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Don’t Forget: The Gedolim Enabled the Oslo Accords

Nearly 8.5 Times More Terror Fatalities Since Oslo: By Moshe Feiglin

Apr-16-2018

Why argue when you can just present the facts? As we approach Israel’s 70th Memorial Day, Social Security and the Defense Ministry have publicized statistics regarding the number of civilians who have been murdered in terror attacks since Israel was established. Here are the numbers:

Since Israel was established, 3134 civilians have been murdered in terror attacks. This number does not include fallen soldiers.

According to the Social Security 2007 “Civilian Casualties of Acts of Hatred” document, the total number of terror fatalities from 1947 until 1993 – in other words – just before the establishment of the State of Israel until the Oslo Accords – was 578.

A quick calculation shows that despite the obvious improvement in Israel’s internal security since Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, the ratio between the casualties in the 46 years until Oslo and the 24 years since Oslo is 4.4 times more terror fatalities since Oslo. The average casualties per year before Oslo were 12.5 citizens murdered by terrorists annually. Since Oslo, the yearly average is 106 citizens murdered annually. In other words, the updated ratio of the average annual number of terror fatalities prior to and subsequent to the Oslo Accords – civilians alone – is 8.475 times more murdered civilians annually since Oslo. This is based on the updated, official data of Israel’s Social Security.

Nearly eight and a half times more terror murder victims. That is what we have gotten from Oslo to date. This is not a political opinion. It is simply the cold, hard facts.

Please remember these facts for the next time that somebody tells you that Oslo has been a success.

From Jewish Israel. [Defunct]

Syria – Something Smells Off

Herding Hamsters And Other Cosmic Reflections

By 

April 23, 2018

Disordered thoughts on the National Cockatoo’s latest antics

One:  The aghastment and horrilation about the terrible, appalling, shocking etc nature of gas warfare is nonsense. There is nothing unusually hideous about the use of toxic chemicals. Hideous, yes, but not unusually hideous. Boring old workaday artillery, that nobody criticizes, leaves children watching as mommy frantically clutches at intestings spilling from her opened belly, leaves men without legs trying to drag themselves along until gushing femoral arteries end consciousness, causes traumatic brain injury that leaves its beneficiaries drooling and burbling for life. Poison gas can do no better.

The whole business of WMD, Weapons of Mass Destruction, is two-thirds twaddle useful for herding dim publics. Gas has very seldom been used since the World War One days of Wilfred Owen, not because of its vileness but because it has not proved particularly useful militarily. Horribleness does not bother soldiers, who are amoral when they are not actually sadistic.

Biological warfare? It sounds, like, you know, really scary and all, but in fact is not militarily enticing because it is not controllable and can backfire on its users. It serves nicely, however,  to alarm publics with minds of low voltage.  We are most especially supposed to be frightened of anthrax. Since it is not contagious it is more in the nature of a poison and in any event hard to use.

Only three weapons of mass destruction exist: Nuclear explosives, artillery, and aerial bombing. Think Dresden, Hiroshima, Guernica, Falluja.

Two: Whoever wrote Trump’s speech for him–he obviously cannot put together two sentences with dependent clauses without wandering onto the far shores of incoherence–worked the moral-outrage pump hard. The gas attack, by whomever made, killed, eeek, squeak, seventy civilians and little children. More hamster-herding: git along little furry dogies. On many days in the Mid-East, the United States has killed more civilians than all the gas attacks real or invented in the entire war. The pilots, unprincipled as are all military men, know they are doing it, and don’t care. They get paid for their humanitarianism. By us.

Three: Something smells.  The use of toxins, either by Assad in Syria or by Russia in West Pakistan–England, I meant, England–makes no sensee. Assad had won his war and had no need of gassing a few civilians. He would have to know that it would give Washington a pretext for an attack. Which it did. Is Assad so foolish?

Similarly with the poisoning of what’ s-his-spy and his daughter. Russia had nothing to gain and a great deal to lose, as we have seen. It is one thing to believe Mr. Putin capable of bad things. To believe him stupid is quite another. Note that Theresa May became hysterical before it was established that Russia did it, which has still not been established. The orchestrated expulsion of Russian diplomats by all the vassal states, also before anything definitive had been determined, was just too cute.

Hamster herding.

Four: Who had anything to gain by the gaseous adventurism Answer: The American Empire–not America, not Americans–and Israel. Both are desperate to keep Syria from surviving. Note that Washington has a history of lying the country into wars. The Maine in 1898, the Gulf of Tonkin, the imaginary WMD in Gulf I. Plus ca change, plus ca doesn’t.

Five: Syria is of no importance, at all,  to America or Americans. It has nothing America wants or needs. It poses no danger to America. It is somewhere else. This lack of vital interest to America it shares with North Korea, Afghanistan, Ukraine, the Crimea, the South China Sea, and all the other places where the Empire looks for war. Then why does Washington risk nuclear war by accident with Russia, which also poses no danger to America?

