THEY ARE GOING TO TRY TO REBUILD THE TEMPLE (part two)

Temple time?
The Jerusalem Post
October 17, 2008

For centuries Jews have remembered and mourned the destruction of the Temple through traditions such as crushing a glass at weddings or leaving unpainted a patch of wall opposite the entrance to one's home -- each stressing that nothing can be perfect or complete without the Temple.

Built by Solomon in about 950 BCE and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, the Temple was rebuilt about 70 years later but finally razed by the Romans in 70 CE.

Talmud scholar Rabbi Yohanan wrote: "During these times that the Temple is demolished, a person is not allowed to fill his mouth with laughter. This is because the verse [Psalms 126] says, 'Then our mouths will be filled with laughter,' and does not say 'Now our mouths will be filled with laughter.' And when is 'then'? 'Then' will be when the Third Temple is rebuilt."

In other words, "Jewish life without the Temple is like fish out of water,” says Rabbi Chaim Richman, head of the international department of the Temple Institute.

An author of 10 books on the Temple, Richman adds: "Do you realize that 202 commandments out of 613 must have the Temple to be fulfilled? Without the Temple, Judaism is a skeleton of what it's supposed to be."

To this end, the Temple Institute was founded in 1987 with the explicit goal of rebuilding the Temple. Located in the Jewish Quarter, some 100,000 visitors, about half of them Christian, visit the institute each year to learn about the First and Second Temples and preparations for the Third Temple.

The institute is presently involved in education, research and constructing vessels for use in the longed-for Temple.

Richman relates a story about Temple Institute founder Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, a paratrooper who helped liberate the Old City, including the Western Wall and the Temple Mount, in June 1967.

A Jordanian Muslim guide led the soldiers around the Temple Mount explaining where the Temple and other fixtures, such as the menora and altar, had stood. When asked why he was helpful, the guide explained, "We have a tradition that one day the Jews would win a war and rebuild the Temple. This is my contribution. I assume you're starting tomorrow."

Although Temple Institute staff have been called lunatics, zealots and racists by some, they maintain that there is nothing more natural for the Jewish faithful to do than make preparations for the Third Temple.

"The hallmark of the Third Temple is unparalleled peace and harmony," says Richman. "I believe that the best that a Jew can do is to have the integrity to believe and do as much as possible toward building the Temple."

According to Richman the first step in this process is soul searching. "The answer is returning to our spiritual roots. This adds up to building up the holy Temple. It's the vehicle that builds up reconciliation between God and man… not just Jewish people."

To achieve this, the Temple Institute aims "to rekindle the flame of the holy Temple in the hearts of mankind" through various educational initiatives. Toward that end the institute invests about $500,000 yearly in publications, tours and seminars as well as maintenance of its Web site.

But the long-term goal, Richman says, is "to do all in our limited power to bring about the building of the holy Temple in our time."

How exactly this will be achieved is a point of contention.

According to Temple Institute director Yehuda Glick, many devout Jews believe the Temple "will come down somehow from heaven."

He insists a legend like that can be very hard to overcome, even though no Jewish sources support the idea.

"We must understand that 'heavenly' doesn't automatically mean mystical, superficial magic. During the Six Day War, the people of Israel were facing a major catastrophe and, in human eyes, we had no chance -- we were to be wiped out. In six days we overcame enemies from every border and reunited Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel. That is no less a miracle," says Glick. [Needless to say, this is hardly an accurate account of the Six-Day War -- 800]

"So too when we look back at 1938 [before the (alleged) Holocaust] and see we were almost wiped out," he continues. "Who would have believed we were just 10 years from seeing the words of the prophets coming out of the Book and materializing [the establishment of Israel].

"We have total faith that we are to do what we are obligated to do. He has His ways to surprise us. But it must come from a wide-range call and action."

Rabbi Moshe Silberschein, a professor of rabbinic literature at the Hebrew Union College, affirms the educational efforts of the Temple Institute. "I think the institute has educational value, helping children to see with their own eyes what they read about in the Bible and Mishna. It has value in helping them to visualize what the sacred service was like during the Second Temple period of Jewish history."

Still, Silberschein does have some misgivings about the institute "once the institute goes beyond teaching history, heritage and sacred texts, and starts talking about building the Third Temple." If, for example, a bulldozer were brought in to clear the path for the building of a Third Temple, that would be "tantamount to starting World War III," he says. "This is hardly an auspicious way to fulfill the biblical verse in Isaiah 56, 'For My House shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations.'"

Rabbi David Forman, former director of the Israel office of the Union for Reform Judaism, also takes issue with the institute's aims. "I'm opposed for two reasons: one is purely ideological/theological, and the second is practical/political," says Forman. "Firstly, the reconstruction of the Temple would thrust us back to a time where the expression of worship for God was exercised through sacrifice. According to our tradition, when the Temple was destroyed, the notion of sacrifice went by the wayside, and instead, in the rabbinic period, a new form of worship came into being -- prayer -- which seems to be a far more civilized way of asking, praising, thanking and praying to God.

