This months ascent

ברוך הבא בשם השם ברכנוכם מבית השם

This is what the Kohanim would say to greet the people coming to be Oleh Regel. It is not the regel (holiday) but today was the day for my groups monthly ascent.

We took the opportunity to contemplate and daven for the safety of Klal Yisrael and the soldiers putting themselves in danger to protect us, and for those civilians, our brothers and sisters, who live up north and by no fault of their own have become the front line.

The situation was quiet on Har Habayit. While the police kept a careful eye on us, it was pretty uneventful, which is fairly unusual for our visits to Har Habayit. The only near event was when the wakf rep tried to convince the police one of the guys in our group was davening. He was and we were, but it was being done silently – Avodah She’Balev. While they have found ways to prevent us from davening publicly, to the point of searching us carefully for any inciteful paraphanelia (e.g. a tefillas haderech in your wallet will be confiscated, do not say you were not warned!) before we go up, they have not yet found a way to control our thoughts. The policeman brushed off the wakf and said to leave us alone.

So, I will add a few pictures for your perusal…

are these the shualim (foxes) Rabbi Akiva was distressed about seeing running around the grounds of the former temple?

and the view from the other side of the wall…