Because the Empire’s hegemony over the Mid-East, Asia, and the world weakens. The Empire totters. Syria is at the heart of the looming demise.

Things go badly, Empire-wise. Start with the war on Afghanistan, now creeping toward its third decade, and neighboring Pakistan. China invests heavily in infrastructure in Pakistan:  The Karakoram Highway, the Karachi reactors, the China Pakistan Economic Corridor,  the IP pipeline, Guadar. If–when—Amrica leaves, Pakistan will become an economic client state of China, without a shot being fired. Afghanistan will quickly follow as China invests in its minerals. This is why Washington cannot leave.

Afghanistan borders Iran, which Washington maintains as an enemy at the behest of Israel. Iran borders Iraq, wrecked by the United States and sharing a religion with Iran. Without the threat of American military power, it could easily align itself with Iran and  Asia. In Syria, Assad seems to have won unless the Empire doubles or triples down. Thus the contrived gassing of children and Trump’s missile attack. Turkey balances between east and west, and could easily decide that Asia is the future.

The Empire totters, wounded and dangerous.

Six:  Washington’s approach to hegemony is military, relying on bombing and economic sanctions. This requires huge military expenditures that cripple the domestic economy and produces countless countries that would break with America if they could. By contrast, China’ss approach is economic,  smarter and much cheaper. It is China’s Belt and Raod Initiative to integrate all of Eurasia into one huge trading block, excluding guess who, that has the Empire in a panic. How do you bomb a trade agreement?

Seven: Russia and China have adult leadership. Putin and Xi are stable,  intelligent, and competent. Their interests are not Washington’s and they will do whatever is in the interest of their countries, but they are not stupid, ignorant, weak,  juvenile, or crazy. By contrast, Trump is a loon, ignorant of practically everything, mentally chaotic, and easily modified.

Do you think this excessive? Ponder this luminous tweet

“Get ready Russia, missiles will be coming at Syria, nice and new and ‘smart’!”

This is not adult language. It is the taunting of a twelve-year-old. Nya hnya nya!  Yet it is classic Trump. This man has absolute power to launch wars whose consequences we will have to bear. Is this not splendid?

From Lewrockwell.com, here.

A Touching Article on Government Housing

Two Kinds of Slums

Some Venezuelan families live in terrible slums, but without government subsidies, they have incentives to get out.
by Gary North

Gary North is president of the Institute for Christian Economics.

Back in 1980 I was invited to lecture to a group of people on a cruise ship tour of the Caribbean. I got a free trip on The Love Bloat. Food, food, food!

I even got food for thought. Part of the trip involved a brief visit to Caracas, Venezuela. The ship had docked about an hour north of the city, and tour buses carried us to the capital.

On the outskirts of Caracas, along the side of a hill, there was a slum like no other I had ever seen before, or have ever seen since. As we sped past, we could see it in the distance, but a pair of binoculars brought it much closer. It was nothing but a mass of corrugated steel shacks crammed together.

Later, I read about these mountainside “towns.” They have no plumbing. They are crowded with people who somehow get rides into the teeming and booming city miles away and far below. Serious diseases frequently spread through these little communities. I cannot imagine having to live in such conditions.

Someone on the bus said to no one in particular, “How incredibly ugly!” I thought about that statement for the rest of the drive into the city. I have thought about it from time to time ever since. Yes, that conglomeration of shacks was ugly. Aesthetically, it was an affront to our sensibilities.

Yet such ugliness is cause for rejoicing. It is the mark of freedom. When such ugly slums spring up, without any master plan, and without any government money, we know that free men are doing their best to find a better place to live, a better way to live. Most of all, we can be sure that they are making plans to get out.

Freedom Has Its Ugly Side

The well fed visitor from the United States thinks to himself, “What a terrible place to live.” He can see how bad it is. He shudders at what he sees. But what about the places he cannot see? What about “the places back home” that every slum-dweller left, shaking the dust off his or her feet? The rustic, dirt-floor huts in some isolated village where there is no promise of a better life and no memory of one, either. The charming village graveyards that have so many graves for children under the age of five. The lovely streams in which there are insufficient fish to feed a growing population. The village square in which there are no newspapers reporting on urban blight because there is neither literacy nor electricity to print a newspaper.

People leave these quaint, rustic settings with all of their picture-postcard beauty, and they head for the city. They have been doing this in the West since about the 11th century. This flood of immigrants has increased exponentially since the late 18th century. They come without capital, urban skills, or education. They could go home, but few do. They prefer to live in corrugated steel shacks on the sides of mountains. Why?

To them, the ugliness of the slum is the beauty of freedom. The slum is suffused with hope. It is a place of temporary refuge. A better world lies ahead, down that mountain. Residents of a mountainside slum can see a better world, literally. And seeing it, they can begin to make plans for getting off the mountain forever.

