did jews abandon the temple mount? - middle east forum

/ 37Loewenberg: The Temple Mount

Did Jews Abandonthe Temple Mount?

by F.M. Loewenberg

The claim that no Jewish temple ever existed in Jerusalem and that Jews have norights whatsoever on the Temple Mount is part of the “temple denial” doctrinethat has been increasingly internalized in Palestinian academic, religious, and

political circles since the 1967 Six-Day War.1 Others, both Jews and non-Jews, believethat a temple did exist but indicate that the Jews abandoned the area soon after thedestruction of the Second Temple nearly two thousand years ago. From that time on-ward, Jews lost all direct contact with the Temple Mount and relocated their centralworship site to other locations, such as the Mount of Olives and later the Western Wall.2

The facts do not support either of these claims. The destruction of the SecondTemple in the year 70 C.E. did not spell the end of Jewish activities on the Temple Mount.For many centuries, Jews continued their attachment to the site by maintaining a physicalpresence on the mountain. And when they were prevented from doing so, they prayedthree times a day for the speedy renewal of the sacrificial service in a restored temple.

Both the first and second temples were located in a mountainous portion of Jerusa-lem that Jewish tradition identified with the biblical Mount Moriah, site of Abraham’sattempted sacrifice of Isaac.3 Over time, the site was referred to as the Temple Mount(Har Habayit), and it was here that Herod (r. 37-4 B.C.E.) transformed a relatively smallstructure into a wonder of the ancient world. However, the magnificent edifice he builtstood for less than a hundred years; it was destroyed in 70 C.E., three years after aJewish rebellion against Roman rule broke out.

The Jewish people’s response to this cataclysmic event is in some sense the entirepost-70 history of the Jews as they built institutions and created an entire culture thatkept the people alive for millennia. But what role did the actual Temple Mount play intheir lives after its physical destruction? Despite the conventional wisdom that the Jewishpeople were banished from this holy site, the evidence suggests that Jews continued tomaintain a strong connection to and frequently even a presence on the Temple Mount for

F. M. Loewenberg is a professor emeritus at Bar-Ilan-University.

1 David Barnett, “The Mounting Problem of Temple Denial,”Meria Journal, June 2011.2 Eli Schiller, Kipat ha-Sela Even Hash’tiya (Jerusalem: Ariel,1976), pp. 19-28.3 Rashi’s comment on the Babylonian Talmud (hereafter, BT),Pesachim 88a.

the next two thousand years. Even whenthey were physically prevented from as-cending the site, their attachment to HarHabayit remained strong and vibrant.

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ROMAN RULE (70-300)

Once the Jewish revolt had been put down,Jews were again permitted to visit the site of theformer temple since the Romans generally didnot object to the worship of local gods. As far asthey were concerned, once the rebellion wassuppressed, there was no longer any impedi-ment to Jewish worship on the mount. Manystories in the Talmud testify to the fact that lead-ing rabbis continued to pray on the now deso-late Temple Mount.4

Ascent to the Temple Mount was not limitedto rabbis; the people’s at-tachment to the formersanctuary also remainedvery strong. One storyrelates that “Ben Zomaonce saw a [large] crowdon one of the steps of theTemple Mount.”5

The people contin-ued to bring sacrificesthat were offered on aTemple Mount altar thathad survived the de-

structive fire by the Romans. The Mishnah, acentral code of Jewish law codified in the earlythird century C.E., states that “one may offersacrifices [on the place where the temple usedto stand] even though there is no house [i.e.,temple].”6 Some rabbis held that the sacrificialservices continued almost without interruptionfor sixty-five years following the temple’s de-struction while others suggest that sacrificialservices ceased in 70 C.E. but were resumed forthe 3-year period when Bar Kochba controlledJerusalem.7

Not only did the Jews continue to offer sac-rifices and prayer on the mount, but at least oncein the half-century following the temple’s de-struction, they began to build a new edifice for athird temple. Emperor Hadrian (76-138), eager togain the cooperation of the Jews, granted thempermission to rebuild their temple. The Jewsstarted to make the necessary preparations, butbefore long, Hadrian, at the instigation of theSamaritans, went back on his word and theproject was stopped.8

Following the defeat of the Bar Kochba re-bellion in 135 C.E., Jews were barred for the firsttime from the Temple Mount. The victorious andvindictive Emperor Hadrian ordered that theTemple Mount be ploughed under and issuedstrict orders prohibiting Jews from living inJerusalem and from praying on the TempleMount. As an alternative, Jews assembled forprayer on the Mount of Olives from whence theyhad an unobstructed view of the temple ruins.While this prohibition was strictly enforced dur-ing Hadrian’s lifetime, Jews did pray on theTemple Mount at various times during the sec-ond and the third centuries because the prohibi-tion was not always fully enforced. Some schol-ars question whether Hadrian’s decree was everlegally formulated, but all agree that a policy ofprohibiting Jews in Jerusalem and on the TempleMount was in effect.9

BYZANTINE PERIOD(300-618)

The transformation of the pagan Roman Em-pire into a Christian realm early in the fourth cen-tury marked a decisive turning point in the his-tory of the Western world. Under pagan rule,Jerusalem had become a relatively insignificantprovincial city, but now it attracted many pil-grims who came to worship at Christian holy

4 See BT, Makkot 24b; BT, Shabbat 15a; BT, Rosh Hashanah31a; BT, Sanhedrin 11b; BT, Avoda Zara 20a.5 BT, Berakhot 58a; see also Mordechai Fogelman, Beit Mor-dechai (Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook, 2009), p. 205.6 Mishnah (M) Eduyot 8.6; see also Maimonides, Hilkhot BetHa-bechira 6.15.7 M Eduyot 8.6; Maimonides, Hilkhot Bet Ha-bechira 6.15;Ha’emek Davar commentary on Leviticus 26.31.

