Aliyah to the Temple Mount

from The Walfish Aliya Blog

Moshe Feiglin Ascends to the Har Habait (Temple Mount) every month on the 19th. This month it came out on Sunday Col Hamoed Sukkot. As soon as I heard about it I decided I wanted to join. This Sukkot is the one after Shmittah and there is a special Mitzvah to read from portions of the Torah on the east side of the Har Habaiyit facing the Kodesh Kodashim. It is between the place the Kohen Gadol prepared the Para Aduma on Har Zetim and the Kodesh Kodashim. When preparing the Para Aduma, they open all the gates and you can see straight though to the Kodesh Kodashim.

I told some friends I am planning on going, a few were interested in joining me. 2 ended up on coming with me. One is Daniel Michael who also made Aliya this summer from Brooklyn with his family, they live near us, the other was Spencer a single British guy the brother of a neighbor. Going to the Har Habaiyit is controversial many Rabbis disway people from going all together.

The Chief Rabanut of Israel even has a sign saying it is forbidden by Torah Law to go on the Temple Mount. While Technically the rabanut of Israel is correct that there ARE areas of the Temple Mount that one is not supposed to go on, Like inside the Azara if one is Tamay Mess, their statement is misleading. The area around that, one can walk on even is he is Tamay Mess after following certain Halachas like going to the Mikvah, wearing non leather shoes etc... One can read a response to the Ban by Rabbi Chaim Richman of the Temple Institute at:

http://www.templeinstitute.org/aliya_temple_mount.htm

Or see what the RAMBAM and Rav Moshe Feinstein had to say about it:

http://www.templeinstitute.org/rambam.htm

http://www.templeinstitute.org/harav_moshe.htm

I explained to my friends that you have to go to the Mikva 1st and forwarded them instructions in english http://www.kumah.org/harhabayit

They both are NOT frequent visitors to a Mikvah, Spencer was never in one and was quite nervous and perturbed about the whole thing it did not seem PROPER, but he was a good sport and we all went. We shared a cab to the Kotel Sun Morning and got there at 8:00AM just on time. We found the Manhigut group waiting online and joined them.

Apparently a LOT of people wanted to ascend as well, and there was a VERY long line. The police do not allow Any NON Muslims to pray on the Temple mount or even bring a sidur or move your lips in prayer. So basically Jews can Pray in Auschwitz, but not at the Holiest site for Jews in the World. The police decided to let 2 groups of about 20 people go up at a time with an Israeli Security escort and 3 Jordanian WAKF arabs to make sure no one moved there lips in prayer.

We were waiting and waiting an waiting, in the hot sun. Some secular looking Jew with a pony tail wanted to cut the line since he claimed he does not NEED and escort so we should let him go before us. We told him we don’t NEED and escort either but that’s what the police want to do. Then he said well we (Kippah wearing Jewish Looking people) have and agenda and he doesn’t. So I asked him why he wants to go, he said to visit and tour around, so I told him so do I, maybe we can join you and we all won’t need and escort. He sort of backed off a bit.

Then a bit later some dude wearing a Black Hat saw us from the exit ramp, and started SACREAMING at us that we are defiling the Har Habait and it’s because of people like US that Moshiach hasn’t come etc...  We all smiled and said CHAG SAMEACH loudly and started singing Yibone Hamikdash. Boy EVEYONE in Israel has an opinion.

After waiting almost 2 hours we went though a metal detector and had 29 people in our group with Moshe.

Moshe explained that even though we will see Arabs looking like they own the place Mocking us we should not be depressed it is still the Chag and we should be Happy and smile.

From the moment we entered the Har Habayit the Arab WAKF was watching us intensely to make sure we don’t move a lip in prayer. Moshe was talking the whole time in Hebrew as our tour guide explaining where we were and what we were seeing.

He 1st showed us residue of Gold that was on the pillars from the Beit Hamikdash.

We then moved to the southern part of the mount and Moshe showed us HUGE pieces of wood that were found as the WAKF dug under the Temple Mount (Illegally) They were tested and were Atztei Shitim and other kinds of wood used in the 1st and 2nd temple.
They were 2-3 thousand years old, in any country in the world they would build a museum just for those items, but under the current Israeli leadership the WAKF gets away with discarding these priceless items as rubble.

