Rabbi Yehuda Kreuzer, dean of the Ha’Ra’ayon Ha’Yehudi (the Jewish Idea) yeshiva in Jericho, founded by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, was denied entry to the Temple Mount because of a halakhic treatise on the laws of the Pascal sacrifice he had written some ten years ago, Hakol Ha’Yehudi reported Monday.
Rabbi Kreuzer is a frequent visitor to the Temple Mount, and was among the very first rabbis to ascend there, which is why he was surprised last Thursday, on the first Rosh Chodesh day of Adar, when a policeman at the gate informed him the authorities had decided to deny him entry for classified reasons. The cop told the Rabbi that if he wishes to go in, he must first contact the David District Police, which covers the Old City of Jerusalem.
When he called the station, he was instructed to go there in person and sign a “document of discrimination,” which police requires of Jews who have not acted, in the police’s view, in an agreeable manner on the Temple Mount.
After repeated calls from the police to come down to the station, Rabbi Kreuzer finally acquiesced, and was introduced to a new intelligence officer who identified himself as “Alex,” and began to question him regarding halakhic essays he had written and published ten years ago and earlier, among them works regarding the concrete halakhas of the Daily Sacrifice and the Pascal Sacrifice.
“It’s a shame that in the Jewish State police is interrogating rabbis about halakhic books,” Rabbi Kreuzer told the intelligence officer. The officer, for his part, inquired what was the Daily Sacrifice and when is it served (the term in Hebrew, Korban Ha’Tamid literally means the eternal sacrifice, which, admittedly, can be misleading to unschooled intelligence officers).
The Headquarters of Temple Organizations responded harshly to the seemingly arbitrary police action against the rabbi, especially since they were published a decade ago — what took them so long? They demanded the immediate intervention of Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud), and wondered how is it that under a rightwing minister and a religious police commissioner, the Jerusalem police continue to abuse Jews who simply wish to go up to the temple Mount without any “provocation.”
“This police harassment over Torah publications is reminiscent of the darkest regimes we have experienced in our history,” the organization said in a statement. They also announced that both of Rabbi Kreuzer’s essays will now be republished, in a new, larger edition. Two copies are no doubt reserved for police intelligence.
The Daily Sacrifice essay is available here.
The Pascal Sacrifice here.