The mountainside slum will remain, but most of its present residents will eventually move out. There are two ways to move out: forward or backward. They can move closer to the city or back to the village. Their continuing presence in the slum announces to the world: better to stay in a slum with their dreams than to return to a village defeated. Because freedom’s slum offers people real hope of moving forward, they do not move back.

Housing in a slum is all that these newcomers can afford. The government could of course send the army up every mountainside to run the slum-dwellers out. The troops could destroy every shack. In America, this is called “urban renewal.” In a place like Venezuela, it might be called “ecological renewal.” The result is the same: homelessness. For the residents of the slums, slum-clearance could be called “hope removal.”

Housing Without Hope

The government could build public housing for a few people. Not for everyone, but a few. We have seen the fate of such housing projects in the richest nation in history, the United States. Can most of us imagine living in the South Bronx in a housing project?

Housing without hope: this is the ultimate slum. It may (for a time) be fleshly painted. It may (for a time) be clean. It may (for a time) be safe. But if it offers no way to get out, or worse, if it offers a government check to stay put, it offers no hope. And then the paint peels, the filth builds up, and the muggers arrive like locusts.

In New York City, you can see from the turnpikes the empty, burned-out housing projects as you drive by at high speed. (Careful: the next pothole may snap an axle.) Are those slums any less ugly than the mountainside slums of nations too poor to build public housing? More to the point, are they as useful for providing shelter to poor people?

In Venezuela, slum-dwelling families live in terrible conditions. But no one forces them to live there. No government subsidizes them to live there. They do not intend to live there forever. They make plans to get out; they test plans to get out; and eventually, most of them get out.

There are two kinds of slums. I don’t want to live in either kind. But this I know: one kind is worse than another. The one to avoid is the one with the invisible sign over its entrance: “All hope abandon, ye who enter here.”

From the Foundation for Economic Education, here.

America’s Fiscal Gap: 200 Trillion Dollars

34 Shocking Facts About U.S. Debt That Should Set America On Fire With Anger

By Michael Snyder, on January 5th, 2012

We have all been lied to.  For decades, the leaders of both major political parties have promised us that they can fix our current system and that they can get our national debt under control.  As the 2012 election approaches, they are making all kinds of wild promises once again.  Well you know what?  It is all a giant sham.  The United States has gotten into so much debt that there will be no coming back from this.  The current system is irretrievably broken. 30 years ago the U.S. debt was a horrific crisis that was completely and totally out of control.  If we would have dealt with it back then maybe we could have done something about it.  But now it is 15 times larger, and we are adding more than a trillion dollars to the debt every single year.  The facts that you are about to read below should set America on fire with anger.  Please share them with as many people as you can.  What we are doing to our children and our grandchildren is absolutely nightmarish.  Words like “abuse”, “financial rape”, “theft” and “crime” do not even begin to describe what we are doing to future generations.  We were the wealthiest nation on earth, but it wasn’t good enough just to squander all of our own money.  We had to squander the money of our children and our grandchildren as well.  America has been so selfish and so self-centered that it is hard to argue that we don’t deserve what is about to happen to this country.  We have stolen the future of America, and yet we strut around as if we are the smartest generation that ever walked the face of the earth.

All of this prosperity that we see all around us is just an illusion.  It is a false prosperity that has been purchased by the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world.

Did you know that if you added up all forms of debt in the United States and divided it up equally that every single family in the country would owe more than $683,000?

We are a nation that is absolutely addicted to debt, and the U.S. debt crisis threatens to destroy everything that our forefathers built.

Yes, everything may seem fine for the moment, but what do you think would happen if the federal government suddenly adopted a balanced budget?

1.3 trillion dollars a year would be sucked right out of the economy and we would be looking at an “economic readjustment” that would be mind blowing.

Enjoy this false prosperity while you can, because it is not going to last.

Debt is a very cruel master, and our day of reckoning is almost here.

The following are 34 shocking facts about U.S. debt that should set America on fire with anger….

#1 During fiscal year 2011, the U.S. government spent 3.7 trillion dollars but it only brought in 2.4 trillion dollars.

#2 When Ronald Reagan took office, the U.S. national debt was less than 1 trillion dollars.  Today, the U.S. national debt is over 15.2 trillion dollars.

#3 During 2011, U.S. debt surpassed 100 percent of GDP for the first time ever.

#4 According to Wikipedia, the monetary base “consists of coins, paper money (both as bank vault cash and as currency circulating in the public), and commercial banks’ reserves with the central bank.”  Currently the U.S. monetary base is sitting somewhere around 2.7 trillion dollars.  So if you went out and gathered all of that money up it would only make a small dent in our national debt.  But afterwards there would be no currency for anyone to use.

#5 The U.S. government spent over 454 billion dollars just on interest on the national debt during fiscal 2011.

