Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi Kalman Ber has issued a formal document reiterating the longstanding halachic prohibition against ascending Har HaBayis, warning against a growing trend of Jewish visitors going up to the site and prostrating themselves on the ground during their visits.
The document describes a new phenomenon spreading among segments of the religious public, in which groups make the climb to Har HaBayis and bow down on the floor of the mountain as part of their ascent. Rav Ber stated unequivocally that the act of ascending itself is strictly forbidden according to the position of all gedolei Yisroel. Should someone nevertheless go up against that ruling, he added, prostration on the ground there is itself an additional prohibition.
The position laid out in the document follows the path the Chief Rabbinate has held since well before the establishment of the state, grounded in the rulings of the gedolim that no Jew today possesses the level of taharah required to enter the area of the Mikdash. Because the precise boundaries of the assur areas are not known with certainty in our times, the accepted halachic conclusion among virtually all of the major poskim has been that the safe and obligatory path is to refrain from entering the Mount entirely.
That ruling has been the consistent voice of the Brisker mesorah, the Chazon Ish, Rav Shach, Rav Elyashiv, Rav Chaim Kanievsky and the leading roshei yeshiva and admorim of the Torah world, who have repeatedly issued kol korehs over the decades warning against any aliyah to Har HaBayis.
Rav Ber’s document arrives as the question has taken on renewed public prominence. Over the past several decades, a growing number of rabbis affiliated with the Religious Zionist camp have advanced alternative halachic interpretations, arguing that ascent to certain delineated portions of the mountain is permitted, and in some formulations even encouraged. Those views remain firmly outside the position held by the gedolei haposkim and have not been accepted across the broader Torah world.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has made repeated, highly publicized visits to the site, including instances in which he and members of his entourage have engaged in tefillah on the grounds. Those visits have drawn condemnation across the religious spectrum, including from gedolei Yisroel who have stressed that political symbolism cannot override a clear-cut halachic prohibition.
Beyond the halachic question, tefillah on Har HaBayis is also prohibited under what is known as the status quo, the set of arrangements governing the site that has been in place since 1967 under the administration of the Jordanian Waqf.
The document urges the public to be vigilant against the spread of the practice and to follow the unambiguous guidance of the gedolei haTorah, which is to remain off Har HaBayis entirely until the coming of Moshiach and the building of the Beis HaMikdash.
Gedolei HaPoskim throughout the ages including today’s leading rabbanim have ruled it is absolutely forbidden to visit Har Habayis. This is also the ruling of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. This is an Issur Kares.
Sixteen years ago on Sukkos, then President Shimon Peres paid a visit to the Sukkah of the late Posek Hador, Maran HaGaon Rav Elyashiv Zt”l, during which Rav Elyashiv called on the president to prevent Jews from visiting Har Habayis, stating it is an act that that is viewed as extremely provocative by the goyim. He said everything possible must be done to avoid a religious war, and the provocateurs are playing with fire.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
