An imagined “Third Temple” and its courts superimposed on the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount) and surrounded by Jerusalem’s present-day cityscape. (Art-work seen on the Cardo in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, ca. 2012. PHOTO: Tom Powers)
Here’s a thought provoking offering from Yudith Oppenheimer, Executive Director of the Jerusalem-based Ir-Amim organization, on the occasion of Tisha B’Av, when Jews worldwide remember the loss of their historic temples. She writes in part:
Post-Temple Judaism managed, for the most part, to embrace the tension between the longing for the Temple as a utopian symbol, and the solid foundations of halakha, moral teachings and interpretations grounded in everyday life. However, there were also periods of messianic foment and attempts to speed up the redemption, almost all of which came to disastrous ends.
Zionism was a daring attempt to harness the messianic tension for social-political action in — and not outside of — history. […] The more Zionism invested in denying the existence and presence of the Arab inhabitants of the land, and later in maintaining the occupation, the more it needed the array of sanctified justifications that seemingly granted it exclusive ownership of the land. Thus, the Temple reappeared and took up its place as a foundational Zionist symbol.
Her comments are just as apt, in my opinion, for evangelical Christian Zionists worldwide who, without thinking too deeply about the implications, perhaps have dabbled, or even become immersed, in such ways of thinking. The complete article can be found on the +972 Magazine web-site HERE:
https://972mag.com/tisha-bav-and-the-mainstreaming-of-the-temple-discourse/136802/
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