We then headed East and North, at one point Moshe stopped to show us something and the 3 Arab guards sat down and were talking LOUDLY the Israeli police was not near us. Moshe looked at them and said “Excuse me I’m talking here, please be quiet”. One guy said we can talk, and continued talking.
I saw a twitch in Moshe face and he did not like that answer. He was thinking for about 10 seconds then dropped down to the ground and Prostrated himself fully on the ground with his head towards the Kodesh Kodashim. (This is only permissible to do ON the Har Habaiyit) I never saw guys jump up so fast, the Arabs Jumped out of their seats and started running towards Moshe SCREAMING, then before they can reach him he stood up. They continued yelling and the Israeli Police came, they started complaining to the Police... The police look at Moshe, and Moshe said “Hu Mafria Le, Ani Mafria Lo” - “He was bothering me so bothered him”. The police looked at the Arabs and said stop bothering Moshe looked at Moshe and walked away.  Moshe brushed of his shirt from some dust and continued the tour. It was AWSOME!.

We then went to the East side of the mount this time the Arabs where watching our lips VERY closely. Moshe explained that we were at the spot were they perform Hakel and said this is where the Kohen Gadol would read from the Torah and say thing like Shima Yisrael etc... Looking at us with hand gestures, he continued saying the entire Kriat Shema out loud right in front of the Arabs and they had no idea what he was doing. Then Moshe asked if there was a cohen among us, and one guy said yes, so he called him up, and said this is were the Cohanim said there blessing, do you REMEMBER what the TEXT is??? (wink wink) so he had the Cohen face us and say Birkat Kohanim as Moshe was counting the Brachos with is fingers.

We all receive Birchat Cohen on the Har Habayit on Sukkot after Hakel, in front of the Arabs and they were clueless.

We then headed North and were walking. I explained to Spencer that the Arabs definitely would NOT be happy if I said Shir Hammaalos MiMamakim etc... and said two chapters of Tehilim to him by heart.

We then saw and Arab school at the Northern part of the mount with kids playing ball, some of them came up to us staring at us fearlessly, I looked at them and smiled. Then some guy came and told them to move away.

We exited the mount at the West side going into the Arab Shuk, That is the Closest side to the Kodesh Kodashim. as were were all walking backwards, most of us said prays like “Shema” Hashem Hu Haelokim” etc...

We were leaving anyway so there was little fear in them kicking us out.

When we were out they closed the door and we all made a circle and sang and danced to Yibone Hamikdash. Tourists were staring at us and taking pictures.

It was a very moving and Happy and Sad experience one I will never forget. I hope to go again with family and friends.

Hevron : A Microcosm in the New Year

By Yonina Pritzker of Congregation Or Yisrael

The city of Hevron in Eretz Yisrael, in the land of Israel, represents the very starting place of Jewish history.  Hevron is the oldest Jewish community in the world.  It would be difficult to find another place with more Jewish history than that which we find in the city of Hevron.  It is mentioned 78 times in the Torah.  Hevron was the very first place acquired by the first Jew, the Patriarch Abraham.  He purchased Ma’arat HaMachpela, the cave of Machpela, in order to bury his wife Sarah.  The site now serves as the burial place for all of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs except for Rachel.  Hevron was the first capital of the kingdom of David, where David ruled for seven and one half years before then establishing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.  Hevron was an important city for King Hezekiah, when the Assyrians were the world’s aggressors.  Hevron was also a critical military area, both at the time of the Maccabbees, and during the time of Bar Kochba. 
 
There has been a continuous presence of the Jewish People in the city of Hevron from ancient times until today.  David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of the modern state of Israel said, “Three cities hold a great and unique place in the ancient history of our people: Shechem, Hevron, and Yerushalayim (Jerusalem).”  He went on to say, “The beginnings of Israel’s greatest king were in Hevron, the city to which came the first Hebrew about 800 years before King David…Hevron is worthy to be Jerusalem’s sister.”
 
Visiting Hevron this summer was truly a highlight of a recent congregational trip to Israel.  To ride through the ancient hills of Judea – the region that bears our name – to see the places we are mentioning, when we sing to a bride and a groom Od yishama b’arei Yehuda, when we sing about the hills and “cities of Judea,” was a truly wondrous journey.  
 
