Page 22 - HaMizrachi #10 Yom Yerushalayim - Shavuot 5779

THE FASCINATING TREASURES
On June 7, 1967, at exactly 10:00
am, Motta Gur, commander
of the Paratroopers
Brigade, uttered three words that
touched millions of people all
over the world: ‫ ַהר ַה ַּב ִית ְּב ָי ֵדינ ּו‬, “The
Temple Mount is in our hands!”
However, the management of the
Temple Mount affairs was entrusted
to the Muslim Waqf, which attempts
to reduce Israeli sovereignty on the
mountain at every opportunity and to
heavily limit Jewish access.
In 1996, they decided to build a new
mosque on the site. They knew that
they would not be able to build a new
building on the main plaza, so they
decided to build the new mosque
under the plaza in the area known as
“Solomon’s Stables.” This is a large
building built during the Second
Temple period by King Herod in his
efforts to expand the Temple Mount
area.
During the construction process,
the Waqf carried out large-scale
excavations on the Temple Mount
in a flagrantly illegal manner,
destroying evidence of the Beit
HaMikdash and damaging antiquities,
while preventing Israeli police and
Antiquities Authority inspectors from
visiting the site.
But it didn’t stop there. In 1999, the
Waqf decided to open a large entrance
to the illegal mosque they had built.
To this end, they brought dozens of
trucks, tractors and bulldozers to
the Temple Mount, and for three
consecutive days and nights, they dug
a huge hole in the mountain, causing
massive destruction and irreplaceable
damage to the historical layers and
archeological remains.
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Thus, the Waqf completed another
stage in its plan to turn the entire
Temple Mount into a mosque, to
present it as a Muslim site and to sever At least putting the soil and dirt from
the Jewish connection to the site.
The dirt trucks emptied their loads
at various waste disposal sites around
Jerusalem, and the State authorities
were unhelpful and helpless in
handling the matter.
Strangely enough, although Jerusalem
is one of the most excavated cities in
the world from an archaeological point
of view, there is one place that has
never been excavated – the Temple
Mount.
Nevertheless, while the Waqf was
carrying out its work, two young
Israeli archeology students – Tzachi
Zweig and Aran Yardeni – watched
as the events unfolded. They followed
the trucks and examined the piles
of dirt that had been removed from
the Temple Mount. They quickly
discovered that the soil was saturated
with archaeological treasures.
They had to do something before it
was too late.
So they recruited a number of senior
archaeologists, led by Dr. Gabi Barkai
of Bar-Ilan University – which gave
them academic backing – and in 2004
they launched The Temple Mount
Sifting Project.
the Temple Mount literally “in our
hands”!
Since then, the project – involving
over 200,000 volunteers from all
over the world – has discovered
thousands of artifacts and fascinating
items, the first ever archeological
data originating from underneath
the Temple Mount. In addition,
through innovative methodology and
surveying techniques, the findings
have deepened our understanding and
knowledge, challenged theories and
presented and supported the real facts
about and Jewish claims to the Temple
Mount, the site of our beloved Beit
HaMikdash.
Here are just some of the amazing
discoveries:
FIRST TEMPLE PERIOD (1000-586 BCE)
Sifters uncovered a huge number
of pottery vessels, including 180
fragments of figurines used for idol
worship. On the face of it, it is strange
to find such a large concentration of
these statues on the Temple Mount,
but the Sages tell us that idolatry was
one of the three reasons the First
Temple was destroyed.
They also found various weapons
from this period, such as slingshots
and arrowheads. Particularly exciting
was a three-winged bronze arrowhead
used by the Babylonian army that
conquered Jerusalem and destroyed
the First Temple.
One of the most important finds
discovered from this period is a clay
signatory stamp bearing the Hebrew