There was a time, about 2300 years ago, when a few Jews decided enough was enough. It was time to stop playing nice, continuing to avoid conflict with the Greeks who had, so said the accommodationists, brought so many positive ideas to the world. It was time stop pretending that the invaders were basically a benevolent group who only sought to bring modernity and culture to the backward Jews of Judea. They saw their true agenda and character – that if the Jews did not go along with their religio/cultural diktat they would murder, pillage, rape, and destroy – and faced up to the fact they were at war with these invaders. Trusting in Hashem, they fought back, they ignored all the Hellenists who preached pacifism, conciliation and peace, and succeeded in driving the invaders out; achieving peace for some generations.
For too many in Israel (and us who have strong opinions from afar), the realization that we are at war – whether we like it or not – has not yet taken hold. Too many harbor illusions that the present state of affairs of a stalemate and of containment can continue, and that if we avoid unduly provoking and annoying the Arabs we will somehow get through this. Too many accept, for instance, that the proximate cause of the slaughter in Har Nof was because of the Jews who have been attempting to pray on the Har HaBayit (Temple Mount), and if we would just “stay off the Har HaBayit”, and, in essence lend credence to the Arab ranting that our presence there “contaminates” the “Holy Arab soil”, things would improve. We have to avoid provoking them, we are told. If only Jews would accept that the Har HaBayit is forbidden to us for now, and that it is proper that the Waqf be granted full sovereign rights there, the current escalation of violence, which not a few pundits have called the beginning of the “Third Intafada”, would end and peaceful co-existence would be restored.
Clearly there are strong differences of opinion as to the Halachic propriety of entering certain parts of the Har HaBayit. The near uniform Halachic consensus was, and remains, that the large Har HaBayit Plaza contains both sacred areas that were part of the original Temple compound and thus – as long as we do not have the Parah Adumah to achieve the requisite level of Taharah (Ritual Purity) – are off limits to Jews, and areas that were never within the Temple compound and therefore have no Halachic bar against entering them. The dispute is between those on the one hand who say that the results of modern research, and an incomparably greater familiarity with the terrain than in years past, allow us to determine exactly which are the forbidden areas, and those on the other hand who subscribe to the age old view (formulated largely in the Diaspora far from any access to determining the facts on the ground) that misafek (because of doubt) we must consider the entire area forbidden. Far be it for me to offer my own opinion on these sacred matters.
Furthermore, there is a special poignancy in knowing that despite the amazing gift that Hashem has given us in our time of the State of Israel and the incredible Divine Kindness that is evident (to anyone who has a non-jaundiced view) in the fantastic rebuilding that has occurred there over the past century . . . that the gift is still incomplete. For years my practice was to go to Har Hatzofim (Mt Scopus) on Tisha B’Av, and from that vantage point to recite Lamentations and Kinot, while observing “Mt Zion that is barren – where [human] foxes are walking about”. It was from that vantage point that despite enjoying an incredibly vibrant Jewish life in Yerushalayim, I was able to fully feel the words of the Festive Mussaf “We have been distanced from your land, and cannot go up and be seen and prostrate ourselves before you . . . “ Certainly, there are areas about which Hashem has not yet felt that the time is ripe for us to visit, and we must accept His will.