In recent years, as increasing numbers of religious Jews have begun to visit the Temple Mount, backed by some prominent rabbinical figures in the religious Zionist world, I encouraged my righteous sons, good yeshiva boys, to do so.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
I told them it is essential that Jews and Israelis demonstrate their attachment to the site because radical Islamists and Palestinians have turned the Temple Mount into the apex of their all-out war against Israel.
But I declined to ascend the holy mount myself. After all, there are unique and stringent rules of holiness and ritual purity that apply in Jewish law to the area even two thousand years after the destruction of the Second Temple (at least according to Maimonides) – and I didn't think I was up to it.
At the same time, the Israeli government's malfeasance in the management of the Temple Mount long has infuriated me, and I have written about this matter dozens of times. Thus far, Israel has chosen to maintain a situation whereby the Muslims exercise exclusive religious and de facto national rights on the mount and have rigged the site as a base of attack against Israelis and against anybody who makes peace with Israel.
Jews, on the other hand, have only limited visitation rights and are almost altogether forbidden from praying there. Jews have been attacked by Muslims on the Mount even when approaching prayer at the Western Wall.
The thousands of boulders stockpiled by Palestinians on the Mount for their periodic, planned "outbursts" of rock-throwing violence are no less outrageous. So are the illegal Islamic Waqf construction projects on the mount and beneath it, which willfully have destroyed centuries of Jewish archaeological treasures.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas continues to roil the waters and foment violence against Israel by repeating the canard that "Al Aqsa Mosque is in danger," meaning that "the Zionists are conspiring to blow up the mosque and Islamic shrine" on the mount. This is a blood libel that goes all the way back to the notorious pro-Nazi Arab leader Hajj Amin al-Husseini in the pre-state period.
Therefore, I have argued and continue to believe that Israel must parry Palestinian and Islamic incitement in Jerusalem and lay out a new diplomatic initiative to solidify Israel's rights on the mount, hopefully through dialogue and even a regional consensus. (My many conversations in Gulf countries over the past two years have convinced me that this is possible.)
All this time, my desire to alight or ascend the holy mount, for religious and national reasons, has grown. But I still didn't dare, until I saw an advertisement several months ago for an in-depth course of studies and tours about the mount, designed mainly for tour guides.
The course has been an outstanding and intensive learning experience. We are studying the First and Second Temple periods, the Byzantine, Muslim, Christian, and Mamluk periods relating to the Temple Mount, the Jordanian period, Palestinian narratives and claims, archaeology and architecture on the Temple Mount, Jewish and modern Zionist literature relating to the Temples and the Temple Mount, and more.
We also have studied the laws of sanctity that apply to the Temple Mount, the processes of purification required before ascending the Temple Mount, and halachic literature and modern research regarding the actual location of the ancient temples. And thus, last week I ascended for the first time, along with my class. For me, this entailed appropriate physical and spiritual homework. This included a visit to the mikveh, a ritual bath, unlike any other previous mikveh immersion.
This is not the quick dip on the eve of a holiday or Yom Kippur that Orthodox men are used to. Rather, it involves meticulous preparation (relating to hair, nails, and more), and even pronunciation of a blessing, before the immersion – something that very few religious men ever have the obligation or opportunity to do.
I also offered special pre-ascent prayers to G-d, including Psalms 84, "My soul longs, indeed it faints, for the courtyards of the Lord. My flesh cries out for the living G-d…"
And yes, when up on the Temple Mount, I unobtrusively davened, and prayed, there too. I silently recited to myself the fifth chapter of the Mishna in Tractate Zevachim. Then I said Aleinu Leshabeach LaAdon Hakol, the two paragraphs that end every Jewish prayer service three times a day, 365 days a year, which speaks of every Jew, and every nation, bowing before G-d.
(I did not dare bow or even bend forward when saying this prayer, never mind prostrate myself on the ground as Muslims do every day and as Jews do on Yom Kippur because that would have been viewed by the guards of the Waqf as a blatant provocation.)
And yes, when up on the Temple Mount, I saw other religious Jews inaudibly praying there too, standing erect on their own in the distant confines of the Mount amidst rubble and old olive trees.
Overall, my ascent to Har HaBayit was scary (meaning, awe of the holiness of the site); exciting and emotional (yes, I cried as I took 4,797 steps around the outer margins of the Temple Mount Plaza); fascinating (thanks to an excellent guide,); and infuriating (because of Waqf restrictions).
I learned many things, including the following two items. First, that there is plenty of room, loads of undeveloped and even desolate sections of land on the vast Temple Mount Plaza where a Jewish house of prayer could be built without interfering in any way with Muslim shrines and prayer practices.
Nobody needs to feel threatened by a modest presence of Jewish petitioners tucked away in a distant corner of the holy mount. Unless, of course, your opposition to Jewish prayer and visitation on Har HaBayit stems from the wholesale denial of indigenous Jewish rights in Jerusalem and the Land of Israel – which alas has become almost-mainstream Palestinian discourse.
Second, the Waqf and Israeli Police unpleasantly differentiate between various groups that visit the holy site.
Today, only Muslims can enter the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine. These buildings used to be open to non-Muslims, but the Waqf wanted to charge an entry fee and Israel disallowed this, so the Waqf slammed the doors shut. (However, I am told that if your guide has a few connections and slips some baksheesh, a bribe, to Waqf officials, some tour groups can get in.)
Non-Jewish tour groups can roam the outdoors of the Temple Mount freely with their guides, although this is allowed only for a few hours per day.
Jewish and Israeli tour groups also are allowed to visit, at limited times, mainly without interference from either Waqf or Israel Police guards, if this is coordinated in advance and if the group is not identifiably religious. This is how my class of tour guides was classified, which allowed for a two-hour in-depth visit. But I had to wear a hat over my kipa and make sure that no tzitzit, ritual fringes, were showing. This was annoying, but at least I wasn't asked to shave my beard…
Jewish tour groups that are identifiably religious are allowed only short 20-minute visits on Har HaBayit. They are rushed in and out of the compound along a defined, peripheral route. Waqf guards and Israeli policemen surround and squeeze these groups like a girdle, lest they dally or dangerously "infiltrate" the site.
Given the hostility of the Waqf, I suppose that there is some law-and-order logic to this discriminatory treatment of Jews and Israelis, for the moment. I certainly have no complaints against the Israel Police for doing the best they can at this super-sensitive site.
But from Israel's leaders, I have higher expectations and elevated demands. It's time for them to negotiate significant improvements in the way the Temple Mount is administered, and Jewish-Israeli rights are accommodated there, based on principles of peace, tolerance, and religious freedom – for Jews and non-Jews alike.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
