Head Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef wrote a letter today (Wednesday) to Binayahu Chorev, one of his personal associates from the religious Zionist sector in which he clarifies his recent statement on the severity of ascending the Temple Mount.
In his weekly online lesson from the Yazdim Synagogue in Jerusalem, the Rabbi mentioned a number of senior religious Zionist rabbis who allow worshippers ascending the Temple Mount.
According to the Rabbi, it was not his intention to hurt the feelings of any specific rabbi, but to emphasize that no matter how great a rabbi you are, you cannot argue with all the great sages who have forbade the ascent.
"It is a mistake to think that the prohibition of enter the Temple Mount depends on which rabbi you listen to. After all, rabbis from all circles have the same opinion as to the prohibition on the matter. And in my opinion, there you cannot disrespect rabbis from all circles, God forbid. And all that we said is that it is very difficult to find a single person whose opinion matters more than the aforementioned sages," wrote the Rabbi.
Rabbi Yosef opened the letter in response to the question of whether the ban on entering the Temple Mount agrees with the opinion of all rabbinic circles. "We mentioned in the lesson the great Rabbis Moshe Feinstein, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, the Steifler Rabbi, and Rabbi Shach, who emphatically prohibited entry to the entire Temple Mount area, and is this the opinion of all rabbinical circles?" Rabbi Yosef presented the question.
According to him, all rabbinical circles at the time came out against making the ascent.
"And among them it is important to mention the head rabbis of their generations: Rabbi Kook, Rabbi Uziel, Rabbi Unterman, Rabbi Nissim, Rabbi Shapira and Rabbi Eliyahu, as well as the great rabbis: Rabbi Shaul Israeli, head of the Merkaz Rabbi yeshiva, Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, head of the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin, member of the Rabbinate Council, Rabbi Katriel Fishel Tchorsh, chairman of the rabbinic committee of Israel, Rabbi Hayim David Halevi, chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, Rabbi Yitzchak Ariel, head of Mercaz Harav, and many more."
