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THE RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS
MINISTRY OF THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SPONSORS
A CONFERENCE OF
TEMPLE RESEARCH
Burstein is not a scientist by training. But he has spent years in
research, trying to discover
exactly what spices were used 2000 years in the ancient Jewish
Temple. For Burstein and
hundreds of his colleagues, the effort is far from being purely
historical. Spurred by both
religious belief and nationalist fervor and backed by the
government, a group of Israelis and
Jews abroad are quietly planning the construction of the third
Jewish Temple.
The
project has sparked the greatest controversy in Judaism today. The
debate divides
theologians and political leaders. It has also united ultra-Orthodox
Jews with fundamentalist
Protestant Christians, both of whom share the dream of a third
Jewish Temple.
Among the questions being raised: Can a temple be built or even
planned without the
arrival of the Messiah?
What should be done about the Muslim shrines that for about 1000
years have occupied
the
holy ground?
Advocates of rebuilding the temple have no answers. But Rabbi Israel
Ariel, head of the
Temple Institute, has no doubt that a solution will be found. His
institute has reconstructed
38
of the 103 ritual implements required for bringing sacrifices at the
temple. "We believe
that a temple will arise despite all the problems", he said. "It is
the force that unites The
Jewish people".
GOVERNMENT AID
Quietly, the government is becoming active in the effort. The
Religious Affairs Ministry
sponsored the First-ever Conference of Temple Research. The
Researchers did not discuss politics; many of them agreed that they
considered their work
relevant. Representatives of the chief rabbinate traveled
throughout Europe looking for
embryos of the red heifer, used in the temple for spiritual
purification. At last week’s
conference, a geneticist involved in the project, Dan Greenberg,
said several embryos were found and they will be implanted into cows in Israel. The
Babylonians destroyed the first temple in 586 B.C. Seventy years later, Cyrus, emperor of Persia,
allowed the Jews to return from exile and rebuild the temple. About 450000 Jews
accepted the offer. Many more
stayed in the Diaspora. The Romans destroyed the second temple in 70
A.D. the
Romans refused to permit the temple's reconstruction and sent the
Jews to exile. Although the
Babylonian Talmud was vague, Jewish scholars later ruled that the
temple must await the
Messiah. The medieval sage Rashi said the temple would descend
directly from
heaven after the coming of the Messiah. His contemporary, Maimonides,
was more
specific. He drew up guidelines on recognizing the Messiah and
planning the temple.
One
requirement: The temple will not be built until a majority of the
Jewish people lives in
the
biblical land of Israel. Less than a third of the world’s 13 million
Jews live in Israel. But in
1967, Jews began to believe that the construction of the temple was
in sight. Repulsing an
attack from its eastern neighbor Jordan, Israel captured the Old
City of Jerusalem, the site
of
the ancient Jewish temple.
The
idea of building a new temple has create a controversy. Some
religious leaders
(Jewish) support the idea others no. Some incidents had occurred as
a consequence of
this
idea.
On
the other hand, for Muslims the purpose of building this temple is
just
a plot to take over their holy place.
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