Question 1

Why do Jews want a Third Temple?

Accepted Answer

Because the Torah commands a sanctuary, because its loss is written into daily prayer, and because the prophets describe a future House. Traditional Judaism holds that the commandment to build it still stands. It is not primarily nationalism. The liturgy asks for the service, the Divine Presence and Jerusalem's comfort; the prophets place the House inside a vision of justice and peace for all peoples.

Question 2

Is the Third Temple in the Torah?

Accepted Answer

The Torah commands 'Let them make Me a sanctuary' and speaks of 'the place which the Lord shall choose'. It does not mention a first, second or third building. The idea of a future Temple comes from the prophets, especially Ezekiel 40-48, and from rabbinic law. Rambam counts building the House as a positive commandment derived from Exodus 25:8.

Question 3

Does Judaism require it?

Accepted Answer

In traditional halachah, yes: Rambam lists building the Mikdash as a commandment incumbent on the community, and states that the Messianic king will build it. How and when that happens is a separate question on which authorities differ. Judaism also remains a complete covenantal life without it. Both are true.

Question 4

Does the Temple mean the end of synagogues?

Accepted Answer

No source the site relies on says so. Synagogues and study houses existed during the Second Temple period, and the Talmud reads Ezekiel's 'little sanctuary' as the synagogues of exile. Prayer is described in Tanach long before and alongside the Temple. The Mishnah itself records that the priests prayed and recited the Shema within the Temple service.

Question 5

Will animal sacrifices return?

Accepted Answer

Traditional liturgy asks for the restoration of the offerings, and Rambam writes that in the Messianic era 'they offer korbanot'. Other voices in Jewish thought have understood the future differently, and modern movements have changed or reinterpreted these prayers. The site explains the traditional texts; it does not predict what will happen.

Question 6

Why would God want sacrifices?

Accepted Answer

Not because God needs food: 'If I were hungry, I would not tell thee.' Classical commentators offer different explanations. Rambam gives a historical explanation, as a gradual transition from the ancient world's forms of worship. Ramban rejects that as the main reason and explains that the one who brings an offering should see himself in the animal's place, stirring repentance. The Mishnah's summary: 'it is the same whether one offers much or little, so long as one directs one's heart to heaven'.

Question 7

Did sacrifices forgive every sin?

Accepted Answer

No. Purification offerings applied to specific unintentional transgressions. Repentance was required; Yom Kippur atones only with repentance; and wrongs against another person are not forgiven until that person is appeased.

Question 8

Were human sacrifices ever allowed?

Accepted Answer

No. The Torah forbids it absolutely and calls it something the Lord hates; Jeremiah condemns it as a thing God 'commanded not, neither came it into My mind'. At the binding of Isaac the angel stops Abraham's hand and a ram is offered instead; many Jewish readers see in the story a rejection of child sacrifice. The law itself is explicit either way.

Question 9

What happened in the Holy of Holies?

Accepted Answer

In the First Temple it held the Ark. In the Second it was empty except for the Foundation Stone. Only the High Priest entered, on Yom Kippur, with incense and the blood of the day's offerings, and said a short prayer outside 'so as not to frighten Israel'.

Question 10

Where is the Ark?

Accepted Answer

Unknown. Rabbinic tradition holds it was absent from the Second Temple. The Mishnah records a priestly family's tradition that it was hidden beneath the wood store; in the Talmud Rabbi Eliezer says it was taken to Babylonia, while others say it was hidden in its place.

Question 11

Will the Ark return?

Accepted Answer

No source the site relies on says so with certainty. The site never depicts it in the Third Temple and labels its future as an open question.

Question 12

Who can become a kohen?

Accepted Answer

No one becomes a kohen: it passes from father to son among the descendants of Aaron. Families preserve the tradition today, and kohanim still bless congregations. Rambam writes that in the Messianic era lineage will be clarified.

Question 13

Can women enter the Temple?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Women entered the Temple Mount and the large court called the Ezrat Nashim, which was open to everyone; they brought offerings and took part in festivals, and a balcony was built so they could watch the Sukkot celebration. The Mishnah's access rules for the inner courts are framed by ritual status and priesthood. Some details of women's access to the inner court are discussed in the Talmud and not simplified here.

Question 14

Can non-Jews enter?

Accepted Answer

In the Second Temple, non-Jews entered the Temple Mount but not beyond the soreg; a Greek warning inscription survives. Solomon's dedication prayer explicitly includes the foreigner who comes to pray, and Isaiah calls the House 'a house of prayer for all peoples'. How access would work in a future Temple is not specified in the sources the site relies on.

Question 15

What is ritual purity?

Accepted Answer

A status, not a moral judgement. Contact with death and certain bodily events make a person tamei; immersion and time restore taharah. Everyone became tamei in ordinary life, including the most righteous. It governed entry to holy areas and holy food.

Question 16

Why can't anyone just walk into the Holy of Holies?

Accepted Answer

Because holiness in the Temple was graded, like concentric rings, and the innermost ring was reserved: 'that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil'. Even the High Priest entered only on Yom Kippur. The restriction is part of what the space means.

Question 17

Why Jerusalem?

Accepted Answer

The Torah speaks of 'the place which the Lord shall choose'. Tanach identifies it as Jerusalem: David buys the threshing floor, Solomon builds on 'Mount Moriah', and the Psalms call Zion God's 'resting-place for ever'. Rambam: once the House was built in Jerusalem, no other place is permitted.

Question 18

Why not build the Temple somewhere else?

