5b the Temple is constructed as a series of tiered

COURTYARDS, EACH SMALLER, MORE ELEVATED, & MORE RESTRICTIVE THAN THE LAST. THE OUTERMOST COURTYARD, THE COURT OF GENTILES, WHERE YOU PURCHASED YOUR SACRIFICE, IS A BROAD PIAZZA OPEN TO EVERYONE, REGARDLESS OF RELIGION OR RACE!

If you are a Jew - one free of any physical affliction (no lepers, no paralytics) AND properly PURIFIED by a ritual bath - you may follow the priest with your offering through a stone-lattice fence & proceed into the NEXT courtyard, the Court of Women (a plaque on the fence warns all others to proceed no farther than the outer cour on pain of death)! Here is where the wood & oil for the sacrifice are stored: this is also the farthest into this Temple that any Jewish woman may proceed; Jewish men may continue up a small semicircular flight of stairs through the NICANOR GATE & into the Court of the Israelites!

This is as close as you will ever be to the socalled 'presence of G d'? The stink of carnage is impossible to ignore. It clings to skin & hair, becoming a noisome burden you will not soon shake off! Therefore the priests burn incense to ward off the fetor & disease, but the mix of myrrh & cinnamon, saffron & frankincense cannot mask the insufferable stench of slaughter! Still, it is important to stay where you are & witness your sacrifice take place in the next courtyard, the Court of Priests! Entry to this court is permitted solely to the priests & Temple officials, for this is where the Temple's altar stands: a four-horned pedestal made of bronze & wood - five cubits long & wide - belching thick black clouds of smoke into the air?

The priest takes your sacrifice to a corner & cleanses himself in a nearby basin. Then, with a simple prayer, he slits the animals throat; an assistant collects its blood in a bowl to sprinkle on the four horned corners of the altar, while the priest carefully disembowels & dis-members the carcass. The animal's hide is his to keep; it will fetch a handsome price in the marketplace. The entrails & the fatty issue are torn out of the corpse, carried up a ramp to the altar, & placed directly atop the eternal fire! The meat of the beast is carved away carefully & put to the side for the priests to feast upon after the ceremony. You can imagine whatever you want about this business ...
03 nov 2015 - bewerkt op 05 nov 2015 - meld ongepast verhaal
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Asih, man, 80 jaar
   
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