The travesty, then, to this deeply meaningful trip to Hevron was that to reach this city, which houses the most ancient Jewish community in existence, we needed to travel in an armored, bullet-proof bus. 
 
Where is the world’s outcry of injustice and foul play when, in order for Jews to reach their sacred, holy spot where the Patriarchs and Matriarchs are buried, where Caleb prayed during the time of Moses, they must travel in a bullet-proof bus?  Where are the human rights watchdogs with their cries of “occupation,” directed where these accusations rightly belong: against those who prevent the Jews’ access to their own heritage?  Where were these human rights monitors when I had to load my community into an armored bus in order to travel to our sacred, holy city of Hevron so that we could stand in the presence of our ancestors?
 
If you want to understand the genuine meaning of the word “occupation,” try to go visit Joseph’s tomb in the city of Shechem, where Jews can only go under the cover of night and watchful eyes of the Israel Defense Forces.  After all of the assurances that the Arab authorities would respect this holy site, on the very day that the transfer of authority to Arab supervision of this part of Samaria occurred, the tomb of Joseph was desecrated, along with the Yeshiva, the Jewish house of study, that stood next to the tomb.  It was all left in ruins; and today, Jews are only able to get there by armed escort and at extremely limited times. 
 
To understand the history, as well as, the condition of Shechem today - Shechem which is the first place the Patriarch Abraham visited in the land of Israel, Shechem, where the Patriarch Jacob made his home, Shechem, where the Northern Kingdom of Israel established itself – to understand what has happened in Shechem, is to understand that there are those who regularly try to keep Jews out of their ancestral home: out of Shechem, out of Hevron, off the Temple Mount where both of the ancient, holy Temples stood; as well as, out of the Golan Heights where Jews have had roots for thousands of years.  These forces try to keep Jews out of Judea and Samaria, the very heartland of Biblical Israel, and out of Jerusalem.  Out of Jerusalem!  And the international community, whether through lack of information or lack of good will, is allowing, and at times aiding, with this ongoing injustice. 
 
Hevron is a microcosm.  Hevron represents the duplicity and grave injustice that is being perpetrated against Jews today, against Jewish history and heritage.  If something so clear, so straightforward, so indisputable as Hevron, if something as unmistakable as the Jewish connection to Hevron can be so rewritten, so misrepresented; if those around the world can literally turn history on its head and accuse Jews of being occupiers in Hevron, then the absolute, dire necessity to stand up and fight against this attempt to subvert the truth and rob Jews of their history, heritage, and homeland has never been made more clear.  Hevron is a microcosm and gets to the very heart of what all people of good will face as we enter 5770 on the Hebrew calendar.
 
This year we remember the 80th year anniversary of the Hevron massacre.  On August 23, 1929, the Jews of Hevron, men, women, and children, were brutally massacred by their Arab neighbors.  The slaughter was bloody and frenzied, with gouged out eyes, and amputated hands, with parents murdered in front of children; neither the old nor the young were spared.  The Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini had been inciting the Arabs, challenging the Jews’ connection to the Kotel, and claiming that the Jews were trying to take control of the mosque on the Temple Mount. 
 
So we see that well before 1967, well before the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948, back in 1929, Jews were being slaughtered, and the Jewish connection to Israel was being denied. 
 
What was the British response to this horrific massacre, the British, who, at the unanimous direction of the League of Nations were tasked with supervising the area and reconstituting the Jewish people in their historic homeland? The British reaction was not to defend the remaining Jews.  Their reaction was not to affirm the ancient, historic connection of the Jewish People to the land of Israel, the connection which was stated, affirmed, and ratified by all the nations of the world only a few years earlier in the Mandate that the League of Nations had entrusted to Great Britain to enforce, thereby promoting and ensuring the “reconstitution” of the Jewish People in their national homeland, and the subsequent “close settlement by Jews on the land.”  The British reaction was not even to allow the Jews to defend themselves.  The British response was to evacuate this ancient Jewish community, this community which had been in the holy city of Hevron since the time of Abraham, since Caleb, since King David.  The British response was to evacuate the Jews and tear them from their roots because England refused to stand up for the truth and confront the Arab aggressors.
 