Accepted Answer

Because Jewish law holds that the chosen place was fixed permanently. The Mishnah: when they came to Jerusalem, other altars were forbidden 'and were never again permitted'.

Question 19

What did the Temple look like?

Accepted Answer

Mishnah Middot preserves the Second Temple's plan in detail: a 500-amah square mount, a women's court, fifteen steps, an inner court of 187 by 135 amot, a stone altar, and a Sanctuary 100 amot high. Ornament and many details are unknown.

Question 20

Would the Third Temple look like Herod's Temple?

Accepted Answer

Partly, and it depends on how one reads the sources. Middot describes the late Second Temple, and Rambam says the Second Temple was built like Solomon's with some features from Ezekiel. Herod's vast platform and colonnades are not part of the halachic description.

Question 21

Why does Ezekiel's plan look different?

Accepted Answer

Because it is a prophetic vision, some of whose details are hard to reconcile with the Torah and with Middot. The Talmud records that Chananiah ben Chizkiyah worked to reconcile them; on one difficult passage it says that Elijah will explain it in the future; Rashi writes of one term, 'I do not know what this is'. Rambam: the future building 'is not explained or elucidated'.

Question 22

Who builds the Third Temple?

Accepted Answer

Rambam: the Messianic king 'builds the Mikdash', and building it is one of the signs that he is the Messiah. Rashi, in the Talmud, describes the future Temple as 'built and perfected, revealed and coming from heaven'. Later authorities discuss how the two views relate.

Question 23

Does it descend from heaven?

Accepted Answer

That is Rashi's reading in Sukkah 41a, based on 'the Sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established'. Rambam describes human building by the Messianic king. There is no single agreed answer.

Question 24

What does Rambam say?

Accepted Answer

That building the House is a positive commandment; that the Messianic king will build the Mikdash and gather Israel's dispersed; that the world's natural order will continue; and that no one will know the order of events until they happen, so one should not calculate ends.

Question 25

What does Rashi say?

Accepted Answer

In Sukkah 41a Rashi writes that 'the future Temple that we await, built and perfected, will be revealed and come from heaven'. On Ezekiel's Temple he often admits difficulty, writing on one term 'I do not know what this is'.

Question 26

Does Mashiach come before or after the Temple?

Accepted Answer

In Rambam's account, the Messianic king builds it. In Rashi's, it is revealed from heaven. Rambam himself writes that the sages have no tradition about these matters, 'only inference from the verses', and so they disagree.

Question 27

Is there a universally agreed sequence?

Accepted Answer

No. Rambam says so explicitly: 'no one will know how these things will be until they happen', and the order of events 'is not a fundamental of the religion'.

Question 28

What is the role of Elijah?

Accepted Answer

Malachi promises that Elijah will be sent 'before the great and terrible day'. Rambam cites the view that a prophet will come to prepare Israel's hearts and bring peace to the world, and notes that some sages hold Elijah comes before the Messiah.

Question 29

What is the role of the nations?

Accepted Answer

In Isaiah, the nations stream to the mountain to learn God's ways, and war ends. In Zechariah, the nations come up to Jerusalem to keep Sukkot. Rambam describes a world that will 'serve the Lord together'.

Question 30

Is 'house of prayer for all peoples' Jewish scripture?

Accepted Answer

Yes. It is Isaiah 56:7, in the Hebrew Bible, spoken of 'the aliens that join themselves to the Lord'.

Question 31

Why do Jews face Jerusalem?

Accepted Answer

Solomon prays that God hear those who pray 'toward this place'; Daniel prayed toward Jerusalem three times a day. The Mishnah and later codes direct worshippers to face the Land of Israel, Jerusalem and the Holy of Holies.

Question 32

How many times a day do Jews mention Jerusalem or the Temple?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the rite, the day, and what counts. The site does not give a single number. The Liturgy Explorer shows the references for a chosen rite and day, with its method visible, and the answer is always 'many times, every day'.

Question 33

What is Tisha B'Av?

Accepted Answer

The ninth of Av, a fast day mourning the destruction of both Temples and later calamities. The Mishnah lists what happened on it.

Question 34

Why break a glass at a wedding?

Accepted Answer

The Talmud tells of sages who broke valuable glassware at wedding feasts to temper excessive levity. Later custom connects the practice to remembering Jerusalem 'above my chiefest joy'.

Question 35

Why say 'Next year in Jerusalem'?

Accepted Answer

It closes the Passover Seder. It expresses the hope of return to Jerusalem and redemption, a broader hope than Temple reconstruction alone, though the Seder's structure remembers the Pesach offering.

Question 36

What is the Western Wall?

Accepted Answer

A section of the western retaining wall of Herod's expanded Temple Mount platform. For centuries it has been the closest accessible place of Jewish prayer to the site of the Holy of Holies.

Question 37

Is the Western Wall part of the Temple building?

Accepted Answer

No. It supported the platform, not the Sanctuary itself.

Question 38

What is the Temple Mount / Haram al-Sharif?

Accepted Answer

The same platform, sacred to Jews as the site of the Temples and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, with the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa mosque. It is one of the most sensitive places in the world.

Question 39

What do Jewish denominations believe today?

Accepted Answer

Orthodox liturgy preserves explicit prayers for rebuilding the Temple and restoring the service. Other movements have modified or reinterpreted some of these prayers. Views on whether and how a Temple will return vary widely.

Question 40

Is this website calling for destruction of another holy site?

Accepted Answer

No. This site explains Jewish texts, memory and future hope. It does not advocate violence, trespass, confrontation or the damage or removal of any existing holy site, and its reconstruction imagery never depicts such things.