Temple Mount or Haram al-Sharif

The Temple would have been the centre of Jerusalem’s religious and commercial activity as Passover approached 2,000 years ago. It was also the centre of the political machinations that would culminate in Jesus’ crucifixion.

Built atop Mount Moriah, the place where our faith tradition has it Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac (Muslims say Ishmail), the larger Temple compound constructed by King Herod was supported by a mammoth stone platform some 14 hectares in area. Today the remnant of the western wall of this platform is all that remains of the Temple. Rome, having had enough of the Jews, sacked Jerusalem in 70 CE, destroying the Temple and throwing everything on the Mount into the ravine to the west. All that would remain was an outcropping of bedrock.

It is from this rock that, 600 years later, Islamic faith tradition has it Muhammad was transported to heaven. The rock tried to follow him, leaving his footprint in it. The Crusaders would say that this was Christ’s footprint.

In 691 CE Muslims constructed a dome to cover it. Based on Syrian-Byzantine traditions, it was intended to rival the magnificent Byzantine Christian churches that had been built in Jerusalem. It is said that the cost of construction was seven years’ revenue from Egypt.

Today the Haram continues to be the dominant physical focal point of the Old City, the dominant religious focal point for Jews and Muslims, and the dominant political focal point for Israel and the Arab nations. The platform itself is under the exclusive religious purview of Muslims. With open trees and open spaces creating a sense of vastness, there are only the Shrine of the Rock, the Al Aqsa Mosque and numerous smaller shrines and schools on it.

The Western, or Wailing, Wall is the most holy of Jewish sites, as the only remnants of what was their holy of holies, the Temple. The term “Wailing Wall” was coined by the British after their conquest of Jerusalem from the Turks in 1917.



It is derived from the sound of wailing made by Jewish pilgrims rubbing salt into wounds in commem- oration of the pain of the Temple’s destruction. With separate areas for men and women, Jews come to the Wall to pray and to read Torah. Throughout the day a steady stream of people come to touch the wall, to press slips of paper holding prayers into its cracks and crevices, to sit. Late afternoon and early evening the Wall is a frenzy of activity and din of voices praying and reciting Scripture.

Jesus came to the Temple with his family. Later he would come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Passover sacrifices would be made at the Temple. Political tensions were at a breaking point in this Roman occupied city. He would be arrested and crucified.

2,000 years later the Temple Mount remains one the most highly contentious political jurisdictions in the world. While the Mount itself holds only Muslim religious sites now, Israel strictly controls who may come and when. Last week I could go up in the mornings. This week it is the afternoon. Yesterday I was denied entry because I had a Bible in my bag (yes, me!). Another day I just got up when a soldier told me it was being closed to non-Muslims and I had to leave. Now. I was escorted to a gate. Your bag is emptied and you have to pass through x-ray machines and metal detectors and then walk by dozens of heavily armed Israeli soldiers. Muslims are spared the inspections but still have to pass the soldiers.

As Passover begins at sunset on the full moon of the vernal equinox, political and religious tensions remain high and passions continue to run deep in this city of holies.