#6 The U.S. government has total assets of 2.7 trillion dollars and has total liabilities of 17.5 trillion dollars.  The liabilities do not even count 4.7 trillion dollars of intragovernmental debt that is currently outstanding.

#7 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.

#8 It is being projected that the U.S. national debt will surpass 23 trillion dollars in 2015.

#9 According to the GAO, the U.S. government is facing 34 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities for social insurance programs such as Social Security and Medicare.  These are obligations that we have already committed ourselves to but that we do not have any money for.

#10 Others estimate that the unfunded liabilities of the U.S. government now total over 117 trillion dollars.

#11 According to the GAO, the ratio of debt held by the public to GDP is projected to reach 287 percent of GDP by 2086.

#12 Others are much less optimistic.  A recently revised IMF policy paper entitled “An Analysis of U.S. Fiscal and Generational Imbalances: Who Will Pay and How?” projects that U.S. government debt will rise to about 400 percent of GDP by the year 2050.

#13 The United States government is responsible for more than a third of all the government debt in the entire world.

#14 If you divide up the national debt equally among all U.S. taxpayers, each taxpayer would owe approximately $134,685.

#15 Mandatory federal spending surpassed total federal revenue for the first time ever in fiscal 2011.  That was not supposed to happen until 50 years from now.

#16 Between 2007 and 2010, U.S. GDP grew by only 4.26%, but the U.S. national debt soared by 61% during that same time period.

#17 During Barack Obama’s first two years in office, the U.S. government added more to the U.S. national debt than the first 100 U.S. Congresses combined.

#18 When you add up all spending by the federal government, state governments and local governments, it comes to 46.6% of GDP.

#19 Our nation is more addicted to government checks than ever before.  In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7% of all income.  Today, government transfer payments account for 18.4% of all income.

#20 U.S. households are now actually receiving more money directly from the U.S. government than they are paying to the government in taxes.

#21 A staggering 48.5% of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of government benefits.  Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.

#22 Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid.  Today, one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.

#23 In 1950, each retiree’s Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 U.S. workers.  According to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are now only 1.75 full-time private sector workers for each person that is receiving Social Security benefits in the United States.

#24 The U.S. government now says that the Medicare trust fund will run out five years faster than they were projecting just last year.

#25 Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24 percentof GDP.  Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.

#26 If the U.S. government was forced to use GAAP accounting principles (like all publicly-traded corporations must), the U.S. government budget deficit would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 trillion to $5 trillion each and every year.

#27 If you were alive when Chist was born and you spent one million dollars every single day since that point, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now.  But this year alone the U.S. government is going to add more than a trillion dollars to the national debt.

#28 If right this moment you went out and started spending one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.

#29 A trillion $10 bills, if they were taped end to end, would wrap around the globe more than 380 times.  That amount of money would still not be enough to pay off the U.S. national debt.

#30 If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 470,000 years to pay off the national debt.

#31 If Bill Gates gave every penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for 15 days.

#32 According to Professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff, the U.S. is facing a “fiscal gap” of over 200 trillion dollars in the future.  The following is a brief excerpt from a recent article that he did for CNN….

The government’s total indebtedness — its fiscal gap — now stands at $211 trillion, by my arithmetic. The fiscal gap is the difference, measured in present value, between all projected future spending obligations — including our huge defense expenditures and massive entitlement programs, as well as making interest and principal payments on the official debt — and all projected future taxes.

#33 If you add up all forms of debt in the United States (government, business and consumer), it comes to more than 56 trillion dollars.  That is more than $683,000per family.  Unfortunately, the average amount of savings per family in the U.S. is only about $4,735.

#34 The U.S. national debt is now more than 5000 times larger than it was when the Federal Reserve was created back in 1913.

Continue reading…

From The Economic Collapse, here.

May a Ritually Impure Jew Ascend to Har Habayis? Rabbi Ari Zivotofsky Explains

Tzarich Iyun: The Har HaBayit

    

Misconception:Many religious Jews do not visit Har HaBayit (the Temple Mount) today. This is because we are all presumed to be in a state of tumat met (ritual impurity due to “contact” with the dead), and a tamei met is prohibited from ascending Har HaBayit. (Since the removal of tumat met requires the use of the ashes of a parah adumah, which are currently not available, every Jew is presumed to be in this state of impurity.)