And this is precisely the same response we are seeing from the international community today.  As Eli Hertz writes: “The U.S. Administration, the European Union, United Nations, and Russia’s decision to rewrite history, by labeling the Territories ‘Occupied Territories,’ the Settlements as an ‘Obstacle to Peace’ and ‘Not Legitimate,’ thus endowing them with an aura of bogus statehood and false history; the use of these dishonest, loaded terms empowers terrorism and incites Arabs with the right to use all measures to expel Israel.”
 
How dare the international community call the Jewish holy city of Hevron a settlement, an occupation of another’s land?  How dare anyone call Samaria and Judea - this land that bears the name Jew - occupied?  How dare anyone presume to tell Jews that they cannot build on land that has belonged to the Jewish People for four thousand years?  I bristle with anger when I read of the pressure on Israel to halt and freeze construction in the Jewish Biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria, and now, in Jerusalem, as well.  What incredible chutzpah! 
 
It is simply unacceptable to have Jewish history rewritten and erased.  Israel did not come from the Holocaust.  There has been a continuous Jewish presence in the land of Israel from ancient times to today.  Many, the world over, keep trying to conveniently begin the Jewish connection to Israel with the founding of the modern state in 1948, while the Muslim Waqf, continuously bulldozing the layers of archeological remains and history under the Temple Mount, tries, simultaneously, to systematically destroy all evidence of the ancient and ongoing Jewish presence in the land.
 
But this Jewish thumbprint and footprint are everywhere, affirming the long-standing existence of the Jewish People in the Land of Israel:  from Hevron in Judea, to Shechem in Samaria, to Tel Dan in the Golan Heights; from the recent discovery of a menorah engraved 2000 years ago in a stone found near the Kinneret, the sea of Galilee, to the road recently uncovered in Ir David, in the City of David, from which the Jews would begin their accent from the south to the ancient Temple Mount.  The Jewish presence is everywhere, throughout the millennia, and the history and the discoveries, numerous as they are, continually, unequivocally defy the never-ending claims to the contrary.
 
There has been a demand for a building freeze in Jerusalem?!  Jerusalem has always been central in Jewish life.  On Passover we say L’shana ha’bah b’Yerushalayim, “Next year in Jerusalem.”  On Tisha B’Av, Jews sit in mourning and weep lamentations over the destruction of the holy city and Temple.  When building a home, Jews leave an unfinished corner to remember Jerusalem, still not rebuilt; and at every Jewish wedding, the groom breaks the glass, showing that he places Jerusalem above his highest joy.  The ancient sages taught that ten measures of beauty were given to the world; of these, Jerusalem has nine, and the rest of the world has only one.  586 BCE is a tragic day in Jewish history because Jerusalem was destroyed then by the Babylonians.  539 is a joyous year on the Hebrew calendar because Cyrus decreed the return of the Jewish people to Jerusalem.  516 BCE is a celebrated date in history because the Jews completed the rebuilding of the holy Temple in Jerusalem.  70 CE is a year of immense tragedy to the Jewish People because Jerusalem and the holy Temple were once again destroyed, this time by the Romans.
 
All of the Jewish nation brought sacrifices to Jerusalem.  King Solomon built the holy Temple, the Beit HaMikdash, in Jerusalem. Three times each year, on Passover, on Shavuot, and on Sukkot, the Jews made pilgrimage to Jerusalem to bring offerings to the holy Temple, and to spend the festivals in the holy city.  King David was ruler of two provinces, that of Judah and that of Israel; and the city of Jerusalem was the capital which pulled them together.   Jerusalem is the Jewish People’s holy city, and every Jew turns toward it to pray.
 
The immense Jewish yearning for Jerusalem never ceased: wherever a Jew was, his heart was always in Jerusalem.  When he sat by the waters of Babylon, he wept as he remembered Zion. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its cunning. May my tongue cleave to its palate… if I put not Jerusalem above my highest joy (Psalm 137).  From Spain, Yehuda HaLevi cried Libi B’Mizrach, Va’Ani b’sof ha’Ma’arav; “My heart is in the east, though I am at the ends of the west.” 
 
