Among the many hundreds of Jewish worshipers bustling all through Jerusalem’s Outdated Metropolis final Wednesday morning to rejoice the vacation of Sukkot, many could possibly be seen carrying giant blue flags emblazoned with an illustration of the biblical Temple.
These flags have come to dot the crowds throughout many Jewish holidays within the Outdated Metropolis, and signify a once-fringe aspiration held by a piece of Israel’s nationwide non secular camp inching its means into the motion’s mainstream: rebuilding the Jewish Temple of antiquity to usher within the messianic period.
On the second day of Sukkot, teams of non secular Zionist revelers paraded all through the Outdated Metropolis promoting these flags, encouraging coreligionists not simply to mark the week-long competition by praying on the Western Wall, but additionally to go to the Temple Mount.
Honored by each Jews and Muslims, the positioning at this time homes the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock shrine, administered by a Jordanian-run Islamic belief referred to as the waqf. Jewish ascent to the Temple Mount is an incendiary situation amongst Muslims, who view it as a significant encroachment on one among their holiest websites.
“Sukkot is likely one of the shalosh regalim [three major festivals], by which we’re commanded within the Torah to go as much as the Temple and make sacrificial choices,” stated Avraham Yedidya Ben-Shlomo, a younger man with a thick beard and lengthy sidelocks promoting flags to passersby headed to the Western Wall.
Avraham Yedidya Ben-Shlomo, a non secular Zionist from the West Financial institution settlement of Yitzhar who got here to Jerusalem’s Outdated Metropolis to promote Temple Mount flags throughout Sukkot on October 8, 2025. (Charlie Summers/Instances of Israel)
Ben-Moshe, a non secular Zionist from the West Financial institution settlement of Yitzhar, was one among hundreds of Jews who visited the Temple Mount over the course of the vacation, although he has been loads of instances up to now, he instructed The Instances of Israel.
However the Temple Mount’s hallowed standing in Judaism presents an issue for a lot of Orthodox Jews, notably Haredim, who imagine it’s a grave sin for Jews to set foot the place the Temple’s inside sanctuary as soon as stood whereas in a state of formality impurity — a standing that may’t be modified till after the Temple is rebuilt and sure sacrifices might be introduced to finish the purification course of.
The precise location of the inside sanctuary is disputed, which led many rabbis to situation a blanket ban on visits to the Temple Mount.
After Israel conquered the Outdated Metropolis from Jordan within the Six Day Conflict, the 2 nations got here to a casual settlement that reentrusted each day operations of the Temple Mount to Jordan, which permits Jews and different non-Muslims to go to, however not pray on the website.
Israel’s Chief Rabbinate swiftly deemed Jewish visits to the positioning forbidden.
The so-called “establishment” settlement between Israel and Jordan has eroded over the previous twenty years as non secular Zionist rabbis got here to view visiting the Temple Mount as acceptable within the realm of Jewish legislation. What was accepted quickly grew to become even fascinating, as extra rabbis spoke of the necessity to cement Jewish management over the Holy Land.
“It began very quietly, then regularly elevated. I feel increasingly more individuals are conscious of the Temple Mount, increasingly more individuals are coming,” stated Yaffa Kenzin, who was passing out slips of paper to passersby on the Western Wall’s southern entrance, asking them in the event that they supposed to go as much as the Temple Mount for the vacation.
With out the means to rebuild the Temple instantly, many try and defy authorities on the website by praying overtly there. Some even attempt to deliver choices of bread and sacrificial goats as much as the positioning.
‘Provokes the gentiles’
This Sukkot, over 4,000 Jewish guests went as much as the Temple Mount, together with no less than two who tried to wave the 4 species on the website. They have been each stopped and detained by police.
On the primary of Sukkot’s intermediate days, 1,696 Jewish guests ascended, in comparison with 747 guests in 2021.
יהודי צדיק נטל לולב בהר הבית ומעוכב כעת. זיכה גם את השוטר בנטילת לולב pic.twitter.com/1fT5CNsE1O
— ארנון סגל (@arnonsegal1) October 12, 2025
Haredi opposition to the phenomenon hasn’t disappeared, although. As keen guests lined up that morning exterior a gate resulting in the Temple Mount, a younger man in a black hat shouted down a youth with a knitted kippah and sidelocks, warning him that he would incur karet for setting foot within the holy website — a type of divine punishment that entails religious excision from God and the Jewish individuals.