EmperorConstantineallowed Jewsaccess to theTemple Mountonce a year onTisha b’Av.

8 Genesis Rabba 64.10.9 Oded Irshai, “Ha-issur shehetil Konstantinus Hagadol alk’nissat Yehudim Lirushalayim,” Zion, 60 (1996), pp. 129-78;J. Rendel Harris, “Hadrian’s decree of expulsion of the Jews fromJerusalem,” Harvard Theological Review, 19 (1926), pp. 199-206.

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sites. A new church, the Basilicaof the Holy Sepulcher, was builton the purported site of Jesus’crucifixion and became the city’scentral religious site. Until theCrusader conquest of the cityeight centuries later, the impor-tance of the Temple Mount wasdeliberately de-emphasized.Though many churches and otherreligious buildings were erectedthroughout the city at sites asso-ciated with the life of Jesus, onlyone or two were built on theTemple Mount. Until recently, itwas widely believed that in theByzantine period the TempleMount was deliberately aban-doned by Christians and turnedinto the local garbage dump10 inorder to fulfill the New Testamentprediction that the temple wouldbe totally destroyed and “not onestone will be left here upon an-other.”11 These views were chal-lenged by the recent publicationof suppressed archeological findings. The exca-vations, the only ones ever permitted on theTemple Mount by the Muslim waqf in moderntimes, were conducted by British archeologistsin the 1930s. Under al-Aqsa mosque, they foundevidence of a mosaic floor, dated to the fifth toseventh centuries, that was quite similar to floorsof churches found in Bethlehem. Most likelythey are remnants of a Byzantine church thatwas built on the Temple Mount—contrary tothe accepted theories.12

Emperor Constantine (272-357) renewed thelaws that prohibited Jews from living in or even

visiting Christian Jerusalem, allowing access tothe Temple Mount once a year on Tisha b’Av(the ninth of the Hebrew month of Av, the anni-versary of the day the temples were destroyed).13

In 333, the anonymous Pilgrim of Bordeaux de-scribed in some detail the desolate TempleMount, noting a “perforated stone” (perhapstoday’s Foundation Stone found in the Dome ofthe Rock), which the Jews anointed with oil oncea year on Tisha b’Av. On this day, he heard theJews recite the Book of Lamentations on theTemple Mount and saw them tear their clothesas a sign of mourning.14 Later Byzantine writers,

Loewenberg: The Temple Mount

Stones from the destroyed temple can be seen here. Contraryto what many believe, Jews did not abandon the TempleMount after the temple’s actual destruction in 70 C.E. Thereis even evidence that sacrifices continued for some time ona surviving altar. It was only after the Bar Kochba revolt(132-35 C.E.) that Jews were barred from the site and fromJerusalem by the victorious and vindictive EmperorHadrian.

10 Galyn Wiemers, “Jerusalem 101: An introduction to the cityof Jerusalem,” Generation Word, West Des Moines, Iowa., ac-cessed Apr. 24, 2013.11 Matthew 24:2, Mark 13:2, Luke 21:6.12 Etgar Lefkovits, “Was the Aksa Mosque built over theremains of a Byzantine church?” Jerusalem Post, Nov. 16, 2008;Leen Ritmeyer, “Third Jewish Mikveh and a Byzantine MosaicFloor Discovered on the Temple Mount,” Ritmeyer Archeologi-cal Design, Nov. 17, 2008; Israel Hayom (Tel Aviv), June 29,2012.

13 Irshai, “Ha-issur shehetil Konstantinus Hagadol al k’nissatYehudim Lirushalayim,” pp. 129-78.14 Michael Avi-Yonah, The Jews of Palestine: A Political His-tory from the Bar Kokhba War to the Arab Conquest (Jerusalem:Magnes Press, 1984), p. 81; Menachem Elon, Temple MountFaithful-Amutah et al v. Attorney-General, et al., in the SupremeCourt Sitting as the High Court of Justice, Sept. 23, 1993, inCatholic University Law Review, Spring 1996, pp. 890-2.


including Jerome, corroborate that Jews contin-ued these mourning practices on the actualTemple Mount.15

Constantine’s nephew Julian, who becameemperor in 361 C.E., turned his back on Chris-tianity and issued an edict of universal religioustoleration for all—pagans, Jews, and Christians.He reversed the ban against Jews in Jerusalemearly in his reign.

In 363 C.E., Julian promised to help rebuildthe temple in Jerusalem; among Diaspora Jews,his pledge was greeted with great enthusiasm16

although some rabbis were apprehensiveabout the undertaking, hesitating to engagein building the Third Temple prior to the ar-rival of the messiah.17 Julian, nonetheless,went ahead with the project and ordered theimperial treasury to make available large sumsof money and building materials. Many Jewscame to Jerusalem to assist the skilled crafts-men and masons in the removal of the existingfoundation, the first step in the rebuildingproject.