One cannot simply rewrite history, yet it is being done everyday.  And if we sit back and allow it to happen, we would be aiding and abetting in the destruction of Israel to take place.  When speeches are given, when statement are made that imply or overtly claim that Israel and our Jewish presence there began only 60 years ago with the Holocaust, then people of good will must speak up and write to the author of every such statement and hold that author accountable, whether those authors be local officials, our national leaders, or international leaders.  The attempts to rewrite and erase Jewish history have reached a fevered pitch.  The calls for boycott and divestment against Israel are being heard around the world, in Norway, in England, in Toronto around the International Film Festival.  The recent release of the libelous Goldstone report at the United Nations, accusing Israel, was, as Melanie Phillips writes, an absolute “inversion of morality,” painting the victim as aggressor, and the aggressor as victim.  On college campuses, a relatively new, self-proclaimed, anti-Zionist group has been formed which is actively using the language of “occupation,” “boycott,” and “colonialists.”
 
Hevron is a microcosm for Israel, and Israel is a microcosm for what is at risk for all of civilized society when truth is subverted.  People of good will who care for the difference between just and unjust, care for the difference between truth and hypocrisy, need to stand together, need to stand up for the truth and demand that it be told and honored.

The Land of Israel is the Jewish National Homeland:  the history, faith, religion, culture, and identity of the Jewish People has been, is, and forevermore will be, tied to this land which bears their name, from its ancient name of Judea, to its modern name of Israel.
 
This is the Jewish heritage.  It is essential, and it is just that, together, we know and honor that history so as to stop untruths from being perpetuated about Israel, thereby paving the way to give this historical Jewish land to others.  It is essential and just that there be an end to the subversion of Jewish rights within the Land of Israel, whereby Jewish holy places are routinely desecrated, destroyed, and erased, and Jews are prevented from visiting their religious sites.  It is essential and just that, together, we stand up for the truth and demand of those who would say otherwise, to stop insulting our intelligence by claiming that this conflict has to do with anything except for the absolute and total rejection of the ancient, historical, and eternal Jewish right to the Land of Israel, the land of their ancestors; the heritage of their children.
 
Hevron is a microcosm.  The Jews of Hevron who simply refuse to abandon Jewish history, Jewish heritage, and the Jewish homeland, are routinely vilified, and they are held up as the obstacles to peace.  And just as in 1929 with the Hevron massacre, there are many, the world over, including world leaders, who would prefer to evacuate the Jews who have been there since the beginnings of recorded history, rather than stand up for the truth and confront the true aggressors.  The injustice and duplicity surrounding Hevron, is the ultimate paradigm of the challenges we face.  This is a threat to good people everywhere.  This is a threat to truth, and to the norms of civilized society; this is a threat to the time-honored values cherished by a just society.  This is a threat over which we must prevail.

Eretz Yisrael is FUNDAMENTAL to Living a Jewish Life

Hello,  my name is N. and I was educated in right-wing yeshivas for many years and the attitude of most of my rebbeim and friends was: "if you can move to Israel-great. If you can't- no big deal, you can study Torah and be a good Jew in America too."
 
There was never an emphasis an settling the land or making alliya. Over time, as I became more exposed to the teachings of Rav Kook, I began to realize that the prolonged exile has had an effect on everyone's thinking - even the rabbis. We think of Eretz Yisrael as some kind of "icing on the cake" to our Torah learning and strict adherence to the mitzos. The reality, is that Eretz Yisrael is FUNDAMENTAL to living a true Jewish life.
 
I desperatly want to make aliya with my wife and 3 children. When I tell people this, they reply "Oh, thats not a very smart idea- your kids will have a very difficult time adjusting and it may even cause them to go off the derech". I feel in my heart of hearts that aliyah is such a special mitvah- equal to all the mitzos- and if I am doing a mitva for the sake of heaven, Hashem will not allow any bad to befall me or my family on account of the mitzva. Also, who says my kids can't get just as messed up- chas v'shalom- here in America? There are so many kids here in America that go off the derech, so why not take my chances in Israel where at least for all the future generations after my kids, they will have the benefit of being part of Israeli society- which truly is, sooner or later, going to be the only place on earth for a Jew to be.
 
The problem is that I am only qualified to be a Rebbi and my wife a kindergarten Morah. There is no shortage of those in Israel, so the question remains "how would we make ends meet?". I am willing to sacrafice alot to move to Israel but I don't know where to start. Is there a way you could help me to make aliya?

N.