Over 1,000 Jews Visit Temple Mount for Tisha B’Av

The Fellowship  |  August 1, 2017

Large crowd of people walking with two fathers and four children leading the crowd.
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Despite recent rioting and violence at the Temple Mount, a record number of Jews descended on the holy site in Jerusalem’s Old City for Tisha B’Av. The Times of Israel reports that more than 1,000 Jews visited the site to commemorate the destruction of the Temples which once stood there:

Despite fasting, 1,043 people braved the heat and went up to the Mount, while hundreds more waited in line to visit the holy site.

According to Hebrew media reports, the number of visitors who arrived at the site Tuesday morning set a new record for most in a day, and the site was expected to reopen to Jewish visitors in the afternoon.

In light of recent tensions surrounding the site, the Jewish visitors were required to leave their identity cards with police before passing through metal detectors at the Mughrabi Gate, the only gate to the compound through which non-Muslims may enter…

On Monday night, thousands of Jews attended prayers at the Western Wall to observe the start of Tisha B’Av, days after violence shook the city.

Prayer leaders read aloud from the Book of Lamentations, believed by Jews to be the biblical prophet Jeremiah’s account of the destruction of the First Temple by invading Babylonians in 586 BCE.

The Western Wall is a remnant of the retaining wall of the Second Temple, built on the site of the First and destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.

The wall is at the foot of the Temple Mount compound…

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