Rabbi Dr. Yitzchak Breitowitz, lecturer at Ohr Somayach Jerusalem, detailed in his lesson the boundaries and laws of impurity regarding those who ascend the Temple Mount and are careful to immerse before visiting the Mount.
Rabbi Breitowitz noted that a person who is impure due to contact with the dead may enter a large area of the Temple Mount, but he may not go near where the Holy of Holies stood.
"So some say, don't go to the Har Habayis (the Temple Mount) at all, because you never know," he explained. "But in truth, in truth, we kind of do know. And we do have kind of an unbroken mesorah (tradition) that the Machanah Shechina ('Camp of the Divine Presence,' where the holiest parts of the Temple stood - ed.) begins in very close proximity to the Dome of the Rock. The Dome of the Rock itself is on the site of the Holy of Holies. And if you then work backwards in terms of measuring the Mikdash (Temple), you can determine it."
He added, "I myself have never been on the Har Habayis. I don't go to the Har Habayis myself, and I am machmer (stringent), but I'm not sure if I need to be machmir, because ... there's absolutely a safe zone" where someone impure from contact with the dead is allowed to go. At the same time, "in terms of the government, people can go wherever they want."
Rabbi Breitowitz stressed, "There are religious people who go. You will always notice that they do have a requirement that if you want to go to the Har Habayis, you must go to the mikveh (ritual bath)."
Additionally, he noted, the Orthodox groups that go have prepared very careful maps, and at the same time, "there are also those who are so stringent that they do not even go to the Western Wall."
Temple Mount Administration director Rabbi Shimshon Elboim welcomed Rabbi Breitowitz’s positive remarks, saying, "Every additional rabbi who encourages ascending the Temple Mount brings Israel’s return to the Temple Mount, the renewal of the Temple service, and the building of the Temple in its place closer."
Rabbi Breitowitz joins a growing list of haredi rabbis who encourage ascending the Temple Mount, and some of whom even ascend the Temple Mount themselves. Among these are Rabbi Dov Kook, Rabbi Daniel Stavsky, Rabbi Mendel Tobias, and Rabbi Yitzchak Brand, as well as rabbis Tikochinsky, Frank, Zilberman, and Rosenthal.