"The Temple Mount Is in Our Hands"
Rabbi Eliezer Shemtov
During the Six-Day War, Israeli forces liberated the parts of Jerusalem that had been under Jordanian control and reached the Western Wall. At that historic moment, the commander of the operation, Motta Gur, made the now-famous declaration:
“Har Habayit BeYadeinu!” — “The Temple Mount is in our hands!”
But, is it really so?
After all, Jews are not permitted, according to many halachic authorities, to ascend to much of the Temple Mount. So, is it really “in our hands”?
Rabbi Motti Elon suggests that General Gur's proclamation was alluding to a spiritual responsibility.
The territories captured during the war were given to the Jewish people as a miraculous gift from G-d, independent of our merits. The Temple Mount, however, represents something different.
Whether it truly becomes ours depends on us. It depends on our spiritual worthiness.
In that sense, Har Habayit BeYadeinu means that it is within our power. Its future is literally in our hands.
How do we achieve that?
Today is Tisha B’Av, the Ninth of Av, the day on which we mourn the destruction of both Holy Temples in Jerusalem—the First, destroyed by the Babylonians in 423 BCE, and the Second, by the Romans in 70 CE.
Like every date on the Jewish calendar, Tisha B’Av is not merely about remembering history. It is about discovering what history asks of us today.
The Beit Hamikdash was far more than an impressive building. It was the meeting place between the Creator and His creation. It was where the reality of G-d could be experienced with exceptional clarity.
A person could visit the Temple and leave with a renewed awareness that G-d is real and that life has purpose.
Today, with the Temple gone, that clarity is missing. The challenge of sensing G-d’s presence has become much greater. Someone who says, “I don’t believe in G-d,” may actually possess a deep, latent faith without knowing how to access it.
The destruction of the Temple, therefore, was not simply the destruction of a sacred structure. It was the loss of a spiritual reality that affected the entire world.
Tisha B’Av invites us to ask difficult questions.
How aware are we of G-d’s presence? How aware are the people around us? Why do so many believe they do not believe?
And perhaps most importantly: Does it matter to us?
There are two possible responses.
To mourn what has been lost.
To rebuild.
But before something can be rebuilt, we must understand why it was destroyed.
Our sages teach us that the primary cause of the destruction of the Second Temple was sinat chinam—baseless hatred among Jews.
What is baseless hatred?
It is the attitude that says: “I don’t need a reason to dislike him. I would need a reason to love him.”
The remedy is ahavat chinam—unconditional love.
It says: “Why do I love him? Because he exists. I would need a compelling reason not to.”
This message feels especially urgent today.
Too often, people are attacked not because they have done something wrong, but because they have done something right. The more successful they are, the more resentment they generate.
Instead of recognizing another person’s contribution and asking, How can I add to it? or How can I do even better?, we instinctively look for ways to diminish it.
Instead of building together, we compete. Instead of serving the common good, we pursue status, influence, or personal advantage.
These are precisely the attitudes that destroyed the Temple, the world’s greatest symbol of peace, unity, and the meeting between heaven and earth.
Changing those attitudes is not merely an act of personal refinement. It is an act of rebuilding.
Perhaps this is what Har Habayit BeYadeinu truly means.
The future of the Temple is not merely in our history.
It is in our hands.
May we merit very soon to proclaim those words not as an aspiration, but as joyful news.
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