Time for the Third Temple
Last month, my family took a trip to Italy. We had never been there before, and we had a wonderful time. It was very hot, and the tourist sites were very crowded, but of course we made it to the obligatory tourist sites in Rome, the most well-known being the Colosseum.
My son was excited to see where the gladiators used to fight, and to imagine the scenes that took place there 2000 years ago. However, I did not know until I got there that the Colosseum was built by the emperor Vespasian to celebrate the defeat of Judea, the sacking of Jerusalem, and the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash. It was funded by loot taken from that war, and was built by many Jewish slaves captured during the conquest and taken into exile. Although it sounds like something you might have learned in Yeshiva, it is well attested in the explanatory signs at the site itself.
This certainly complicated the feeling of awe at seeing this feat and ancient engineering. After leaving the site, we walked the short distance to the Arch of Titus, which famously depicts the Jews being exiled from Jerusalem, along with the loot including the menorah and trumpets from the Temple. Seeing this up close for the first time, a real-time depiction of the exile, moved me to tears. We sat down and sang Im Eshkachech Yerushalayim, as so many have done, and cried.
On our way out of the Forum area, there was some sort of large protest gathering, where people were painting slogans on a large canvas. Many people wrote Free Palestine. Some things never change.
Jews first came to Rome while the Temple was still standing, and have been there ever since. Imagine being exiled to Rome, or having already lived there when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and celebrated the victory in such a dramatic and public manner, and still continuing to live there for generations. Imagine 1500 years later, being forced into a ghetto, and still living there for 300 years until the ghetto walls came down. Imagine still being there less than 100 years later, when a large portion of Roman Jewry was sent to the concentration camps. And Jews are still there, making delicious fried artichokes.
The other must-see tourist site we visited was the Vatican. What stood out most to me was St. Peter’s Basilica. While there are churches everywhere, in Rome and all over the world, this is the central church for Catholics. It is not one sanctuary itself, but many chapels, small and large, with many different nooks and corners devoted to different past popes and other saints. I don’t know much about Catholicism, but seeing the devotees making a pilgrimage here was moving, even though I didn’t understand the details.
Putting these two experiences together, I reflected on the fact that we were seeing the full arc of history, from exile to return. We were in the place that caused and celebrated the exile so long ago, knowing that after 1900 years, we had finally returned to Jerusalem. But something was missing.
While Catholics have a central site to visit at the Vatican, and Muslims make the pilgrimage to the Kabaa, our central religious site is a side wall, an archaeological remnant of what used to be. Nearly 60 years after returning to our ancient capital, the topic of rebuilding the Beit Hamikdash is totally off the radar.
We pray for the Temple to be rebuilt many times a day, but it never comes up in daily conversation, and it seems most people would rather not think about it. The State of Israel was mostly founded by and run by secular Jews who have no motivation for a central religious site. Hareidim presumably want a Temple, but only if it falls magically from the sky. And modern Orthodox Jews will tell you that a return to animal sacrifice is barbaric, as they take a bite of their shawarma.
I am not going to propose any practical steps towards this goal. I simply ask that, as you fast on Tisha B’Av this week mourning the loss of our first and second Temples, commit to increasing your Third Temple consciousness. Pray for it, think about it, talk about it, learn about it. If you will it, it is not a dream.
