I MAY BE A LOUSY JEW, but I really don’t want a Third Temple.
I HAVE SEVERAL REASONS why I don’t want to see the Temple rebuilt.
This has nothing to do with politics or squatters on the Temple mount.
Sacrifices
Let’s be honest.
The first and second iterations of the Temple were abattoirs.
About the only living thing sacrificed today are chickens and roosters (kaparot), and even that has, for most but the haredim, been replaced by donations of money in the value of the fowl (or more if the person has the financial capability and desire).
Animal sacrifice still is practiced around the world, but with the exception of Yom Kippor fowl, not by Jews.
The landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of the Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah (FL) in 1993 upheld the right of Santería adherents to practice ritual animal sacrifice in the United States of America. Likewise in Texas in 2009, legal and religious issues that related to animal sacrifice, animal rights and freedom of religion were taken to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Jose Merced, President Templo Yoruba Omo Orisha Texas, Inc., v. City of Euless. The court ruling that the Merced case of the freedom of exercise of religion was meritorious and prevailing and that Merced was entitled under the Texas Religious Freedom and Restoration Act (TRFRA) to an injunction preventing the city of Euless, Texas from enforcing its ordinances that burdened his religious practices relating to the use of animals. (https://tinyurl.com/yb97yd3t)
No Temple, no sacrifice
The Temple in Jerusalem was supposed to be the only place for sacrifices. In truth, sacrifices were offered in other places.
In Deuteronomy 12,13-14 , we only were permitted to offer sacrifices in the place that God has chosen for that purpose. (https://tinyurl.com/yebjtney)
The Jewish Temple at Elephantine (destroyed in the 4th century BCE), and the Temple at Leontopolis was the only Jewish sanctuary outside of Jerusalem where sacrifices were offered. Aside from a somewhat uncertain allusion of the Hellenist Artapanus, only Josephus gives information about this temple. (https://tinyurl.com/yvw2a4a9)
In my Moroccan sidur's morning service, after reminding HaShem that although we were ordered to bring sacrifices, sans the Temple, Cohanim, Levi'im, or even Israels to perform the rites, we are told that (לכן יהי רצון מלפניך) if it is Your will, accept the words of our mouths in lieu of the sacrifices. The Hebrew is better. (סידר אבותינו ע"מ 119)
Why sacrifices, anyway?
I find I am in agreement with Moses Ben Maimon.
In his Guide for the Perplexed (3:30, 3:32), Maimonides explains that the Torah’s main objective is to eradicate the viewpoint of paganism.
Thus, to truly understand the Torah’s original intent, one must be familiar with the philosophies and practices of ancient idolaters (in Maimonidean terms, this refers to practitioners of non-monotheistic religions).
Taking this idea a step further, Maimonides seemingly assumes that ritual sacrifices are a sub-optimal form of worship, leading him to make the bold statement that the Torah instituted its system of ritual sacrifices to facilitate the rejection of idolatrous practices.
He explains that human nature is that whatever people have accustomed themselves to doing becomes so ingrained in their nature that it cannot be easily uprooted. Man cannot successfully transition from one extreme to the other without some time to acclimate. Thus, God did not simply command the Jews to reject idolatry by completely forbidding its classical practices — animal sacrifices, prostration, and burning incense — because these practices were so much a part of human culture at the time that the Jews would not been able to give them up. (https://tinyurl.com/ytcs3au7)
Rambam elsewhere writes about teaching children.
Maimonides (1135-1204), advises motivating a child by promising, "read, and I will give you a nut or a fig."
The point this scrivener took away was that parents and teachers should consider the mental age of the students. Very young children may be rewarded with a small gift. As the child gets older he reward changes.
This scrivener sees Judaism as a young child when we left Egypt, as a teenager in Israel (ergo the two Temples destroyed due to our misbehavior — read on), and today as adults, although admittedly even as adults some of us sometimes act stupidly.
In other words, as children, we were so influenced by our environment that we knew no other way.
We whined in the wilderness every time something didn’t go our way. No meat, no water, Egyptians at our back. Also no confidence in HaShem.
Later, having survived the destruction of not one but BOTH Temples in Jerusalem, we were akin to young adults. We didn’t need to offer sacrifices and the rabbis told us that HaShem wanted other things from us, e.g., prayer, respect for others.
Do we NEED sacrifices?
We, Jews, have survived thousands of years sans sacrificial animals.
Is there any reason to bring back sacrifices (assuming a third Temple rises on the mount).
Who could offer the sacrifices, anyway. Are there any cohanim that qualify? (True, there supposedly is a DNA test to identify who is a cohan, but there are other qualifications.)
Who would be the Cohan Gadol, the person in charge? Back in the day, we were one people. Today, we still are one people, but divided by minhagim (Ashkinazi — and WHICH Ashknazi?), Sefardi (same question: WHICH Sefardi?); how “orthodox,” what sex?
Even “back in the day,” there were legitimate cohanim and usurpers.
Never mind Jordan’s Waqf and its control of Judaism’s holiest site. Bringing down the mosque that sits on the mount would start a war, a war Israel would lose in the media. (Never mind history; people don’t care about anything more than hour old.)
We have prayer.
Actually, we have a variety of prayers, all of which are, according to some rabbis, in lieu of sacrifices. (Does HaShem CARE who utters the prayer or what language the prayer is offered? This scrivener is not qualified to speculate.)
Not in my lifetime
I know there are those who honestly want to build a third Temple. Some already are creating furniture and vessels for use in a third Temple.
Not to be too facetious, but will a third Temple be environmentally sound? Solar powered air conditioning? Times HAVE changed since Solomon had the first Temple constructed.
If we complained about lack of meat as we wandered about in the wilderness, imagine how Jews will complain if the Temple lacks air conditioning and heating.
Will the government allow currency exchange near the Temple. The Christians made a big deal out of money changers in the Temple court, obviously not realizing, or caring why the money changers were there.
For anyone who wants to know, people came from all over the known world to offer sacrifices — non-Jews, too. It was impossible to bring an animal over a long distance, so the person coming to the Temple brought cash to buy a local animal. The money changers were providing a service, converting foreign currency into locally accepted currency. Today, that is a bank’s profit center. Would the banks fight over a concession at a third Temple? Interesting to speculate.)
I don’t want to see all the ramifications that a third Temple would bring down on us.
Lessons ignored
We still have not learned lessons from former Temples.
Why was the first Temple destroyed?
Because of three things that prevailed there: idolatry, sexual immorality, and murder.
Why was the second Temple destroyed?
Because hatred without cause prevailed.
That teaches that groundless hatred is considered as serious as the three sins of idolatry, sexual immorality, and murder together. (https://tinyurl.com/2kdd2dsn)
I fear that a third Temple would put us back in the same condition that existed in the time of the second Temple.
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