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Jews Revive the Sanhedrin with Plans for a Passover Sacrifice
beliefnet ^ | Deborah Pardo-Kaplan

Posted on 03/22/2007 9:54:02 AM PDT by Alex Murphy

In a donated apartment concealed among the narrow streets of the Jerusalem suburb of Nahlaot, 13 Orthodox Jewish men meet every Tuesday to debate matters of Jewish law. They are the management team of a larger developing Sanhedrin, or religious court, in Israel.

And they plan to sacrifice sheep on the Temple Mount on the day before or one month after Passover, which starts at sundown April 2. Either date is permissible under Jewish law. "If the government will not resist," said Rabbi Dov Stein, 68, a member of the group, "we will do it."

As Easter eclipses the last days of Passover this year, Christians will focus again on the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus. The Sanhedrin, meanwhile, will literally attempt to resurrect the Passover sacrifice of old.

For these Jews, the sacrificial Passover offering is not their redemption per se, yet it is vital to the process.

The Passover sacrifice is the latest of more than 40 legal decisions issued by the modern Sanhedrin. Seventy-one Orthodox men revived the court more than two years ago in the city of Tiberius, the same geographical spot they believe marked the final days of the Sanhedrin a few hundred years after the time of Jesus.

In antiquity, the Sanhedrin determined Jewish practice. It now rules on political and religious issues and ultimately sees itself as an alternative to the secular Supreme Court of Israel. It hopes to impose Jewish law on the Jewish people and the seven "Noahide" laws -- prohibitions on theft, murder, blasphemy and others, based on Jewish teaching -- on Gentile nations.

"We want all the world," Stein said, "to walk with God."

Descriptions of the Sanhedrin can be found in Jewish legal writings and the New Testament. The Gospels say Jesus was brought before the Sanhedrin so its members could assess his messianic claims. This current Sanhedrin also sees as one of its goals to evaluate any potential messianic contender. "There is no redemption without the Sanhedrin," said Stein. "We are building the opportunity for a king (messiah)."

Some Orthodox Jews see the Passover sacrifice on Jerusalem's Temple Mount -- one of the most disputed pieces of real estate on the planet -- as key to quickening redemption.

The Sanhedrin bought a herd of 12 sheep -- 110-150 pounds each -- from a farm in southern Israel. Anyone wanting to eat of the sacrifice can pay seven shekels ($1.67) for an 8-10 gram slice, the minimum required by Jewish law, Stein said. The group is hoping to collect 30,000 signatures through its Web site to prove its influence to the Israeli authorities, and gain access to the Temple Mount area.

Some members of the Sanhedrin are a bit more cautious.

"The Passover plans are just preparation," said Hillel Weiss, a professor of Hebrew literature at Bar Ilan University. "Not everyone is in favor of it."

The Passover sacrifice will draw the attention of some religious Jews as well as evangelical Christians who see both the restoration of the Sanhedrin and sacrifice as part of end-times prophecy. Other Orthodox Jews want to distance themselves from this group, which they consider extremist.

Religious Zionists, such as Israeli settlers, serve as the main audience for the new Sanhedrin, said Mordechai Inbari, 37, an Israeli who teaches at the University of Florida. Inbari sat in on some of the Sanhedrin meetings last year for his doctoral research.

Zionists perceive Israel as in the process of redemption, Inbari said, but most see the Temple's reconstruction with its sacrificial system as the last stage, occurring only after a widespread repentance in which all Jews turn religious. "But the extremists see it as going hand in hand," he said.

Hila Lipnick, a 28-year-old Orthodox woman who lives in Cambridge, Mass., used to live in Jerusalem and traveled daily to Gush Etzion, a settlement in the West Bank, for school. While she believes in the eventual rebuilding of the Temple, she is unsure about sacrifice.

"I can't see rivers of blood going all over Jerusalem," she said, "and society just accepting it."

In order for the Sanhedrin to proceed with the sacrifice, they would need to build an altar on the Temple Mount, at least the size of 1 amah (21 inches) by 1 amah, Stein said. They would slaughter the sheep and sprinkle the blood towards the altar, said Hillel Weiss. The meat would then be taken from the Temple area and cooked on a special oven and given to families to eat.

Some leaders in the Jewish community question not only the renewal of sacrifice without a Temple, but the validity of the Sanhedrin itself.

"They are a self-selected group," said Michael J. Broyde, an Orthodox rabbi who sits on the Rabbinical Court of America. "And they have no more and no less authority than any other self-selected group of rabbis."

While many Jews are either ambivalent or hostile toward the Sanhedrin and other Temple-related groups, some evangelicals support these projects. They get excited when they perceive the Jewish people fulfilling what they view as part of future prophecy, said Randall Price, an evangelical professor and author of four books about the Temple. "Then they think we're getting closer to that being a reality," he said.