A crowd shortly gathered across the two, earlier than the ultra-Orthodox man stormed off together with his household. After the row fizzled out, a bunch of Haredim saved arguing with the non secular Zionist youth, who had simply come down from the Temple Mount.
Extremely-Orthodox Jews argue with a non secular Zionist who got here down from the Temple Mount in the course of the Sukkot vacation on October 8, 2025. (Charlie Summers/Instances of Israel)
“We’re speaking about karet, no person ought to purposefully place themselves on this state of affairs of taking a chance on karet,” insisted Haim Toledano, a Haredi yeshiva scholar, between puffs of an e-cigarette.
“And except for that, much more importantly, it provokes the gentiles,” Toledano stated, invoking the traditional injunction towards rebelling towards a bunch nation — a principle Haredim interpret as a de facto ban on Zionism. “It causes unnecessary provocations, the Arabs will get ticked off, we’re coming into their territory, it’s apparent that it simply worsens tensions.”
Plus, he added, “We’re in exile, it’s forbidden for us.”
Toledano’s non secular Zionist sparring mate pushed again, sustaining it’s permissible for Jews to ascend the mount so long as they steer clear of the Dome of the Rock, which many imagine to be the placement of the sacred inside sanctuary.
“A couple of meters right here, a couple of meters there and there, there are disagreements, however there isn’t a one who disputes its location,” claimed Ariel Cohen. “Haredi rabbis solely started to dispute the placement to be able to invent prohibitions towards going as much as the Temple Mount.”
Talking to The Instances of Israel, Cohen famous with delight that he had been one of many non secular hardliners to partake in a sacrificial “two breads” providing on the Shavuot vacation this 12 months, by which two loaves of leavened bread are waved by a kohen, or priest, earlier than the altar after which consumed. He was detained, however not arrested, for the act.
Prohibition on Jewish prayer shortly falling away
Kenzin isn’t any stranger to the modifications which have taken place on the bottom as of late. Within the early 2000s, she recalled with the ability to “stand in additional locations, stroll slowly, shortly, nonetheless we wished,” on the Temple Mount.
“However there was additionally a waqf guard standing proper there, watching my mouth from a couple of centimeters from my face,” to make sure she was not praying, she stated.
These days, the Jordanian-employed guards are not often seen close to Jewish teams and have a tendency to maintain to themselves until they see somebody trying to carry out choices on the website, by which case they take motion.
A guard for the Jordanian-controlled Jerusalem Islamic Waqf atop the Temple Mount, close to the Dome of the Rock on October 8, 2025. (Charlie Summers/Instances of Israel)
Though the thought has been gaining traction throughout the non secular Zionist world for the previous twenty years, the Temple Mount’s establishment deteriorated shortly beneath far-right non secular Zionist minister Itamar Ben Gvir, whose insurance policies as nationwide safety minister spurred a steep improve within the variety of Jewish guests to the positioning.
The years beneath Ben Gvir have seen a significant shift in how police deal with Jewish prayer atop the mount, with police allowing guests to wish and even prostrate themselves in sure areas farther from the Dome of the Rock. Ben Gvir has repeatedly said that his coverage is to permit Jewish prayer within the space.
The minister himself led Sukkot prayers close to the jap wall of the Temple Mount complicated final week, marking the second time that he has carried out so.
Ben Gvir’s workplace shares footage of him main morning prayers for a bunch of Jewish worshipers atop Temple Mount, minister later boasts Israel “victorious” at flashpoint website pic.twitter.com/ZWa1wf3S6d
— charlie summers (@cbsu03) October 8, 2025
“We at the moment are two years because the horrible bloodbath… Each home in Gaza has an image of the Temple Mount and now, two years later, we’re victorious on the Temple Mount,” said the ultranationalist leader from the site.
Though such statements have up to now prompted alarmed responses from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, often fast to insist that the established order has not modified, the premier selected to not disavow his coalition companion’s remarks from the Temple Mount on Sukkot.
Earlier this 12 months, on the Jewish quick day of Tisha B’Av, Ben Gvir became the first authorities minister to wish on the website — sparking livid responses from Arab nations, in addition to Haredi politicians.
