Ashkenazi chief rabbi reiterates Jewish law ban on ascending the Temple Mount

Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Kalman Ber issues a document reiterating the prohibition on ascending the Temple Mount according to halacha (Jewish law).

“In recent years, a new phenomenon has been spreading, consisting of groups from the public who ascend the Temple Mount and prostrate themselves on the floor of the Mount during their ascent,” reads the document.

“The act of ascending the Temple Mount itself is strictly forbidden according to the opinion of all the leading Torah giants of Israel,” Ber writes.

The Temple Mount, revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, is Judaism’s holiest site and one of the holiest sites in Islam, and has long been a flashpoint for conflict. Since before the establishment of the state, the Chief Rabbinate has maintained that it is forbidden for Jews to visit it in modern times for several halachic reasons, including that nowadays everyone is considered ritually impure.

However, over the decades, a growing number of influential rabbis, mostly from a Religious Zionism background, have offered alternative halachic interpretations stating that ascending the site is permissible or even recommended.

The call has become a key point in the agenda of several Israeli political leaders, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who regularly visits and prays at the site.

Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount is also forbidden under what is referred to as the “status quo,” or the complex set of rules and compromises between Israel and the Waqf, the Jordanian institution that administers the site.

Ber also stressed that if someone were to go up to the Temple Mount, prostrating themselves is also prohibited.