Christian residents of the city were vig-orous in their opposition to any attempt torebuild the temple. Many gathered in theChurch of the Holy Sepulcher to pray for thetermination of the project. It would seem theirprayers were answered since all work haltedabruptly in the summer of 363; whether thiswas due to arson, an earthquake, or merelyJulian’s death on the Persian front is a matterof some dispute. Julian’s successor, a devoutChristian, immediately canceled the temple-re-building effort.18

By the latter part of the fourth century,the Temple Mount had disappeared com-pletely from the landscape of Christian Jerusa-lem. The pilgrim Egeria who visited Jerusalemin the early 380s provided a detailed descrip-tion of the city in letters to her friends, but shemade no mention of the Temple Mount.19 Simi-larly, the mosaic world map of Medaba fromthe mid-sixth century depicts Jerusalem in

great detail but omits the Temple Mount alto-gether as does a seventh-century Armenian ac-count of the city’s holy places.20

Despite vocal claims about the importanceand sanctity of the Haram al-Sharif, the sitewas not a major religious center for Muslimsduring many periods as seen by the weedsgrowing between the paving stones in thisnineteenth-century photograph. Nonetheless,Jews continued to pray in this direction threetimes a day and, under occasional lax Muslimrule, to visit their holy site.

15 Jerome’s commentary on Zephaniah 1.6.16 Ephraem the Syrian, Bibliothek der Kirchenväter, A. Rücker,trans., 20 (1919), First Song, p. 16; Gregory of Nazianzus,Oratio V contra Julianum, 4 (GCS 35), c. 668.

17 Philostorgius, Historia ecclesiastica, Joseph Bidez, ed. (Ber-lin: Winkelman and Friedhelm, 1972), p. 297.18 Avi-Yonah, The Jews of Palestine, pp. 196-200; GunterStemberger, Jews and Christians in the Holy Land—Palestine inthe Fourth Century (Edinburgh: Clark, 2000), p. 208; RobertPanella, “The Emperor Julian and the God of the Jews,” Koinonia,23 (1999), pp. 15-31; Kenneth W. Russell, “The Earthquake ofMay 19, AD 363,” The Bulletin of the American Schools ofOriental Research, Spring 1980, pp. 47-64; David B. Levenson,“The ancient and medieval sources for the Emperor Julian’sattempt to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple,” The Journal for theStudy of Judaism, 4 (2004), pp. 409-60.19 M. L. McClure and C. L. Feltoe, ed. and trans., The Pilgrim-age of Etheria (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowl-edge, 1919).

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Jews, on the other hand, never forgot theTemple Mount even when none of the originaltemple buildings remained standing. Whereverthey lived, they faced Jerusalem three times ev-ery day and prayed for the restoration of thetemple and the renewal of the sacrificial ser-vice.21 Furthermore, there are indications thatdespite imperial bans, some Jews continued topray on the Temple Mount. The late fourth-cen-tury sage Rabbi Bibi offered instructions tothose who went to the Temple Mount to ensuretheir behavior would not degrade the holinessof the place.22 A sixth-century aggadic work,Midrash Shir Hashirim Rabba, includes an in-struction for Jews everywhere to face in the di-rection of the Temple Mount when praying,adding that “and those who pray on the TempleMount should turn to the Holy of Holies,”23 aninjunction that only makes sense if the ban wasnot strictly enforced.

The Jewish people’s continued attachmentto the Temple Mount is exemplified by an eventthat occurred during the reign of the RomanEmpress Eudocia (401-60). When she went on apilgrimage to the Holy Land in 438, she wasgreeted warmly by Jews everywhere, probablyas a result of her policy of supporting non-Chris-tians. When the leading rabbis asked her forpermission to once again ascend the TempleMount, she immediately agreed. Great excitementgripped the local Jewish leaders who sent let-ters to other communities throughout the worldinforming them of the good news and askingthem to come on pilgrimage to Jerusalem for thecoming Sukkot festival. More than 100,000 Jewscame to Jerusalem that year, but once again,Jerusalem’s Christians launched a violent pro-test and blocked access to the mountain.24

For almost two centuries after this incident,Jews were forbidden to live in Jerusalem. Untilthe Persian conquest in 618, Jerusalem was offi-cially a city without Jews. This would changedramatically under thebrief period of Persianrule and the subsequent,and far lengthier, era ofMuslim hegemony.

For centuries, Per-sian and Roman (laterByzantine) armies hadbattled each other overthe fringes of their re-spective empires. The in-vasion of Palestine byKing Khosru II of Persiain 613-14 C.E. succeededin briefly wresting con-trol of Jerusalem from Constantinople. Khosruwas aided by Babylonian Jewry who supplied30,000 Jewish soldiers in return for a promisethat they would participate in the capture ofJerusalem and that a Jewish governor would beappointed to rule over the city.25 Once the citywas captured, the Persians appointed Nehemiahben Hushiel as governor, and the new governorlost no time in reestablishing the sacrificial ser-vice on the Temple Mount.

