I remember a few years ago on a visit to Har Habayit during chol hamoed of Sukkos, somoene pulled out of his pocket a leaf of a lulav, a leaf of a myrtle )hadas), and a leaf of a willow (arava) and a small esrog. Obviously shaking the one-leafed lulav with one leaf of myrtle and willow does not qualify as having fulfilled a mitzva, but he felt it was important from a symbolic perspective - he had snuck the 4 minim onto Har Habayit, despite the police banning religious artifacts!

After my initial excitement, I thought it was kind of pathetic that we have to sneak these things in, and I even thought it was kind of silly to worry about that symbolism and give it any level of importance. How hard is it anyway to sneak in a couple of leaves in a pocket? They are practically invisible due to their size. Has anything really been accomplished by sneaking it in? Will it change, in any way, the reality of who controls Har Habayit and if Jews can perform mitzvos there, and daven, or not? It is almost like the Marranos hiding their Jewish customs and practices, performing them with subterfuge and secrecy. I do not want to be a Marrano in Israel, proud of having pulled a fast one over the police with a tiny leaf. I want to serve my God openly in my western society with freedom of religion and worship.

The latest incident makes me think the same.

Some people are very proud that Minister of Housing Uri Ariel successfully snuck in to Har Habayit the other day a tiny Israeli flag. While some MKs have approached Har Habayit with brash and fanfare, even to the point of them getting unreasonably banned from Har Habayit, Ariel has gone quietly, not using any special status as a minister in the government or as MK - he just goes up like anybody else, going through the identical security and religious checks of the police and is discreet about it.

The other day Ariel visited Har Habayit, and did so wearing a hat that bore the image of a small Israeli flag, with Magen David and all, across the front of the hat.

I do not know if it was his intention to sneak on the image of a flag to Har Habayit, or if it was just a hat he was wearing with no special insidious meaning. I will give him credit as being mature and intelligent that it was just a hat and he was not sneaking around.

What's the purpose of bring a flag onto Har Habayit today? Espcially after the recent news reports of citizens being searched for flags and having them confiscated when going up? The purpose would be to show, via the flag, that Israel rules over Har Habayit - we retain sovereignty over the entire area. is that really expressed when sneaking on a  2 inch image of a flag in the guise of a simple hat? if the intention was to sneak it on, was anything accomplished by doing so in this fashion? Is it perhaps comparable to the sneaking of shofars into the kotel area when the British were in charge and blowing them at the Kotel despite the ban? That is an expression of sovereignty - but had they simply snuck in the shofars and kept them in their pockets, that would have been absolutely nothing at all. Going up to Har Habayiot and bowing down, openly praying, under threat of arrest, that is an expression of sovereignty, or an attempt at least. Praying in an unnoticed way is not. Carrying in a large flag would have been, sneaking in a 2 inch image of a flag is not.

According to the news report, Ariel's sneaking in of the flag was the first time the Israeli flag appeared n Har Habayit since Moshe Dayan gave the instructions to remove the paratroopers flag. Is that true or not, I do not know.. In the 40 odd years that have passed, has nobody worn a tshirt or hat with the image of a flag on it until today? Perhaps, but I do not see it as anything to get excited about.