Chorister Shmuel Kam said Jews have been \u201cwaiting\u201d two millennia for the revival of the temple
\nJERUSALEM
\nWith imported sacrificial cows, ancient hymns and growing support, some nationalist Jews hope to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem\u2019s Old City, at a site at the heart of Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
\nIn a suburb of Tel Aviv, a group of choristers were getting ready for the moment they will rejoice at the reconstruction of the Jewish temple some 2,000 years after its destruction, which they believe will accelerate the arrival of the messiah.
\nBut for others, realising their goal would massively inflame tensions around the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
\nChorister Shmuel Kam said Jews have been \u201cwaiting\u201d two millennia for the revival of the temple.
\nMembers of the Orthodox Jewish group claim to be descendants of the biblical Tribe of Levi, which performed hymns and music at the holy site.
\n\u201cWhen the temple will be built, we will ask the Levites to come sing and they won\u2019t know. They have to learn,\u201d said Menahem Rozenthal, director of the men-only choir created a few months ago by the Temple Institute.
\nFounded in 1987, the institute aims to rebuild the temple, training choirs and clerics and making objects for use in religious rites.
\nWhile apprentice choristers come from across Israel to delve into the collection of ancient hymns, the Temple Institute has made all of the objects deemed necessary for Jewish rites according to rabbinical instructions.
\nThese include priestly robes, baking moulds for bread, incense burners and musical instruments.
\n\u2018Matter of time\u2019
\nThe faithful have their sights set on the large, tree-dotted compound in the heart of Jerusalem\u2019s Old City.
\nKnown as Temple Mount to Jews and revered as their holiest site, the compound has for centuries housed Al-Aqsa mosque, the third most sacred place in Islam.
\nThose seeking to rebuild the temple recall the former place of worship, destroyed around 70 AD during the Roman period.
\nAccording to Jewish tradition, their first temple was demolished in 586 BC by then ruler Nebuchadnezzar II at the same location.
\nFor Haim Berkovits, a 50-year-old third temple advocate, \u201cyou can say whatever you want (about the Muslim presence), this was the place for Jews\u201d.
\nJewish worship at the future temple is \u201conly a matter of time\u201d, he said.
\nBerkovits is part of Boneh Israel (\u201cBuilding Israel\u201d), an organisation which according to its website works at \u201cbringing the redemption closer\u201d.
\nIn order to hasten their sought-after redemption, Boneh Israel imported five red heifers from the United States last year.
\nThe plan is to sacrifice them and blend the ashes with water, a mixture that will be used to brush anyone deemed impure \u2013 for example those who have had contact with a corpse \u2013 before their ascent to the third temple.
\nThe rare cows are crucial, because the inability to perform this ritual is part of Israeli rabbinical authorities\u2019 opposition to Jewish visits to Temple Mount.
\nThe animals\u2019 \u201creturn is a messianic sign\u201d, affirmed Berkovits at a farm in northern Israel where they are inspected by vets and rabbis to ensure that every single hair is red.
\n\u201cWe pamper them, we\u2019re keeping them for the opportune moment,\u201d he added.
\nSpreading ideology
\nBerkovits said Boneh Israel had already acquired land on the Mount of Olives in east Jerusalem, so the animals can be burned facing Temple Mount.
\nFor Yizhar Beer, director of the Keshev Centre for the Protection of Democracy in Israel, these \u201cthird temple lovers\u201d are in no way marginal.
\nFrom a few dozen adherents two decades ago, their ideology has \u201cspread to the centre of the political level \u2013 to the parliament, to the government\u201d, Beer said.
\nSince December, Benjamin Netanyahu has led a government alongside extreme-right ministers who advocate imposing Israeli sovereignty on the Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
\nThe compound is administered by the Waqf Islamic affairs council of Jordan, whose forces were routed from east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War.
\nDefying the ban by top rabbis, some 50,000 Jews \u201cascended to Temple Mount\u201d last year, according to a nationalist Israeli organisation that carries the site\u2019s Hebrew name, Har Habait.
\nThe Jewish visitors include firebrand politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has also visited twice this year since becoming Israel\u2019s national security minister.
\nThe United Nations, the United States and the European Union have all pressed in recent months for the status quo to be respected at Jerusalem\u2019s holy sites.
\nTours by Jews of the holy compound, where only Muslims are permitted to pray, are denounced by Palestinians as a \u201cthreat\u201d and an attempt to \u201cJudaise\u201d the site.
\nPolitical \u2018atomic bomb\u2019
\nThe compound is a point of perennial tensions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and any Jewish visit has the potential to become \u201can atomic bomb\u201d, warned Beer.
\n\u201cA combination of religion and politics… this is a nuclear reactor, so an explosion there blows up everything,\u201d he said.
\nThe international community has never recognised Israel\u2019s annexation of east Jerusalem, and considers it occupied Palestinian territory.
\nFor Yitzchak Reuven, the Temple Institute\u2019s head of communications, \u201cthe controversy is stirred up by the Palestinians who use it for nationalistic reasons\u201d.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s not really a Muslim issue,\u201d he said.
\nReuven did not specify what would become of Al-Aqsa mosque, a notable anomaly in otherwise detailed plans by organisations focused on the third temple.
\nHowever, such groups do assert that it would be impossible to construct the holy Jewish site anywhere but the mosque compound.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s the place God chose,\u201d said Reuven. \u201cIt\u2019s a dream, but Jews returning to Israel was a dream \u2013 and then it became a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chorister Shmuel Kam said Jews have been \u201cwaiting\u201d two millennia for the revival of the temple JERUSALEM With imported sacrificial cows, ancient hymns and growing support, some nationalist Jews hope to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem\u2019s Old City, at a site at the heart of Israeli-Palestinian tensions. In a suburb of Tel Aviv, a group […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335737,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-335703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n