Rabbi arrested for sounding shofar on Temple Mount via cell phone

Rabbi arrested for sounding shofar on Temple Mount via cell phone

On Sunday, his daily custom, former Knesset member and Temple Mount activist Rabbi Yehudah Glick ascended to the Temple Mount for Shacharit (morning prayers).

יהודה גליק נעצר בהר הבית אחרי השמעת תקיעת שופר בטלפון. עד מתי?
תודה לאור נחמיה אהרונוב היקר על התיעוד pic.twitter.com/Um00aqwYFk

— ארנון סגל (@arnonsegal1) September 4, 2022

At the end of the prayers, Rabbi Glick played a recording of a shofar on his cellphone. In the current month of Elul, a shofar is blown at the end of prayers to awaken thoughts of teshuva (repentance, return) before Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. 

“I’ve done this several times before,” Rabbi Glick told Israel365 News. “But for some reason, the policeman decided not to allow it this time.”

It should be noted that Israeli law requires equality of religion at the site. Still, the Israeli police exercise discretionary restrictions against Jews, claiming that public displays of Jewish prayer will incite Arab violence.

For the “transgression of sounding a shofar at Judaism’s holiest site, Rabbi Glick was arrested and banned for at least one week from ascending Temple Mount and potentially for up to six months.

“I can’t even imagine what the punishment would be for sounding an actual shofar,” he said. “Muslims who riot or even use violence on Temple Mount are rarely arrested, but a Jew who simply releases the sound of the Shofar is arrested and banned for six months from Temple Mount!”

“A shofar sounding on the Temple Mount is supposed to make people afraid, Rabbi Glick noted, citing the Prophet Joel.

Blow a shofar in Tzion, Sound an alarm on My holy mount! Let all dwellers on earth tremble, For the day of Hashem has come! It is close— Joel 2:1

“But that is just before the arrival of the Messiah,” Rabbi Glick said. “Maybe the policeman knew something I didn’t. Maybe he knew that the Messiah was even closer than I thought.”