Fundamentalist Rabbis want to start animal sacrifices again...

Ruhanv · 03-01-2007, 05:12 AM

JERUSALEM (AP) -- A fringe group of extremist rabbis wants to resume the biblical practice of animal sacrifice at an explosive religious site in Jerusalem, members said Wednesday.

The request defied centuries of religious bans and triggered a stiff protest from a Muslim leader.

When the Jewish Temples stood in the Old City of Jerusalem more than 2,000 year ago, animal sacrifice was a centerpiece of the religion. After the destruction of the Temples, sacrifices were banned and rabbinical teachings took their place as the focus of Judaism.

Now a group, called the "Re-established Sanhedrin" after the Temple-era religious high court, has decided to buy some sheep and try to find one that is ritually perfect for sacrifice, with an eye toward resuming the practice at the Jerusalem site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

The site is the most hotly disputed in the Middle East, home today to the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, where Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.

Israel captured the site in the 1967 war and turned day-to-day control over to the Muslim Religious Council, but Palestinians take the Jewish fringe groups seriously.

"Regrettably, there are many extremist Israeli groups who want to carry out their plans," said Jerusalem's senior Islamic cleric, Mohammed Hussein. "Let them say what they want, Al Aqsa is a Muslim mosque."

In recent weeks Muslims have protested an Israeli archaeological and construction project outside the compound, despite Israeli assurances that they have no intention of harming the mosque.

Jewish prayer at the site is forbidden by most rabbis and by Israeli authorities -- the former for religious reasons and the latter to prevent Muslim riots.

The ban does not sit well with some small fringe groups -- notably the Temple Mount Faithful, who have constructed a cornerstone for the "Third Temple" and advocate destroying the mosque.

The 71 members of the "Re-established Sanhedrin" say they want to begin sacrificing animals again, despite the absence of the Temple, the ritual altar and all the required implements listed in the Bible. Rabbi Dov Stein of the group admitted that it won't be any time soon.

"We want to do the sacrifice, but we have political problems," Stein said. "We hope there will come a time when the government will agree. We will push for that to happen."

Other rabbis point out that ritual animal sacrifice has been banned since the destruction of the Second Temple in A.D. 70.

"Around that time, animal sacrifice, as a mode of religious worship, stopped," said Rabbi Doniel Hartman of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. "Moving back in that direction is not progress."

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/me....ap/index.html
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In my view they are simply doing what their scriptures tell them to do. It's so distant and cuddly when you hear about it in Sunday School but its' quite barbaric in real life.

nail3r · 03-01-2007, 05:52 AM

If it's their faith, so be it.

Persecuted · 03-01-2007, 06:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ruhanv

In my view they are simply doing what their scriptures tell them to do. It's so distant and cuddly when you hear about it in Sunday School but its' quite barbaric in real life.

You're right, it makes you wonder why they ever stopped..

However it's barabaric? Do you eat meat? Are you saying you couldn't bear to watch an animal get killed but you're perfectly fine eating them? I'm assuming you're still a carnivore..

Funny you call that barbaric but if we go with what you believe happened i.e. evolution people did much worse things, incest would have been commonplace, cannibalism, inter-species relations who knows...

Persecuted · 03-01-2007, 06:05 AM

Oh btw Muslims still do this to the present day, my friend has told me about a couple of times he has held down the goats horns while they slit it's throat..

Apparently it is quite a humane way to kill them, or so i've been told I really don't know. What I do know however is that they are delicious and you'll have no objections from me concerning the food chain...

Jimmy: Ah Mr. McLure I have a crazy friend who says it's wrong to eat meat, is he crazy?
Troy: No just ignorant, you see your crazy friend never heard of the food chain.

Troy: Just ask the scientician.
Scientician: Ah,...
Troy: He will tell you that in nature one creature eats another to survive. If a cow would got the chance it would eat you and everyone you care about.

I love The Simpsons..

MattPL · 03-01-2007, 07:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Persecuted

Funny you call that barbaric but if we go with what you believe happened i.e. evolution people did much worse things, incest would have been commonplace, cannibalism, inter-species relations who knows...

I don't want to hijack this thread but what the hell are you talking about here?

Big Hype · 05-14-2007, 01:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nail3r

If it's their faith, so be it.

Ummm, no?

If it's my faith to kill people I don't like (such as you), would you be so quick to be a pansy ass moral relativist?

I should go to Jerusalem and throw ham at these rabbis.

AKR · 05-14-2007, 04:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big Hype

Ummm, no?

If it's my faith to kill people I don't like (such as you), would you be so quick to be a pansy ass moral relativist?

I should go to Jerusalem and throw ham at these rabbis.

i was going to reply to him but this post sums it up.

AKR · 05-14-2007, 04:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Persecuted

You're right, it makes you wonder why they ever stopped..

However it's barabaric? Do you eat meat? Are you saying you couldn't bear to watch an animal get killed but you're perfectly fine eating them? I'm assuming you're still a carnivore..

there's a difference between killing an animal for food, and killing an animal to please a fictitious being. what kind of a god is pleased by the death of an innocent creature anyway?

Quote:

Funny you call that barbaric but if we go with what you believe happened i.e. evolution people did much worse things, incest would have been commonplace, cannibalism, inter-species relations who knows...

is he saying those things aren't barbaric? could you quote that part, because i don't recall seeing him say that.

AKR · 05-14-2007, 04:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Persecuted

Apparently it is quite a humane way to kill them, or so i've been told I really don't know.

yeah, i'm sure they don't feel a thing.

tell me, if your throat was slit, do you think you'd notice? it's not instantanious. they feel fear and they feel pain, all so some "sinner" can please his egotistical god.

it just hit me just how stupid this practice is. if you're in charge of a group of people and one of them breaks the rules, how would you go about things? would you say, "well, gee, i think you should kill something now to make up for breaking the rules." or would you, oh, i don't know, make the person accountable for their own actions, rather than taking it out on a defenseless, innocent creature?

DanielBell · 05-14-2007, 04:50 AM

The word barbaric generally refers to human behavior we have 'grown out of' such as cannibalism etc.

basement iron · 05-14-2007, 07:43 AM

Ahh yes, nothing pleases god like killing an animal for him.

TwiloMike · 05-14-2007, 07:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by devire1

isn't kosher slaughter for meat more barbaric (more painful) than regular slaughter?

Quite the opposite. The laws of kosher demand zero suffering by the animal.

Kashrut and animal welfare

The practice of kosher slaughter emphasizes the sharpness of the knife and the accuracy and precision of the skill of the shochet, in order to slit the jugular of the animal with an absolute minimum of pain and suffering. In general, over the years authorities have ruled that any unnecessary suffering by the animal can render otherwise kosher meat traife.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashrut