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Higher than the Al-Aqsa Mosque
By Nadav Shragai
Nearly 25 years ago, Rami Zayit, a scribe from Kiryat Arba, and Jerusalem architect Gideon Harlap, drew up the plan, "Mivneh Negev." The plan was to open the triple gate in the southern part of the Temple Mount (the Hulda Gates) and to transform the subterranean spaces of Solomon's Stables in the southeastern part of the Temple Mount into a prayer area for Jews.
The plan was designed to bypass the problems of Jews praying on the Mount, with specific reference to the tension between Jews and Arabs surrounding the location of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, and halakha, which prohibits Jews from entering the sanctity of the Mount.
Only after some time did moderate Temple Mount movements adopt this idea. Today we know the most significant change since 1967 - turning Solomon's Stables into a third mosque on the Mount, larger in area than Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock combined - was almost a direct result of these plans. Although the Israeli Islamic Movement sought an anchor in the Temple Mount, the location that was chosen for the Al-Marwani Mosque, Solomon's Stables, was the direct result of the Jewish plan to build a synagogue there.
Competing for the best minaret design
About 10 years after the construction of the Al-Marwani Mosque, the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount is again abuzz with provocative plans. A few weeks ago, to Israel's dissatisfaction, Jordan's King Abdullah announced the construction of a fifth minaret in the Temple Mount area. The minaret is to be named after King Hussein, Abdullah's father. One of the places designated for the minaret is the empty, southeastern corner of the Temple Mount, above the mosque in Solomon's Stables. Abdullah even declared a competition for the best minaret design.
The religious right is skeptical of the government's unofficial attempts to placate them. When it comes to the Temple Mount, the religious right is tired of denials, which ultimately turn out to be false, concerning the third mosque in Solomon's Stables, the fourth mosque in ancient Al-Aqsa, and the archaeological damage to the Temple Mount during the construction of the Waqf (the Moslem trust) over the years.
Perhaps this is why now, of all times, MK Uri Ariel (National Union-National Religious Party) is presenting a plan of his own for building a synagogue on the Temple Mount. He is also discussing the southeastern corner of the Mount, and this is apparently no coincidence. Ariel is presently looking for an architect, and he plans to submit the plan for the approval of the Jerusalem Municipality's planning committee - not that it has a chance. However, it will cause a commotion. "Such an act will repair a historical injustice much more than did the transfer to Israel of the remains of Herzl's children," says Ariel. "Throughout the generations we were expelled from the site. This is an opportunity for the Muslim world to prove that it is sufficiently tolerant to contain beliefs that differ from its own."
Circumstances indicate that Jordanian shares in the Mount are on the rise, whereas those of the Palestinian Authority are declining. After many years during which the Waqf was operated by the Jordanians, the PA expelled the Jordanian mufti (Sheikh Abdul Qader Abdeen) from the Temple Mount by force, and instead appointed a mufti of its own (Sheikh Ikrama Sabri).
All this took place in the early 1990s at the time of the Oslo Accords, years after King Hussein contributed money to cover the Dome of the Rock with gold. The PA also began to pay, at least in part, the salaries of Waqf officials, which for years came from Jordan. The fact that some of the PA officials adopted a policy of conflict with Israel on the Mount led to a revolution in the Israeli approach in recent years.
In the peace agreement signed with Jordan, the Hashemite kingdom received future precedence regarding anything concerning the Temple Mount, but for years there was no reflection of this commitment. In recent years, the situation has changed. Jordan was involved in reopening the Mount to Jewish tourists, after it was closed to non-Muslims for three years. The Mount was closed at the end of 2000, in the wake of the visit there by then chair of the opposition, MK Ariel Sharon. Jordan was also involved in coordinating the renovation of the southern and eastern walls of the Mount, which had cracks and protrusions, with the Israel Antiquities Authority, the police, the Prime Minister's Office and the Waqf.
Attorney Dr. Shmuel Berkovitz (author of "The Wars of the Holy Places"), who is very well versed in the fine points of relations between the various Mount groups, believes Jordan is trying to gain Israel's consent to build a fifth minaret; this fits in with the Israeli view of Jordan as a moderating influence on the Mount vis-a-vis the Palestinians and the Israeli Islamic Movement. This perspective, which Israel does not hide, is exactly what frightens the Temple Mount movements, which fear a quiet agreement between Israel and Jordan on the construction of the minaret.
In light of this, there is ferment in the Temple Mount movements; Ariel and his proposal are only the tip of the iceberg. Gershon Solomon of the Temple Mount Faithful, for example, is planning a campaign against the Western Wall, which he says diverts attention from the "real thing" - the Temple Mount - to which the Western Wall is only an entrance hall, at most. "The Western Wall is not a vestige of the Temple, as people tend mistakenly to believe, but the western support wall of the compound," Solomon points out.
The discourse among other activists is no different. Berkovitz remarks that for the right-wing organizations, another minaret on the Mount will perpetuate foreign domination. He predicts harsh opposition on their part to the plan, if it becomes realistic.
'A relay race of the generations'
The Chief Rabbinate is preferring to keep quiet for the time being, and, considering the two chief rabbis, this is hardly surprising. Rabbi Yona Metzger and Rabbi Shlomo Amar belong to the conservative rabbinic school, which considers the Temple Mount a matter for messianic times and not for the present. Metzger and Amar, like their patrons Rabbi Shalom Yosef Elyashiv and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, are opposed to allowing Jews to enter the Temple Mount, for two halakhic reasons: The lack of any possibility of becoming purified from contact with the dead before entering the Mount; and the lack of information regarding the exact site of the holiest of holies to which entry is forbidden except to the high priest on Yom Kippur.
During the term of Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron and Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, who also adhered to the same prohibition, the Chief Rabbinate became involved almost against its will in the issue of building a synagogue on the Temple Mount. At the time, it was not right-wing organizations or Temple Mount movements that raised the idea. At that time, during the Camp David talks in 2000, it was none other than then prime minister Ehud Barak who raised the possibility of building a synagogue on the Mount, parallel to relinquishing sovereignty over significant sections.
The council of the Chief Rabbinate decided at the time that the Temple Mount must remain under Israeli sovereignty, but one of the absurd consequences of Barak's moves was that after 33 years during which the Rabbinate rejected for halakhic reasons any possibility of Jews praying on the Mount, a committee was established by the Rabbinate to formally examine the possibility of building a synagogue on the Mount or within its walls.
Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen, the chief rabbi of Haifa, is the head of the committee. The committee has met several times and discussed alternative sites for a synagogue, but did not reach a decision. The establishment of the committee was meant as a directional sign for the political leadership, or as Rabbi Lau put it at the time: "We are in a relay race of the generations, and our entire right to the Land of Israel derives in effect from our basic right to the Temple Mount.
The Muslim claim to precedence on the Temple Mount is baseless. Islam was born 550 years after the destruction of the Second Temple [in 70 CE]." The Muslims had a different interpretation of the establishment of the committee. Sheikh Hian al-Adrisi, the Temple Mount imam, accused: "They are actually talking about a synagogue in order not to heat up the atmosphere, but they are planning to build their Temple on Al-Aqsa. The Muslims are willing to sacrifice their lives and their blood to preserve the Islamic character of Jerusalem and of Al-Aqsa."
Two additional plans for the construction of a synagogue on the Temple Mount were presented in recent years. One is that of Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, also a former chief rabbi. Eliyahu claimed years ago that "foreigners and idol worshippers should be expelled from the Temple Mount and a synagogue built there."
"We see with our own eyes how foxes walk there [a sign of desolation], and in a place of which it is said 'the stranger who approaches will be killed,' strangers walk and profane it," wrote Eliyahu in the periodical Tehumin. "We need not fear what they will say. My proposal is to build a synagogue and a place for Torah and prayer in the area where we are permitted to enter, with supervised entry and exit."
When he was chief rabbi, Eliyahu refined his proposal even further, and proposed building a synagogue in the southeast corner of the Mount behind the Al-Aqsa mosque, as long as the building would be higher than the mosque. Eliyahu also raised a possibility that one of the walls of the synagogue, the one that faces the holy place, be built of glass.
Another proposal for building a synagogue on the Temple Mount is that of architect Gideon Harlap, who even placed it on city planning maps as "a change in city plan 62 Jerusalem," on behalf of the Friends of the Temple association headed by Prof. Hillel Weiss. It was published in the anthology "Kumu Ve'Naaleh" ("Let us rise and go up"), edited by rabbis Yehuda Shaviv and Yisrael Rosen. Harlap got down to details, and even prepared a budgetary estimate. The cost of the planning and implementation will, according to his calculations, total about $8 million.
"This report," Harlap explained, "comes to inform the official authorities of the fact that, in terms of engineering, architecture and planning, there is a wide range of solutions that facilitate providing a place for Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, which has long been necessary. And in any case, there are solutions for providing access for worshippers of various religions, without mutual interference, and in accordance with Jewish halakha."
Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, who heads the Tzomet Institute in Gush Etzion and began the anthology in which Harlap's plan was published, said, "secular Zionism has become distant from the Mount and its Torah," but he and his friends want to illuminate "Torah viewpoints, which are uplifting and exalting."
Higher than the Al-Aqsa Mosque
By Nadav Shragai
Nearly 25 years ago, Rami Zayit, a scribe from Kiryat Arba, and Jerusalem architect Gideon Harlap, drew up the plan, "Mivneh Negev." The plan was to open the triple gate in the southern part of the Temple Mount (the Hulda Gates) and to transform the subterranean spaces of Solomon's Stables in the southeastern part of the Temple Mount into a prayer area for Jews.
The plan was designed to bypass the problems of Jews praying on the Mount, with specific reference to the tension between Jews and Arabs surrounding the location of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, and halakha, which prohibits Jews from entering the sanctity of the Mount.
Only after some time did moderate Temple Mount movements adopt this idea. Today we know the most significant change since 1967 - turning Solomon's Stables into a third mosque on the Mount, larger in area than Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock combined - was almost a direct result of these plans. Although the Israeli Islamic Movement sought an anchor in the Temple Mount, the location that was chosen for the Al-Marwani Mosque, Solomon's Stables, was the direct result of the Jewish plan to build a synagogue there.
Competing for the best minaret design
About 10 years after the construction of the Al-Marwani Mosque, the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount is again abuzz with provocative plans. A few weeks ago, to Israel's dissatisfaction, Jordan's King Abdullah announced the construction of a fifth minaret in the Temple Mount area. The minaret is to be named after King Hussein, Abdullah's father. One of the places designated for the minaret is the empty, southeastern corner of the Temple Mount, above the mosque in Solomon's Stables. Abdullah even declared a competition for the best minaret design.
The religious right is skeptical of the government's unofficial attempts to placate them. When it comes to the Temple Mount, the religious right is tired of denials, which ultimately turn out to be false, concerning the third mosque in Solomon's Stables, the fourth mosque in ancient Al-Aqsa, and the archaeological damage to the Temple Mount during the construction of the Waqf (the Moslem trust) over the years.
Perhaps this is why now, of all times, MK Uri Ariel (National Union-National Religious Party) is presenting a plan of his own for building a synagogue on the Temple Mount. He is also discussing the southeastern corner of the Mount, and this is apparently no coincidence. Ariel is presently looking for an architect, and he plans to submit the plan for the approval of the Jerusalem Municipality's planning committee - not that it has a chance. However, it will cause a commotion. "Such an act will repair a historical injustice much more than did the transfer to Israel of the remains of Herzl's children," says Ariel. "Throughout the generations we were expelled from the site. This is an opportunity for the Muslim world to prove that it is sufficiently tolerant to contain beliefs that differ from its own."
Circumstances indicate that Jordanian shares in the Mount are on the rise, whereas those of the Palestinian Authority are declining. After many years during which the Waqf was operated by the Jordanians, the PA expelled the Jordanian mufti (Sheikh Abdul Qader Abdeen) from the Temple Mount by force, and instead appointed a mufti of its own (Sheikh Ikrama Sabri).
All this took place in the early 1990s at the time of the Oslo Accords, years after King Hussein contributed money to cover the Dome of the Rock with gold. The PA also began to pay, at least in part, the salaries of Waqf officials, which for years came from Jordan. The fact that some of the PA officials adopted a policy of conflict with Israel on the Mount led to a revolution in the Israeli approach in recent years.
In the peace agreement signed with Jordan, the Hashemite kingdom received future precedence regarding anything concerning the Temple Mount, but for years there was no reflection of this commitment. In recent years, the situation has changed. Jordan was involved in reopening the Mount to Jewish tourists, after it was closed to non-Muslims for three years. The Mount was closed at the end of 2000, in the wake of the visit there by then chair of the opposition, MK Ariel Sharon. Jordan was also involved in coordinating the renovation of the southern and eastern walls of the Mount, which had cracks and protrusions, with the Israel Antiquities Authority, the police, the Prime Minister's Office and the Waqf.
Attorney Dr. Shmuel Berkovitz (author of "The Wars of the Holy Places"), who is very well versed in the fine points of relations between the various Mount groups, believes Jordan is trying to gain Israel's consent to build a fifth minaret; this fits in with the Israeli view of Jordan as a moderating influence on the Mount vis-a-vis the Palestinians and the Israeli Islamic Movement. This perspective, which Israel does not hide, is exactly what frightens the Temple Mount movements, which fear a quiet agreement between Israel and Jordan on the construction of the minaret.
In light of this, there is ferment in the Temple Mount movements; Ariel and his proposal are only the tip of the iceberg. Gershon Solomon of the Temple Mount Faithful, for example, is planning a campaign against the Western Wall, which he says diverts attention from the "real thing" - the Temple Mount - to which the Western Wall is only an entrance hall, at most. "The Western Wall is not a vestige of the Temple, as people tend mistakenly to believe, but the western support wall of the compound," Solomon points out.
