Chief Rabbis David Lau and Yitzhak Yosef have signed a declaration reiterating the chief rabbinate’s opposition to Jews visiting the Temple Mount.
The chief rabbinate has since its inception under Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook in the 1920s banned Jews from visiting the site out of a concern that they may inadvertently step into an area which in Jewish law is forbidden to enter unless a specific ritual purification ceremony is performed.
It is not possible to perform the ceremony today for various reasons pertaining to Jewish law.
Rabbis Lau and Yosef said in a signed declaration that they were repeating the prohibition first issued by Rabbi Kook against going up to the Temple Mount.
“In light of [those] neglecting [this ruling], we once again warn that nothing has changed and this strict prohibition remains in effect for the entire area [of the Temple Mount],” the chief rabbis wrote.
The declaration, which was promoted and advanced by senior national religious leader Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, was also signed by several other leading rabbis including former chief rabbis Shlomo Amar and Bakshi Doron, Rabbi Tzvi Tau, dean of the haredi-zionist yeshiva Machon Mor among others.
In recent years, increasing numbers of religious people have ignored this opinion and ascended to the site, largely due to the activities of several religious organizations which promote Jewish rights and Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount complex.
Their activities have been given religious sanction by several leading national religious rabbis who rule that it is possible to visit the Temple Mount without entering the prohibited areas.
Rabbi Dov Lior, the chief municipal rabbi of Kiryat Shmonah and Hebron and one of the most respected authorities in Jewish law in the national religious world, reiterated his position recently in the Shabbat pamphlet Gilui Daat that it is permissible in Jewish law to visit the Temple Mount.
The increasing number of people visiting the site and the increasingly vocal campaign insisting on the right of Jews to visit and pray there has led to increased tensions at the Temple Mount and intense political opposition from Arab members of Knesset.
In a Knesset committee hearing on the issue in November, MK Jamak Zahalka of Balad accused Bayit Yehudi lawmakers supportive of Jewish rights on the Temple Mount of being “pyromaniacs”, telling them “you’re playing with fire and you’re starting an inferno,” referring to Muslim sensitivities at the site.