I have not been up to Har Habayit. I have not gone up out of total awe and respect for the Kedusha that resides up on Mount Moriah and the fact that Israel will not allow me to pray where the two Temples stood and where Avraham almost sacrificed his son, Yitzchak. I know that according to Jewish law there are areas that one can go after immersing in a ritual bath (Mikveh) and I am beginning to change my mind about going up to Har Habayit should I go up.
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I have not gone up although I yearn to walk, pray and worship on the holiest place on Earth for the Jewish people and it is emotionally depressing to see what is happening up there.
אוי מה היה לנו! מה עשינו אוי!
I watch as Jewish history is wiped out of existence by a radical Islamic brute squad as they uncover and then destroy two thousand year old artifacts as they attempt to erase Jewish existence in Israel, In Jerusalem and on Har Habit and that’s why I fast on the 9th of Av. ,! אוי מה היה לנו, מה עשינו אוי I hear reports of Israeli policemen arresting Jews who dared to utter a prayer on the Temple Mount and I wonder, what are we doing?! That’s why I fast on the 9th of Av.
אוי מה היה לנו! מה עשינו אוי!
For the past 25 years my father and I spent Yom Kippur praying in a shul on top of the Kotel overlooking Har Habayit. This shul was originally set up by Rav Goren and is open for prayer only twice a year; the 9th of Av and Yom Kippur. For the past decade, my son Yakir has joined me and recently so has my youngest, Natan. Several years ago my youngest looked out the window and as he starred down at the Temple Mount, he said with anger in his voice, “Abba! Why are they (Arabs) playing soccer where the Bet Hamikdash stood?” I have no answer and I wanted to cry…
אוי מה היה לנו! מה עשינו אוי!
In 1967 we heard the miraculous call from our brave IDF soldiers as they liberated the Temple Mount; “Har Habayit Biyadeinu!” The ‘Temple Mount is in our hands!’ For the first time in 2,00 long and painful years, God has brought us back and with the courage and sacrifice of our soldiers, we were back! We could have built the Temple and instead…..we handed the keys back to those who play soccer on the holy of Holies….how can we not cry!
אוי מה היה לנו! מה עשינו אוי!
People ask where was God during Holocaust, I ask where was man! We were given Har Habit in 67 and we gave it away!
אוי מה היה לנו!
It is for this reason that I am contemplating going up to Har Habayit…If we do not show Jewish presence there, how can we call it ours? Avraham was commanded to walk the land in order to claim it is his, shall we not do the same?
If the Temple is not built and we are once again forced to fast on the 9th of Av, I will cry, but it will crying over our own lack of faith and not aimed at asking God why. He gave us Har Habayit, we refused to take it! When we were originally commanded to go up to the land of Israel, we cried in vain. We ignored all that God did for us in Egypt and the miracles we witnessed as He took us out of Egypt. We ignored the miraculous victories over the strongest dynasties and we went to our tents to cry because we had no faith in God. We decided to say ‘we couldn’t’ when God clearly proved with HIS help ‘we could.’