The Jerusalem Post has a long, but very good, article on the preparations being made for the construction of the Third Temple by the Temple Institute. If I had an extra couple of hours, I’d enjoy commenting on various statements made. Since I don’t, I’ll simply refer you to the article, which begins:
For centuries Jews have remembered and mourned the destruction of the Temple through traditions such as crushing a glass at weddings or leaving unpainted a patch of wall opposite the entrance to one’s home – each stressing that nothing can be perfect or complete without the Temple.
Built by Solomon in about 950 BCE and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, the Temple was rebuilt about 70 years later but finally razed by the Romans in 70 CE.
Talmud scholar Rabbi Yohanan wrote: “During these times that the Temple is demolished, a person is not allowed to fill his mouth with laughter. This is because the verse [Psalms 126] says, ‘Then our mouths will be filled with laughter,’ and does not say ‘Now our mouths will be filled with laughter.’ And when is ‘then’? ‘Then’ will be when the Third Temple is rebuilt.”
In other words, “Jewish life without the Temple is like fish out of water,” says Rabbi Chaim Richman, head of the international department of the Temple Institute.
An author of 10 books on the Temple, Richman adds: “Do you realize that 202 commandments out of 613 must have the Temple to be fulfilled? Without the Temple, Judaism is a skeleton of what it’s supposed to be.”
To this end, the Temple Institute was founded in 1987 with the explicit goal of rebuilding the Temple. Located in the Jewish Quarter, some 100,000 visitors, about half of them Christian, visit the institute each year to learn about the First and Second Temples and preparations for the Third Temple.
The institute is presently involved in education, research and constructing vessels for use in the longed-for Temple.
You can read the full article here.
HT: Joe Lauer
Golden menorah, prepared for Third Temple. Estimated value: $3 million
3 thoughts on “Third Temple Preparations”
This is all very interesting. I just was reading about this in Ezekiel and studied about it in a class about the Prophets. I wish I had gone to visit the TEmple Institute when I was in Jerusalem. Where is it in the Jewish Quarter? By the Western Wall?
Shireen – it is just south of the top of the main staircase leading down to the Western Wall plaza from the Jewish Quarter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWCWo1kfgw8
Temple of the prophet Ezekiel, vers by vers. Templo del profeta Ezequiel, verso por verso.
Autor: Arch. Sonia Hidalgo Zurita