Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg (Labor) said today that his party erred greatly when its former leader Ehud Barak agreed to the division of the city. Burg said that ex-President Clinton told him that he never would have thought to make such a proposal if Barak had not brought it up first. \"Even full peace is not worth the division of Jerusalem,\" he said. \"Sometimes I have the feeling that our politicians approach the issue of Jerusalem as Israelis and not as Jews.\"
Burg qualified all of the above, however, by telling Arutz-7 today that it is hard to rectify Barak\'s mistake, and that he cannot promise that if and when he becomes Prime Minister, he will be able to prevent the division of Jerusalem. Burg is currently favored to become his party\'s next leader. \"I will certainly work to re-anchor Jerusalem back in the Labor party program, but I don\'t know if the Clinton proposals are reversible - even though, after Arafat turned them down, Barak and Clinton said they were no longer binding... I will fight for Jerusalem with all my might, and it comes from deep within my Jewish consciousness, but I don\'t - that is, I hope that it is possible.\"
Asked what he thinks about those fighting for the Jewish right to pray on the Temple Mount, Speaker Burg said, \"In principle, I think that the holiness we decreed upon ourselves all these years against setting foot there is the proper course. [Jewish law permits entry to parts of the Temple Mount only to Jews who have taken the proper ritual precautions to purify themselves, and forbids entry to the Holy of Holies altogether - ed. note] There is just one place on the face of the earth that we can\'t get to with our backpacks and shoes and cars - just one place, and that is the few square meters of the Holy of Holies that belong only to G-d... We may not set foot there until G-d returns to our lives in an active way.\" Burg denied that this was a \"hareidi\" approach: \"Religious Zionism, too, felt this way for many years, and the Chief Rabbinate has rulings to this effect, and this is how I was brought up in my father\'s home [his learned father, Yosef Burg, was head of the National Religious Party for many years - ed. note]... I would just distinguish between individuals, who can go up to the Temple Mount - I can go up, you can go up, our friends can go up, this doesn\'t matter to me - but as a nation, as a people, as a kingdom, we cannot take action until the arrival of our Righteous Messiah.\"
Rabbi Yeshai Ba\'avad, owner of Tefillin Beit El and a leading advocate of Jewish prayer rights on the Temple Mount, told Arutz-7\'s Yosef Zalmanson today that he finds Burg\'s words to be \"clearly hypocritical:\"
\"If he\'s talking about rights, then why does he recognize the individual rights of prayer of everyone except for Jews? And if he\'s speaking from a halakhic [Jewish legal] perspective, then not only are Jews forbidden beyond a certain point on the Mount - non-Jews are also not allowed! Does he plan to prevent them from entering the Mount?! And if he\'s talking about the \'one little spot that belongs to G-d,\' we have no argument with him - but what about the rest of the [permitted area of the] Temple, and certainly the additions from the time of Herod? Why shouldn\'t we be allowed to pray there?\" Rabbi Ba\'avad wished to emphasize that the great 12th-century rabbi and scholar Maimonides is quoted in the Sefer Hareidim as having written that he put himself in danger to make a trip to Jerusalem, where he entered \"the Large and Holy House [a reference to the Temple Mount, not the Mosque of Omar] and prayed,\" and made the anniversary of that day his personal festival for years to come.
Burg qualified all of the above, however, by telling Arutz-7 today that it is hard to rectify Barak\'s mistake, and that he cannot promise that if and when he becomes Prime Minister, he will be able to prevent the division of Jerusalem. Burg is currently favored to become his party\'s next leader. \"I will certainly work to re-anchor Jerusalem back in the Labor party program, but I don\'t know if the Clinton proposals are reversible - even though, after Arafat turned them down, Barak and Clinton said they were no longer binding... I will fight for Jerusalem with all my might, and it comes from deep within my Jewish consciousness, but I don\'t - that is, I hope that it is possible.\"
Asked what he thinks about those fighting for the Jewish right to pray on the Temple Mount, Speaker Burg said, \"In principle, I think that the holiness we decreed upon ourselves all these years against setting foot there is the proper course. [Jewish law permits entry to parts of the Temple Mount only to Jews who have taken the proper ritual precautions to purify themselves, and forbids entry to the Holy of Holies altogether - ed. note] There is just one place on the face of the earth that we can\'t get to with our backpacks and shoes and cars - just one place, and that is the few square meters of the Holy of Holies that belong only to G-d... We may not set foot there until G-d returns to our lives in an active way.\" Burg denied that this was a \"hareidi\" approach: \"Religious Zionism, too, felt this way for many years, and the Chief Rabbinate has rulings to this effect, and this is how I was brought up in my father\'s home [his learned father, Yosef Burg, was head of the National Religious Party for many years - ed. note]... I would just distinguish between individuals, who can go up to the Temple Mount - I can go up, you can go up, our friends can go up, this doesn\'t matter to me - but as a nation, as a people, as a kingdom, we cannot take action until the arrival of our Righteous Messiah.\"
Rabbi Yeshai Ba\'avad, owner of Tefillin Beit El and a leading advocate of Jewish prayer rights on the Temple Mount, told Arutz-7\'s Yosef Zalmanson today that he finds Burg\'s words to be \"clearly hypocritical:\"
\"If he\'s talking about rights, then why does he recognize the individual rights of prayer of everyone except for Jews? And if he\'s speaking from a halakhic [Jewish legal] perspective, then not only are Jews forbidden beyond a certain point on the Mount - non-Jews are also not allowed! Does he plan to prevent them from entering the Mount?! And if he\'s talking about the \'one little spot that belongs to G-d,\' we have no argument with him - but what about the rest of the [permitted area of the] Temple, and certainly the additions from the time of Herod? Why shouldn\'t we be allowed to pray there?\" Rabbi Ba\'avad wished to emphasize that the great 12th-century rabbi and scholar Maimonides is quoted in the Sefer Hareidim as having written that he put himself in danger to make a trip to Jerusalem, where he entered \"the Large and Holy House [a reference to the Temple Mount, not the Mosque of Omar] and prayed,\" and made the anniversary of that day his personal festival for years to come.