Jerusalem – About 20 women went up to the Temple Mount on Wednesday, accompanied by rabbis and their wives who ensured that purity laws were strictly kept. The group of women went up to the mountain under the guidance of Rabbi Itai Elitzur of Psagot.
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Einat Ziv, one of the initiators of the event along with Rabbanit Rivka Shimon, told Arutz Sheva’s Hebrew-language news service on Thursday that religious women have had a sort of awakening about the Temple Mount.
“I run classes in the community of Ofra on the Temple and the women asked to see firsthand what we were studying about,” said Ziv. “At first I was afraid because I knew that women going up to the Temple Mount is a very complicated subject. When women asked again and again I decided to go for it.”
The first group of women who went up to the Temple Mount did so on Rosh Chodesh Adar. “We wanted to go the way of Queen Esther and set a date by consulting with rabbis,” said Ziv. “The first time we went up, we asked Temple Mount Heritage Foundation Chairman Yehuda Glick to give us some words of strength beforehand and he was very excited to do so.”
She added that the women’s group plans to go up to the Temple Mount every month.
“We must not let this issue disappear from the public eye,” she said. “We ascend the Temple Mount and see that everything there is abandoned. The “shechinah” (divine presence) is all alone up there.
According to many gedolim and poskim these woman (and men) are chayev misa (Koras)
Kol hakovod to Rabbonit Shimon and her colleagues for showing that women can share in one of the most important and rewarding experiences in yiddishkeit which is to stand on the har habayis but doing so in a manner that respects daas torah and halacha. She has set a precedent which hopefully will be emulated by other womens’ groups whose visits to the kotel area are sometimes disruptive.
#1 please explain as to how this is the ‘most important’ ‘most rewarding’
What is wrong with everyone????? Going on Har Habayis is completely ASSUR!!!
May ascending to the Har HaBayis give them inspiration to increase in Mitzvos, so that Moshiach will come and rebuild the Beis HaMikdash NOW!
Many Gedolim permit this. They are going into what was known the ezras nashim at best. Moreover I doubt that actions which are taken to help keep har bayis in our hands would in any event generate a chiyuv kares. Its also time for the pseudo halachists here to stop deciding who they think are the gedolim. and belittling other poskim. I always cringe when I read ALL the gedolim. Everyone here knows certain gedolim matir this, so by belittling them you are over the Rambams statement that to embarrass or negate a talmid chochom you have no cheilek in olam habah.
I do think we should keep the status quo on the har habayis. No schnorrers, no shuk like outside rav meir baal haness. Perfect. Only those people who feel a strong hargasha to go, have a business being there (within halacha, of course). I personally have no wish to go up now, but maybe someday when I reach a higher madreiga that I can feel the kedusha.
I understand that there are gedolim who say it’s assur to go on Har Habayis and others who hold that it’s muttar. However, I have not seen anyone who says that it’s a vaday, only a חשש. That’s because, it is very very difficult to argue that the places that these people are going to is the עזרה. Like the issue of the Eruv it’s not healthy to walk around accusing people you don’t agree with as רשעים because they don’t agree with you. Based on this logic, according to the Rambam, anyone who subscribes to Rashi’s shitah on 600k for a רשות הרבים is a מחלל שבת. We must learn to respect other people’s opinions. Same here.