Temple Institute

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Temple Institute: life-size figure of a kohen with a temple trumpet

The Temple Institute ( Hebrew מכון המקדש Machon HaMikdash ) is a museum, research institute and training center in Jerusalem .

The museum has around 100,000 visitors a year, 60% of whom are non-Jews, mostly evangelical Christians. According to guides who specialize in this group of customers, a visit to the museum is a highlight of their trip to Israel. The entrance fees and the proceeds from the museum shop account for nearly 50% of the Temple Institute's budget.

aims

Like large parts of Orthodox Judaism, the supporters of the Temple Institute expect a Jewish temple to stand on the Temple Mount again (the so-called Third Temple) and the rituals, especially sacrifices, to be resumed.

The temple institute is concerned with the active preparation for this new temple building:

  1. Museum: Exhibition of newly made cult implements and robes that meet the requirements of the Halacha , e.g. B. Trumpets made of pure silver or a new seven-armed candlestick made of gold.
  2. Research institute: recovery of the ingredients required for certain rituals. So z. B. an elaborate program to raise a cow from which one wants to make the "ashes of a red cow".
  3. Training center: Attempts to regain the lost specialist knowledge of the ancient priesthood from the study of the sources and a kind of re-enactment and to train today's priestly descendants ( Kohanim ) in these processes.
  4. Effective publicity campaigns , most recently in October 2017 ( Sukkot ): Carrying out the ritual draw-up of water at the foot of the Temple Mount on the south wall, with around 500 participants.

While Orthodox Judaism had traditionally taken the position that a Jew was not allowed to enter the former temple area because one ran the risk of entering sacred terrain without being in a state of cultic purity, the Temple Institute does not share this opinion and is developing tours, that only lead over safe terrain. Rules are drawn up for temple visitors to ensure elementary cultic purity (including not wearing leather shoes). The Temple Institute propagates meditative walks across the temple grounds as a kind of resumption of the ancient pilgrimage activity at this site.

history

The Temple Institute was founded in 1987 by Rabbi Yisrael Ariel .

In 2015, the Temple Institute in the United States purchased frozen embryos from Red Angus cows and implanted them in Israeli cows. A flawless red cow is to be bred from the offspring, with no more than two hairs of a different color. The ashes of a three-year-old red cow are necessary for a ritual bath when a priest is spiritually contaminated by touching a dead person or visiting a cemetery (Tumat Hamet). This high level of purification must be carried out before the priest is allowed to enter the temple area or perform his service in the temple.

Web links

Commons : The Temple Institute  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Gershom Gorenberg: The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount . Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 174 .
  2. ↑ Jeremy Sharon: Holy Cow: Biblical Red Heifer in production. In: Jerusalem Post . July 16, 2015, accessed December 31, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Gil Yaron: Red cows are supposed to recapture the Temple Mount. In: Welt Online . August 5, 2015, accessed December 31, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Udi Shaham: Activists practice ritual closer to Temple Mount than ever before. In: Jerusalem Post . October 8, 2017, accessed December 31, 2017 .
  5. ^ Second Temple / Today. The Temple Institute, accessed December 31, 2017 .
  6. ^ Ascending the Temple Mount: An Introduction and Brief Guide. The Temple Institute, accessed December 31, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Israel: Red cows are to recapture the Temple Mount . In: THE WORLD . August 5, 2015 ( welt.de [accessed February 15, 2020]).