved in prayer to recite the Blessing, then they’ll have to use the Name. Even in the Talmud, and of course in the Tanakh it says in Numbers chapter 6, “They shall place My Name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.” And, you know, that’s the silver scrolls, it’s in my book, guys, and the Open Door Series.

So I’ve got to wonder if you’re a Muslim and you hear this going on - and that lasted for about four minutes, what we just listened to - and if you’re hearing this and you hear the Jews on the loudspeaker, you don’t know what they’re saying, but you know it’s Hebrew prayers. And it’s a blessing about peace, ironically. But they hear that, and I’ve got to wonder, you know, their whole thing is about they proclaim that Allah is the greatest. That’s the prayer, “Allah hu akbar” literally means, in Arabic, “Allah is the greatest.” And all of a sudden, they’re hearing prayers over a loudspeaker.

Keith: From the Jews.

Nehemia: Over loudspeakers. Now, another thing happened that very same day, in the afternoon that day, there was something called the Hakhel. And this doesn’t happen twice a year, this happens once every seven years, the Sukkot following the Rabbinical reckoning of shemita. So, following the shemita year, which for them ends with Yom Teruah, on Rosh Hashana. And the Sukkot following shemita, they gather, and I’m not exaggerating, there could have been 50,000 people there. I’ve never seen the Western Wall so packed as it was for this Hakhel. They were gathered all the way from the security on one end, all the way to the security on the other, and they had these really big loudspeakers. And this event went on for over an hour.

And one of the things, and there was a lot of singing and jubilation, and people were really excited, and this is considered a commemoration of the ceremony described in Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy, it talks about “gathering the people, the men, the women…”

Keith: And the children.

Nehemia: “…and even the babies,” it says. In Hebrew, it says, “vetaf”. You say in English “children”, but in Hebrew it says “taf”, which means babies. And they dedicated these Torah scrolls, which are very valuable. As part of that dedication, they read from these Torah scrolls. Now, I thought they were going to read the entire thing like is commanded in Deuteronomy, but they didn’t read the whole thing. We would have been there for seven days. They read like five or six passages, and they had famous people…

Keith: Do you have video or audio of that?

Nehemia: I have audio of that, and I’m going to play it right now. And specifically, this is really interesting. It’s a former Chief Rabbi. He got up, and again, it was over loudspeakers. And I guarantee nobody in the crowd or in the organization of this event was thinking, “We’re going to do the loudspeakers like the Muslims.” No, they were thinking, “There’s 50,000 people here. They won’t hear us.”

Keith: Right.

Nehemia: And the acoustics aren’t laid out here the way they should have been for this event, and they did it over these loudspeakers. And I was up near the front, and the loudspeakers were really, really loud. There’s no way the people in the Temple Mount didn’t hear this. They must have heard it. And it went on for over an hour, and the Jews were reading from their Torah. And I could imagine some of those guys hearing this and thinking, “The loudspeakers, that’s our shtick. The Jews aren’t allowed to pray over loudspeakers.”

You know, in Muslim law, Jews are by law second-class citizens to be ruled by Muslims, and the synagogue was never allowed to be physically higher than the mosque. The mosque had to be the tallest building, and Jews weren’t allowed to pray their prayers in public. They were only allowed to do it privately, in quiet. And if the Muslims heard the Jewish prayers, they would go and start rioting and killing Jews. And all of a sudden, these Jews have their own state? These uppity Jews, they’ve got their own state, and they’re proclaiming their prayers loudly.

And the Jews aren’t even thinking about the Muslims. They’re thinking about, “We love God, and we want the whole world to hear it. We want our people to hear it, the people in the back.” I’m going to play this tape. This is a former Chief Rabbi who was reciting the Shema. And he’s actually reading from the Torah scroll that’s being dedicated on that day. He’s reading from the Shema, and this is the really cool part. I hope this comes across in the recording.

