Yisrael Ariel

Yisrael Ariel was born in 1939.[1] During the 1967 Six-Day War, he served as a reservist in a paratrooper unit deployed to Jerusalem’s Old City; his unit advanced to the Western Wall and Temple Mount.[4] Ariel later recalled interpreting two soldiers’ report that they had met two elderly men as news that the Prophet Elijah and the Messiah had appeared; the men were actually his teachers, Rabbi David Cohen and Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook.[4]

In his account of the night after the Temple Mount came under Israeli control, Ariel described being assigned guard duty at a location he believed to be the Holy of Holies and expecting a miraculous event.[4] Writing later in Siddur HaMikdash, he explained that he had come to believe Jews should not wait passively for miracles but should act to prepare for rebuilding the Temple and renewing its divine service.[4]

Ariel served as head of the yeshiva at Yamit, the Israeli settlement in the Rafiah Salient that was evacuated.[7] In a private interview dated January 31, 1985, he compared political and diplomatic constraints with those faced by Joshua during the conquest of Canaan.[7]

Ariel founded the Temple Institute.[2] Its stated purpose was to restore the Temple to a central place in Jewish thought and advance the subject.[3] Located in Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter, the institute educates visitors about rebuilding the Jewish Temple and renewing the rituals practiced there.[2] Its activities include fundraising, public education, research into Temple vessels, and the display of reconstructed vessels and other exhibits at its Old City visitors center.[4] It also prepares Temple vessels and trains priests and Levites for Temple service.[6] Government support has included directing students to visit the institute.[2]

Ariel’s religious rulings have linked ascent to the Temple Mount with the biblical commandment to conquer the Land of Israel.[2] In 2000, he argued that ascent was required under Jewish law, going beyond an earlier position that it was permissible.[8] His 2001 work, Let Us Go to the House of the Lord: Prayer in the Courtyards of the Temple, Ascending the Temple Mount and the Commandments Applying There in the Current Era, was published by the Temple Institute.[9]

His other publications address the Temple’s appearance, vessels, and service.[1][5] In a 2009 interview about Menorat Zahav Tahor, Ariel argued that the Temple menorah had rounded branches, drawing on Josephus, archaeological depictions, and menorahs found in excavations.[5] He interpreted the straight-sided drawing in Maimonides’ book as a schematic indicating the placement of decorative elements rather than a representation of the menorah’s actual shape.[5] The book contained 224 pages and approximately 140 illustrations and photographs.[5]

Ariel’s 2016 Hebrew book בית המקדש בירושלים (Holy Temple in Jerusalem) presents the Jerusalem Temple and its priestly service.[1] Edited by Rabbi Abraham Kahana and distributed by the Temple Institute, the 409-page volume contains hundreds of color illustrations.[1]

Ariel has continued to advocate practical preparations for renewed Temple worship.[6][10] In 2015, he said that the fast of Tisha B’Av could be canceled if Jews ascended the Temple Mount and laid a cornerstone for the Temple.[6] At a 2016 model Passover-sacrifice ceremony on the Mount of Olives, he spoke about preparing for the Temple’s construction and the offering of the Passover sacrifice.[10] Approximately 400 people attended the rehearsal, which included a model altar and a lamb sacrifice rather than an actual Temple sacrifice.[10]

In 2025, Ariel remained the Temple Institute’s founder and director and headed the Temple Yeshiva in Jerusalem’s Old City.[11] In a discussion of prayer at the Western Wall and ascent to the Temple Mount, he argued that prayer on the Mount was superior and received greater heavenly acceptance.[11]

Ariel’s 2000 position was adopted by Temple Mount advocates and, by permitting entry beyond the Mount’s southern section, marked an important turning point in the frequency of Jewish visitation.[2] His position connected access to the site with a religious obligation concerning the Land of Israel, rather than treating ascent solely as an activity that Jewish law might permit.[8][2]

Through the Temple Institute, Ariel’s work has combined public education about the Temple with material preparations for its reconstruction and renewed worship.[4][6] Its reconstructed vessels, exhibitions, research, and training activities accompany his illustrated publications on the Temple and its priestly service.[1][4][6]

Ariel’s rulings on Temple Mount access differ from the prohibition maintained by most major Jewish legal authorities.[9] He is among dozens of rabbis permitting entry to specified areas outside the holiest compound, understood in these rulings to lie within the elevated area surrounding the Dome of the Rock; even rabbis permitting ascent prohibit entry to that elevated area.[9]

Ariel ran second on Meir Kahane’s Kach list in the 1981 general election; Kach was banned in 1988 for its racist policies.[12] He has remained a disciple of Kahane and a regular speaker at memorial ceremonies for him.[8] In summer 1984, Ariel also led a group promoting the ideas of the Jewish Underground that published three collections of essays.[13] He has called for demolishing the Dome of the Rock to make room for a Jewish Temple, and at the 2016 Passover rehearsal spoke of the Mount being “flatten[ed]” and “clean[ed]” for construction.[8][10]

In 2023, the Temple Institute was linked to a project involving five red heifers imported from Texas, intended to support preparations for mass Jewish ascent and a Third Temple.[14] Reporting connected public bodies with related efforts, but the Ministry of Heritage denied arranging or funding the animals’ arrival and said its planned Mount of Olives promenade served tourism, not a future ceremony.[14] The Agriculture Ministry said the animals were imported for breeding and met import requirements.[14]