ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT

“On the Temple Mount” ( Just a Thought, August 25) is a very useful article on its historical connection to the Jewish people and the need to “reassert our historic rights.” It would have been even more effective had Aharon E. Wexler included a brief explanation of the halachic basis that enables “rabbis from all streams of Judaism [to] have started permitting visits to certain parts of the Temple Mount...”

Essentially, we can (and must) purify ourselves by going to the mikve to permit accessing the outer zones of the Temple Mount in the context of increasingly clear knowledge of the limits of these zones. Without such an explanation, the article could be interpreted as saying that it is permissible to go up on the basis of rabbinic proclamations alone, and lead people to ignore the need for satisfying mikve and other halachic requirements.

I also believe there are some inaccuracies in the piece (although they do not negate the main thrust):

• The Chief Rabbinate officially prohibits us from going up to the Temple Mount due to its sacredness, and not due to the more specific aspect of “modern Jews [being] in a state of ritual impurity.” And the notice at the entrance quite correctly does not limit the prohibition to Jews. It should also be noted that many more halachic leaders than just the chief rabbis prohibit ascent to the Temple Mount.

• In pointing out the misplaced importance of the Kotel over the Temple Mount, the writer says, “The reality is that the Western Wall is nothing but a retaining wall of the Temple Mount. It is not even a wall of the Temple.” He could have made the point even stronger by concluding that it is not even a wall of the original, pre-Herodian Temple Mount, let alone the Temple itself. YOSEF SYMONDS Beit Shemesh