Watch a bride visiting the Temple Mount on her wedding day and receiving a blessing from the kohen.
See video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyFIB1RRuSY
On Wednesday, Rabbi Chaim Richman of the Temple Institute and others had the great privilege of meeting
a bride (kallah in Hebrew) on her wedding day. It is an ancient custom,
from the time of the Holy Temple, for a bride to ascend the Temple
Mount for prayer and spiritual preparation before her wedding.
It is the custom for all people who enter the
Mount to advance toward their right as they proceed around the Mount.
However, it is also the custom, again from the time of the first Holy
Temple, that all those who find themselves in unusual personal
circumstances make their way around the Mount advancing toward their
left.
This includes both individuals in mourning as
well as people celebrating personal accomplishments. Included in this
latter category are brides (and grooms) on their wedding day.
According to Mishnah Midot 2:2, when one sees
an individual or group of people advancing toward their left, they are
to approach them, asking, "Why are you advancing toward your left?"
If the person answers
that they are in mourning, the consoling reply is, "May He who dwells
in this house comfort you." On the happy occasion of witnessing a bride
on the Temple Mount, the reply is, "May He who dwells in this house
bless you and your betrothed with love and joy," and naturally, "Mazal
tov!"
In this video we see just this, as we first
hear the maker of the video inquire of and then bless the bride, and a
moment later, Rabbi Richman doing the same.
Following this, a kohen present among the group is asked to describe
how the kohanim would bless the people in the Holy Temple. This enabled
the kohen (who, along with every Jew on the Temple Mount, is under the constant scrutiny of the police and the Muslim Waqf), to utter the priestly blessing in spite of the unwritten edict enforced by the police forbidding any form of Jewish worship on the Temple Mount.
By Arutz Sheva
First Publish: 10/3/2013, 3:12 AM
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