The discourse among other activists is no different. Berkovitz remarks that for the right-wing organizations, another minaret on the Mount will perpetuate foreign domination. He predicts harsh opposition on their part to the plan, if it becomes realistic.
'A relay race of the generations'
The Chief Rabbinate is preferring to keep quiet for the time being, and, considering the two chief rabbis, this is hardly surprising. Rabbi Yona Metzger and Rabbi Shlomo Amar belong to the conservative rabbinic school, which considers the Temple Mount a matter for messianic times and not for the present. Metzger and Amar, like their patrons Rabbi Shalom Yosef Elyashiv and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, are opposed to allowing Jews to enter the Temple Mount, for two halakhic reasons: The lack of any possibility of becoming purified from contact with the dead before entering the Mount; and the lack of information regarding the exact site of the holiest of holies to which entry is forbidden except to the high priest on Yom Kippur.
During the term of Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron and Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, who also adhered to the same prohibition, the Chief Rabbinate became involved almost against its will in the issue of building a synagogue on the Temple Mount. At the time, it was not right-wing organizations or Temple Mount movements that raised the idea. At that time, during the Camp David talks in 2000, it was none other than then prime minister Ehud Barak who raised the possibility of building a synagogue on the Mount, parallel to relinquishing sovereignty over significant sections.
The council of the Chief Rabbinate decided at the time that the Temple Mount must remain under Israeli sovereignty, but one of the absurd consequences of Barak's moves was that after 33 years during which the Rabbinate rejected for halakhic reasons any possibility of Jews praying on the Mount, a committee was established by the Rabbinate to formally examine the possibility of building a synagogue on the Mount or within its walls.
Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen, the chief rabbi of Haifa, is the head of the committee. The committee has met several times and discussed alternative sites for a synagogue, but did not reach a decision. The establishment of the committee was meant as a directional sign for the political leadership, or as Rabbi Lau put it at the time: "We are in a relay race of the generations, and our entire right to the Land of Israel derives in effect from our basic right to the Temple Mount.
The Muslim claim to precedence on the Temple Mount is baseless. Islam was born 550 years after the destruction of the Second Temple [in 70 CE]." The Muslims had a different interpretation of the establishment of the committee. Sheikh Hian al-Adrisi, the Temple Mount imam, accused: "They are actually talking about a synagogue in order not to heat up the atmosphere, but they are planning to build their Temple on Al-Aqsa. The Muslims are willing to sacrifice their lives and their blood to preserve the Islamic character of Jerusalem and of Al-Aqsa."
Two additional plans for the construction of a synagogue on the Temple Mount were presented in recent years. One is that of Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, also a former chief rabbi. Eliyahu claimed years ago that "foreigners and idol worshippers should be expelled from the Temple Mount and a synagogue built there."
"We see with our own eyes how foxes walk there [a sign of desolation], and in a place of which it is said 'the stranger who approaches will be killed,' strangers walk and profane it," wrote Eliyahu in the periodical Tehumin. "We need not fear what they will say. My proposal is to build a synagogue and a place for Torah and prayer in the area where we are permitted to enter, with supervised entry and exit."
When he was chief rabbi, Eliyahu refined his proposal even further, and proposed building a synagogue in the southeast corner of the Mount behind the Al-Aqsa mosque, as long as the building would be higher than the mosque. Eliyahu also raised a possibility that one of the walls of the synagogue, the one that faces the holy place, be built of glass.
Another proposal for building a synagogue on the Temple Mount is that of architect Gideon Harlap, who even placed it on city planning maps as "a change in city plan 62 Jerusalem," on behalf of the Friends of the Temple association headed by Prof. Hillel Weiss. It was published in the anthology "Kumu Ve'Naaleh" ("Let us rise and go up"), edited by rabbis Yehuda Shaviv and Yisrael Rosen. Harlap got down to details, and even prepared a budgetary estimate. The cost of the planning and implementation will, according to his calculations, total about $8 million.
"This report," Harlap explained, "comes to inform the official authorities of the fact that, in terms of engineering, architecture and planning, there is a wide range of solutions that facilitate providing a place for Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, which has long been necessary. And in any case, there are solutions for providing access for worshippers of various religions, without mutual interference, and in accordance with Jewish halakha."
Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, who heads the Tzomet Institute in Gush Etzion and began the anthology in which Harlap's plan was published, said, "secular Zionism has become distant from the Mount and its Torah," but he and his friends want to illuminate "Torah viewpoints, which are uplifting and exalting."
posted by Marc Rosenberg at 1:20 PM
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