[Avodah] going up to har habayit

[Eli Turkel]

It was reported last week that several Rabbonim from the RZ camp,
amongst them Rav Yaakov Meidan of Yeshivat Har Eyzion, went up to
portions of Har HaBayis. It was also reported that Rav Yaakov Ariel,
the highly respected Rav of Ramat Gan, published a psak that seemed to
support their actions.

If any of our correspondents could fill in the halachic details, I
would be most appreciative.>>

The halachik basis is simple. The temple mount was extended by Herod.
It is generally conceded that this extension has no halachic basis and so is
not part of halachic har habayit. Hence,  the various prohibitions do not
extend to these extensions. Thus, one can go there if one is "tamei met" and
it is sufficient to go a Mikvah.

The tricky part is identfying where was the Temple within the Temple mount
and where were the Herodian extensions. The Kulahs are based on taking
certainly historical possibilities and taking the chumrah of them which
still leaves  some areas that can be visited.

Those who prohibit which includes R. A. Shapira. R. Lichtenstein and several
other promininet DL poskim plus all charedi poskim have 2 objections. One
they do not rely on historical guesses as to where was the Temple. In fact
there are probably enough theories around that include almost everything.
Second the fear that once one goes on the Temple mount it is too easy to get
into the "wrong" areas or that one does not go to the mikvah properly etc.

-- 
Eli Turkel
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