Rebuilding the Promised Divine Sanctuary in Jerusalem (16 February 2017, 20 Shevet, 5777)
Contents:
1. Query about the Temple
2. The Temple and the Temple Mount Today in the Eyes of Arabs and Other Heathen
3. UNESCO Denies any Jewish Connection to the Temple! Extract from News Article.
4. The Temple was Good for Everybody.
5. Building the Temple as a Positive Commandment and an Obligation
6. The Task of the Temple
7. The Temple as a Unifier
8. Rebuilding the Temple in the Future
9. Building the Temple Today
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1. Query about the Temple
What is the historical significance of Jerusalem's temple?
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2. The Temple and the Temple Mount Today in the Eyes of Arabs and Other Heathen
The Temple stood on the site of the present Temple Mount.
The Muslims now consider this area to be sacred to them. They will go to war for and die for it.
They deny the Temple was ever there.
If the Temple had not been there however they would not care about it.
The Temple Mount has become an emblem of Palestine. The Palestinians are important because they are opposed to the Jews.
If the Palestinians were not opposed to the Jews the world would not care about them.
The Palestinians are the agents of enemies of humanity. They are against the Jewish people.
It is not for nothing that the main supporters of the Palestinian nationality are Germany and Japan.
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3. UNESCO Denies any Jewish Connection to the Temple! Extract from News Article.
UNESCO Backs Motion Nullifying Jewish Ties to Temple Mount
Due to Israeli efforts, no European country backed the motion, which describes the Temple Mount as holy to Muslims alone, without mentioning the site's significance to Jews.
Barak Ravid and Jack Khoury Oct 13, 2016 5:24 PM
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.747314
Extracts:
UNESCO adopted an anti-Israel resolution Thursday that disregards Judaism's historic connection to the Temple Mount and casts doubt on the link between Judaism and the Western Wall.
Twenty-four countries voted in favor of the decision while six voted against and 26 abstained while just two were missing from the vote.
The U.S., Britain, Germany, Holland, Lithuania and Estonia voted against the resolution.
A senior source said that the efforts of Israeli diplomats significantly changed the votes of European states, none of which supported the motion. Israeli efforts, he said, succeeded in swaying France, Sweden, Slovenia, Argentina, Togo and India to abstain from the vote.
The resolution, which condemns Israel on several issues regarding Jerusalem and its holy sites, was advanced by the Palestinians alongside Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar and Sudan.
The resolution asserted that Jerusalem is holy to the three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Islam and Christianity. However, it includes a special section dealing with the Temple Mount, which says the site is sacred only to Muslims and fails to mention that it is sacred to the Jews as well. In fact, it mentions neither the Hebrew term for the site, Har HaBayit, nor its English equivalent, the Temple Mount. The site is referred to only by its Muslim names, Al-Aqsa Mosque and Haram al-Sharif.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the decision as "absurd theater," adding: "To say that Israel has no connection to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall is like saying that China has no connection to the Great Wall of China and that Egypt has no connection to the Pyramids."
The UNESCO executive board adopted a similar resolution at the organization's previous conference in April. The resolution was passed with the support of a number of European states, headed by France. This caused an acute diplomatic crisis between Israel and France, which included a harsh telephone call between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and French President Francois Hollande.
The French president and other senior French officials promised after that incident that they would not support such resolutions in the future.
For his part, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein said: "This decision is a message to inciters and rewriters of history working tirelessly out of hate."
The Foreign Ministry issued a brochure with pictures of archaeological findings proving the historic affiliation between the Jews and Jerusalem in general and the Temple Mount in particular, as well as the existence of the Temple Mount at the site where the Al-Aqsa Mosque stands today.
One of the findings shown in the brochure is the Arch of Titus in Rome, on which images of holy artifacts that the Romans took as spoils from the Second Temple in Jerusalem are depicted. These include the Menorah, which is the symbol of the Israeli state today.
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4. The Temple was Good for Everybody!
The Sages said:
# Rabbi Yohanan said:
Woe to the Peoples of the World that lost it [the temple] and did not know what they lost.
When the Temple existed the altar would atone for them. Now what have they got to atone for them? (Talmud, Succoh 45;b). #
# Said Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi:
"If the Nations of the World had have known how good the Temple was for them they would have surrounded it with armed forces to protect it.... #1-Kings 8:
41 Also concerning the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel, when he comes from a far country for Your name's sake 42 (for they will hear of Your great name and Your mighty hand, and of Your outstretched arm); when he comes and prays toward this house, 43 hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name, to fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by Your name.
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5. Building the Temple as a Positive Commandment and an Obligation
Building a central sanctuary at some time in the future was a commandment.
Deuteronomy 12:
5 But you shall seek the LORD at the place which the LORD your God will choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and there you shall come. 6 There you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. 7 There also you and your households shall eat before the LORD your God, and rejoice in all your undertakings in which the Lord your God has blessed you.
