Ha'aretz: A committee of rabbis named by the Chief Rabbinate to meet to ponder synagogue for Temple Mount

By Nadav Shragai, Ha'aretz Correspondent, Ha'aretz 4 September 2000

A committee of rabbis named by the Chief Rabbinate to examine the issue of building a synagogue on the Temple Mount is slated to meet tomorrow for the first time.

The committee includes rabbis with a wide range of opinion on whether there should be an official Jewish presence on the contested site, with the rabbis coming from different religious traditions. The committee is expected to make recommendations to the Chief Rabbinate under its mandate "to examine all ways of manifesting our sovereignty and rights on the Temple Mount." The committee will hear historical testimonies on the presence of synagogues in previous generations, going back to the destruction of the Second Temple.

Two main approaches to the issue will be deliberated.

One suggestion is for a synagogue on the outskirts of the Temple Mount, over the Golden Gate, in such a way that access would not be through the wall but over it. In theory at least this would accommodate Jews whose religiosity forbids them from praying in the Temple vicinity.

Building a synagogue on the outskirts of the site should stir less opposition from Muslims for a Jewish presence on Temple Mount and also from most rabbis opposed to such a foothold.

A second suggestion would be for a synagogue within the Temple Mount site under an agreement with Muslim states and the Palestinian authority. Rabbis who support a formal Jewish presence at the site tend toward setting a synagogue near Mograbi gate, between Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Mograbi Gate is the only place at the site in full Israeli control. Another issue to be discussed is a mikveh near the synagogue. Rabbis who oppose a formal Jewish presence on the Temple Mount worry that Jews would enter holy areas on the site without ritual purification.

The main opponents - because of halakha - of a Temple Mount synagogue are Chief Rabbis Yisrael Lau and Eliahu Bakshi-Doron. Two former chief rabbis, Mordechai Eliyahu and Avraham Shapira, say the matter must be considered "seriously" and with "great care."

Meanwhile, a new organization called "Temple Mount Guard" is increasingly vocal. Its activists distribute fliers to visitors on the importance of the site to Jews.