Rabbi Elazer Kalir, one of the earliest andmost prolific of Jewish liturgical poets, confirmsthe restoration:

When Assyria [Persia] came to the city …and pitched his tents there / the holy people[Jews] were a bit relieved / because he per-mitted the reestablishment of the Temple /and they built there the holy altar / and of-fered upon it holy sacrifices / but they didnot manage to build the Temple / because theMessiah had not yet come.26


An Umayyadpolitical strategydesigned tocompetewith Meccatransformed theTemple Mountinto a Muslimholy site.

20 E. W. Brooks, “An Armenian Visitor to Jerusalem in theSeventh Century,” English Historical Review, 11(1896), pp. 93-7.21 JT, Berakhot 2.4(17a), Midrash Tanchuma Ki Tavo 1.22 BT, Berakhot 62b.23 Midrash Shir Hashirim Rabba 4.24 Michael Gaddis, There Is No Crime for Those Who HaveChrist: Religious Violence in the Christian Empire (Berkeley:University of California Press, 2005), p. 246; Kenneth Holum,Theodosian Empresses (Berkeley: University of California Press,1989), p. 217.

25 Some scholars question the existence of this treaty. See,Elisabeth Campagner, “Eine jüdische Apokalypse des 7.Jahrhunderts? Kaiser Heraklius als Antichrist?” Internet Zeitschriftfur Kulturwissenschaft, Sept. 5, 2002, pp. 1-43.26 Ezra Fleischer, “L’pitaron sh’elat z’mano u’makom p’ulatoshel R’ Elazar Biribi Kilir,” Tarbiz, 54 (1985), p. 401.


But once again, this return to the TempleMount was short-lived. Nehemiah was soon ex-ecuted either out of fear of his messianic preten-sions or because the support of the city’s largerChristian population was preferred over that ofthe smaller number of Jews. In any event, in 629,only ten years after the conquest, the Persianslost control of the city to the Byzantines whowere subsequently defeated by victorious Arabforces sweeping out of the desert.

EARLY MUSLIM RULE(638-1099)

Jerusalem was conquered by Arab forces inMay 638, an accomplishment ascribed by Mus-lim sources to the Caliph Umar. In return for as-sistance in the taking of the city, the Jews re-

ceived the right to residein Jerusalem and to prayon the Temple Mountwithout interference.27

In 680, fifty yearsafter Umar’s conquest ofJerusalem, the Dam-ascus-based Umayyaddynasty engaged in astruggle for control ofthe Muslim world with arebel dynasty based inMecca. The Umayyadsopted to fight the rebels

by damaging Mecca’s economy, which wasbased almost entirely on revenues from Muslimpilgrims. Their secret weapon was to create acompeting pilgrimage site by building a magnifi-cent edifice, the Dome of the Rock, on the site ofthe destroyed Jewish temple and hoping thatthis mosque would weaken Mecca’s economyby siphoning off pilgrims from Mecca. Thus, a

political strategy designed to fight mutineers infar-off Mecca transformed Jerusalem’s TempleMount into a Muslim holy site with far-reachingimplications to this day.

But the metamorphosis of the TempleMount into Islam’s third holiest site did not re-sult in a total exclusion of Jews from the loca-tion. Soon after the Muslim conquest, Jews re-ceived permission to build a synagogue on theTemple Mount. Perhaps the wooden structurethat was built over the Foundation Stone wasfirst intended for a synagogue, but even beforeit was completed, the site was expropriated bythe city’s rulers. The Jews received another siteon the mount for a synagogue in compensationfor the expropriated building.28 Most probablythere was an active synagogue on the TempleMount during most of the early Muslim period.29

Solomon ben Jeroham, a Karaite (a medieval Jew-ish sectarian) exegete who lived in Jerusalembetween 940 and 960, affirmed that Jews werepermitted to pray on the Temple Mount, notingthat “the courtyards of the Temple were turnedover to them and they prayed there [on theTemple Mount] for many years.”30

Al-Aqsa Mosque (the Furthest Mosque),the second mosque on the Temple Mount, wasbuilt in 715 and was linked to a Muslim legend,based on an ambiguous verse in the Qur’an con-cerning Muhammad’s night journey to heaven.31

In this way, the Umayyads cleverly associatedMuhammad’s life with Jerusalem even thoughthe prophet died years before the city’s captureby the Muslims. This construction further ce-mented the site’s holiness to Islam. Nonethe-

The mount wasdeclared off-limits to non-Christians andwas the center ofreligious and civillife in CrusaderJerusalem.

27 Jacob Mann, The Jews in Egypt and in Palestine under theFatimid Caliphate (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 1920),vol. 2, pp. 188-9; Ben-Zion Dinor (Dinaburg), “Bet Tefilau’midrash l’yehudim al har habayit bi’mey ha’aravim,” Zion, 3(1929), pp. 54-87.

