Trending: Visiting the Temple Mount

“About half a million people visited the Western Wall over Passover; only 6,315 went up to the Temple Mount.” This was the title of a recent news piece by Kikar HaShabbat, the ultra-Orthodox news site. In a rather forced attempt to prove to their readership that the “absolute majority of the Jewish people” remain distant from the holiest site in Judaism, they pit these two numbers against one another. But what they fail to mention is the trend. 

Temple Mount statistics are eye-opening. When examined a little more closely, they tell a story of a topic considered once by many to be taboo becoming adapted into the mainstream. It is the trend of a country headed in the direction of a Temple in Jerusalem. A shift in the Overton Window if I have ever seen one.

A Torah lecture on the Temple Mount with the Har HaBayit Yeshiva on April 24, 2025. (Arnon Segal)

There were 25,000 visits or ascents to the Temple Mount the past half year — an increase of 22 percent from last year. This is based on the numbers given by the Israeli Police stationed on the Temple Mount, the Temple Mount organizations and the Jordanian Waqf. This is already more than double the number of Jews who visited the holy site a mere nine years ago where 12,148 visits were recorded for the entire year (during the Hebrew year 5776). 

Let’s talk specifically about Passover statistics for a moment. Let’s compare the 6,315 Passover visitors this year to years past. Over Passover 2022, there were 4,625 Jewish worshipers. And in the year before that, in 2021, there were 2,641 Passover worshipers. Again, compare these numbers with 2016, where a mere 1,013 Jewish worshipers ascended the Temple Mount on Passover. 

The trend is clear. The Temple Mount is returning to the minds and hearts of Jews in a very real way. What was once the territory of those taboo few since 1967 is now expanding. What was once ignored in the aftermath of the Six Day War is undergoing rectification and Tikkun, rectification. 

Anyone who has been to the Temple Mount on a holiday like Passover or Independence Day over the past few years can attest to these changes and what it means to the experience at the holy site. What was once a humiliating experience at the hands of the Jordanian Waqf and the Israeli Police has improved (likely due to the rising numbers and not the other way around). What began as a nucleus of dreamers is taking a new and larger shape. 

This core group of Temple Mount-goers has existed in past generations. The Temple infrastructure of human resources was itself founded on like-minded people. Our traditional sources (Tr. Taanit 27) speak of the Maamadot or the “24 posts” of Jewish laymen. These Jewish laymen (Yisra’elim) would join the 24 groups of Kohanim and Levites from throughout Ancient Israel and join the Temple services. They were not obligated. They were “persons of action” (anshei ma’aseh). In other words, they wanted the Temple and its service of God to be a greater part of their lives. Some sources (Jer. Tr. Taanit 4:2) speak of tens of thousands of people as part of one city’s post. This is the human resources infrastructure that was so integral to the daily life of the Temple. 

When looking at the relatively small numbers of Temple Mount activists without looking at the statistical trends one can easily miss what is truly occurring. The next step we wish to take is renewing our commitment to Temple HR. The human resources are almost building themselves it seems; as if falling from Heaven. We need only provide structure. 

We are all the prayer to renew our days as of old.