The expression in 12:5 in the second part of the verse translated as "to establish His name there" in Hebrew is "Le-Shicno Tidreshu" literally "His Place of Dwelling you shall search out." This was understood to entail a Positive Commandment to build a Temple. This obligation still holds today but for technical reasons cannot yet be carried out.
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6. The Task of the Temple
The Temple was the place where vegetable, and animal sacrifices were offered up.
Rituals of purity were carried out following certain diseases, impure discharges, and child birth.
Women suspected of adultery were put through a process testing their probity or lack of it.
The Temple administration included choirs of Levites who sang Psalms and played on musical instruments.
The Temple was a place of prayer and praise to God.
Every Hebrew male had to come up to the Temple three times a year at the time of Festivals.
Due to the Temple the Divine Presence of God made itself felt. Inspiration and answers to existential questions were easier to obtain. Sins were forgiven. Physical and Psychological impurities were replaced by a sense of ongoing Purification.
Temptation to sin was lessened. Conjugal relations were enhanced and preferred to illicit ones.
Numerous other benefits were obtained.
The Temple became an important focus in national existence.
The social and economic implications of day to day Temple activities become important aspects of national existence.
Numerous Gentiles came to visit the Temple area. Some stayed as converts. Others returned to their lands as emissaries of good will.
The Temple inspired everyone.
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7. The Temple as a Unifier
The Temple served as a unifying factor among the Tribes of Israel.
When the Tribes east of the Jordan set up what at first seemed like an alternate center of worship the other Tribes suspected them of wishing to secede.
[This was even though the Temple per se did not exist at that time.]
The other Tribes threatened to go to war over the issue but after receiving a placatory answer relented (Joshua 22:22-29).
Upon the death of Solomon the northern Tribes seceded and set up their own kingdom (1-Kings ch. 11).
Jeroboam son of Nebat the king of the northern Ten Tribes feared that due to the Temple Service and the three-times-a-year pilgrimage to Jerusalem his subjects would eventually wish to re-unite with Judah.
He therefore established a new mode of worship.
1-Kings 12:
26 Jeroboam said in his heart, 'Now the kingdom will return to the house of David. 27 If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will return to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.' 28 So the king consulted, and made two golden calves, and he said to them, 'It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.' 29 He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.
The Ten Tribes eventually were conquered by the Assyrians. They were exiled and lost consciousness of their ancestry (2-Kings chs. 17 and 18).
They became the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel.
In the future the Ten Tribes will return. They shall unite with Judah.
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8. Rebuilding the Temple in the Future
The Temple shall be rebuilt.
See:
To Rebuild the Temple. Zechariah and the Future Building.
http://www.britam.org/nineth.html
According to some sources:
Rebuilding the Temple will involve the Ten Tribes returning and ALSO a portion of the Gentile Edomite nations repenting and participating.
It will be remembered that the First temple was build by Solomon with the assistance of Hiram the non-Israelite king of Phoenician Tyre (1-Kings ch. 5).
See:
Rebuilding the Temple, the Ten Tribes, and Messiah son of Joseph: Some Sources
http://britam.org/now2/1559Now.html#Brit
Other sources seem to indicate that the future Temple will not be built by man but will come from heaven.
A Hebrew-language booklet ("Sefer Torah Ha-Bayit" by Rabbi Avigdor Alboim) quotes about 300 sources that the Temple will be rebuilt by man.
Nevertheless, a good number of sources saying the opposite could also probably be collected.
Some of the sources quoted by Alboim however resolve the issue by quoting from the Zohar which solves the problem. The Zohar says that at first human agency will be the determinative factor but later Heaven will take over.
At first the Temple will be rebuilt by man. Everything in this world has a parallel in Heaven. There is a kind of heavenly Temple which will exist in alignment with the one on earth.
A great level of holiness will be achieved in the Messianic Era. It will be like Heaven on Earth. The Temple in Heaven will suffuse itself into the Temple on Earth.
What is below shall be infused from above.
In prosaic terms this means that a very high level of sanctity and inspiration will be available through the Temple.
It will be a direct line to Heaven.
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9. Building the Temple Today
The Moslems and numerous others suspect the Jews of planning to build the Temple as soon as they can.
Religious Jews however do NOT WANT to build the Temple at present.
The presence of a Prophet or at least a greater degree of Divine Inspiration is required to overcome certain technical difficulties.
Secular Jews do not want to build the Temple because they would not know how, or if they did, what to do with it.
A few enthusiastic eccentrics may have different ideas but usually they are not all that knowledgeable. No-one takes them seriously.
The rest of the world also does not want the Jews to rebuild the Temple at present.
Nevertheless, in every generation, among both Jews and Gentiles, emerge those who know otherwise.
There are they who are entranced by the vision of The Temple rising once more.
May their day may come.