28 “The riddle of the Dome of the Rock: Was it built as a Jewishplace of prayer?” The Voice of the Temple Mount Faithful (Jerusa-lem), Summer 2001; Abraham Benisch, trans., Travels of RabbiPetachia of Ratisbon (London: The Jewish Chronicle Office,1856); Robert Bedrosian, trans., Sebeos’ History of Armenia(New York: Sources of the Armenian Tradition, 1985), chap. 31.29 Dinor, “Bet Tefila u’midrash l’yehudim al har habayit bi’meyha’aravim,” pp. 54-87; for another view, see Jacob Mann, Textsand Studies in Jewish History and Literature (New York: KtavPublisher, 1970), vol. 1, pp. 313-5.30 Solomon ben Jeroham, comment on Psalm 30, cited byShlomo Goren, Sefer Har Habayit, rev. ed. (Jerusalem: Ha-idraRabba, 2004), p. 314.31 Qur. 17.1.

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less, during this first phase of Islamic gover-nance, Muslim rulers were generally tolerant ofJewish activities on the mountain. Whenever amore intolerant ruler assumed control of the city,Jews were forbidden from praying on the mountbut instead worshipped at one of the manyTemple Mount gates; an eleventh-century docu-ment found in the geniza or storeroom of a Cairosynagogue describes the circuit followed by thepilgrims and the prayers they recited at each ofthe gates.32

After the conquest of Jerusalem by the armyof the Fatimid dynasty (969), a Temple Mountsynagogue was rebuilt and used until the Jewswere banished by Caliph al-Hakim in 1015. Whena subsequent ruler canceled Hakim’s evictionorder, the Jews again returned to this synagogueon the Temple Mount and worshipped there untilthe conquest of Jerusalem by the Crusaders. He-brew writings found on the internal walls of theGolden Gate are believed to have been writtenby Jewish pilgrims at least one thousand yearsago,33 thus testifying once again to the contin-ued Jewish attachment to and presence on theTemple Mount in this era.

CRUSADER KINGDOM OFJERUSALEM (1099-1187)

The early Arab rulers of Jerusalem for themost part did not destroy or confiscate any ofthe city’s churches. Although charged an en-trance toll, Christian pilgrims continued to visittheir sacred shrines. This religious tolerancecame to an end when the Seljuk Turks swarmedout of Central Asia in the latter part of the elev-enth century and captured Jerusalem in 1071.Assaults on pilgrims and attacks on churchesbecame commonplace. As reports of these anti-

Christian activities reached Europe, Pope UrbanII in 1095 demanded that Christians rescue theHoly Land from the “infidel,” an appeal that re-sulted in the First Crusade.

Within hours of breaching the walls of Jerusa-lem in 1099, the victorious Crusaders had massa-cred almost all of the city’sJewish and Muslim in-habitants.34 The Crusad-ers ascended the TempleMount and after givingthanks to God for theirvictory, converted themosques into churches,renaming the Dome of theRock the Temple of God(Templum Domini) andal-Aqsa Mosque, theTemple of Solomon (Templum Solomnis). Themount was declared off-limits to all non-Christiansand became the center of religious and civil life inCrusader Jerusalem.35

Despite the prohibition, Jews continued toascend the mount even during the Crusader pe-riod. The prominent medieval Jewish commen-tator and leader Maimonides (1135-1204) wrotein a letter in 1165 that he “entered the Great andHoly House [and] prayed there.”36 The Jewishtraveler, Benjamin of Tudela, who visited Jerusa-lem sometime between 1159 and 1172, also re-corded Jews praying “in front of the WesternWall [of the Dome of the Rock],37 one of the[remaining] walls of what was once the Holy of


32 Dan Bahat, “Identification of the Gates of the Temple Mountand the ‘Cave’ in the Early Muslim Period,” Catedra, 106(2002), pp. 61-86; Abraham Ya’ari, ed., Igarot Eretz Yisrael (TelAviv: Gazit, 1943), pp. 48-53.33 Shulamit Gera, “Ha-ketuvot b’otiot ivri’ot b’sha’arharahamim,” Catedra, 61 (1991), pp. 176-81.

An Ottomandecree guaranteedJews the rightto pray at theWestern retainingwall but not on themount itself.

34 Salo Wittmayer Baron, A Social and Religious History of theJews, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1957),vol. 4, p. 109; Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb, The Dam-ascus Chronicle of the Crusades: Extracted and Translated fromthe Chronicle of Ibn Al-Qalanisi (Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 2003),p. 48.35 Thomas Madden, The New Concise History of the Crusades(Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005), p. 212; Baron, ASocial and Religious History of the Jews, p. 109.36 R. Elazar Ezkari, Sefer Haredim (Mitzvah 83); Yitzhak Shilat,“B’niyat Bet Knesset b’Har Habayit B’yameinu,” Tehumin 7,1986, pp. 489-512.37 The Western Wall Benjamin described was not the presentWestern Wall (which did not become a site for prayer until thesixteenth century) but the ruins of the western wall of the SecondTemple building on the Temple Mount.


Holies.”38 Thus, even in one of the darkest andmost intolerant periods of Jewish history, thefaithful did not abandon the Temple Mount.

A MEDIEVAL DISPUTE

Less than a century later, the KurdishMuslim warrior Saladin regained control of thecity, thus putting an end to the Crusader King-dom of Jerusalem in October 1187. Eventhough the Temple Mount was re-consecrated

as a Muslim sanctuary,Saladin permitted bothJews and Muslims tosettle in Jerusalem andto worship on the TempleMount. The Muslim au-thorities permitted Jewsto erect a synagogue onthe site39 although thesituation vacillated overthe next few centuries.For example, Saladin,who at first had urged

Jews to come back to Jerusalem, a few yearslater forbade them to go on the Temple Mount.From the late thirteenth century to the mid-nineteenth, the mountain was, for the most part,off-limits to Jews with occasional interludes ofaccess.

