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Summary: Very well-written !
Review: This book is a must-read for someone who requires to know what role the prophecies in the Bible and Torah have to do with what is happening in the Mid-East today.
For the reader with no experience with Biblical or Jewish scriptures this book is a wonderful and very well written and concise summary of the content therein and how that drives the people who believe in it.
The writer portrays how religious fundamentalists can endanger the world we live in by following such prophecies.
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Summary: Red Heiffer, Kohen, Third Temple, coming of the Messiah?
Review: This book is an informative read about the history of the Temple mount in Jerusalem, currently the site of the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock (Islam's third holiest shrine). Also covered are the bizzarre beliefs of various cults and fanatics that want to destroy the Muslim shrines and rebuild Herod's temple. Zionist, Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox Jews believe that building the Temple will perfect creation. "Fundamentalist" Premillenial-Dispensationalist Christians believe that the Temple must be rebuilt in order for Jesus to return to earth, misinterpreting the Biblical book of Daniel.
Catalouged are the beliefs and actions of Gush Emumim, Meir Kahane, and Dennis Rohan (who heard "voices" that later prompted him to set a fire at the mount.)
Beware of the Red Heiffer, which is said in Jewish and Christian mythology to ritually purify a "priest" (one of the KOHENIM) before he can step on the temple mount. If one of these is successfully bred, more calls in the Israeli government and the Christian fumdamentalist communities in the US will be made for the Third Temple's construction.
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Summary: Who knew?
Review: this book is revealing of the clash of religions. What people will do in the name of God, when they think they know better than anyone else. I had no idea that the Temple Mount was the focus of so much extremism. I only realised that when Sheron went there, he started this latest intifada. this book is well worth reading for anyone concerned about the future of our world.
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Summary: An inaccurate and unfair description of the situation
Review: This book misreads the situation on the Temple Mount. It was published toward the Millenium and hinted that there would be upheavals created by Christian fundamentalists which never occurred. It too systemtically downplayed the degree of destruction which has been done on the Temple Mount by the Islamic controllers of the actual places of prayers in the Mount. It also exaggerated the dangers from ' Jewish extremists' and irresponsibly repeated a libel against the late Chief Rabbi of Israel Shlomo Goren as to his having ordered the destruction of the mosques. Rabbi Goren was in fact involved in for many years working to establish a Jewish place of prayer on the Mount alongside the mosques. He was very aware of the upheaval any damage done to the mosques would cause and as Army Rabbi instituted special regulations to make sure it would not happen. Gorenberg also has a minimal concern for basic Jewish and Christian rights on the Mount He says little about the Islamic intolerance, the destruction of valuable artifacts by the Wafq the Islamic authority in charge of the Mount.
This work is not all balanced and does not do justice to its subject.
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Summary: A rapturous must read in the wake of Middle East violence
Review: Those who avoid this book are doing themselves a disservice. Could you have asked for better timing for this book? Is it any wonder that the film that swept the 2000 Israeli Film Academy Awards, Hahesder, was the story about a religious plot to blow up the Al Aqsa Mosque? Is it a surprise that the Palestinian Authority used the visit of a Jewish Israeli political leader to the Temple Mount as a spark to begin rioting over the peace agreement negotiations (just like Mufti Hajj Amin Al-Husseini did in 1928)? Or that MK Ariel Sharon used his visit to the Temple Mount as a ploy for his party's leadership? Or that a best selling series of books in the USA are based the belief of a coming Rapture? All three Western religions conceived of an End of Days. The Book of Revelations read by Christians expects wars and a Jewish antichrist before the End of Days; while Moslems need a Dajjal, or Jewish false Messiah, for its own End Hour to occur. It is a ticking bomb, an urgency for fundamentalists, all focused on 35 acres in the SE corner of Jerusalem's walled Old City. Gorenberg, a senior editor at The Jerusalem Report, and regular in the pages of The New Republic, moved to Israel in 1977. To write this book, Gorenberg, a journalist focused on the nexus of religion and politics, interviewed Christians, Jews, and Moslems, many of whom hold views of an END OF DAYS. All their scenarios focus on the Temple Mount and Al Haram Al Sharif / Noble Sanctuary. I began to read THE END OF DAYS as I sat in a Jerusalem hotel room, near The King David Hotel, overlooking the Old City's walls. It was almost a week before the holiday of Hanukkah, which commemorates the victory of the Maccabees, who won back control of the Temple Mount. Jetlagged at 3 AM, with a full moon and a light rain, I started Chapter 1, and the book's story unfolded with heightened suspense. Many Jews believe that Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac on the mount, that King David erected an altar there, that King Solomon and Herod built Temples there, and as Rabbi Levi wrote in 200 CE, that Cain murdered Abel for control of the Mount. Moslems leveled the mount and built the Dome of the Rock there, and Christians believe it will be the site of the Third Temple. What will happen after the year 2000 if the Messiah does not come? How will the fundamentalists of all 3 primary Western religions react? If Jews do not return to Jerusalem and a war occurs, how will the Rapture and Gods Kingdom come to pass? If Jews control the Mount, how will Mecca migrate to Jerusalem for the advent of a Moslem end of time? If Jews do not control the site, how will a Third Temple be built? Gorenberg shows how the future is bound up with the past. The first chapter tells the story of Melody the calf. She was born in August 1996, three years prior to the Year 2000. She was born red, and a red Heifer is required for sacrifices to re-commence in a Third Temple; an event that is needed by Christians in order to bring about the End of Days. Gorenberg describes this disturbing and unusual alliance. Chapters 2-4 tell the story of Christian millenialism and Jewish messianism, and its effects on Cromwell's England, the Puritans, the British Mandate, the 1948 Israeli War of Independence, the 1967 Six Day War, Dayan's orders to remove an Israeli flag from the captured Mount, and even Christian evangelical attitudes towards the assassination of PM Rabin. Chapter 5 is filled with fascinating portraits of members of American evangelical groups, the late Rabbi Meir Kahane (Michael King), the Jewish Temple Mount Faithful, Gush Emunim settlers, Banch Davidians at Waco, the American Jewish loner who shot up the Dome in 1982, and the Australian Christian paranoid schizophrenic who nearly succeeded in burning part of Al Aqsa Mosque in 1967. Later chapters portray the people who are preparing for a Third Jewish Temple (such as the men who are producing priestly garments of flax and linen, to the rabbi who seeks to raise observant boys of the priestly class who have never been in contact with the dead so that they can sacrifice a red heifer, to the Christian Zionists who come to Israel for the Tabernacles festival); as well as the Temple Faithful activists who sue each year for greater access; Bassam Jirrar of Ramallah, who calculates the end of Israel through his mathematical analysis of the Koran; the popular writings of Egyptian author Sa'id Ayyub and Palestinian writer Fa'iq Da'ud; a Texan who hopes to drill for oil near the Dead Sea as per the Lord's instructions; and other unique characters. This book is an enlightening decoder and story, and it is a must read for anyone interested in peace in the Middle East.
