ByDAVID M. WEINBERG

JULY 25, 2026 14:00

Earlier this week, on the eve of Tisha B'Av, the day of Jewish national mourning for the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temples along with two millennia of exile from Israel, I went up to the Temple Mount, Har HaBayit.

It offered a chance to pray at the holiest site in the world for Jews, to grieve the many hardships of Jewish history, and to celebrate the gradual yet steady Jewish return to makom haShechinah, the peak of God's presence in the Land of Israel - a powerful blend of feelings.

I noticed a major advance in chances for Jewish and Israeli visits to the site compared to my earlier trips in 2022, along with room for even deeper Jewish and Israeli connection to the sacred mount. More details follow.

But first, I needed to settle for myself these questions: Is it allowed under halacha, Jewish law, to go up to the Temple Mount, given the religious sanctity of the place and the ritual impurity that Orthodox Jewish tradition assigns to all people today?

Even if this is feasible, am I fit to make this pilgrimage? Is the climb to the Temple Mount valuable and essential? And could it be rashly provocative from a diplomatic angle?

My answers to these four questions: Yes, perhaps, definitely, and firmly no.

Permissible: After four years of study with scholars, I am sure that it is possible today to walk around the edges of the broad Temple Mount plaza without breaking Torah law - after proper ritual and devotional preparation and under the firm direction of Torah sages.

(You steer clear of the raised platform where the Dome of the Rock sits and nearby areas, because, according to halachic texts and current research, this is where the First and Second Temples and their courtyards stood.)

My guide this week was Rabbi Elisha Wolfson, who has issued a full book on the topic and who runs a Torah study session on the Mount every day. He calls himself head of the Har HaBayit Kollel.

Leading voices that not only allow but require such visits include rabbis Avi Gisser, Dov Lior, Eliezer Melamed, Elyakim Levanon, Re'em Ha'Cohen, Shabtai Rappaport, Tamir Granot, Tzfania Drori, Yaakov Medan, Yehuda Shlush, Yitzhak Shilat, Yuval Cherlow, and Ze'ev Weitman.

Meritorious: I am less certain of my personal fitness in nearing the Divine Presence on the Mount.

But in venturing to do so, I am counting on the merits of my distinguished ancestors and pious sons (all long-serving Israeli soldiers and yeshiva-trained scholars of fine character).

Their qualities, and the sacrifices of so many Israelis in recent wars, give me assurance that the Heavens approve of a reclamation of the Temple Mount, welcoming every sign of greater Jewish devotion.

Worthwhile: Properly done, a visit to the Temple Mount can be a moving experience. Theological concern and religious joy move through the area and sharpen the mind.

The visit is a chance to direct one's thoughts to the truly vital matters in life and to quickly share them with the Almighty.

(Of course, one can and should try to reach the Heavens when praying in any synagogue and joining any prayer group, anywhere. But believe me, the prayer experience on Har HaBayit is strongly different. In Jewish thought, the gates of Heaven, the most direct path to the Divine Throne, are right above the Temple Mount.)

The good news here is that in recent years it has become possible for Jews to actually pray on Har HaBayit and to quietly sing, dance, and study Torah. There are even several shortened prayer services held twice a day on the Mount with a gathered halachic quorum (minyan).

Israeli police on the Temple Mount now permit Jews to bow in prayer too, even to prostrate themselves face down on the ground with full stretch of the arms and legs - which was the prayer practice in ancient Temple times.

Over the centuries, bowing in this way (known as kri-ah and hishtachava-ya) has fallen out of use at Jewish places of worship worldwide. It is a ritual unique to the Temple Mount, brought back in our times.

This was new, odd, and even unsettling for me. Full-scale prostration in prayer is a stance of exposure and self-denial. And yet it was so uplifting.

From limited access to fresh presence

Necessary: None of this was possible four years ago when I first visited the Mount as part of a tour guide study group. (I highly recommend the intensive course of study about Har HaBayit open to any adult run by an organization called Capot HaManool, The Open Gate.)

Then, Jews had only limited visitation rights and were led in small groups by very anxious police in and out of the Mount as quickly as possible. Prayer was banned, and religious items like kippot and tzitzit were discouraged.

Back then, the (Jerusalem) Wakf Islamic religious trust and other radical Islamic movements had turned the Mount into a base of terror.

Visiting Jews faced occasional outbursts of harassment and rock-throwing, Jewish worshipers met violence while praying at the Western Wall below, and several terrorist attacks involving live ammunition were launched from within the Muslim shrines on the Mount.

The flags of ISIS, Hamas, and Turkey also flew openly on the Temple Mount, while unchecked Wakf construction projects on and beneath the Mount deliberately ruined centuries of Jewish archaeological finds.

Today, thanks to firm police and intelligence work, the Temple Mount is calm. The radical Islamic groups have been cleared from the area.

And by showing up to visit in ever-growing numbers, the Jewish and Israeli public has urged the Israeli government to assert its sovereign control and to allow partial, measured expressions of Jewish prayer.

Indeed, I found the atmosphere on the Temple Mount to be calm, even joyful. The scent in the air was spiritual, not political. The police presence was notable but relaxed and helpful.

I visited for almost two hours alongside several large groups of Israeli men, women, and children (even babies in strollers) - and there was not a hint of protest in any direction.

No Jews broke the rules (which, alas, still ban Jewish prayer books and the Bible from the Mount), and no Muslims said boo.

We passed a large group of Muslim schoolgirls (and their female teachers) in full hijabs in the plaza adjacent to the Aqsa Mosque, peacefully.

No feathers were ruffled; no hard feelings were aired. The Arab and Islamic and Israeli and Jewish populations tolerated - or at least ignored - one other.

So no, I do not think that Jewish visitation and prayer rights on Har HaBayit are rashly provocative. They need not be a political flashpoint.

In fact, I think that it is time to set out a new diplomatic plan for the establishment of a synagogue to strengthen Jewish and Israeli rights on Har HaBayit, hopefully through dialogue and even a regional consensus.

You see, one of the things you learn when visiting the Temple Mount - something unknown to most people - is that there is plenty of room up there and loads of undeveloped and even empty sections of land on the vast Temple Mount plaza.

A Jewish house of prayer could easily be built in the southeast or northeast areas of the Mount without interfering in any way with Muslim shrines and prayer practices.

Several leading religious figures such as Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu of Safed are now backing this suggestion (which I first made in this newspaper 12 years ago).

Space-sharing and time-sharing arrangements can calmly be crafted, such as those in place at Ma'arat HaMachpela, the Tomb of the Patriarchs, and the Matriarchs in Hebron.

Again, nobody needs to feel threatened by the presence of Jewish petitioners tucked away in a corner of the holy Mount - unless your opposition to Jewish visitation and prayer stems from wholesale denial of indigenous Jewish rights in Jerusalem and the Land of Israel.

On the way out of the Temple Mount plaza, I tore my shirt in sorrow for the destroyed First and Second Temples that once stood on the site - just as a Jewish mourner does upon the death of a close relative.

This tearing in grief and my earlier prostration in prayer - both of which are called kri-ah in Hebrew (although spelled differently) - were strong bookends of a compelling visit to the Temple Mount.

The writer is the managing senior fellow at the Jerusalem-based Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy. The views expressed here are his own. His diplomatic, defense, political, and Jewish world columns over the past 30 years are at davidmweinberg.com.