At the end of the recording, when he gets to the end of the section in Deuteronomy 6, the end of the Shema, which I have hanging over there on the wall, the section, but he was reading from this Torah scroll, when he gets to the end of it, you can hear a baby crying. And I didn’t even notice that at the time, because there were so many people there, there was a lot of noise. But when I listened to the tape later and I heard the baby crying, it touched me, because that’s exactly what it says in Deuteronomy. It says, “The men, the women,” “ve’taf,” and the babies. And the baby was there and it says, “And they will hear and they will learn to fear Yehovah, your God.” Every seven years, they would hear the Torah, and this is a commemoration of that ceremony. Every seven years, they’d hear the Torah and they would keep it. And here, the modern version is being proclaimed over the loudspeakers.

Let’s listen to the rabbi reading from the Torah scroll, from the Shema.

[recording]

Rabbi: “Shema Yisroel, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai ekhad. Ve’ahavta et Adonai eloheikha, bekhol levavkha u’vekhol nafshekha, u’vekhol meodekha. Vehayu hadevarim ha’eleh asher anokhi metzavekha hayom al levavekha. Veshinantam levanekha vedibarta bam, beshiftekha beveiteikha u’valektekha baderekh, u’vshakhbekha u’vekumekha. U’kshartam le’ot al yadekha, vahayu letotafot bein einekha. U’ktavtam al mezuzot beiteikha, u’vishareikha.

Nehemia: Isn’t that amazing, the baby crying at the end?

Keith: I’ve got to tell you, right now, there’s so much that’s going on. At BFA we’re doing a Hannukah project that’s going to be coming out really soon, but I want to tell you something.

Nehemia: Where can people find that? What’s your website?

Keith: It’s at bfainternational.com. On the front it says Temple Mount Truth Project, and that’s the reason we call it that, is because it’s time for some Temple Mount truth. That’s something that you also are really committed to, not Temple Mount truth, I’m not saying that project. I’m just saying, getting truth out to people…

Nehemia: Well, giving truth in general on the Temple Mount, it’s the place where Yehovah put His name forever.

Keith: But I want to end with a story, if I could just tell you something that happened. So, I’m only here for a very short time, and there are so many things that we could talk about. We decided that we’re not going to do our normal… We had a specific thing we wanted to do, and so I really appreciate you, Nehemia, doing this, because Yehuda, I think, needs as many people like yourself and others, that can help get the real message out in the midst of a lot of frustration and deception, in my opinion.

So I’m at the Old City, I’m in the Old City and I’m walking. And I’m walking in the Old City, and you know, I really wanted to go to the place where these people were stabbed - that quarter. Two Jewish people were on their way there. I wanted to go there…

Nehemia: One of them was a man named Nehemia.

Keith: Yeah, a man named Nehemia.

Nehemia: Nehemia Lavie.

Keith: So I’m on my way there, I’m in the Old City, lots of things happen. I want to get right to the point, so I’m walking, and I hear this lady ask one of the storekeepers, the shopkeepers, and she says it in very broken English. She says, “Where Temple Mount?” And the guy just wouldn’t even say anything to her, he just gives a hand signal, like this.

Nehemia: Okay, because he’s maybe Muslim, and he doesn’t want her to go to the Temple Mount.

Keith: Like, “What are you doing?” So I looked at her and I said, [speaking in Chinese].

Nehemia: Which is Chinese.

Keith: In Chinese, and she said, [speaking in Chinese]. I said, “I speak a little.” And so we start talking in Chinese, this is a very interesting story. This woman has come from China, her and her companion. They’ve been to three places, they’ve been to Turkey, they’re going to Jordan, they’re in Israel, and they’re going to come back to Israel. They’ve been up in Haifa, and all these places, but they want to go to the Temple Mount. She says, “I looked online, and it’s open today.” She’s telling me this in English and Chinese.

I said, “Ma’am, it’s not open, it’s Shabbat.” She said, “No, I checked online. Everything online is true.” I said to her, she must be like in Chinese time, that this was the wrong day. But she insisted. She said, “Would you take me there?” So you know how it is in the Old City.

Nehemia: Yeah, some little alleys.

