ASK YOUR LOCAL RABBI

The readers are requested to ask their local rabbis this question, so that these important subjects may be discussed.

It is known that the only males today who are required by the Torah to immerse in a mikvah are those ascending the Temple Mount. They therefore recite the blessing "al hatvila" (according to the rulings of Rabbi Tzaddok of Lublin and Rav Refael, and implied by Rav Shlomo Zalman Aurbach). The question is:

Since there are many undressed people there, how can one recite the blessing? Is facing the wall while reciting the blessing sufficient?

Please email me your rabbis response to: yirmi@shani.net Or, you can send them to:

Selected responses, along with the names of the rabbi and deliverer, may be published here and in other publications of HaTenuah LeChinun HaMikdash.

AN OPEN LETTER

from Yose Itiel

(originally published in Bein HaUlam LeMizbeach, issue 1)

B.S.D.

2 Menachem Av 5757

Honorable Rabbi Ratzon Arusi Shlit"a

Peace and blessing.

May the rabbi please read my letter, despite his many communal responsibilities.

With a bleeding heart, I heard the rabbis words in a daily afternoon program on Arutz 7.

In his words, he blessed the decision of the Rabbinate, repeating and certifying the sweeping prohibition to ascend the Mountain of our Holy Temple. Answering a question, he said that he suggested [meaning this was not the majority decision] that the Rabbinate express its pain...

I am standing, and my heart is bursting within me!

Are we all blind?

It is a "Chillul Hashem" (Desecration of G-ds Name) that the Ishmaelites, the enemies of Hashem and His People, ascend and act as wild as their hearts desire. They ruin its good portion and destroy any trace of the Jewish People there. They illegally [even according to secular laws, not to mention against the Torah] build a mosque on a 5-dunam plot in Solomons Stables. They bring in tourists, male and female, with minimal clothing and explain to them that it is "El Haram". The Jewish Holy Sites are denigrated to the lowest esteem, and when I ask to enter the permissible locations on the Temple Mount, I am asked by an Arab policeman in Israeli uniform to tuck in my "tzitzit" (fringes)! Why the Earth does not open up and swallow them is something only Hashem ("Who is immune like thee, o L-rd" (Tehillim 89:9)) can understand. Doesn't the "Chillul Hashem" trouble the Giants of Israel. No sharp protests in large public gatherings will take place if the Israeli Chief Rabbinate stands at the forefront of preventing Jews from ascending.

What troubles me more is the national tragedy, and excuse me for my cynicism. What is it? When do Jews go up in purity desiring to pray there? They do not see the 9th of Av as only a day of honking the horn without a call to do something. They actually want to pray on the Mount! What will be?

Therefore the Giants of Israel gathered and decided: remain in Exile, Jews. The situation of Chillul Hashem will continue. And you, why do you want to be redeemed? Rav Ovadiah has done greatness and called the ascenders fools and other names. Alas to the ears that hear such things.

Honorable Rav Arusi,

Certainly, I am not saying anything new by saying that there are portions on the Mount which there is no dispute that there are not within the original Temple Mount and are not even in the Levitic Camp! (which itself is also permissible for those defiled with contact with the dead to enter.)

When in all generations did someone forbid ascent to the Temple Mount? The opposite is true! In all generations that the conquerors of our land allowed it, Jews went up headed by the Giants of Israel and prayed and cried over the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash. Their cry was because their situation prevented them from rebuilding the Beit HaMikdash, but ours is of laziness. We have turned the destruction into an ideal, and the expulsion of Jews from the Holy City and turning it into "Alia Capitolina" to a halachic ruling.

Does the burden of proof rest on those permitting ascent? Those preventing the Jewish People from fulfilling many mitzvot, which are possible to perform without a Beit HaMikdash or ashes of the Red Heifer. The should bring proof for their chutzpah to prevent the Jewish People from fulfilling these mitzvot.

It is not enough to say, "to make a fence," as they say to prevent any action. Au contrair! If there is a dispute, let it be solved by the Giants of Israel and not by smaller rabbis. Do we not lay tefillin because of the dispute between Rashi and Rabeinu Tam? Is there any matter of Jewish Law which there is no dispute? Disputes are decided upon, and the Jewish People acts according to the decisions. The Giants of the Generation should be honored and decide, based on true deliberations according to how far their hands reach, and Hashem will call upon them, "these are my appointed times".

Regarding the distancing from the Temple Mount, aside from there being no halachic basis for total distancing from the Temple Mount, this is a matter of "logic dictates, even if the Torah does not specify". There is a hidden paradox. Distancing defiled people is meant to guard the sanctity of the Temple Mount. Therefore, the ruling of the Tosefta is that "defiled people may enter to build, to fix, or to remove defilement." If we would forbid them from entering, distancing defiled people does not guard the sanctity of the Mikdash, but its defilement. Would this make sense? As long as defiled people do not enter to purify the place from its defilement, there is no guarding of its sanctity but there is guarding of its defilement!

Is this G-ds will?

At the root of things, we must clarify the key point, which is that the underlying point of Our Rabbis in the entire Torah is: "Hashem wants us to do, and any time we can, it is good for Him." (Talmud Bechorot) Meaning, we do mitzvot whenever we can. This is the key point in understanding renewing mitzvot not performed in Exile. Rav Yisrael Ariel writes, "If the meticulousness in performing mitzvot cause their neglect, it is better to do it in an imperfect manner, as long as the mitzvah is fulfilled. This is Hashems will." The conclusive decision of the Talmud is that it is better to make an Ark where the measurements will not be exact than not to make one because of the doubt. It is known before Hashem that whatever people make is not perfect, and "the Torah was not given to Angels." Even regarding the dying of "techelet", "argaman", and "tolaat shani", (blue, purple and red) we can say that if the questions and doubts lead to neglecting the mitzvot of making the priestly garments and service of the Beit HaMikdash, it is better to dye them with questionable dyes, and this is more desirable to Hashem, to fulfill the mitzvah with it doubts, rather than to neglect it and to neglect all the mitzvot of the Beit HaMikdash because of doubts.

