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Chanukah is the time of the re-dedication of the
Holy Temple. The festival commemorates the Maccabees'
restoring the Second Temple to its original sanctity
after it had been ransacked and defiled (but not
destroyed) by the Greeks. It is, therefore, worth
dedicating a few minutes to consider how the Temple
relates to us today. By this, we mean, of course, the
Third Temple, whose re-building and long-awaited
presence will usher in the Messianic Era.
 Since
the destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70, religious
Jews have expressed their desire to see the building of
a Third Temple on the Temple Mount. Prayer for this
cause has been a formal part of the Jewish tradition of
thrice daily Jewish prayer services. Though it remains
unbuilt, the notion of and desire for a Third Temple is
sacred in Judaism, particularly Orthodox Judaism, as an
unrealized place of worship. The prophets in the Tanakh
called for its construction, to be fulfilled in the
Messianic era.
Artistic impression of the Third temple
The scenario of a rebuilding of the Third Temple also
plays a major role with-in some interpretations of
Christian Eschatology.
Unused ancient Jewish floor plans for a Temple exist in
various sources, notably in Chapters 40–47 of Ezekiel
(Ezekiel's vision pre-dates the Second Temple) and in
the Temple Scroll discovered at Qumran among the Dead
Sea Scrolls.
Role in Orthodox Judaism
Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, by Francesco
Hayez
Orthodox Judaism believes in the rebuilding of a Third
Temple (or Fourth Temple [Solomon's Temple, Zerubbabel's
Temple, Herod's Temple]) and the resumption of
sacrificial worship, although there is disagreement
about how rebuilding should take place. Orthodox
authorities generally believe that rebuilding should
occur in the era of the Jewish Messiah at the hand of
Divine Providence, although a minority position,
following the opinion of Maimonides, holds that Jews
should endeavor to rebuild the temple themselves,
whenever possible. Orthodox authorities generally
predict the resumption of the complete traditional
system of sacrifices, but some Reform authorities have
disagreed. Mainstream Judaism maintains that Korbanot,
or sacrifice, will be reinstituted, in accord with the
laws in the Torah and the Talmud. This belief is
embedded in Orthodox Jewish prayer services. Three times
a day, Orthodox Jews pray the Amidah, which contains
prayers for the Temple's restoration and for sacrificial
worship's resumption, and every day there is a
recitation of the order of the day's sacrifices and the
psalms the Levites would have sung that day.
The generally accepted position among Orthodox Jews is
that the full order of the sacrifices will be resumed
upon the building of the Temple. Traditionally the view
that sacrifices will not be restored has been considered
a heretical view, held mostly by very liberal Reform
Rabbis. Although
Maimonides wrote in his early work "A Guide for the
Perplexed" "that God deliberately has moved Jews away
from sacrifices towards prayer, as prayer is a higher
form of worship,", however his definitive book "Mishneh
Torah" - which is considered by some to be the final
authority on Jewish law - states that animal sacrifices
will resume in the third temple, and details how they
will be carried out. Some[who?] attribute to Rabbi
Abraham Isaac Kook, the first chief rabbi of the Jewish
community in Palestine, the view that animal sacrifices
will not be reinstituted. These views on the Temple
service are sometimes misconstrued (for example, in Olat
Re'ayah, commenting on the prophecy of Malachi ("Then
the grain-offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be
pleasing to God as in the days of old and as in former
years" [Malachi 3:4]), he indicates that only grain
offerings will be offered in the reinstated Temple
service, while in a related essay from Otzarot Hare'ayah
he suggests otherwise). |
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