Keith: We’re walking. I’m talking Chinese to this lady in Jerusalem on our way to the Temple Mount. I said, “Why do you want to go?” She says, “Well, I study Christianity, and I know Jesus sacrificed himself.” That’s what she says. “I studied Muslims,” she said. “Many Muslims are nice, but there are many that are bad, that are terrorists.”

Nehemia: She said this?

Keith: She’s telling me this.

Nehemia: Okay.

Keith: She says, “And I studied Judaism, and they’re brave.” This is her assessment. “For the Christians, they got this guy named Jesus. Muslims are nice people, except there’s some people that take their religion and do bad things, it’s terror. And then, the Jews are brave.” She says, “But I understand that this is a place that has historical and archaeological information, and I want to go to the Temple Mount to experience it. I’m all the way from China.”

Nehemia: So was she a Christian?

Keith: No. She’s not Jewish, she’s not Muslim, she’s not Christian.

Nehemia: She’s just studying the religions of the world.

Keith: This is what she wants to do. And so what has my friend, Yehuda, been about? He’s been about opening access to the Chinese lady, to the Methodist guy, to the Jewish people, to the Messianic people, even to the Muslim people, that whoever goes there should not be terrorized. There should not be violence. There should not be disrespect. It should be a place where this is the holiest place, not only in Judaism, biblically. This is the place where God set His name.

So for me, that’s why I’ve been wanting to push this, and to the Muslim people that don’t do violence and that aren’t trying to do that - man, I want them to have their peace. Do what you do. I mean, it’s not about trying to go in and change that. God’s going to have the last word.

Nehemia: Amen.

Keith: This is my opinion. He’s going to have the last word. I want to just say that, that this woman was just an example, for me, yesterday. She’s like, “Look, I just want to come here because I heard this is archaeologically and historically important.”

Nehemia: I want to go back to this Hakhel event, which was the gathering they said in Deuteronomy 31, or 30, wherever that is. So the opening speech - I was moved to tears by the opening speech. There was this rabbi, he was up on this platform and he was speaking to these 50,000 people in the Western Wall Plaza. It’s actually outside the Temple Mount, in the Western Wall Plaza, and in the background is the Western Wall itself, which is the last vestiges, ruins of the Temple, the outer wall, the supporting wall of the Temple.

And he said it in Hebrew, I’m going to translate. He says, “Holy congregation, if we were worthy of the building of the Beit Hamikdash…” the “House of the Sanctuary, the Temple,” “we would be standing right now in the mountain of the house of God and would all hear the King of Israel reading with holy trembling from our holy Torah.”

In other words, what he’s saying is, right now you’re going to hear the Chief Rabbi read. And that’s because we’re outside the Temple, we’re standing at the foot of the ruins of the Temple. If today, we had the Temple, then it would be the King Messiah himself who would be reading from the Torah scroll, to all the people. That’s amazing, and he goes on and he says, “Now, because of our great iniquities, our Temple has been destroyed. And we have not yet been worthy of it being rebuilt. Let us raise up a prayer to our Father in Heaven, Avinu Shebashamayim…” I got excited about that, “that He rebuild the Temple quickly in our days.”

And I think that is the key, that the Muslims who are looking for a war, they’re going to find a war, no matter what. They’ll make an excuse, it’ll be this, or it’ll be that. Our desire to go up on the Temple Mount and meditate with our God, the place where He put His name forever, it’s not about depriving them of their rights. That’s not what it’s about. We believe it’s God who’s going to rebuild the Temple. We believe He’s going to bring the King Messiah, and all mankind will accept Him for this to take place. And there won’t be anybody left after all the things that go on, that don’t accept…

So this won’t be an issue. There won’t be a vote in the United Nations. It’ll be unanimous of every human being. It says in Isaiah 66, “All flesh will come before Him, every Shabbat and every new moon, to bow down before Yehovah on the Temple Mount, at the Temple.” And so this isn’t about us trying to start a political movement to destroy their mosque. It’s got nothing to do with that.

This is about our desire to commune with our God, to be in a relationship with the God of creation in the place that He put His name forever, the place where it’s believed, it’s described in the Scripture, and it happened, where the fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifices. The place where David saw the angels stopping the plague, and it was over the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, and he came and he brought sacrifices there, at that site. It’s the place where Abraham, he was about to sacrifice his son, and the angel called out from heaven and told him to stop. And this is what it’s about. This is the place for us.

