Clip of U.S. rabbi on Temple Mount reignites debate

A YouTube video released one week ago depicting a prominent American rabbi visiting the Temple Mount in Jerusalem has sparked a new round of controversy about whether it is permitted for Jews to enter Judaism's holiest site, which is believed to have been the location of the Holy Temple.

The film shows Rabbi Moshe Dovid Tendler, a senior figure at New York's Yeshiva University, leading a group of English speakers to the Temple Mount, explaining the religious and political context of his custom to visit the site every time he comes to Israel. Within a week of the video's appearance it has been watched more than 7,000 times, prompting both approving comments and harsh criticism.

The Temple Institute, which produced the 17-minute film, earlier this week disabled YouTube's comments section temporarily, deleting all previous comments, some of which sharply condemned Tendler. At the American-Haredi news Web site Voz Iz Neias, which reported the posting of the clip, more than 110 readers commented on the film - some calling Tendler a "complete heretic" who is liable, according to Halacha, to karet, or premature death.

Tendler, who is the son-in-law of the late Rabbi Moshe Feinstein - one of the most respected halachic authorities of the last century - has ascended the Temple Mount for years, in order to perform the commandment of "Mora Mikdash," showing reverence to God at the place of the Temple.

The popular yeshiva head and Jewish medical ethics professor maintains that Jews have been visiting the site throughout history and that, if properly prepared, they can do so in accordance with Jewish law.

"I try to go up every time I visit Eretz Yisrael, it's important," Tendler is heard saying in the film. According to Jewish tradition, he explained, the Temple Mount is the location of the "foundation stone" with which God created the world, and that Adam, Noah and Abraham brought sacrifices to God there before King Solomon built the Temple.

Rabbi Feinstein never opposed it

Tendler also says his father-in-law knew about the practice and never opposed it. Yet, leading rabbinic authorities - including both Israeli chief rabbis - prohibit going up the Temple Mount as they rule that the exact location of the holiest parts of the former Temple is unknown and that it is forbidden to defile their holiness.

"I think the concept of Kedusha (holiness- is something the Chief Rabbinate doesn't seem to understand - it is not emphasized by not going into a place of kedusha, but by going into a place of kedusha properly prepared," Tendler says in the video.

Observant men who visit the Temple Mount immerse themselves in a ritual bath and abstain from sexual relations until they return from the site. They also avoid wearing leather shoes. Orthodox women follow yet more complex rules.

For much of Israel's religious establishment, however, these precautions are not sufficient.

"I firmly oppose those who ascend the Temple Mount, and so do all important rabbis and halachic authorities in Israel," Rabbi Schmuel Rabinowitz, who is in charge of the Western Wall, told Anglo File. "Not only are they possibly transgressing a Torah prohibition, those who see these actions learn from them and imitate them, without being careful about the necessary preparatory steps and will certainly transgress this prohibition."

Rabinowitz reject's Tendler's interpretation of Rabbi Feinstein's silence on the issue. "Had Rabbi Feinstein written that it is permitted, we would all go up. But he never did, and it is certainly forbidden. Rabbi Tendler is not in a position to decide otherwise."