מדהים! הרה"ג שלמה גורן זצ"ל: יש למסור את הנפש שיהודים יכנסו להר הבית | הרב אלישע וולפסון

With the blessing of my teacher and mentor, today, the 24th of Cheshvan, marks the anniversary of the passing of a genius of Israel, a giant among giants , our teacher and rabbi, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Goren, of righteous and holy memory. Rabbi Goren was a very, very special Jew , a hero and a man of valor; what he said, >> a genius in an extraordinary way. And because he was so unique, there were those in the Torah world who couldn't contain the light. The light—can a person be someone who jumps like a lion onto jeeps with a weapon, and also be a giant among Israel’s leaders? It cannot be; it’s as if you either jump on military vehicles or you write marriage contracts and permit agunot; it cannot be that these go together. But with Rabbi Goren, it went together perfectly. Anyone who reads his teachings, his books—he was simply a tremendous genius, a giant among giants , truly nothing was hidden from him. And he was privileged to liberate this place during the Six-Day War together with the paratroopers and, he immediately wrote a major book, the Temple Mount book, that took him—as he writes, even though he wrote it immediately after the Six-Day War—to publish only 26 years later. 26 years later, he writes and explains several reasons in the introduction as to why. A very interesting thing, though. In any case, Rabbi Goren was the only one among the great leaders who understood the magnitude of the hour, who did not shy away from facing this challenge called the Temple Mount, the site of the Temple. Because unfortunately, in the entire Torah world, this matter was so daunting and alarming that it was just more convenient for us that there was a simple prohibition against going up. And really, at the end of the day, people love to blame Dayan, but it is very painful to say: he didn't do it alone; he was actually a messenger of the public, including the rabbis from all sectors. It really pains me very much to say this , because in truth, we didn't want the Temple Mount; we were afraid of it. Really, it also came so suddenly—the Six Days, suddenly this holy place was there —and only Rabbi Goren truly understood the grave reality, the enormous responsibility that the Holy One, blessed be He, brought us to this holy place, and now, from here on, we must be the masters of the site. He wrote letters then to the Rebbe and to Dayan and tried in every way, tried to establish facts on the ground here, to set up a study hall here of the Military Rabbinate, and tried here back then, on Tisha B'Av after '67, [after] the 28th of Iyar, on Tisha B'Av, to organize a massive prayer service. He had already announced it, and at the last moment, the government stopped him and didn't allow him, and he...He fought , but unfortunately, he was a lone voice , a lone voice in the wilderness. I remember, I read his words and I say: they are so simple, so honest! Where was the entire public? Where were all the rabbis? Why him? Why did he have to fight the battle alone? It took time. Today, thank God, we are more mature, and the public is slowly...there is still much to progress, but with much broader questions. So, I want to read to you two things. We have already seen them here in the past several times, but it is always right to revisit them. He wrote many things, as I mentioned, he wrote a whole book, but he has a letter that he wrote in the year 5729. Yes, two years after the liberation, the liberation of the place. And this is how he writes to... To the Minister of Defense, Dayan. I will not read it all, but he writes as follows: there was some fire in the compound, and then they essentially closed the gate that we now call, the gate, the Mughrabi Gate. >> And then he writes like this: This closure came as a result of the demand by wicked Muslims to hand over to them all the gates of the Temple Mount, as it is well known that the guards of the Waqf are bribe-takers at the site. I fear greatly that closing the Mughrabi Gate, which means closing the Temple Mount to Jews, truly means handing over the Holy of Holies of the nation to the enemies of Israel. This decision could be a tragedy for generations. Rabbi Goren is the only one who sees; you do not understand the implication of this. To close the Temple Mount, the last gate that remained through which Jews still enter—to close that too—is essentially a complete handing over of the Temple site to the enemies of Israel. Um. I am skipping due to lack of time: Despite the halachic restrictions that entering the Temple Mount raises for other religious Jews, by law, one must sacrifice one's life so that the Temple Mount remains open in the hands of Israel. Rabbi Goren says: Sacrifice your life so that the Temple Mount will be open, sacrifice your life so that Jews will enter the Temple Mount. Do you understand the vision of a giant adjudicator who sees the reality, who understands the implication that we are closing the entry to the Temple Mount to Jews? This is actually the most severe Torah prohibitions, of a great and terrible desecration of God's name, of abandoning the Temple site, of the prohibition of " do not settle"[non-Jewish rule], of canceling the pride of the land and our Temple site. Our Temple site that should not be desecrated by our enemies. Uh, and so he says, handing over the Temple Mount to the Muslim Waqf, even closing the Jewish gate that we have to the Temple Mount, constitutes a most severe retreat in the process of redemption and in the messianic vision that is coming to fruition, and future generations will not forgive us for this . I call upon you, therefore, to fulfill the call of the prophet: "Open the gates , that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter." >> Blessed be the Lord from Zion, who dwells in Jerusalem, Hallelujah.