Fact: Although individuals with certain forms of ritual impurities are barred from all of Har HaBayit, a tamei met may enter the peripheral areas of Har HaBayit surrounding the central holier region that included the Temple compound. Thus, although we currently lack the means to remove tumat met, this is not really a deterrent for ascending Har HaBayit. Those who refrain from ascending do so because of other halachic or political concerns or because of archeological uncertainties.[1]

Background: Halachah recognizes different levels of kedushah (holiness) that relate to both time and place. Thus, Shabbat has more kedushah than yom tov, which in turn has more kedushah than chol hamoed. This is reflected, for example, in various differences among the holy days with regard to Havdalah texts and the number of aliyot in the Torah reading, as well as in the range of prohibited activities and the punishments associated with their violation. A similar hierarchy is relevant to the sanctity pertaining to space. The Mishnah (Keilim 1:6-9), for example, delineates ten levels of spatial kedushah within the Land of Israel, which is holier than all other lands. The first three levels are the following: walled cities in Israel, which are holier than the rest of the Land; Jerusalem, which is holier than other walled cities; and the Temple Mount, which is holier than Jerusalem. The remaining seven levels are areas of increasing sanctity within the Temple precinct. The level of sanctity of an area is reflected in the kinds of mitzvot that may be performed there as well as in the laws regarding entry.

The sanctified areas in Jerusalem correspond to the Israelite desert encampment (Tosefta, Keilim 1:10; Sifri, Naso 11; Rambam, Beit Habechirah 7:11; see Aruch Hashulchan Ha’atid, Beit Hamikdash 14:17, 36:7). Three concentric levels of sanctity existed in the encampment: the innermost area called Machaneh Shechinah, the Divine Camp that contained the mishkan (Tabernacle); Machaneh Leviyah, the encampment of the Levites that surrounded Machaneh Shechinah, and Machaneh Yisrael, an area beyond Machaneh Leviyah where the rest of the Jews encamped. When the Jews settled the Land of Israel these “camps” were represented by the following sanctified areas: the Azarah (Temple Courtyard), which started at Sha’ar Nikanor (the Nikanor Gate) and included the Beit Hamikdash building and the altar (Machaneh Shechinah); Har HaBayit (Machaneh Leviyah) and the rest of Jerusalem (Machaneh Yisrael).

The verses in Bamidbar 5:2-4 that describe the laws pertaining to the desert encampment would seem to indicate that individuals with all types of tumah (ritual impurity) were removed from all three camps. However, Chazal explain (Sifri, Naso: 4; Pesachim 67a-68a; Rambam, Biat Mikdash 3:1-2) the specific rules:

At one extreme, a metzorah (one who is afflicted with tzara’at) is excluded from Machaneh Yisrael; thus, he is not permitted anywhere in Jerusalem. At the other extreme, a tamei met is barred from Machaneh Shechinah but is permitted within Machaneh Leviyah.[2] Chazal derive this (Tosefta, Keilim 1:7; Pesachim 67a; Sotah 20b) from the fact that a corpse itself was brought into Machaneh Leviyah when Moshe, a Levite, transported Joseph’s bones from Egypt for burial in the Land of Israel (see Shemot 13:19; Nazir 45a; Rambam, Beit Habechirah 7:15 and Biat Mikdash 3:4). Thus, according to Biblical law, a tamei met may ascend Har HaBayit and proceed all the way up to the Azarah, until Sha’ar Nikanor. However, the rabbis added additional restrictions, and decreed that a tamei met may not go all the way to the Azarah but must stop at the Cheil,[3] the same boundary that applied to a non-Jew.[4] The Biblical prohibition of entering the Azarah and the Temple building itself for a tamei met incurs the severe punishment of karet (Bamidbar 19:13, 20; Makkot 14b; Rambam, Biat Mikdash 3:12-13 and Sefer Hamitzvot, negative 77, positive 31).

There is, however, another form of tumah to which additional restrictions apply, including the prohibition against entering any part of Har HaBayit. This applies to an individual in a state of tumah hayotzei megufo (an impurity that emanates from his body), and includes niddah (menstruation), yoledet (post-partum), zav, zavah[5] (Rambam, Beit Habechirah 7:15 and Biat Mikdash 3:3; Pesachim 67-68) and a ba’al keri (one who experienced a seminal emission). While a ba’al keri is usually included in this list, and is the most relevant form of tumah with regard to ascending Har HaBayit nowadays, the Mishnah (Keilim 1:8) and Tosefta (Keilim 1:7) both fail to mention the ba’al keri when listing those forbidden from ascending Har HaBayit.[6] The inclusion of the ba’al keri, however, is an explicit statement of Rabbi Yochanan (Pesachim 67b-68) and seems to be an explicit mishnah, as explained by the Gemara (Tamid 27b). Strangely, when listing those prohibited from ascending Har HaBayit, Rambam twice (Beit Habechirah 7:15 and Biat Mikdash 3:3) omits mention of the ba’al keri. Addressing this omission, the Mishnah Lemelech (Beit Habechirah 7:15; cf. Mishnah Lemelech, Biat Hamikdash 3:3) says Rambam maintains that the ba’al keri is, in fact, included and notes that the ba’al keri’s inclusion in the prohibition is implicit in the Rambam in two other places (Beit Habechirah 8:7 and his textual source in Biat Mikdash 3:8[7]). Alternatively, it is possible that Rambam maintains that the ba’al keri is indeed permitted on the peripheral areas of Har HaBayit (see Aruch Hashulchan Ha’atid; Biat Mikdash 36:10).[8]

