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Rabbi Moshe Tendler visiting the Temple Mount last month (Temple Institute).
Last update - 14:14 24/08/2008
Haredi rabbis: Renew ban on Jews entering Temple Mount
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Temple Mount 

Israel's leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis are waging a new offensive against Jews visiting Jerusalem's Temple Mount.

Rabbis Shalom Elyashiv, Chaim Kanievsky and Ovadia Yosef sent a letter recently to Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich, the overseer of holy places in the Western Wall complex, urging him to reiterate the religious decree signed 40 years ago by most rabbis in Israel forbidding Jews from entering the Mount.

The rabbis' efforts follow the publication in Haaretz last month of the visit of Rabbi Moshe Tendler, the son-in-law of prominent U.S. rabbi Moshe Feinstein, to the Temple Mount.
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Rabbi Tendler was photographed visiting the plaza atop the Mount, where the Dome of the Rock Islamic shrine now sits, igniting a firestorm of controversy in the ultra-Orthodox community. Several other prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbis have ascended the Mount in recent years, including Rabbi Dov Kook of Tiberias, the husband of Elyashiv's granddaughter.

The rabbis' statement calls for a complete ban on entering any part of the Temple Mount complex for fear of compromising the "purity" of the area.

The declaration stated that "as time passed, we have lost knowledge of the precise location of the Temple, and anyone entering the Temple Mount is liable to unwittingly enter the area of the Temple and the Holy of Holies," referring to the inner sanctuary of the Temple tabernacle.

Rabbi Elyashiv urged Rabinovich to place notices and guards around the complex to warn the faithful of the prohibition.

Rabbi Kanievsky wrote that "entrance to the Temple Mount, and the defilement of the Holy of Holies, is more severe than any of the violations in the Torah."

After Israel gained control of the Temple Mount in the 1967 Six-Day War, the chief rabbinate placed signs around the complex informing visitors that entering the area would result in divine punishment, namely death.

But recent years have seen a change in position among national-religious rabbis, many of whom have made efforts to lift the ban on visiting the Mount. The change in position is due partly to damage caused to Jewish antiquities at the site, and the denial by Muslim authorities of Jewish links to the area. Kiryat Shmona chief rabbi Zephania Drori, chief rabbi of Judea and Samaria Dov Lior and Ma'aleh Adumim yeshiva head Nahum Rabinovich are among the religious authorities calling for a review of the ban.

Visits by religious Jews to the site have also increased significantly. Some rabbis have cited the principle of the "law of conquest," according to which territories in the Holy Land must be wrested from "foreign" control.

