In a rare visit to Teaneck, Rav Yosef Elbaum spoke this past week at Bais Menachem, sharing his fascinating story as a lifelong advocate for enhancing the Jewish connection to Har Habayit. Rav Elbaum is a Belzer chasid who grew up in Jerusalem. He was 14 years old in 1967 when the Old City was returned to Jewish control after 19 years of Jordanian control, and almost 1,900 years since the Second Temple was destroyed. From everything he had learned, he expected construction of the third Temple to begin shortly. When it did not, he began to advocate on his own, turning to family members, rabbis, members of Knesset and anyone else who would listen.
At the age of 18, he first went to visit the Temple Mount, but was turned away by the police. It took a year of persistence before he was allowed up. He said that they simply couldn’t understand why someone who “looked like him” would want to ascend the mountain and assumed he must be a terrorist. There was a time when he was banned from going up for three years, and only extensive advocacy reversed this ban.
He said the Shabak has a file on him that can fill a room. They even once attempted to pay a destitute chasid to be his “friend” and report on him until the chasid’s rebbe intervened. Rabbi Elbaum even faced opposition in his own community. One time a group of Belzer chasidim staged a demonstration at his house.
But the rabbi has been undeterred and continues to advocate for the Jewish connection to our holiest site. He and his family wrote newsletters for many years and have published a three-volume sefer on the topic called “Sefer Torah Habayit” that is now available in the Bais Menachem library.
Over the years, his advocacy led to many high-level interactions. The case of Jews ascending the mountain and praying there was brought to the Supreme Court on multiple occasions. The court has affirmed the right of Jews to pray there, but has allowed security concerns to override that right. He taught many members of Knesset and rabbis about the laws of the Temple in our days. His son now runs the Minhelet Har Habayit (Temple Mount Administration), which is the unofficial guide for any high profile visitors to the mount, and who is a trusted intermediary with the police on the site.
The decades of persistence have paid off and the ability of Jews to visit and pray at the site has improved in recent years as a result of increased interest, along with important policy changes made by two ministers of national security. In 2015, Minister Gilad Erdan banned the groups known as Murabitan and Murabitot, groups of men and women respectively who were paid to harass Jews visiting the mount by following them around and shouting Allahu Akbar. Whereas religious Jews visiting the mount used to be treated with extreme suspicion and followed around by officials of the Wakf, they are now accompanied only by Israeli police.
Around six years ago, a group called Yeshivat Har Habayit, led by Rabbi Eliyahu Weber, started going up every day, developed a good relationship with the police there, and asked every day if they could pray there. (The so-called “status quo” was that the police could override the Jewish right to pray there based on security considerations.) One day, they said OK as long as it was done quietly. Slowly, a daily Shacharit and Mincha minyan was established there, with a Daf Yomi shiur after Shacharit.
While tallit, tefillin and siddurim are still not allowed up, the minyan has slowly grown and whispering is no longer necessary. There is a unique nusach used only on Har Habayit as well. The group prays on the eastern side of the mountain, as what would have been in front of the entrance to the Beit Hamikdash, but also an area that is not frequented by Muslim visitors to the mount and therefore unlikely to trigger anyone who is highly bothered by the sight of Jews praying.
The most recent change came when the current minister of national security, Itamar Ben Gvir, declared this past Tisha B’Av that prayer is allowed there and that Jews may also prostrate themselves there. Prostration is a unique feature of prayer in the Temple. We imitate it on the High Holidays, though in the Temple it was done by fully lying flat on the ground. Anywhere else in the world, you may not bow down on stone; only on Har Habayit is it permitted. Previously, anyone who bowed down would likely be removed by the police; now, it is routinely done without issue.
The issue of changing the status quo has been hotly debated as of late. But as Rabbi Elbaum explained, what status quo are we preserving? At some point, the status quo was that there was a Temple there. Do we want to preserve the status quo of the Ottoman Empire? Or when Jordan controlled the site before 1967? Or the more recent status quo that has seen unprecedented numbers of Jews ascending the mount, and increased acceptance across the Jewish religious spectrum?
Rabbi Elbaum noted that people often believe that a tamei met, one who has been in contact with a dead body, may not ascend the mountain. However, this only applies where the actual Temple stood; 80% of the mountain is outside that area (though mikvah is still required). And although he does not personally go in the area where the Temple stood, he noted that according to the Gemara (Eruvin 105a), in order to build the temple, even a tamei met may enter any part of the mountain. There are also many mitzvot, including bringing korbanot, lighting the menorah and baking the lechem hapanim, that may be done in the right place even without the Temple being built.
Addressing the group in practical terms, Rabbi Elbaum stressed that every person who goes up, even just to visit, is participating in the mitzvah of rebuilding the Temple, as every Jew who shows an interest in this place shows the Israeli government, and the world, that the Jewish connection must be maintained. This in turn brings fulfilling any of these mitzvot, and ultimately rebuilding the Temple, one step closer. We pray for these things every day — if we really mean it, we should take practical steps to bring it closer to reality.
For more information in English on how to visit Har Habayit, see beishashem.org and www.highonthehar.com.
Ben Sandler lives in Teaneck with his wife and children. He can be reached at [email protected].