The Sanhedrin considers the Passover sacrifice equal in importance to circumcision, since it is the first collective commandment given to the Jewish people.

"Since the Passover sacrifice is an eternal commandment, we should do it," said Rabbi Yeshayahu Hollander, an English spokesperson for the group. Those who do not observe the sacrifice, he said, will be cut off from the Jewish people.

"If we have psychological inhibitions, it is our duty to educate ourselves, to overcome the inhibitions," Hollander said. "This is part of our redemption. An essential part."


TOPICS: Judaism; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics; Worship
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See earlier story here: Present-day Sanhedrin court seeks to revive ancient Temple rituals (PETA Alert!)
1 posted on 03/22/2007 9:54:06 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
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To: Alex Murphy

Prophecy fulfilled before our eyes. I don't know how it is going to happen but the Temple will be rebuilt. But the final sacrifice was given 2,000 years ago. The Jews won't realize it until He returns.
BTW, Ezekiel gives the measurements and description of this Temple.


2 posted on 03/22/2007 10:01:56 AM PDT by BigFinn (AlGore: Carbonista)
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To: Alex Murphy

Rabid Muslims will kill them all if they try this. It'd be suicide.


3 posted on 03/22/2007 10:24:06 AM PDT by T.Smith
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To: Alex Murphy

it ain't goin' to happen. The Waqf will launch a wave of rock throwers on the plaza below that hasnt been seen before. the very fact that the majority of Jews do not support this body is the best evidence of its lack of authority not to mention the ban on even ascending to Har HaBayis at this time for fear of descration and impurities.


4 posted on 03/22/2007 10:24:57 AM PDT by APRPEH (Hillary probably wouldn't approve, but I can live with that....)
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To: Alex Murphy

Hebrews 7:27
Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.


5 posted on 03/22/2007 10:42:16 AM PDT by jkl1122
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To: Alex Murphy
My problem with the so-called "sanhedrion" is not that they are "extremists" (what's wrong with being an extremist?). It is that they are allied with a group that promotes ecumenicism and has members/affiliates who are all over the map religiously. How in the world does one square such leftist ecumenism with the Holy Temple to the One G-d Who will have no rival???
6 posted on 03/22/2007 11:12:08 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Vayiqra' 'el Mosheh; vaydabber HaShem 'elayv me'Ohel Mo`ed le'mor.)
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To: Zionist Conspirator

They could begin by recognizing their Messiah out of the line of David. ;-`


7 posted on 03/22/2007 11:13:51 AM PDT by unspun (What do you think? Please think, before you answer.)
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To: Alex Murphy
The Sanhedrin considers the Passover sacrifice equal in importance to circumcision, since it is the first collective commandment given to the Jewish people.

Actually it was the sanctification of the New Moon.

8 posted on 03/22/2007 11:14:36 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Vayiqra' 'el Mosheh; vaydabber HaShem 'elayv me'Ohel Mo`ed le'mor.)
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To: unspun
They could begin by recognizing their Messiah out of the line of David. ;-`

[sarcasm]Of course. It's so obvious! I mean, the Bible (ie, the "new testament") says J*sus is the messiah, and since it's "self-evident" that the "new testament" is part of the Bible (after all, isn't it that what Thomas Nelson says?) that's all the proof one needs![/sarcasm]

9 posted on 03/22/2007 11:17:13 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Vayiqra' 'el Mosheh; vaydabber HaShem 'elayv me'Ohel Mo`ed le'mor.)
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To: Zionist Conspirator

So said many eyewitnesses of the resurrection. So said the prophets. So say those who encounter Him to this moment.

But go ahead and sacrifice animals again, if you need. They won't take away your sin.

I say that with no sarcasm, nor ill-will.


10 posted on 03/22/2007 11:21:00 AM PDT by unspun (What do you think? Please think, before you answer.)
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To: unspun

These poor souls. The day they bow down and confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord will be a day too late. If they would only read their own prophets' words, and see that Jesus fulfilled all the prophecies and signs that they are still looking for. They are blinded by their religion. Religion prevents so many people from becoming Christians...


11 posted on 03/22/2007 5:55:22 PM PDT by Hambone02
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To: unspun

But it's more than that. Who cares if it (animal sacrifice) removes "sin" or not. That's their business. What I want to know is, why would they want to re-establish an act that people only see in third world hell-holes. There's something unsettling about having "heave offerings" in modern religious services. Brings to mind actions of cults like Santeria and Voodoo.


12 posted on 03/22/2007 7:09:54 PM PDT by John Philoponus
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To: BigFinn; Alex Murphy
Prophecy fulfilled before our eyes.