Keith: All I can say is this. I’m listening to you talk about this, I feel like it’s mission accomplished, because for you to say, “This is the place that we go,” and you were there…

Nehemia: I’ve been there. I’ve been up there twice. Once, I went up there by myself, and I was moved to tears, because I saw the fulfilment of a prophesy. There’s a prophesy in the Book of Micha that talks about how the Temple Mount will be a pile of stones. And I went up there, and you don’t see this, and I have photos of it. You don’t see this on the news, you know. You hear, “This is the third holiest place in Islam.” I went up there and I saw a garbage dump, a garbage dump where there was a pile of stones and garbage on the Temple Mount. That moved me to tears, because it was fulfilment of the book of this prophesy in Micha, and I think it’s also in Jeremiah. I’ll post it on the website, nehemiaswall.com, I’ll find the verse.

And then the second time I went up there, it was with my mother and with you, and you know, my mother’s wheelchair broke, that’s a whole story in itself. And the Muslim guy walked up to you, I don’t know how he knew who you were. But they knew exactly who you were, and he said, “How’s your friend, Yehuda Glick?” who we shot? He didn’t say, “who we shot,” but that was the subtext.

So you know, I’ve been there twice. And really, I just wanted to go up there. I didn’t want to fight with anybody, I didn’t want to bother anybody.

Keith: You just wanted to be there peacefully.

Nehemia: It’s a very peaceful and spiritual place. It’s the most spiritual place in the universe. That’s why I wanted to go there. And they’re the ones… there was this video they showed at the event yesterday, and it shows Yehuda being verbally attacked by the Muslim, not just some random Muslim - a guy working for the Waqf, who gets a salary from the Jordanian government. He’s an official Islamic authority, and Yehuda’s saying to him as he’s leaving, and the guy’s harassing him as Yehuda’s leaving, Yehuda says, “May there be peace between all peoples.” And the guy shouts back, “There’ll be peace when you don’t come here anymore. This is our place and you can’t come here.”

Keith: I’m actually glad you brought that up, Nehemia, because one of the things we are going to do is, on this site, Temple Mount Truth at bfainternational.com, we’re going to have the video not only of the event, but also of the movie.

Nehemia: Oh, that’s a great movie. The people need to see it. It’s a wonderful movie.

Keith: They really need to be there, and that will be there.

Nehemia: And I don’t know if you knew this before you saw it, but there’s this woman, she’s kind of in the background, you barely notice her. She’s the Israeli equivalent of Barbara Walters. She’s the journalist in Israel, who does interviews. Her name is Ilana Dayan, and she’s the daughter of Moshe Dayan, the Israeli General who liberated the Temple Mount.

Keith: That’s amazing. Yeah, so I mean, we’re going to have that information available. And so people can see the event. They can see this movie, which really is amazing, and they can see the video of Yehuda and 50 Jewish people ascending the Temple Mount, and see that they’re not up there to protest, but very peaceful, very quiet, very non-intrusive. That’ll be there.

Nehemia: And look, we were talking about what’s causing all of this. And the truth is, they would have looked for some other excuse. But it’s hard to get their people to go and stab somebody when they know they’re going to be shot dead, and the way they’re convincing their people right now is saying, “You’re doing this to defend the Al Aqsa Mosque.” And maybe, part of the perception, and I’m surprised nobody’s said this, but I think maybe part of the perception on their part was A, 950 Jews are ascending the Temple Mount. And that’s not an official change of anything, because they were always allowed to go up. They just never did, but now they have, in one week.

And then, they’re hearing these Jews who are reciting their prayers over loudspeakers, and they must be thinking, “No, that’s our thing. Now, the Jews are reciting their prayers over loudspeakers, and they’re coming into the Temple Mount?”

Keith: In droves. The police come with their own thing, and they stop the…

Nehemia: The police won’t fight us. They’re putting up a barrier…

Keith: To remove the…

Nehemia: …so they won’t attack us. What are we doing there?