During the first millennium following the de-struction of the Second Temple, Jews did nothesitate to ascend the mount, but by the MiddleAges, two distinct halakhic (Jewish religiouslaw) views on the permissibility of doing so hadcrystallized. The dispute centered largely on is-sues of the degrees of holiness associated withthe areas where the temple once stood and onwhether Jews who could no longer attain ritualpurity might inadvertently enter the location ofthe former temple. According to most rabbinic

authorities, in the first centuries after the temple’sdestruction, it was permissible to walk on theTemple Mount because the ashes of the RedHeifer, which were necessary for attaining ritualpurity, were still available.40 But by the medievalperiod, these ashes were no longer available,and thus prevented Jews from achieving ritualpurity. Under these circumstances, Maimonidestaught, “Even though the Temple is in ruins to-day due to our sins, everyone is obligated torevere it like when it was standing … one is notpermitted to enter any place that is forbidden.”41

On the other hand, Rabbi Avraham ben David ofProvence [Raavad] (c.1125-98), the author of criti-cal glosses on Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah,concluded that “one who enters [the TempleMount] nowadays does not receive the penaltyof karet [literally, cutting off].”42 Though thereare various interpretations of the meaning ofRaavad’s gloss, he probably held that the TempleMount without a temple no longer had its origi-nal holiness.

In the subsequent halakhic literature, thevast majority of rabbinical authorities “built afence around” Maimonides’ conclusion and for-bade entering any part of the Temple Mount,fearing that some might inadvertently enter aforbidden area. Of the classical authorities, onlyRabbi Menachem Meiri (1249-1316), a notedFrench Talmudic scholar, expressed the view thatin his days it was permissible for Jews to enterthe Temple Mount.43

And yet Jewish attachment to this ruinedsite persisted. In 1211, three hundred Europeanrabbis, mostly from England and France, em-barked for the Holy Land. One, Rabbi Shmuelben R. Shimshon, wrote about his visit to theTemple Mount.44 Early in the fourteenth cen-tury, Rabbi Ishtori Haparchi (1280-1366) wrotein his halakhic and geographic book Kaftor ve-

38 Benjamin of Tudela, The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela(Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1960), pp. 20-4.39 Emil Offenbacher, “Prayer on the Temple Mount,” JerusalemQuarterly, 36 (1985), p. 134.

After the Six-DayWar, Jews wereallowed to visitthe TempleMount but werenot allowed topray there.

40 Eliezer Brodt, “Eimatai paska taharat afar para aduma,”Tradition Seforim Blog, 2009.41 Maimonides, Hilchot Beit Habechira 7:7.42 Raavad’s gloss on Maimonides, Hilchot Beit Habechira 6:14.43 Menachem Meiri, Beit Habechira on BT, Shavuot 16a.44 Ya’ari, Igarot Eretz Yisrael, p. 78.

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Ferah about an earlier rabbinic ruling that urgedpeople to come to Jerusalem and offer sacri-fices on the Temple Mount.45 While nothingapparently came of these plans, it is significantthat a noted authority of the period could con-template such an act, despite the self-imposedrabbinic ban. Toward the end of the Mamlukperiod, there is evidence from the chief rabbi ofJerusalem, David ben Shlomo Ibn Zimra (1479-1573), who wrote that the city’s Jews regularlywent to the Temple Mount in order to view theentire temple ruins and pray there. He addedthat “we have not heard or seen anyone objectto this.”46

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE(1516-1856)

With the Ottoman conquest of Jerusalemin 1516, the relationship between the Jewishpeople and the Temple Mount entered a newphase. Sultan Suleiman I (the Magnificent, 1494-1566) ordered the rebuilding of the city’s wallsand encouraged many European Jews, espe-cially those who had been expelled from Spainand Portugal a generation earlier, to settle inthe Holy City. Suleiman also instructed hiscourt architect to prepare a place for Jewishprayer in an alley at the bottom of the Westernretaining wall of the Temple Mount because hehad prohibited all non-Muslims from enteringany part of the Temple Mount. A royal decreewas issued that guaranteed for all times the rightof Jews to pray at this Western Wall in compen-sation for the Jews’ relinquishing their legal rightsto pray on the mount itself.47

Subsequent Ottoman rulers invested littleeffort in the upkeep of the Dome of the Rock or

al-Aqsa Mosque. There are no records of im-portant Muslim clerics or kings or even largecrowds of ordinary Muslims praying on theTemple Mount.48 Even those rabbinical authori-ties, who agreed in theory with the precedentsthat permitted ascent, hedged their rulings inview of the actual situation on the ground. RabbiYosef Di’Trani, who visited Jerusalem during the1590s, noted that there were locations on thesouthern and eastern sides of the Temple Mountwhere Jews could walk freely without any con-cern of entering a prohibited area, but he ruledthat Jews should, nonetheless, avoid going therebecause they were not ritually clean. In the nine-


Following the victory of the 1967 war, RabbiShlomo Goren (center), Israel DefenseForces chief rabbi at that time, established asynagogue and study hall, as well as his office,on the Temple Mount and held organizedstudy and prayers on the site. But withindays, Goren’s efforts were brought to a halt.At the behest of Moshe Dayan, the Israeligovernment prohibited Rabbi Goren fromundertaking any further activities on themount.

