Tisha B'Av 5770 (2010) - Will the temple be rebuilt?

Arutz Sheva reports (19 July 2010) that half the Israeli public wants the Temple (Beit HaMikdash) to be rebuilt, according to a poll commissioned by the Knesset Television Channel and carried out by the Panels Institute. "The poll was taken in advance of this Tuesday’s national day of mourning, known as Tisha B’Av, on which the two Holy Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed, 2,000 and 2,500 years ago, respectively. Forty-nine percent said they want the rebuilding of the Holy Temple, while 23% said they do not. The remainder were unsure. The public is about evenly split on whether they believe it will happen, with a slight edge – 42% to 39% – to those who believe the Third Holy Temple will be rebuilt. Should the State of Israel take active steps towards the reconstruction? Forty-eight percent said no, while 27% said yes."

But what caused the downfall of the former Temples and has the LORD ordained another such temple? In this connection read our article "The Temple that cannot be defiled". We have several other articles on the subject of Tisha B'Av:

• Tisha B'Av - Mourning the destruction of the temple
• The saddest day in Jewish history
• Challenging the Rabbis - Rabbinic views on the coming of the Messiah
• Tisha B'Av - Anniversary of the Temple's destruction

Is Judaism based on the Bible?

Many Christians do not appreciate the extent to which Jews are influenced, both in their religious practices and their interpretation of the Scriptures, by an 'oral law' which they believe was revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai along with the 'written Torah'. The Bible, the nature of God, His will and the purpose for our existence - all these are seen by Jews throught the lens of Talmudic teaching. H. Chaim Schimmel writes:  "The Jewish People are frequently called 'the People of the Book'; yet if one were to search out a people who follow the teachings of the Written Law (Torah sheBichtav) literally, one might be led to the Samaritans, or the Karaites, who are now settled to the south of Tel Aviv, but never to the Jewish People. The Jewish People do not now follow the literal word of the Written Law, nor have they ever done so. They have been fashioned and ruled by the verbal interpretation of the written word ... "

But how secure is the rabbis' belief in an authority that takes the Jews so far away from the literal meaning of the Bible? Do the Scriptures offer anything in support of this belief? Read more in our article, 'the House built on Sand - rabbinic Judaism and the oral law'.

The oral law and Messiah

One of the first reasons why the rabbis rejected Jesus was because he did not follow their oral law. Maimonides wrote, "We may assume that an individual is the Messiah if he fulfills the following conditions: He must be a ruler, of the House of David, immersed in the Torah and its commandments like David his ancestor. He must also follow both the written and the oral Torah ...". Jesus accused the Pharisees with the prophetic words spoken through Isaiah, "These people come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men". In return, the Pharisees raised many controversies against him, which the rabbis continue to raise as objections to Christianity today. We deal with some of these in the section headed 'Challenging the Rabbis'.

The genealogy of Messiah		THE THIRTY-SIX RIGHTEOUS - a tribute to Anton Schmid
Could Jesus have been from the tribe of Judah and a descendent of King David if he had no biological father?   In his book, Twenty-six reasons why Jews don't believe in Jesus, Asher Norman states a common objection of the rabbis: "The Messiah ben David must be Jewish, from the Tribe of Judah ... Under Jewish law, tribal affiliation is through the birth father only. Since Jesus alledgedly had no human father, he had no tribal affilation. Therefore, Jesus was not from the tribe of Judah and is eliminated from messianic consideration."  (page 61)     This view is supposedly based on Numbers 1:18-44, 34:14 and Leviticus 24:10 - none of which provide clear support for Norman's claim. What do the Scriptures really say? Read more ...    See further, Was Jesus anointed king over Israel?       Did Jesus gather in the scattered of Judah?		"Anton Schmid was a devout Catholic who suffered deeply when he saw other people suffer. He was also a man of exceptional courage. His story might never have become known except for various pieces of testimony in our files on Murer [Franz Murer was the Nazi Deputy Commissar for the Vilnyus district of Lithuania]. Among the 250 survivors of the Vilnyus ghetto, there are several whose lives were saved by Anton Schmid. They later told me his story." Read Simon Wiesenthal's tribute to Anton Schmid Other biographies and testimonies