How in the world can God’s chosen people Israel allow such a thing (the destruction on the Second Temple walls) to continue to go on uninterrupted?
This is possibly the most important question we have faced since starting with this column. As you read these words, the Muslim authority over the Temple Mount, the Waqf, is systematically destroying the structure of the Second Temple which has been unearthed as they dug trenches to lay cables directly through the area where the Temple was known to have stood. Simultaneously, a reliable source in Jerusalem has indicated that our Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, has finalized his agreement with Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas to surrender Jewish control of the Temple Mount as yet another “confidence building measure”.
While many would think that the Jewish People would be furiously up in arms over the wholesale destruction of our most sacred site as well as its abdication to an enemy unrelentingly dedicated to our destruction, the most vocal outcry has come from the archeologists who stand by helpless as priceless artifacts are pulverized into dust. These Arabs clearly have no nostalgic connection to remnants from our Temple nor do they have a soft spot for carbon dating. They are seeking to wipe out all connection of the Jewish people to the Temple Mount, yet the archeologists are the only objectors. Where is the righteous indignation - the justifiable fury - that should be erupting from the Jewish people over the reckless destruction of our Holy Temple? Where are the cries? Where is the pain?
It is widely accepted that we are in the final days preceding the coming of the Messiah. Our sages say that our generation is “ekvey deMeshichay”, literally translated as the “heels of Messiah”. Our mystical writings accurately predicted that our generation would be “as the heel”, a part of the foot so calloused and numb that a nail driven into it would be painless while at the same time tickles of a feather would elicit hypersensitive laughter. Nowadays, the flagrant destruction of the Temple for which we have been endlessly praying for two thousand years evokes less than a peep from world Jewry while a new Mel Gibson documentary riles us up into a righteous fury.
Two thousand years of persecution and exile have so thoroughly distorted the prism through which we see the world, that not only don’t we understand the Temple’s significance, but we aren’t even aware that it is the fundamental reason G-d created the Jewish people and the world.
In order to understand the purpose of the Holy Temple, we must delve to the very beginning of creation. G-d created Adam and Eve to bestow upon them happiness and pleasure, a benevolent gift from an infinite G-d that lacks nothing. They were naked in the garden, unashamed, for they intuitively understood that they were spiritual beings clothed in physical bodies, garments of flesh, in which they traversed a blissfully perfect world. Once they consumed the forbidden fruit of knowledge, however, they were infused with lies, confusion, and inclinations. It was no longer clear whether their core essence was a soul enshrined in a body, or their identity was the body itself. They now donned clothing which in Hebrew is a “begged”, stemming from the word “boged”- “to betray”, for the very nature of clothing betrays the truth that the body itself is the clothing of the soul. The rest of human history has been the struggle between the physical and the spiritual, and the purpose of the Jewish people is to bring the world to the consciousness not only that we have a soul, but that we ARE a soul.
The Temple is the vehicle that will bring knowledge of G-d to the world, shattering our current consciousness and the nature of life on earth. Even more miraculous than “the wolf living with the sheep and the leopard lying with the kid” will be the end of all war as the nations “beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks” (2:4) and ascend to Mount Moriah, the Temple Mount, on which G-d explains that they will offer “elevation offerings and feast offerings” for “my house will be called a house of prayer for all Nations” (56:7).
Do not make the mistake of looking at Jerusalem with cynical secular eyes. We must discard the doubts and allow the miracles of our days penetrate our hearts. We have survived countless attempts to annihilate us and returned to our Land as the Torah, ingathering our exiles as the Torah counter intuitively foretold, gambling its credibility on over 300 prophecies of such an unlikely occurrence such as the promise of Deuteronomy 30:3 “Then Hashem your G-d will bring back your captivity and have mercy upon you and will gather you in from all the people to which Hashem your G-d has scattered you… Hashem will bring you to the Land that your forefathers possessed and you shall possess it.”
Do not believe for a moment that the Muslims grasp the Mount with an iron grip because of a religious or historical claim. Nowhere in the Koran is the name of our beloved city found, while over 700 times we find her in our Bible. Our homes are left unfinished in memory of Jerusalem as pray morning, afternoon, and night, fasting and crying over her destruction for thousands of years. Wherever we are in the world we pray facing Jerusalem while a Muslim turns his back on our Holy City to bow in supplication towards Mecca. Even today the Waqf strictly and forcefully forbids a Jew to pray on the Temple Mount for deep down, consciously or not, they understand that nothing could more damage their cause of a world dominated with the darkness of Islamic rule than a Jew praying on Mount Moriah.
Allow Isaiah’s words to provide clarity in a world of secular darkness. Twenty-eight hundred years ago he saw today’s destruction on the Temple Mount and proclaimed “They will neither injure nor destroy in all of My sacred mountain; for the earth will be as filled with knowledge of Hashem as water covering the sea bed (11:9)”. He recognized that it was that very truth of the knowledge of G-d of Israel that our enemies will sacrifice their lives to prevent from entering the world and it was just for these times of fear and confusion that Isaiah reminded us of the true root of this conflict. We are locked in a spiritual battle of light against darkness, truth versus lies. In a world distorted to its core by falsehood and illusions, we must be faithful to our knowledge of G-d authority and we must do all in our power to protect G-d holy mountain, Mt. Moriah, so that very soon knowledge of G-d will permeate the world.