Related articles:
  • Ultra-Orthdox prohibition on entering Temple Mount splinters
  • Police gear up to stop rabbis from praying on Temple Mount
  • Cabinet okays renewing controversial Temple Mount Mugrabi excavation
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      1.   Where are the calls of the Left against religious coercion? 02:20  |  Binyamin Dissen 24/08/08
      2.   The Holiness 02:24  |  OK 24/08/08
      3.   I have never understood the obsession with a former archeological 02:47  |  lakshmi 24/08/08
      4.   Lakshmi 04:01  |  Jane 24/08/08
      5.   MORE IMPORTANT - WHAT`S BELOW 04:09  |  Barry S Roffman 24/08/08
      6.   Third Temple 05:11  |  Wayne E. Redden 24/08/08
      7.   Oh, oh! 05:28  |  Shimon Cleopas 24/08/08
      8.   I Agree 05:39  |  MIKE 24/08/08
      9.   What Happened to the Tabernacle? 06:01  |  MIKE 24/08/08
      10.   It is Unbelievable 06:35  |  T A Sheppard 24/08/08
      11.   If it is Holy, then WHY don`t they decree it off limits to arabs? 07:21  |  David 24/08/08
      12.   Temple Mount 08:17  |  Susan 24/08/08
      13.   Is the prohibition of Jews entering the Temple Mount today justif 08:26  |  Gershon BP 24/08/08
      14.   to Mike #8 08:26  |  Susan 24/08/08
      15.   Inconsistency? 09:03  |  Joseph 24/08/08
      16.   Reply to # 3 09:07  |  Sherlock Holmes 24/08/08
      17.   Visit the Temple Mount 09:55  |  Mark 24/08/08
      18.   Error in article 10:44  |  Alan Schleider 24/08/08
      19.   The temple area has been polluted by the goyim 11:36  |  jewish Grandma 24/08/08
      20.   # 3 lakshmi - "I have never understood... 13:15  |  17 24/08/08
      21.   No please go there and take ovadia with you 13:22  |  SJ 24/08/08
      22.   What is the difference? 13:30  |  Al Rashid 24/08/08
      23.   Reply to # 14 14:10  |  Joseph 24/08/08
      24.   chareidi`s real motivation 14:29  |  Y 24/08/08
      25.   jane 4 16:23  |  potobac 24/08/08
      26.   #25 17:11  |  Jane 24/08/08
      27.   Who the heck are they 17:55  |  Danny Antimulla 24/08/08
      28.   #3 lakshmi...most normal people do not understand 18:20  |  Lynn 24/08/08
      29.   Look again... 18:29  |  Nicholas 24/08/08
      30.   If you won`t even pray to YHVH, saying His Name... 18:53  |  Aish Kavanah 24/08/08
      31.   Hard to Believe that people Actually Survive a Visit to the Mount 18:57  |  MIKE 24/08/08
      32.   What nation, society, can afford 19:21  |  Mark Lincoln 24/08/08
      33.   Mark Lincoln 19:52  |  Jane 24/08/08
      34.   Reply to #30 19:57  |  Gershon BP 24/08/08
      35.   Can`t be defiled any more than since c 690 AD 20:30  |  Harvey 24/08/08
      36.   Reply to #30 20:55  |  Gershon BP 24/08/08
      37.   34 Jane 22:43  |  Mona 24/08/08
      38.   Y, you , or I, or anyone else knows . . . 22:49  |  Zev Davis 24/08/08
      39.   Jane 23:00  |  Mona 24/08/08
      40.   Mona 23:15  |  Jane 24/08/08
      41.   Mona 23:28  |  Jane 24/08/08
      42.   Gershon`s Making a Few Assumptions 23:43  |  MIKE 24/08/08
      43.   Mona #39-best not generalise 00:19  |  examiner 25/08/08
      44.   Mona 00:30  |  Jane 25/08/08
      45.   Every generation has watchmen... 01:47  |  PK 25/08/08
      46.   Jane - Tribal Warfare 05:05  |  Mark Lincoln 25/08/08
      47.   The archaeology of the Temple mount - Jane 05:09  |  Mark Lincoln 25/08/08
      48.   opinion 05:10  |  daat y 25/08/08
      49.   Selective Reading of text - Jane 05:18  |  Mark Lincoln 25/08/08
      50.   Mark Lincoln 06:44  |  Jane 25/08/08
      51.   who listens? who cares? i went on temple mount as jewish tourist 06:54  |  ralph 25/08/08
      52.   who listens? who cares? i went on temple mount as jewish tourist 06:54  |  ralph 25/08/08
      53.   Mark LIncoln 06:56  |  Jane 25/08/08
      54.   Zionisim without a Third Temple is a little silly 18:52  |  Joel 25/08/08
      55.   We Need a 3d Temple Like We Need a Hole in the Head 22:28  |  MIKE 25/08/08
      56.   moisha kapoi 23:16  |  b mezritch 25/08/08
      57.   Ban on Jews on Tample Mount 23:16  |  graczek 25/08/08
      58.   Mike, if you only knew what was really involved! 14:10  |  Zev Davis 26/08/08
      59.   mezritch, chastize Haredi rabbis?! 16:59  |  Zev Davis 26/08/08
      60.   Ban on Temple Mount - Need God back in Place 07:38  |  Doug Brininstool 28/08/08
      61.   jesusalen 02:59  |  cristian 29/08/08
      62.   prawczek, you got it wrong 09:23  |  Zev Davis 29/08/08
      63.   WHAT "PURITY"? 09:19  |  Rob Hill 01/09/08
      64.   Rob, I don`t even understand it, so . . . 00:36  |  Zev Davis 02/09/08
      65.   If The Rabbis Care, why did they give it to the Arabs? 03:06  |  Daniel Davenport 02/09/08
      66.   JESUSALEN 03:07  |  cristian 02/09/08
      67.   the temple mount 06:04  |  marilyn rega 02/09/08
      68.   Surprisingly, Moshe "forgot" to write this one in Humash 11:57  |  Ben 02/09/08
      69.   The Temple Mount Ban 20:27  |  Paul Fishman 02/09/08
      70.   examiner 02:51  |  david 06/09/08
      71.   Too late 02:58  |  david 06/09/08