Should we wait until "capable people" act, that the community should take the initiative, that the Mashiach should do it, that Hashem should do our work for us? Would we take such suggestion seriously about making a living or medical treatment? Suddenly, there is an increase in trust in Hashem, and we are leaving Him all the work :-)

To mention the well known words of the "Baal Haikarim" (Maamar IV, book VI):

and it appears to me that industriousness is always good, and Shlomo would praise industriousness and say, "the hand of the industrious will prosper". He despises laziness, and awakens people to reach their goals using all means. Our rabbis said, "so that Hashem your G-d should bless you." You might think that means you could sit and do nothing. The verse continues, "with all actions that you might do." This teaches us that Hashems blessing only comes along with human effort. The psalmist continues, "If Hashem does not guard the city, the guard on duty is diligent for naught." But if Hashem does guard the city, the guards diligence is worthwhile. With the human effort and guardianship, the Divine help well come, and not without it. Because of this, it is proper to for people to put in a full effort for what can be accomplished by Mankind ... "and Hashem will do what is good in His Eyes."

According to my humble opinion, the decision of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate does not reflect great effort for the most important issue in the life of the Jewish People, which we have prayed for all the generations, as our Rabbis say in Midrash Rabba on the verse "vechol siach hasadeh", "All prayers of Israel are only for the Beit HaMikdash."

The rabbi mentioned that even under Rav Goren ztl, no change was made to the Rabbinates decree. For this, I will cite a letter from Rav Goren to MK Dov Shilansky, who was then the chairman of the Internal Affairs Committee of the Kennesset, who asked about the committee members ascending the Temple Mount. Here it is, word for word:

I would like to inform you that in light of the danger of The Temple Mount, the place of the Temple and the Holy of Holies for the Jewish People, being ruled by the High Islamic Council and the Arab Waqaf, where the Arabs are acting there as if it is their sovereign territory, and in light of the shocking event that came to pass when the members of the Kennessets Internal Affairs Committee visited the Temple Mount on 27 Tammuz 5746 and were trapped between an Arab pogrom and the Mufti et al.

Therefore, with all existing halachic boundaries regarding entering the Temple Mount when things are in order, under the current circumstances, when there is a threat of loss of Jewish sovereignty on the Temple Mount, and a Jewish presence will strengthen our sovereignty there, all the more so if it is a demonstrable quorum of Kennesset members on the Temple Mount, that will certainly show that the Temple Mount is under Israeli sovereignty.

In this situation, it is not only permissible, but it is a holy mitzvah for us to enter the Temple Mount. This permission can be learned from the Tosefta... This law does not just apply to the Sanctuary, but to the Holy of Holies. To clarify what needs fixing or to upkeep its treasure, it is permissible to enter even the Holy of Holies. How much more so when there is a need to ensure Jewish sovereignty on the Temple Mount and to prevent the Islamic Council and the Waqaf from ruling there. It is certainly a mitzvah to enter and demonstrate a Jewish presence on the Temple Mount, for there is no greater sin than closing off the Holy of Holies of the Jewish People to Arabs, after we have merited the grace of Hashem to liberate it from their hands in the Six Day War.

The members of the Internal Affairs Committee, along with other Kennesset members, entering the Temple Mount this coming Tuesday, after the awful incitement of the Mufti and his colleagues against the members of the Internal Affairs Committee last Wednesday, will strengthen our security, rule, and sovereignty on the Temple Mount. This is even more important than craftsman entering the Sanctuary and Holy of Holies to strengthen its structure...

We can learn from the halachic authorities that Jewish Sovereignty in Israel is considered building and settling the place, while non-Jewish sovereignty is considered destruction, as the Magen Avraham writes (Orach Chayim 561) regarding the ruling that one who sees the Judean Hills says, "Your holy cities became a wilderness" and must rip ones clothing. The Magen Avraham writes, as do concur the Beit Yosef and the Bach, "Even though Jews dwell there, since gentiles rule over them, this is considered destruction." It is implied from there that the criterion is Jewish sovereignty. Certainly, regarding the Temple Mount, Jewish sovereignty is of utmost importance even if there is no Temple yet standing.

Later in that later, Rav Goren writes, "one need not impose difficult stringencies on those entering the Temple Mount ... but it is advised ... that they should not wear leather shoes ... and all who fear the word of Hashem should immerse that day in a kosher mikvah."

I need not add anything, for in the past eleven years since that letter was written, the situation has only gotten worse. I do not wish on anyone the humiliation my friends and I undergo enter the Temple Mount, not to mention the beatings that we suffered and the outrageous arrests are trials the police conduct with encouragement from the government and silence from the Rabbinate.

Rav Goren ceertainly did not think that the commission was about to build the Beit HaMikdash, as Rav Ovadiah Yosef wines. Nevertheless, Rav Goren permitted their entrance because he understood the great importance of Jews entering the Temple Mount as a matter of policy and as a G-dly duty, that "Zion requires we demand her."

I wrote this with the blood of my heart, and I hope the rabbi will forgive me if I slighted his honor.

Looking forward to the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash with our efforts, our actions, and awakening from above that will result from awakening from below. Amen, let it be G-ds will.

Yose Itiel

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