A person experiencing one of these states of tumah who ascends Har HaBayit does not incur the penalty of karet but is guilty of violating a negative prohibition, for which he should receive lashes (Rambam, Biat Mikdash 3:8). In order to remove these types of tumah, one must wait a requisite period of time, immerse in a mikvah and wait for the sun to set.[9] During the period between immersion and sunset the individual has the status of a tvul yom, and is permitted on Har HaBayit but can go no further than the Ezrat Nashim (Women’s Courtyard) (Rambam, Biat Mikdash 3:5-6 and Beit Habechirah 7:17).[10]

In summary, the generally accepted halachot are as follows: a tamei met may ascend Har HaBayit, but may only proceed as far as the Cheil. Those in a state of tumah hayotzei megufo are barred from the entire Har HaBayit; once such a person becomes a tvul yom, he is permitted on most of Har HaBayit.

All of the above regulations were in effect during the time of the Temple. The question is, Are they applicable today? This depends on whether the area where the Temple stood retained its sanctity despite the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash,[11] which is a subject of debate among halachic authorities. Rambam (Beit Habechirah 6:14-15) and many other Rishonim[12] and Acharonim[13] maintain that the sanctity of the Temple persists, and thus just as one may theoretically offer sacrifices there today, were a tamei met to enter the area of the mikdash, he would still incur the punishment of karet. These sources assert that the initial sanctification of the area by King Solomon is in effect; he sanctified it for his time and forever after. Rambam states:

Even though the mikdash is today destroyed due to our sins, one is obligated in its reverence just as when it was standing. One should not enter except where he is permitted, and should not sit in the Azarah and not act with levity opposite the Eastern Gate. … Even though it is destroyed it still possesses its holiness (Beit Habechirah 7:7).

Opposing Rambam, Ra’avad (Beit Habechirah 6:14) opines that since the Beit Hamikdash was destroyed, the original sanctity of the area is no longer in effect and therefore the punishment of karet no longer applies. Some understand Ra’avad as disagreeing with Rambam only with respect to the actual punishment of karet; according to this reading, he concurs with Rambam in that the restrictions pertaining to Har HaBayit still stand—or at the very least, he is uncertain as to whether these restrictions still apply and therefore does not permit entry ab initio. Others are of the opinion that Ra’avad permits free entry to all of Har HaBayit.[14]

Today, Israel’s Chief Rabbinate and many rabbis forbid Jews from ascending Har HaBayit, and thus no shul or other Jewish structure is found there. Some rabbis do permit entry (the number of religious Jews who visit is increasing, but is still quite small). But, seemingly, Jews did not always avoid the area.[15] It is reported that with the Muslim conquest in 638 CE, the Jews were permitted to build a shul and beit midrash on Har HaBayit. Ben-Zion Dinburg,[16] a former Israeli minister of education, marshals numerous obscure sources to demonstrate that a shul existed on Har HaBayit between the seventh and eleventh centuries. Rabbi Shlomo Goren (Sefer Har HaBayit [5752], chap. 26) finds evidence of a Jewish presence on Har HaBayit even before the Muslim conquest. Meiri (1249-1315; Shavuot 16a) wrote that he heard that in his time there was a widespread custom to ascend Har HaBayit. The Radvaz (1479-1573; 2:691) assumed that the rock in the Dome of the Rock is where the aron kodesh stood and he calculated how far one must be from that point; he then permitted entry to the rest of Har HaBayit. Rabbi Yechiel Michel Tuketchinsky (d. 1956), writing pre-Six-Day War (Ir Hakodesh Vehamikdash, sec. 5, pp. 80-81), observes that in the time of the Beit Hamikdash there were shuls on Har HaBayit. Furthermore, he says that in our pre-Messianic period, when we get permission to build (and the ability to do so), there is plenty of available space on Har HaBayit on which a shul can be built. Indeed, in the days of the Beit Hamikdash, it was probably not unusual for a tamei met to remove his other forms of tumah and to ascend Har HaBayit as a tvul yom. In other words, these individuals realized (as some do today) that while certain areas of Har HaBayitmay be off limits, simply being on Har HaBayit is valuable in and of itself. Indeed, the remains of numerous Second Temple period mikvaot have been found in close proximity to Har HaBayit. Although their precise purpose is unclear, it has been reasonably suggested[17] that they were used by the hordes of people who were in a state of tumat met and tumah hayotzei megufo but who nevertheless wanted to ascend to the areas of Har HaBayit accessible to one with the status of a tvul yom.

