Why Jews have mixed feelings when they
think of a New Temple – and a Surprising Solution
Today it is not the Jews
who need a New Temple, it is the Muslims, because as
long as the Jews have no New Temple a Damocles-sword is hanging above the Muslim
sanctuaries, which stand on the site of the former Temple. If the Jews, “God’s
Chosen People”, mean to act as healers in the conflict they may need to make
themselves ready for a New Temple, in accordance with the scriptures, and with
respect for their brothers and sisters in Abraham.
But currently many Jews
would rather not have a New Temple. Liberal Jews categorically reject the idea
of a New Temple. They see the destruction of the Temple by the Romans as a
turning point, away from the sacrificial cult and from a central sanctuary
towards decentralized places of purely spiritual worship.
For others a New Temple
could not be just a revival of the Old Temple. They would not want to have
animal sacrifices. A New Temple should not be a bloody one.
But above all the
majority of Israeli Jews would not want to be dominated by a religious minority,
which seeks to revive the old theocratic system, replacing the parliament with
a new Sanhedrin. The majority of Israeli Jews would rather forgo a New Temple
than jeopardize democracy.
In 1967, when Israel conquered
the Temple Mount by force of arms, an historically
unique opportunity opened up for a brief moment to rebuild the Temple. But the
Israeli government did not jump at this opportunity. Only a small minority
wanted a New Temple. The government did not want to take the risk of creating turmoil
within the world’s Jewish population, which might have erupted, once the
different denominations and ideological groups among them began to discuss the
issue. Therefore, before there can be a New Temple, the conflict among the Jews
themselves needs to be dealt with.
Today’s situation,
however, might provide just that opportunity, since today it is not the Jews
who need a New Temple but the Muslims. They need to be rid of the sword of Damocles
menacing their sanctuaries. A New Temple could thus become an instrument of
peace and of healing both for Jews themselves and for Muslims.
The Jews cannot rebuild
the Temple without the Muslims. Even the orthodox Haredi-Jews
might feel motivated to seek an agreement with the Muslims regarding the Muslim
sanctuaries. All ideological and denominational Jewish groups will want to take
part in the discussion, equally respected and recognized. And that might make
clear to everybody that the New Temple really needs to be a new Temple with a new function, which is acceptable to all Jews. The object of
conflict would thus be turned into an agent of the solution. The New Temple
would show to the whole world that “God’s Chosen People” are indeed servants of
healing and of peace.
The result of this
dialogue-process, the New Temple, will then simultaneously be an instrument of
atonement for the Jews, and, as predicted by the prophets, people of all over
the world will come to see it as a shining symbol of peace, and they will start
going there on pilgrimage to receive its blessings.
All this might sound quite unrealistic – if it were
not for a public opinion poll of 2009, which showed that a surprising 64% of
the total Jewish population of Israel wants a New Temple now – among them 49%
of secular Jews.
Gottfried Hutter,
chairman of the non-profit
“Temple-Project Association”, Theologian, Historian, Munich, Germany
Tel. +49-89-4471
8971, gottfried.hutter@gmx.de
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