Keith: …they remove the taunters from the Temple Mount.

Nehemia: Right.

Keith: There’s a bunch of things that happened.

Nehemia: And here’s the bottom line. All we want is peace. You know, that Priestly Blessing that was proclaimed, the last word in the Priestly Blessing is, shalom. It’s “Yisa Yehovah panav eleikha,” “May Yehovah lift His face towards you,” “vayasem lekha shalom,” “and may He give you peace.” That’s what we want.

Keith: And may there be peace.

Nehemia: We want peace.

Keith: May we pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and pray for the peace... I pray that this thing passes, Nehemia, I really do.

Nehemia: Can I read you one last verse before we end?

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: And then, I’m going to ask you to pray. But this is something that the President of Israel… You know, we have Prime Minister Netanyahu, but we also have a president. And he got up at that Hakhel, at that event, and he recited Psalm 122. And it says, “A song of ascent.” And the ascent here was, people who were ascending up to the Temple Mount. “A song of ascent for David.” “Samakhti be’omrim li, ‘Beit Yehovah nelekh’.” “I was happy when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of Yehovah.’” The “house of Yehovah”, that’s the Temple. “Omdot hayu ragleinu vesharayikh Yerushalayim,” “Our feet stood still, they stopped in Your gates, O Jerusalem.”

Imagine this, you’re coming up to Jerusalem. In Israel, you always come up to Jerusalem, because you’re spiritually ascending. It’s also on a mountain, but you’re spiritually ascending, and then you go up to the Temple Mount. And when they got in the gates of Jerusalem, as you say, they were arrested, they were convicted. They couldn’t move, it was so intense, just arriving at the gates. And they were like, “We’re at the gate and we’re about to get to the house of Yehovah.”

Then it says in verse 3, “Yerushalayim habnuya ke’ir shekhubra la, yachdav.” “The built Jerusalem, like a city united together,” I’m going to skip ahead, I’m not going to read the whole thing, but he did read it so powerfully. This is a very famous passage, and it says in verse 6, “Sha’alu shlom Yerushalayim, yishlayu ohavaikh.” “Ask for the peace of Jerusalem, let there be tranquility for those who love you.” Verse 7, “Yehi shalom beheilekh, shalva be’armonotayikh,” “Let there be peace in your ramparts, tranquility in your palaces.” “Lema’an ahai ve’rayai,” “For the sake of my brothers, my friends,” “adabra na shalom Bakh,” “I will speak peace in You.” “Lema’an beit Yehovah Eloheinu,” “For the sake of the house of Yehovah, our God,” “avaksha tov lakh,” “I will ask for good for you.”

And my prayer is to ask for peace for those Arabs who have this love for God. You can say they’re misguided, and we could have a discussion about whether they have the same God or not. But I ask for peace for them, not for their sake, but for the sake of Yehovah, the house of Yehovah, and for the sake of the God of Israel, the Creator of the Universe, Yehovah. Would you end in prayer?

Keith: Yes, I will. Father, thank You so much for this opportunity to be here in Jerusalem, even in the midst of all the tensions and all of the terror. Thank You that You are still on the throne. Thank You for Your goodness and Your grace and the way that You orchestrated again, an opportunity to lift up Your name to the nations.

Thank You for answering both my prayer and the prayer of so many people around the world for Your intervention for Rabbi Yehuda Glick. And thank You for the celebration yesterday. But we also really thank You that the work will continue, for people all over the world that will join and arise and ascend and will go and honor that place as a place of prayer and a place of peace.

We pray that the situation in Jerusalem would change quickly. We pray that it would come to that place where there could be peace in the streets again, but if not, and if this is Your way of changing the status quo, then we know that that will be all about You, and there’s nothing we can do, except to be in our hearts, and our minds, and spirits, to be in the right place to receive what You will actually do.

But in the meantime, help us to be people that will live by faith, and pray for protection over the innocent on the streets. Even as we’re out walking, and as we have been walking, there’s so much tension on these streets here. We just ask that You would intervene on behalf of Your city. In Your name, we thank You. Amen.

