For thousands of years, the Jewish people have celebrated the Passover sacrifice, but without a *sacrifice.*  It’s one thing when you’re an oppressed minority in Europe, but it’s another when you’re the ruling majority in your own land.  One would think that this would be the cause of great discussion, but it seems that the intervening years have muted the felt need for a sacrifice for most. 

But not all.  From Arutz-7:

The demonstration of the Paschal sacrifice is part of a study day scheduled to take place on Sunday, the First of Nissan (April 6), at the Kotel Yeshiva in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. The study day is a joint project of the Temple Institute, the Sanhedrin and the King David Museum. It was originally planned to take place one week later, but the organizers decided to dedicate it to the memory of the eight yeshiva boys murdered in Jerusalem recently, and to hold it on the 30th day after their death.
The study day is to include a public sacrifice which is being termed a “general rehearsal” for the actual Pesach sacrifice on the Temple Mount, a ritual prescribed by the Torah but currently forbidden by the Israel government and courts.
Glick told Ynet Monday that according to Jewish law, abstaining from performing the sacrifice is an extremely serious offense, comparable in its severity to avoiding a brit (circumcision ceremony) for one’s newborn boy. He explained that although Jewish law forbids Jews in an impure state (which all Jews are in as long as the Temple rites are not renewed) from entering the Temple area, an exception is made for public sacrifices like the Pesach sacrifice. 
The Temple movement recently sent a formal request to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Minister of Public Security Avi Dichter, to allow them to conduct the sacrifice on the Temple Mount. “Making the Paschal sacrifice is part of the religious freedom which is a basic human right and a cornerstone of democracy,” they wrote.  Glick said, however, that the organizers “have no intention of trying to ascend to the Mount without permission from the police….
Another animal rights activist, Etti Altman, said the sacrifice has no place in an “enlightened country” like Israel and quoted from the ancient Sifri biblical commentary which says: “As God is called ‘compassionate,’ so should you be compassionate.”

The full story is here.

I’ve mentioned the on-going sifting operation of the Temple Mount debris before (here and here), but I haven’t noted a relatively new video about the project.  The video is about 5 minutes long and gives a good overview of what they are doing and why.  If you’re interested in participating in the “excavation,” but don’t want to go alone, there’s a group going with the Associates of Biblical Research this summer.

The Jerusalem Post has a couple of recent articles related to Jerusalem and archaeology.
Police stop Islamic work on Temple Mount – The police won’t stop the Muslims from digging up the ground but they’ll stop them from replacing tiles.  I wouldn’t call this progress.

Digging too deep? – A report on the political aspects of the excavations in the City of David.

As always, don’t believe everything you read.

If you’re keeping up on the damage caused to the Temple Mount by multiple “excavations” of dubious legality, you’ll be interested in the report, “The Latest Damage to Antiquities on the Temple Mount,” published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.  The report surveys the situation since the 1990s, most of which is well-known to those who have followed the news, but this report handily summarizes the main points.  The major focus of the article is who is in control and thus who is responsible.  It concludes:

The Waqf, the Islamic Movement, and various Islamic groups have exploited the situation and have seriously damaged Temple Mount antiquities. The Israel Police plays the dominant Israeli role and its activities are coordinated with the prime minister’s office and the office of the attorney general, while the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Jerusalem municipality have only limited influence over what is done at the Temple Mount.

Haaretz reports the approval of the construction of a tunnel near the Western Wall. 

The Israel Antiquities Authority has decided to dig a tunnel under the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, close to the Temple Mount. Two weeks ago, the IAA denied such a decision had been made. The tunnel will connect those under the Temple Mount and the site of Ohel Yitzhak, some 150 meters from the Temple Mount wall. The decision to begin the dig was taken in spite the fact that no plan was filed to the planning authorities. Moreover, the Palestinians under whose homes the tunnel will pass were not consulted, even though the law grants them ownership over the territory under their property. (Meron Rapoport)

The third sentence should be corrected to read: “The tunnel will connect the Western Wall ‘rabbinic tunnels’ and the site of Ohel Yitzhak….”  Such a mistake might be excusable if not for the fact that dozens were killed as a result of a similar falsehood perpetuated by Yasser Arafat in 1996.  He inaccurately claimed that Israel was digging under the Temple Mount and 85 Muslims and 16 Israelis died in the riots that resulted. 

HT: Joe Lauer

Excavations are set to resume on the ramp in the Western Wall plaza that leads to the Temple Mount. 

From Arutz-7:

Archaeologists with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) were told by the cabinet on Sunday to resume their excavations at the Rambam (Mughrabi) Gate leading to the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, with all due haste.
They were also told to work with “full transparency” and in coordination with “relevant bodies” so as to complete construction of a new permanent foot bridge to the Western Wall as soon as possible. The bridge is to be used by visitors and also by police. Work being carried out to replace the current walkway, which partially collapsed in a storm in 2004, was halted in June in response to rioting by enraged Muslims who claimed the work was a plot to weaken the foundations of the Al Aqsa mosque.
The construction site is located 60 meters away from the mosque and was found by numerous Israeli and international engineers to be no threat to the structure. Nonetheless, a new plan was proposed by Jerusalem planning officials that called for a shorter bridge along the existing route, and which would require less excavating and fewer pillars. A budget of NIS 3.5 million has been allocated for the project.
In the wake of the Muslim riots, UNESCO investigators were sent by the United Nations to inspect the repair work being carried out on the broken footbridge.

The rest of the story reviews other developments related to the Temple Mount in the past year.  We covered this story before here and here.