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Summary: The Insanity of Temple Mount Fanaticism.
Review: _The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount_ by Gershom Gorenberg tells the disturbing tale behind the millenial subculture of a particularly bizarre alliance between Jewish Zionist fanatics and Protestant Christian fundamentalists. The book also covers to some extent the beliefs of the other third in the triangle of great monotheistic religions in the Middle East, that of the Islamic millenialists, as well as including some discussion of other millenial groups, various cults, and individuals influenced by the hysteria brought on from the beginning of year 2000 (and the alleged Y2K computer virus). The book details the insanity of many of those who believe that it is necessary to restore the Temple of Solomon in order to bring about the End of Days (either according to the Christian revelation involving the Second Coming of Christ or according to the Jewish belief in the coming of a messiah). Unfortunately, for those who hold this belief (including many fundamentalist Christians in America) the fact is that currently a Muslim mosque occupies the space where allegedly the Temple existed. This has caused many extremists (both Jewish Zionists and Christians) to call for the destruction of this mosque through explosion or whatever other means necessary. The potential political disaster that would result from such an event occurring within the geopolitical hotbed of Jerusalem (currently home to the world's greatest conflict between Israeli occupants and Palestinian militants) is unfathomable. Certainly the destruction of the mosque Al-Aqsa could very well bring about the Third World War. Much of this book is spent detailing the beliefs of various groups of Zionist zealots (both Christian and Jewish) with names such as the Temple Mount Faithful who operate outside of the law in their attempt to restore the Temple. Restoring the Temple involves the return of animal sacrifice to the Jewish religion as well as a particular concern for breeding a red heifer. It is believed that no man can enter the Temple unless he has not had contact with any corpse (thereby eliminating nearly all but selectively raised boys) or unless he has been smeared with the ashes of a red heifer (in alignment with the Book of Numbers 19). The effective cloning of such a red heifer could spell disaster if these individuals were to decide that the time to restore the Temple had come and the mosque must be overtaken by force. For many Protestant Christian fundamentalists, the restoration of the Temple and the return of the Jews to their homeland (effectively the establishment of the state of Israel) involves the playing out of key events from the Book of Revelation. In addition, it is believed that once the End has come all Christian believers (particularly by those of the "born again" stripe) will be summoned up into the skies according to the teaching of the Rapture. This unbiblical belief made popular by the premillenialist dispensationalist preacher John Darby in the nineteenth century has seen a recent revival. In particular one can note the widespread sale of the notorious _Left Behind_ series of books which details a world caught up in the Tribulation (after all Christian believers have been "raptured"). In effect, the Rapture amounts to one of the greatest escapist fantasies ever developed, particularly because post-Rapture a great Tribulation will occur involving the Reign of Antichrist (in which many of the Jews will be either forced to convert or die) before the Second Coming of Christ. Oddly, these fundamentalists have joined various Jewish zealots who believe that the restoration of the Temple is necessary to achieve the coming of the Messiah and the triumph of the nation of Israel (despite their apparent theological differences). One group that is not mentioned in this account are the Freemasons, many of whom also believe that it is necessary to restore the Temple, supposedly built by their founder Hiram Abiff. The author also mentions various apocalyptic beliefs popular among many Islamics including the belief in the rise of al-Dajjal (the Antichrist) who must be defeated by a returned Jesus, as well as a special prophet called the Mahdi, to show just how volatile the political situation is. More disturbing still, certain Jewish fanatics have taken these beliefs to heart and tried to put them into action by murdering Islamic worshippers. Such is the case of Baruch Goldstein, a fanatical follower of the Jewish supremacist (racist) Rabbi Meir Kahane, who gunned down a group of Muslims at prayer at the Tomb of the Patriarchs. With the approach of the millenium, the Israeli government took action against many of those deemed potential threats (such as for instance various eccentrics including an individual referring to himself as Elijah who was deported) without provocation. The author notes that much of this action is misguided, both because it denies liberty to individuals who may have bizarre beliefs and especially in light of the incident at Waco in the U.S. because it can either serve to provoke retaliation or will miss out on future threats. Such a situation proves particularly difficult to deal with for government officials concerned about the potential political situation surrounding the Temple Mount. The author ends with a chapter about "Avoiding the Cain Option" in which he notes the particular dangers posed by millenial beliefs (which are really heresies within the various religions) and hopes for the future that Cain can avoid killing his brother Abel, though presented with that opportunity everyday.
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