45 Ishtori Haparchi, Kaftor v’Ferah, J. Blumenfeld, ed. (NewYork: Beit Hillel, 1958), p. 214, n. 17.46 Responsa of the Radbaz, vol. 2, no. 691; Tuvya Sagiv, “Ha-knissa l’Har Habayit—T’shuvat Haradbaz,” in Yehuda Shaviv,ed., Kumo v’Na’aleh (Alon Shvut: Machon Tzomet, 2003), pp.46-81.47 Joseph Schwartz, Geography of Palestine, I. Leeser, trans.(Philadelphia: A. Hart, 1850), p. 260. 48 Manfred R. Lehmann, “The Moslem Claim to Jerusalem Is

False,” Algemeiner Journal, Aug. 19, 1994.


teenth century, students of the rabbinical giant,the Vilna Gaon, arrived in Jerusalem and becamethe prototype of today’s ultra-Orthodox haredicommunity. The leader of this group, RabbiYisrael of Shklov (d. 1839), held that though therewere areas on the Temple Mount that they wereallowed to enter, Jews were, nevertheless, for-bidden to ascend as the exact location of these

permitted areas was insome doubt.49 This rul-ing became the norma-tive position of the Or-thodox world for the next150 years. Despite rab-binical decrees prohibit-ing access to the moun-tain and the death pen-alty threat for any Jewcaught on the mountain,the deep-seated Jewishattachment to the TempleMount remained strong.An unknown number ofJews ascended the moun-

tain surreptitiously during these centuries. Norecords were kept of these visits because of theirclandestine nature, but occasional references inMuslim court records and travelers’ accountsgive evidence of their occurrence.50

NINETEENTH ANDTWENTIETH CENTURIES

In the aftermath of the Crimean War (1853-56), the Temple Mount was opened daily (ex-cept on Fridays) to all visitors, regardless of theirreligion—a concession demanded by the victo-rious British. Nevertheless, the Jerusalem rab-bis again issued a decree prohibiting Jews from

going up, threatening to put any Jew who ig-nored their ruling under the ban, a form of rab-binical excommunication from the community.While the vast majority of Jews abided by thedecree, many ignored it, including prominent visi-tors, such as Sir Moses Montefiore and BaronEdmond de Rothschild. Many of the new secu-lar settlers also disregarded the rabbinical in-structions and visited the site.51

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865–1935), thefirst Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the Jewish commu-nity in Mandatory Palestine, repeatedly prohib-ited entering any part of the Temple Mount, aposition also reiterated by his successor RabbiIsaac Herzog (1888-1959). Herzog testified in 1938before the British Partition Committee that Jewswere not allowed to go onto the Temple Mountuntil the coming of the messiah.

Just before the outbreak of the 1948 War ofIndependence, Herzog instructed Gen. DavidShaltiel, the Jerusalem sector commander of theJewish underground forces, that should hisforces capture the Temple Mount, they shouldmake every effort to expel all enemy soldiers,but once they had accomplished this task theywere to leave the Temple Mount as quickly aspossible because of the holiness of the place.These instructions became moot since the Jor-danian army succeeded in occupying all of theOld City, including the Temple Mount. For thenext nineteen years, no Jew was allowed to ap-proach the Western Wall or the Temple Mountdespite provisions in the Jordan-Israel armisticeagreement that called for free access to all holyplaces.

POST-1967

In June 1967, on the second day of the Six-Day War, Israeli paratroopers enteredJerusalem’s Old City and made their way to theTemple Mount; Col. Mordechai Gur, the brigade’scommander, soon broadcast a momentous mes-

49 Israel of Shklov, P’at Hashulchan, H. Eretz Yisrael (RamatGan: Re’ut, 2000), sect. 3:11-12; idem, Bet Yisrael commentary(Safed: n.p., 1836), subsec. 26.50 Amnon Cohen, Jews in Moslem Religious Courts: 16thCentury (Jerusalem: Ben Tzvi, 1993), doc. 104, May 4, 1551,pp. 114-5, doc 107, May 19, 1554, p. 117; Schwartz, Geographyof Palestine, pp. 417-8.

Despite theopposition of theMuslim waqf andthe Jewish chiefrabbinate, thenumber of Jewsgoing to theTemple Mountto pray hasincreased.

51 Dotan Goren, “Ha-aliya l’Har habayit ul’Makom ha-Mikdashb’tram ha-medina,” E-mago, 2007.

/ 47Loewenberg: The Temple Mount

Despite Israeli sovereignty over the mount today, Jewsare still forbidden from praying on the mount out ofgovernment fears that Muslims would find such actionprovocative. Jewish presence on the mount is highlyrestricted and monitored carefully by Israeli soldiersas well as Muslim lookouts.

sage to the Israeli nation: “The TempleMount is [again] in our hands.” Forthe first time in almost two thousandyears, the Temple Mount was underthe control of a sovereign Jewishpeople.

