[Avodah] leviim on duty

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Wed, Jul 13, 2016 at 04:53:21AM +0200, Ben Waxman via Avodah wrote:
: RZS was correct, that my original post I mistakenly stated where
: they were and what they're job is. I looked at the Mishna and the
: Rambam and it is clear why no one does it today. Number one, they
: would have to go to Har Habayit and who says that this mitzva is
: docheh the possible karet issue? Secondly, according to the Rambam
: they are there to give kavod to the Beit Hamikdash. Is that what
: Levi'im would doing to today, when the Beit Hamiqdash isn't there
: and that mosque is? If there is no Beit HaMiqdash, why are they
: needed?

1- The kohanim guarded in the 3 locations mentioned in the mishnah. But
the gemara (Tamid 27a) lists the 21 places the leviim guarded. 3 of them
were below where the kohanim were. So a kohein was at Beis haNitzotz,
and a levi stood at Sha'ar haNitzotz. In addition 5 guarded the gates
(some gates were not guarded -- see machloqes there), 2 guarded the west
causeway, and another 2 guarded the the area at the end of the causway.

I count 11 shemiros that could be done today without risking kareis.

(About 5 years ago I encountered two Temple Mount Faithful types in
uniform -- complete with a beret emblem depicting bayis sheini, standing
shemirah in an attempt to fulfill this mitzvah. And driving the chayalim
protecting the southern archeological garden crazy.)

2- There is a BHMQ today -- qudeshah lesha'ata, qudesha lae'asid lavo. In
bayis sheini they even did the avodah before actually building the
building. (They were meqadesh the building, then the Kusim slandered us
to the gov't and permission to build was temporarily rescinded.)

After all, shemirah is for the kavod of the Borei, not to keep the
valuables or the structure safe. So actually having a physical bilding
should not be relevant.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             If you're going through hell
micha at aishdas.org        keep going.
http://www.aishdas.org                   - Winston Churchill
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