From Lurker
My family and I are interested in visiting Har Habayit (the Temple Mount) this Wednesday morning, together with some friends. I know that this is short notice, but I am looking for someone familiar with Har Habayit, who would be willing to come and be a guide for us, both in terms of explaining what's what up there, as well as the halachic issues of where one may walk. You can contact me here.
UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who commented and who e-mailed me. (And to Anonymous -- clearly this was a far more reasonable quest than a tour guide for gehinnom...) However, it now looks like we won't be able to do this Wednesday morning. But if anyone out there has any suggestions for a good Har HaBayit tour guide, or is one him/herself, I'm still interested.
Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
12 comments:
You might as well post and ad looking for a guide to gehinnom.
???
How do you figure?
Jews visit Har HaBayit every day (except for Friday and Shabbat).
Your friends over a Kumah published a little guide (FAQ really) that might help a bit...
http://www.kumah.org/harhabayit/
thanks pinchas! I'll make sure Lurker sees it.
You might as well post and ad looking for a guide to gehinnom.
Gei Hinnom is on the Western Side of the Old city...not anywhere near Har Habayit
nice answer :)
Anonymous @ 8:43 PM: You might as well post and ad looking for a guide to gehinnom.
If I wanted that, I'd just call this guy.
Anon -- if you'd prefer a more entertaining gehinnom guide, you can try this one. (Make sure not to miss the bit at around 2:20).
At my Hebrew site I have Rav Goren's map of permitted to entry areas. For further study, Rav Dov Lior's shiur on ascending to the Har Habayit (Hebrew) is here and here's One map and here's a great site again in Hebrew
Hello Lurker, i have some experience going up to Har Habayit Thank G-d. If you get there ar 7:30AM, youre most probably to have a guided group going up, just make sure you bring ID for you and all your family members. Heres the email of Rabbi Yehuda Glick from Machon Hamikdash yehuda@temple.org.il If he's able to he would be happy to take you up.
You can contact Rabbi Chaim Richman. He's an english speaker and takes tours up there regularly. Just email him at: Temple@IsraelNationalRadio.com
And look what just was published:
Reclaiming Judaism's holiest place
By Nadav Shragai
The police at the Mugrabi Gate, at the entrance to the Temple Mount, are used to the sight. Every few days a group of ultra-Orthodox Temple Mount Faithful congregates in front of the gate. A few of them wear the black kneesocks and tasseled tie belt of the Belzer Hassidic sect, while others are American youths, students from the Mir Yeshiva. Occasionally they are joined by Gerer Hassidim, and of course national-religious Jews, with their crocheted skullcaps. Only after a thorough check of the worshipers' bags, to make sure they contain no prayer books, prayer shawls or phylacteries, do the police allow them to enter the Temple Mount compound.
This unusual "coalition," which has been visiting the mount at least once a week for years, is defined in the ultra-Orthodox world as somewhere between eccentric and untouchable, but primarily as rebelling against a halakhic prohibition stating that today there is theoretically no greater sin than entering the Temple Mount; that anyone who violates this ruling is doomed to an untimely death.
In recent years the circle of those rebelling against that ruling is growing. Last month Rabbi Moshe Tendler, the son-in-law of the late Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, considered the greatest "decider" (posek) of halakha (Jewish law) among American Jewry in the last generation, visited the Temple Mount accompanied by members of the Temple Mount Institute. Tendler expressed his solidarity with the ultra-Orthodox group, which does not heed the ruling, but rather believes, like many national-religious halakhists, that certain parts of the mount are permissible to Jews today; areas that are not part of the original Temple Mount, and which the Temple did not occupy.
Furthermore, a few months ago an emissary visited the Temple Mount on behalf of ultra-Orthodox rabbinical judge, who concluded that, contrary to the ruling of the most revered ultra-Orthodox rabbis, under certain circumstances it is possible to allow the entry of Jews to the Temple Mount. The well-known judge hastened to share his findings with his close circle, family and friends, but they just as quickly cooled his enthusiasm, warning him against publishing his conclusions...
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