Nehemia: Amen.

Nehemia: This episode of Hebrew Voices was sponsored by two servants of Yehovah El Elyon. Todah, thank you.

You have been listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

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Related Episodes:
Ambushed on the Temple Mount
Temple Mount Treasures
The Ancient Floor Lady
Apartheid in Palestinian Jordan
City of Rockets
The Open Door Series

Show Notes:
Watch the video recorded at the celebration of Yehudah Glick's survival of an assassination attempt in October 2014.

Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty (October 26, 1994), Article 9

Article 9 - Places of Historical and Religious Significance and Interfaith Relations
1. Each Party will provide freedom of access to places of religious and historical significance.
2. In this regard, in accordance with the Washington Declaration, Israel respects the present special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem. When negotiations on the permanent status will take place, Israel will give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in these shrines.
3. The Parties will act together to promote interfaith relations among the three monotheistic religions, with the aim of working towards religious understanding, moral commitment, freedom of religious worship, and tolerance and peace.

Verses Mentioned:
Zechariah 14:3-4
1 Kings 8:41-43
2 Kings 21:7
1 Chronicles 23:25
2 Chronicles 33:4
2 Chronicles 33:7
2 Chronicles 6:6
Numbers 6:24-27
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Deuteronomy 31:10-13
Psalm 122

  • Sheila Price says:

    Yehovah’s timing is ALWAYS perfect…the events happening in Jerusalem is no accident for this time. Praise Yehovah!

    • Sheila Price says:

      It will be interesting to see what the ripple effect will be of the past couple of months events in Jerusalem.

  • Aaron Livingston says:

    I know this is old, but wanted to put my perspective on this. While I agree with Jews being on the Temple mount. I do not agree with other faiths being there, and Hashem will also agree. Why? G-d’s holy name is on that very mountain and I am 100% sure with no doubt in my mind that making that place a place if interfaith will desecrate his name and that HE himself said not to practice the ways of the nations (Pagan idol worship), then if this went ahead it would mean many gods will be called there, when G-d said that he is the ONLY G-d that he is also a jealous G-d. If and I know ii is a big if, an interfaith policy was in place where all faiths can worship. G-d would have no choice but send us back in to the wilderness again for this.

  • Yosef Calev says:

    Nehemiah, during the Triumph Over Terror episode you mentioned that at times, you can slip up and use Adonai instead of Yehovah when saying the Priestly Blessing. I’m happy to report that I have the opposite issue–I learned to say the Priestly Blessing from you (over audio and video) and it’s forever ingrained in me to say Yehovah. In fact, I find it challenging to say Adonai instead. I am greatly indebted to you for teaching me…thank you so very much…may Yehovah’s blessings continue to be abundant in your life!

  • Anyone who is interested in what Keith spoke of:

    ARTICLE 9 found on Israel Ministry of Foreign affairs http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/peace/guide/pages/israel-jordan%20peace%20treaty.aspx

    ARTICLE 9
    PLACES OF HISTORICAL AND RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE

    Each party will provide freedom of access to places of religious and historical significance.
    In this regard, in accordance with the Washington Declaration, Israel respects the present special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem. When negotiations on the permanent status will take place, Israel will give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in these shrines.
    The Parties will act together to promote interfaith relations among the three monotheistic religions, with the aim of working towards religious understanding, moral commitment, freedom of religious worship, and tolerance and peace.

  • Owen Murphy says:

    Very timely – posted to my facebook wall. You both lend a refreshingly positive air, amid the turmoil.

  • Karen Powell says:

    Reading is fundamental! Forever means forever. And it shall come to pass,that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jersusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King,the YHVH of hosts,and to keep the feast of tabernacles.It’s really important that to him that everyone comes to him.

  • Aron Brackeen says:

    Bitter sweet, guys. It’s a joy to hear the dynamic duo together, but as it relates to the issues at hand, it is sad. As for Yehudah Glick, amazing! I think of another Jew long ago that ‘stirred the waters’ on the Temple mount and suffered for it. Thanks for this recording (and carry more than a hammer).