Posted on 07/21/2008 11:03:46 AM PDT by Raineygoodyear
The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is one of the most sacred places on earth, and one of the most contested.
For Jews, it's the place where the Holy Temple once stood.
Today Muslims control the Temple Mount and Jews are forbidden to worhip there. But that hasn't stopped some people from making plans to build the next temple.
Everyday, three times a day, Jews recite this prayer: "May it be your will that the temple be speedily rebuilt in our own time."
It's a prayer they've prayed for almost 2,000 years. But today, Jews here in Jerusalem are doing more than just praying.
Just a few steps away from the western wall, rabbis and craftsmen are building what they call a "temple in waiting."
Chaim Richman is a director at the Temple Institute in Jerusalem.
"The Temple Institute is actively engaged in the research and preparation of the resumption of service in the holy temple to the extent of actually preparing operational blueprints for the construction of the temple according to the most modern standards," he said.
This menorah is just one of several vessels being created for the next temple. It's covered with 95 pounds of pure gold and has a price tag of $2 million.
Piece by piece, the third temple is taking shape, with priest's garments, vessels of copper, gold, and silver, and a new generation of levite priests specially trained for temple service.
"We have enough in place now to resume divine service and to build the temple," Richman said. "But obviously, a lot of things have to happen in order for this to happen."
Richman isn't the only one who's ready to rebuild.
Some 3,000 years after King Solomon built the first Jewish temple, another Solomon is laying the foundations for the third one.
Gershon Solomon leads a group called The Temple Mount Faithful.
"From the womb of my mother, I have a task and a mission in my life, which is connected with the rebirth of Israel," he said.
The group commissioned these cornerstones for the third temple. The six-ton stones were consecrated with water from the biblical pool of Siloam and cut with diamonds.
For several years, Solomon and his followers tried to place the stones on the Temple Mount, and every year they were stopped by Israeli police.
"Unfortunately, weakness of the Israeli leadership did not allow us to bring the cornerstones to the right place," Solomon said. "The end-time temple should be built on the same location as the first and the second temple."
But that location is already occupied. The holiest site for Jews is also the third holiest site for Muslims.
"The issue of the Temple, it's so sensitive," Yousef Natsheh of the Palestnian Antiquities Authority explained. "It's not an undeniable fact; it's theories. The political situation, the misunderstanding, the mistrust distorted all the facts.
Muslim law forbids archaeologists from digging on the Temple Mount, so instead, Gabriel Barkay is digging through its trash.
"We have here the entire history of the Temple Mount," he said.
He and his team are sifting through truckloads of debris, unearthed by bulldozers and discarded by Muslim authorities.
Among their finds: an arrowhead from the Nabylonian invasion in 586 B.C. and a 2,400-year-old coin, the oldest ever minted in Jerusalem.
"A beautiful piece, tiny silver piece with an owl and the Hebrew inscription 'Yehud' which is the Aramaic name of Judea," Barkay said.
Some of the most dramatic traces of temple life have been unearthed here at the western wall.
On the walls, you can still see the marks from the fires that destroyed the temple in 70 A.D. Overturned stones are still lying where they were thrown from the top of the Temple Mount by the armies of Rome.
On one stone is a Hebrew inscription: "To the place of trumpeting."
Even more intriguing is the part of the western wall that's still underground.
Dan Bahat spent 40 years excavating the tunnels around the Temple Mount, and he says the most compelling case for the temple is yet to be discovered.
"I believe that behind this stone is a large arch which forms a storehouse, which stored all the treasures of the temple," he said. "In the future, when it will be possible to dig, maybe we'll get to there."
But Bahat's interest in the temple is strictly in its past, not in its future.
"There is no chance whatsoever for the third temple. The third temple will be when the Messiah comes," he said. "Both Jews and Christians are waiting for him so when he comes, let us see what happens. It won't happen before."
One wonders indeed. If the window of opportunity had been grasped, the mohammedans would have still howled like hyenas, but they would not have controlled the Mount and tried to destroy all evidence of pre-mohammedan occupation of it. Artifacts of the two temples would not have been destroyed/put in garbage dumps and the place trashed by the mohammedans. Would that Dayan had not told the troops to take down the Israeli flags, had not met with the Wafq (or whatever its called), and Narkiss had done what Rabbi Goren wanted.
I first read about the Levite markers a few years ago but the story never loses its thrill. “I am God and there is none else, I am God and there is none like Me” - indeed. Thanks for sharing your personal involvement.
I found your question particularly interesting because in my own family we have a Sefer Yuchsin that dates back to biblical times. In it every male between Aaron the High Priest (Moses' brother) and myself is carefully recorded.
Wow, that's incredible.
The Muslims fully expected the Jews to raze the mosque to the ground after conquering the land. That’s what they would have done. They must have thought we were real losers when it was handed back to them. Not “noble,” “morally superior,” or “virtuous,” as the Jews like to delude themselves. Just real losers.
The Rapture Ready folks are probably wetting their pants in anticipation.
“For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.” (Galatians 4)
Pray that those in bondage in Jerusalem would have their spiritual eyes opened to the true Israel of God, Jesus Christ.
You’ve got that right!
Bull shirt, the Muslims dug up there with a bulldozer, the "trash" Gabeiel is digging in is the waste piles from the dozer work.
Jewish law also says it is illegal to dig on the temple mount, but the Cowards in Charge of Israel refuse to enforce the law without racial bias. That is why Arabs can get away with murder, and in fact, why they dare murder in the first place.
Jews can't get away with politicaly incorrect T-Shirts. Its a Capo thing.
Everybodys...
Obviously not Jewish. j/k
It's a barbeque, with fresh meat. I suspect many an animal has been sacraficed so you could live.
in fact that is one thing I really want to ak GOD when I see him why Animals had to be sacraficed
Sin is a capitol offense. Either the animal bleeds for your actions or you do. Your choice. God was kind enough to provide a legal loophole, in allowing animals to pay our price. He even provided the sacrifice at times, both times on the temple mount, once a ram, once a messiah.
Of course I understand the semantics of sacrafice and as a Christian I know the ultimate Blood Sacrafice of the Messiah but that still does not make me understand why an animal has to be sacraficed, my only conclusion is an Animal is without sin and that is why they were sacraficed to GOD..I just don’t like to think of any living thing that might have pain fright or suffering as a sacrafice
The sacrifice was demanded by God, not an optional thing. It was a lesson on the sacrifice to come of Jesus. The animals in the world are not without sin, for the whole world is contaminated. I have never sacrificed an animal, but have lived on a farm and have had to kill animals. Never an easy thing.
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