Those religious Jews who ascend Har HaBayit today abide by the ruling of Rambam, who states that entering the areas where the Azarah and the Beit Hamikdash itself stood still incurs the punishment of karet.[18] However, there is one important aspect of this discussion that has not yet been addressed: the exact location of the historical Har HaBayit (the area referred to as Har HaBayit during the time of the Beit Hamikdash). Where exactly was the historical Har HaBayit located?[19] The mishnah in Middot (2:1) states that Har HaBayit was 500 by 500 amot, an area of approximately 62,500 square meters. (An amah is roughly a half-meter.) Today the area referred to as Har HaBayit is a rectangle that is twice as long north-south as it is east-west, covering an area of about 145,500 square meters. Herod had built additions to Har HaBayit in the north and south, creating “spectator” sections for non-Jews. Thus, those who permit entry to the area suggest there are regions in the south (near the El-Aqsa mosque) and north that were clearly added by Herod. If this is correct, then anyone can enter those areas, even one who has not gone to a mikvah. Those who object to ascending Har HaBayit at all assert that there is no way to know with certainty—and archeological evidence can never definitively determine—the precise location of the Beit Hamikdash. Thus, even though a tamei met may technically ascend Har HaBayit, because of the severe punishment (karet) he would face were he to mistakenly enter the Azarah, one should avoid the entire area.[20] Therefore some authorities (such as Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef ) state that one should not ascend Har HaBayit because we are in a state of tumat met; these authorities agree that a tamei met is not barred from the peripheral areas of Har HaBayit, but they maintain that when one is in a state of tumat met, he should avoid all of Har HaBayit lest he stray into forbidden areas.

Those who rule permissively note that aside from the Herodian additions, there are many areas on Har HaBayit that a tvul yom may enter. The forbidden zone (where a tamei met is not permitted to enter) is a rectangle-shaped area of about 357 amot east-west by 165 amot north-south. Currently, Har HaBayit’s rectangular-shaped compound measures about 500 amot east-west and close to 1,000 amot north-south, thus providing a large margin of error when calculating where one may go.

Some authorities suggest totally avoiding the entire Har HaBayit so as not to potentially violate a different commandment—that of mora mikdash, showing proper awe and reverence for the Beit Hamikdash (Vayikra 19:30; Rambam, Beit Habechirah 7:1-7). This includes (Berachot 54a, 62b; Yevamot 6a-b) not entering Har HaBayit while wearing leather shoes or with a walking stick or purse. Also, one may not spit, have dust on one’s feet, use Har HaBayit as a shortcut or engage in idle chatter while there (Aruch Hashulchan Ha’atid, Hilchot Beit Hamikdash 14: 1-14). Rambam also adds that mora mikdash bars even a ritually pure person from entering the area for no purpose.

In recent years, the question regarding the advisability of ascending Har HaBayit under present circumstances has been addressed in great detail by many leading rabbis. Those who forbid entering the area do so because of the fear of violating the laws pertaining to its sanctity. Advocates insist on extreme caution and intense reverence, but see a value in establishing a connection between the Jewish people and the awesome holiness of Judaism’s most sanctified site. May we be zocheh to the day when there will be a rebuilt Beit Hamikdash on Har HaBayit and all our questions will be answered by those who sit in the Lishkat Hagazit (the Office of Hewn Stone, where the Sanhedrin sat).

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Notes

1. This article is not taking a position on the propriety of ascending Har HaBayit nowadays. If, however, one chooses to ascend, he must be careful to restrict himself to certain areas and to immerse properly in a mikvah prior to going. Furthermore, one must adhere to the laws relating to mora mikdash, showing awe and reverence for the Beit Hamikdash, and should ascend under the guidance of an expert in the topic.

2. The Aruch Hashulchan Ha’atid (Biat Mikdash 36:8-9) attempts to explain the fact that tumat met—which in many ways is the most stringent type of tumah, as evidenced by its duration, means of purification and methods of transmittal—is not the most restrictive with regard to entering holy places.

3. The Cheil, which surrounded the entire perimeter of the Beit Hamikdash, was either an open space ten amot wide or a wall ten amot high (Aruch Hashulchan Ha’atid, Beit Hamikdash 11:5; Rabbi Shlomo Goren, Sefer Har HaBayit [5752], chap. 24).

4. Non-Jews could not proceed any further than a tamei met (Mishnah Keilim 1:8; Rambam, Biat Hamikdash 3:5). Note that this is not because of tumah, as a non-Jew cannot become tamei (Rambam, Hilchot Tumat Hamet 1:13). Josephus wrote (Antiquities 15:417; Wars 5:193, 6:124; cf. Antiquities 12:145) that there were warning signs posted at regular intervals along the soreg (the stone balustrade surrounding the sacred precinct), some in Greek and some in Latin, warning non-Jews to keep away. A partial inscription from such a sign discovered by archeologists can be seen in the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem. A more complete sign is in the Istanbul Archeological Museum. It reads: “No foreigner may enter within the railing and enclosure that surround the Temple. Anyone apprehended shall have himself to blame for his consequent death.”