Gur ordered three paratroopers toclimb to the top of the Dome of theRock and unfurl an Israeli flag over it;four hours later Defense MinisterMoshe Dayan ordered the flag takendown. This order initiated a schizo-phrenic diplomatic and political stateof affairs that continues to this day.

Dayan proclaimed that, hence-forth, there would be unrestricted Jew-ish access to the Temple Mount.

This compound was our TempleMount. Here stood our Temple dur-ing ancient time, and it would be in-conceivable for Jews not to be ablefreely to visit this holy place now thatJerusalem is under our rule.52

Rabbi Shlomo Goren, Israel Defense Forceschief rabbi at that time, was among the first sol-diers to appear on the Temple Mount and de-scribed his activities on that historic day:

When we arrived on the Temple Mount, Iblew the shofar, fell on the ground and pros-trated myself in the direction of the Holy ofHolies, as was customary in the days whenthe Temple still stood. … [Later] I foundGeneral Moti Gur sitting in front of the OmarMosque. He asked me if I wanted to enter,and I answered him that today I had issued aruling permitting all soldiers to enter becausesoldiers are obligated to do so on the daywhen they conquer the Temple Mount in or-der to clear it of enemy soldiers and to makecertain that no booby traps were left behind.… I took along a Torah scroll and a shofar andwe entered the building. I think that this wasthe first time since the destruction of the

Temple almost two thousand years ago that aTorah scroll had been brought into the holysite which is where the Temple was located.Inside I read Psalm 49, blew the shofar, andencircled the Foundation Stone with a Torahin my hand. Then we exited.53

Some weeks later Rabbi Goren establisheda synagogue and study hall, as well as his of-fice, on the Temple Mount and held organizedstudy and prayers on the site. But within days,Goren’s efforts were brought to a halt. At thebehest of Dayan, the Israeli government prohib-ited Rabbi Goren from undertaking any furtheractivities on the mount.54

As a result of another government decisionthat same year, the general public, including Jewsand Christians, was allowed to visit the TempleMount without hindrance but not to pray there.Many visitors have taken advantage of this per-

52 Moshe Dayan, Story of My Life (New York: Morrow andCompany, 1976), p. 390.

53 Shlomo Goren, “Selection from Personal Diary on the Con-quest of Jerusalem,” cited in Shabbaton, no. 422, May 29, 2009.54 Yoel Cohen, “The Political Role of the Israeli Chief Rabbin-ate in the Temple Mount Question,” Jewish Political StudiesReview, Spring 1999, p. 108; Goren, Sefer Har Habayit, pp. 30-3.


mission, but most observant Jews continued tofollow the instructions of the chief rabbinate,which prohibit Jews from entering the mount be-cause of the issue of ritual impurity. A small num-ber of rabbis have followed Rabbi Goren’s pleato permit and encourage Jews to visit those ar-eas on the Temple Mount that do not requirecomplete ritual purity.

At the outbreak of “al-Aqsa intifada” inSeptember 2000, the Temple Mount was closedto all non-Muslims because it was feared thatthe area might become a tinderbox of clasheswith Palestinians. The mount was reopened tonon-Muslims in August 2003, but visiting hourswere severely curtailed with the authority of thewaqf (Islamic religious endowment), the Muslimcustodians of the Temple Mount, increasing insignificance. During certain hours, Jews andChristians are allowed to go up to the mount butonly if they conform to a strict set of guidelines,including a ban on prayer and bringing any“holy objects” to the site. Visitors are forbiddenfrom entering any of the mosques without directwaqf permission; rules are enforced by waqfagents, who watch tourists closely and alertnearby Israeli police to any infractions. Thusdespite the fact that the Israeli parliament passedlaws ensuring freedom of worship to all at everyholy site, Jewish prayer on any part of the TempleMount continues to be prohibited.

55 Matti Friedman, “On the Temple Mount: a battle brews overJewish prayer,” Times of Israel, Mar. 12, 2013.

CONCLUSION

Even after the Roman armies destroyed thetemple in 70 C.E., the Jews never abandoned thesite. No matter what obstacles or decrees othersplaced in their way, Jews continued to ascendand pray at or near the area where their templeonce stood.

Whenever their physical presence on themountain was outlawed, they selected alternateprayer sites, such as the Mount of Olives fromwhere the Temple Mount could be seen. In morerecent times, the Western Wall served as suchan alternative. But even during those periods,Jews attempted, legally or otherwise, to go upunto the mountain to pray. In recent decades,despite the opposition of the Muslim waqf andthe Jewish chief rabbinate, the number of Jewsgoing up on the Temple Mount in order to prayhas increased year-by-year.55

Against this backdrop, the continued de-nial that Jews have any connection with theTemple Mount cannot but pose a formidable ob-stacle to a settlement of the Arab-Israel conflict.

Iranian Ingenuity: Digital GuillotineAs if to demonstrate it isn’t totally devoid of innovation, Tehran recently revealed a most uniqueinvention. Unsurprisingly, its purpose is to carry out criminal punishment. It is a mechanicaldevice for severing the fingers of a convicted thief from his hand. Undoubtedly, the Iranianinventor taking orders for this device will remain as lonely as the Maytag repairman.

SyndiGate.info (Amman), Feb. 12, 2013

did jews abandon the temple mount? - middle east forum

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