Many articles, starting with the Jerusalem Post and followed by Matzav, YWN and VIN, have written about the Har Habayit "riots" over the holiday that caused Jews to be removed from Har Habayit and basically closed the site to Jews.
Pointed out was that Rabbi Meir Yaakov Soloveitchik, Rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel, was visiting on Har Habayit with Rabbi Chaim Richman at the time and had to be evacuated after just two minutes.What was not pointed out, and is more interesting to me, is that a Soloveitchik was on Har Habayit!
The Soloveitchik family is one that is very careful and connected to its traditions. This is true of both the American branch of the Soloveitchik family and the Israeli branch.
The Soloveitchik family, along with many of their followers, is famous for its approach on the Kotel area, where they stay away from har Habayit and don't even touch the stones of the Kotel, lest they inadvertently "enter" Har Habayit by even the slightest amount, due to the indentations of the stones or the angle of the construction (with Har Habayit beginning at the point most outward with the stones being built slightly further in, at each higher level).
That means, that Rabbi Meir Soloveitchik made a very significant move away from that tradition, which is very unusual. I don't think it is bad, and I definitely respect his decision to visit Har Habayit, but I find it interesting that he did - and this interest was was my first reaction when seeing his name associated with Har Habayit.
I find this aspect of the visit far more interesting than the discussion of how long his visit was or that he was evacuated from the Mount.
I did email Rabbi Soloveitchik about this curiosity, and await his response.
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The caution about touching the stones, may be only in a status of impurity which does not allow one to enter the mount.
ReplyDeleteyes. they refrain from touching the stones due to impurity. Yet Rabbi Meir Soloveitchik overcame that and went to the Har
ReplyDeleteHe obviously went to a kosher mikveh before - otherwise he wouldn't be allowed in the Har haBayit. In such a case it would be OK to touch the stones as well.
DeleteObviously. That's what all religious jews so go do. That doesn't explain why he chose the break from the family's traditional approach of not doing that
DeleteI can tell you that there were members of the Soloveitchik family that were not happy with R' Meir's decision - I spoke with one who was not happy that R' Meir did not follow the view of his grandfather Rav Aharon ZT"L on this.
ReplyDeleteKol HaKavod! Truth over Mistaken Tradition!
ReplyDeleteRav Soloveitchik has courageously taken a prinicipled position and chosen truth over family pressures and tradition.
ReplyDeleteAs opposed to you who remain anonymous...
DeleteSomeone from Chicago doesn't know that R. Aharon's family spells their last name without a 't' in the middle?
ReplyDelete