Live Update 
From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, January 3, 2023
From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, January 3, 2023
Chief rabbi slams Ben Gvir for violating rabbinic guidelines by visiting Temple Mount
Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef speaks at the National Headquarters of the Israel Police in Jerusalem on September 22, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef criticizes National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir for visiting the Temple Mount as a government minister.
“As a minister representing the government of Israel you should be acting according to Chief Rabbinate instructions, which have long forbidden visiting the Temple Mount,” Yosef writes in a letter to Ben Gvir.
Yosef calls on Ben Gvir — who regularly visited the site before becoming a minister — to stop doing so moving forward “in order not to mislead the public.”
The Chief Rabbinate’s official position is that the site is too holy for Jews to set foot on, though many rabbis in the national-religious community support visits.
