The booklet was compiled by Yafa Kanzin and released this week, on 27 Tammuz 5786 (July 12, 2026). It combines historical background, halachic sources, practical guidance for ascent, the laws of tumah and tahara (ritual impurity and purity) and tevilah (ritual immersion), the specific commandments a woman can fulfill on the Temple Mount today, testimonies from women who have already ascended, and color photographs of the site with explanations of the significance of each location.
Kanzin described the project as the product of a large, unpaid volunteer effort. Rabbis, women, and men contributed their time and expertise for the sake of Heaven, driven by a desire to bring more Jewish women to the holiest site in the world and to increase the honor of the King of Kings. The booklet is distributed as a free PDF, and Kanzin said she hopes it reaches as many English-speaking women as possible.
Kanzin rejected the notion that women are guests on the Temple Mount. Women were partners in building the Tabernacle and the Temple throughout the generations. In the construction of the Tabernacle, women were the first to contribute their skills and materials. Throughout the Temple period, women ascended to the Temple, brought sacrifices, participated in the Hakhel assembly, and prayed at the Temple gates. Kanzin’s argument is that women today are not initiating a new practice but reclaiming one.
What does the Bible say about why women’s ascent to the Temple Mount matters so much that the redemption of Israel itself depends on it?
The Sages teach that the redemption from Egypt came about in the merit of righteous women, and the final redemption will come about in the same merit. The Book of Exodus records that when Pharaoh ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill every newborn son, they refused: “But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive” (Exodus 1:17). That single act of defiance by two women preserved the entire nation. The Sages read this verse as the template for every generation since: when the men falter, the women hold the line, and the redemption follows from their courage rather than despite their absence from it.
The halachot of ascending the Temple Mount
Jewish law requires anyone ascending the Temple Mount to first immerse in a mikveh (ritual bath) and to purify from any form of tumah, including the impurity contracted through contact with the dead, which affects every Jew today given the absence of the parah adumah (red heifer) purification process. Halachic authorities who permit ascent require worshippers to remove their leather shoes before entering the site, to wash their hands and feet in the manner prescribed for entry into sacred space, and to avoid the specific areas identified by rabbinic surveys as the location of the Temple’s inner courts and sanctuary, where the laws of impurity are most severe. Those who ascend under rabbinic guidance also refrain from bringing any leather item, from engaging in idle conversation, and from treating the visit as a tourist excursion rather than an encounter with the site of the two Temples.
For women specifically, the booklet addresses the laws of niddah (menstrual impurity) and the specific immersion requirements that apply before ascent, along with which prayers and which quiet acts of devotion a woman can perform once she is standing on the Mount itself.
A growing movement
The numbers back up Kanzin’s premise. Jewish ascent to the Temple Mount has grown from a fringe practice among a handful of religious Zionist rabbis decades ago into an annual event now numbering in the tens of thousands of visits. Groups coordinate ascents around Rosh Chodesh, the three pilgrimage festivals, and other dates of significance on the Jewish calendar, with rabbis stationed at the entrance to guide first-time visitors through the purification requirements. What began as a legal and theological argument over whether Jews may set foot on the Mount at all, given the constraints of Jewish law, has become a demographic reality: a steadily expanding population of religious Jews, women among them, who regard ascent not as a provocation but as a mitzvah (commandment) and a down payment on the Third Temple.
Kanzin’s closing words to her readers capture the stakes she believes are involved: in the merit of the righteous women of that generation, Israel was redeemed from Egypt, and in the merit of righteous women, Israel is destined to be redeemed again.