Based on this halachah the Chief Rabbinate should probably be more strict about keeping non-Jews off Har HaBayit than about keeping out ritually impure Jews. In light of this, Rabbi Shlomo Goren, during his tenure as chief rabbi of Israel, proposed closing the central part of Har HaBayit to all. See Yoel Cohen, “The Political Role of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate in the Temple Mount Question,” Jewish Political Studies Review 11, 1-2 (1999): n. 61. See the article by Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron (Techumin 14 [1994]: 11-19) on Jews discouraging non-Jews from entering the area and TzitzEliezer 10:1:10 for more on the subject.

5. Due to the complexity and the sensitivity of the laws of niddah, zavah and post-coital women, even those contemporary authorities who advocate going on Har HaBayit are hesitant about encouraging women to make the pilgrimage.

6. The implication of Deuteronomy 23:11 would seem to be that a ba’al keri is barred from Machaneh Leviyah. See Ha’emek Davar.

7. It seems likewise from his phrasing in Sefer Hamitzvot, negative 78.

8. See Radak to Yechezkel 42:16, who also omits mentioning the ba’al keri.

9. For some of these ritual impurities—zav, zavah and yoledet—a sacrificial requirement may be necessary as well in order to achieve complete purification.

10. The Talmud (Yevamot 7b) observes that there was a rabbinic enactment barring a tvul yom from Machaneh Leviyah, which seems to include the entire Har HaBayit. Tosafot (Zevachim 32a, s.v. u’vatemaim and Pesachim 92a, s.v. tvul yom) explain that the gemara means that a tvul yom is barred from the Ezrat Nashim, the part of Macheneh Leviyah closest to the Machaneh Shechinah, and not from the entire Har HaBayit. Rambam (Biat Hamikdash 3:6 and Beit Habechirah 7:17) simply says that a tvul yom may not enter the Ezrat Nashim and that by rabbinic fiat he is barred from Machaneh Leviyah. From this statement, it would seem that Rambam, at least with regard to this halachah, does not consider the entire Har HaBayit as constituting Machaneh Leviyah. See also the Aruch Hashulchan Ha’atid (Beit Hamikdash 14:26).

11. See discussion in Shavuot 16a; Gra, YD 331:205.

12. See Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, Yechave Da’at 1:25, for a list that includes Tosafot, Sefer Yeri’im, Smag, Rosh, Ritvah, Sefer Hachinuch and others.

13. See ibid. for a list that includes the Avnei Nezer, Binyan Tzion, Ridvaz, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, as well as MA 561:2 and MB 561:5.

14. For a discussion of Ra’avad’s position, see Binyan Tzion 2; Mishpat Kohen no. 96 and Rabbi Shlomo Goren, chap. 8 in Sefer Har HaBayit.

15. There are those who assert that Rambam davened on Har HaBayit. This is based on an autobiographical letter attributed to Rambam about his travels in the Land of Israel (see Yitzchak Shilat, ed., Iggerot HaRambam, vol. 1 [Jerusalem, 5747], 224-226). However, the letter’s authenticity is questionable. Even if Rambam wrote it, his reference to Har HaBayit is somewhat vague. Some recent posekim—primarily those opposed to ascending Har HaBayit—suggest that Rambam davened in a synagogue located near, not on, Har HaBayit (Minchat Yitzchak 5:1; Tzitz Eliezer 10:1:54-55, 11:15:6). See Rabbi Goren, Sefer Har HaBayit, 350-351.

16. Ben-Zion Dinburg, “Beit Tefillah uMidrash LeYehudim al Har HaBayit,” Zion, vol. 3 (5689): 54-87; cf. Yehudah Yitzchak Yechezkel, “HaKotel HaMa’aravi,” ibid., 95-163

17. Yonatan Adler, “The Ritual Baths Near the Temple Mount and Extra-Purification Before Entering the Temple Courts: A Reply to Eyal Regev,” Israel Exploration Journal 56, no. 2 (2006): 209-215

18. Unlike that which is implied by Meiri, who states that people used to ascend Har HaBayit in his day because of the position of Ra’avad (who states the punishment of karet no longer applied). So, too, Radvaz permitted people to ascend, partially relying on the position of Ra’avad. Today Ra’avad’s position is no longer given weight even by those who ascend Har HaBayit.

19. Some authorities assume the Kotel was a wall of the Azarah. This would mean that the Kotel Plaza is a part of Har HaBayit. See Yabia Omer 5, YD: 27, for a discussion and refutation of this position.

20. In addition to the “technical” questions with regard to ascending Har HaBayit, others see spiritual issues. Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook wrote (Iggerot Hareiyah 2:285) that one small trespass on the holiness of our eternal Beit Hamikdash negates the merit of the establishment of millions of settlements in the Land of Israel.

Reprinted from JEWISH ACTION Magazine, Summer 5769/2009 issue

From OU.org, here.