Editing Temple Mount (section)

=== Jewish religious law concerning entry to the site ===
{{Main|Temple Warning inscription}}
During Temple times, entry to the Mount was limited by a complex set of [[Tumah|purity laws]]. Persons suffering from [[corpse uncleanness]] were not allowed to enter the inner court.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Danby |first=Herbert |url=http://archive.org/details/DanbyMishnah |title=The Mishnah |date=1933 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> Non-Jews were also prohibited from entering the inner court of the Temple.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, Book V, Whiston chapter 5, section 2 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0148:book=5:whiston+chapter=5:whiston+section=2 |access-date=2024-03-10 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> A hewn stone measuring {{cvt|60x90|cm}} and engraved with [[Uncial script|Greek uncials]] was discovered in 1871 near a court on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in which it outlined this prohibition:

{{poemquote|
{{lang|grc|ΜΗΟΕΝΑΑΛΛΟΓΕΝΗΕΙΣΠΟ
ΡΕΥΕΣΟΑΙΕΝΤΟΣΤΟΥΠΕ
ΡΙΤΟΙΕΡΟΝΤΡΥΦΑΚΤΟΥΚΑΙ
ΠΕΡΙΒΟΛΟΥΟΣΔΑΝΛΗ
ΦΘΗΕΑΥΤΩΙΑΙΤΙΟΣΕΣ
ΤΑΙΔΙΑΤΟΕΞΑΚΟΛΟΥ
ΘΕΙΝΘΑΝΑΤΟΝ}}}}

Translation: "Let no foreigner enter within the parapet and the partition which surrounds the Temple precincts. Anyone caught [violating] will be held accountable for his ensuing death." Today, the stone is preserved in [[Museum of Antiquities, Istanbul|Istanbul's Museum of Antiquities]].

[[Maimonides]] wrote that it was only permitted to enter the site to fulfill a religious precept. After the destruction of the Temple there was discussion as to whether the site, bereft of the Temple, still maintained its holiness. Jewish codifiers accepted the opinion of Maimonides who ruled that the holiness of the Temple sanctified the site for eternity and consequently the restrictions on entry to the site remain in force.<ref name=MeyerMessner/> While secular Jews ascend freely, the question of whether ascending is permitted is a matter of some debate among religious authorities, with a majority holding that it is permitted to ascend to the Temple Mount, but not to step on the site of the inner courtyards of the ancient Temple.<ref name=MeyerMessner/> The question then becomes whether the site can be ascertained accurately.<ref name=MeyerMessner/>{{better source needed|date=August 2022}}

There is debate over whether reports that [[Maimonides]] himself ascended the Mount are reliable.<ref>''Sefer HaCharedim Mitzvat Tshuva'', Chapter 3; Shu"t Minchas Yitzchok, vol. 6.</ref> One such report{{Citation needed|date=November 2014}} claims that he did so on Thursday, October 21, 1165, during the Crusader period. Some early scholars however, claim that entry onto certain areas of the Mount is permitted. It appears that [[David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra|Radbaz]] also entered the Mount and advised others how to do this. He permits entry from all the gates into the 135 x 135 [[cubits]] of the Women's Courtyard in the east, since the biblical prohibition only applies to the 187 x 135 cubits of the Temple in the west.<ref>''Shaarei Teshuvah'', [[Orach Chaim]] 561:1; cf. ''Teshuvoth Radbaz'' 691.</ref> There are also Christian and Islamic sources which indicate that Jews visited the site,<ref>[[Moshe Sharon]]. "Islam on the Temple Mount" ''Biblical Archaeology Review'' July/August 2006. pp. 36–47, 68. "Immediately after its construction, five Jewish families from Jerusalem were employed to clean the Dome of the Rock and to prepare wicks for its lamps."</ref> but these visits may have been made under duress.<ref>The ''[[Yaakov Chaim Sofer|Kaf hachaim]]'' ([[Orach Chaim]] 94:1:4 citing [[Radvaz]] Vol. 2; Ch. 648) mentions a case of a Jew who was forced onto the Temple Mount.</ref>

Those persons who suffered a [[nocturnal emission]] and who have not yet [[Ritual washing in Judaism#Full-body immersion (Tevilah)|immersed]] themselves in a [[Mikveh|ritual bath]] were permitted to enter the Court of the Israelites, but were prohibited from entering the Court of the Levites and the Court of the Priests until they had immersed.<ref>{{cite book|last=Eisenstein|first=Judah D.|author-link=Julius Eisenstein|title=A Digest of Jewish Laws and Customs - in Alphabetical Order (Ozar Dinim u-Minhagim) |publisher=Ḥ. mo. l. |year=1970|location=Tel-Aviv|pages=48–49 (s.v. בעל קרי)|language=he|oclc=54817857}}, citing [[Babylonian Talmud]], ''Pesaḥim'' 67b{{ndash}}68a (reprinted from 1922 and 1938 editions of the Hebrew Publishing Co., New York)</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Aharon HaLevi|author-link1=Aharon HaLevi |title=Sefer ha-Chinuch |publisher=Eshkol |location=Jerusalem|year=1958 |page=338 (''mitzvah'' no. 565) |language=he |oclc=233044594 |title-link=Sefer ha-Chinuch}}</ref> Entrance into the areas of the other two courts was strictly forbidden to those who had not immersed themselves and who had been defiled by [[corpse uncleanness]] and who had not yet been purified. Since the latter state of impurity is pervasive, and since there is an inability to be purified from its effects, many rabbis forbid entrance into the Temple Mount altogether as a safeguard.<ref>[[Ovadiah Yosef]], Questions & Responsa ''Yabia' 'Omer'', part 5, ''responsum'' # 15, end of letter "beth" ({{OCLC|959573257}}); ibid, ''responsum'' # 26; Ovadiah Yosef, Questions & Responsa ''Yeḥaveh Da'at'', part 1, ''responsum'' # 25 ({{OCLC|13159493}}); [[Yitzhak Yosef]], ''Yalqūt Yosef'', Section Mo'adim, ''Hil. Chol Ha-Mo'ed'', §4 ({{OCLC|16128842}})</ref>