Perhaps ... it just ain't Bible prophecy.

13 posted on 03/22/2007 7:31:11 PM PDT by topcat54
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Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

To: ps2
All is occuring as revealed IN THE BIBLE

Lots of speculation and little careful Bible exegesis. This is all being driven by a bunch of Jews who are looking for a "Messiah" quite different from the one revelaed in the infallible Word of God.

No one should take these actions seriously except that they provoke geo-political conflict and ought to be condemned.

"But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool." (Heb. 10:12)

The true sacrifice has been made. Anything done today is an abomination. The Jews need to come to Christ today, before they die in their sin and are counted among His enemies.

15 posted on 03/25/2007 11:32:41 AM PDT by topcat54
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To: Alex Murphy
[29] That He hungered we read in Mark:

"When they were come from Bethany," Jesus "hungered: and, seeing a fig-tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find anything thereon: but when he came to it he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the time of figs. Therefore he said unto it, Let no man eat fruit of thee for ever. And the disciples, in the morning, as they passed by, saw the fig-tree dried up from the roots" (xi. 12, 14-20; Matt. xxi. 19, 20).

He who does not know that all things of the Word contain a spiritual sense, may think that the Lord did this to the fig-tree from indignation because He hungered but by the fig-tree here is not meant a fig-tree, but the church as to natural good, and specifically the Jewish Church. That there was not any natural good therein, because nothing spiritual, but only some truths from the sense of the letter of the Word, is signified by, Jesus seeing a fig-tree afar off having leaves, came if haply He might find anything thereon; but when He had come to it He found nothing but leaves. Leaves signify the truths of the sense of the letter of the Word. That with that nation there would nowhere be any natural good of the church, because they are in dense falsities and in evil loves, is signified by Jesus saying, "Let no man eat fruit of thee for ever," and by the fig-tree being dried up from the roots. It is also said, that it was not the time of figs, and thereby is meant that the church was not yet commenced. That the beginning of a new church is meant by the fig-tree, is evident from the Lord's words (in Matt. xxiv. 32, 33; Mark xiii. 28, 219; and in Luke xxi. 28-31). From these considerations it is evident what is there signified by hungering. (That the fig-tree signifies the natural good of the church, see n. 217, 4231, 5113; and that the leaves signify the truths of the natural man, see above (n. 109).)

Zechariah 11:4 Thus says the Lord my God, "Feed the flock for slaughter, 5 whose owners slaughter them and feel no guilt; those who sell them say, 'Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich'; and their shepherds do not pity them. 6 For I will no longer pity the inhabitants of the land," says the Lord. "But indeed I will give everyone into his neighbor's hand and into the hand of his king. They shall attack the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand." 7 So I fed the flock for slaughter, in particular the poor of the flock.* I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Beauty,+ and the other I called Bonds;** and I fed the flock.

16 posted on 03/25/2007 12:53:39 PM PDT by DaveMSmith ("Heaven is the only basis for our continued existence".)
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Comment #17 Removed by Moderator

To: ps2
The Bible also makes it clear that the Jews will look upon Him whom they have pierecd and mourn

But the verse in question does not tell us explicitly what will be the result of that mourning. I submit that by the time they see Christ "face to face" their fate will be sealed. Unless they are already "in Christ", they will be mourning because they are about to be consigned to the outer darkness by the divine Judge of the universe.

God has not forsaken His people, the people he foreknew

Indeed, that is Paul's entire argument in Romans 9-11. The elect remnant of Israel was being saved and is continuing to be saved thought this age. Paul was part of that elect remnant. God's election stands as Jews are regrafted into the root by faith in Jesus Christ, the faith of our father Abraham.

18 posted on 03/25/2007 3:48:03 PM PDT by topcat54
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To: topcat54; BigFinn; Alex Murphy
"Prophecy fulfilled before our eyes.
Perhaps ... it just ain't Bible prophecy."

Not for anti-semite, Israel replacing amils anyway. They reject all prophecy that gets in their anti-semitic way.

19 posted on 03/25/2007 3:54:33 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Turning the general election into a second Democrat primary is not a winning strategy.)
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To: Zionist Conspirator; unspun
[sarcasm]Of course. It's so obvious! I mean, the Bible (ie, the "new testament") says J*sus is the messiah, and since it's "self-evident" that the "new testament" is part of the Bible (after all, isn't it that what Thomas Nelson says?) that's all the proof one needs![/sarcasm]

I wasn't aware that you also ripped the book of Isaiah out of your Bible too.

20 posted on 03/25/2007 3:58:48 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Turning the general election into a second Democrat primary is not a winning strategy.)
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