Classes by Mordechai Dinerman

In this final class of the series, we will examine the Rebbe’s statements and correspondence regarding going up to Har Habayis.
By studying the available sources, we will seek to better understand what the Rebbe did—and did not—say about this complex and significant question.

This is the fourth and final installment on this topic. 
What Did the Rebbe Say About Going on Har Habayis?

Whether Jews may enter Har Habayis largely depends on whether we know where the Beis Hamikdash stood.
A common assumption is that we don’t know for sure, but that assumption has a history.
This class traces the story of this uncertainty, primarily through the accounts of Jewish travelers who visited Eretz Yisrael and recorded what they saw and heard.

This is the third installment in a series about going up onto Har Habayis.

Is the Dome of the Rock Where the Mikdash Stood?

The bar mitzvah ceremony didn’t always look the way it does today. In fact, for much of Jewish history, it barely looked like anything at all.
In this episode, we investigate: When did a ceremony first appear? What did it look like? When did bar mitzvah boys start receiving an aliya? Leining? Leading davening? A derasha?
We’ll trace its evolution among Ashkenazi Jews from the eleventh century through the seventeenth century. 
In celebration of the bar mitzvah of Meir Nosson Hakohen Dinerman
The Boy at the Bimah: A History of Bar Mitzvah Celebrations

In the spring of 1096, crusading armies swept through the Jewish communities of the Rhineland, leaving devastation in their wake.
This class traces how those events gave rise to rituals of memory.
In the community of Worms, fast days were proclaimed on the 23rd of Iyar and Rosh Chodesh Sivan, accompanied by elaborate mourning customs.
We’ll see how in 1716, when Rosh Chodesh Sivan fell on a Friday, rabbinic authorities clashed over davening Maariv early that afternoon.
We conclude by tracing the demise of these fast days while noting how other rituals, such as the recitation of Av HaRachamim, have endured to this day.
The First Crusade: The 1096 Massacres and the Rituals They Created

In the late 1920s, a Jerusalem rabbi cited an obscure passage describing a certain Rabbi Moshe’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land, including what appeared to be a visit to the Temple Mount itself. He seized on it as proof that going there was halachically permitted.
This sparked a fierce debate over the passage: Was it even credible? Who exactly was this Rabbi Moshe? Did the text actually refer to the Temple Mount? And if a great rabbi really did go there, what would that mean for us today?

This is the second installment in a series about going up onto Har Habayis.
Did Rambam Actually Set Foot on Har Habayis?