"Secondly, it [rebuilding the Temple] would be terribly disruptive because of the emotional attachments the three monotheistic religions have to Jerusalem, the holy city, and to alter it and the status of the holy sites in any way that would impinge on spiritual longing would be a recipe for disaster and could lead not just to a local conflagration but to a wider one given the tension it would create," he explains, adding that "it would exacerbate an already sensitive situation that would engage the entire world community and certainly the Islamic community."

Eda Haredit spokesman Shmuel Poppenheim adds: "Hitgarut ha'umot [inciting nations] is forbidden... it awakens hate and repulsion, and could create a disastrous chain of events that would impede the coming of the Messiah.

Also, "In our days it is forbidden to enter the Temple Mount, which [institute founder] Ariel encourages. This is very grave and punishable by karet [premature death]," he continues. "But our main opposition [to the Temple Institute] is Ariel's premise that we are redemption-bound... His nationalism damages the pure faith of the Jews. Because of our sins we were exiled from the Land of Israel and the Temple; only our goodness and the will of God will rebuild the Temple, not our hands.

"It is problematic that Ariel mixes religious precepts, like redemption, with political principles like democracy and the State of Israel."

When asked how the Third Temple would come about, Richman responds: "I don't do scenarios. I'm not shying away from the question. The Temple is not up to the Temple Institute, but up to the people of Israel. They have a representative government. Whether they'll act in accordance with what it means to be a Jew, I don't know."

He quotes Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, who said, "If we were the people we're supposed to be, the Muslims would come to us and ask, 'Please build us a Temple.'"

Asked about the timetable for construction, Richman, an ordained rabbi who quotes Maimonides on Temple matters but draws popular wisdom from "rabbis" Mark Twain and Yogi Berra, laughs, "I don't know, but I think we're behind schedule."

In the meantime, the Temple Institute focuses its energies on education and preparing vessels for use in the Third Temple.

A team of researchers, rabbis and scientists collaborate to ensure the needed items meet scriptural and rabbinic criteria. Beyond those standards, the craftsmen have artistic license to construct vessels as they deem appropriate.

"It's a very complex process," Richman explains. "Some items have taken over 10 years of research. We have groups of scholars who sift through superfluous information regarding concepts that have become completely forgotten or little is known of them. We are taking a section of Torah wisdom and reactivating it."

Knowledge of the construction of Temple objects is so obscure that "many people have asked us if we're allowed to do it. They ask, 'Isn't God supposed to do that?'"

Construction of the high priest's breastplate is an example of the complexity involved. According to Exodus 28 the material had to be woven of "gold, sky blue, dark red, and crimson-dyed wool, and of twisted linen."

Metalsmiths beat the gold into thin sheets, then cut it into fine threads to be woven into the material. The sky-blue color (techelet in Hebrew, said by the Mishna to resemble indigo) was a dye obtained from a snail known as hilazon.

The exact identification of this animal and the method used to produce the dye is the subject of extensive research. Most scholars today believe it to be the Mediterranean snail known as Murex trunculus.

"The dark red color, argaman in Hebrew, is also derived from a snail, possibly the Murex trunculus as well," says Richman. "According to this theory, the difference in color is a product of the amount of time the substance is initially exposed to sunlight."

The crimson color is produced from a worm referred to in the Torah as the "crimson worm," tola'at shani in Hebrew, a mountain worm that has been identified as Kermes biblicus.

The Hebrew word that appears for "linen" is shesh, which means "six." Researchers believe this requires each thread to be six-ply.

The 12 stones for the breastplate presented another problem since linguists don't agree on what the ancient names intend. Extensive research eventually revealed that ancient stones were classified by color, not gem family.

"The final authority is the midrash, which explains that the 12 tribes of Israel each had a flag, and the flag color matched the color of the stone worn on the high priest's breastplate representing that tribe. So there was maybe more than one stone to fit the requirement of the verse. We look at several criteria and find the best. That's the goal… to find the best possible."

To date the institute has created more than 60 vessels for use in the Temple, which are on display at the institute. These include the showbread table, incense altar, and head and breast plates for the high priest.

One of the most expensive pieces is a golden menora showcased on a platform near the Western Wall. Made of a single piece of solid gold poured over a metal base, the half-ton fixture contains about 45 kilograms of gold and is valued at $3 million. Its design and construction was based on rabbinic sources as well as Roman-Jewish historian Josephus Flavius, himself a priest who served in the Temple.

The absence of a red heifer presents a problem as its ashes must consecrate the articles in accordance with Numbers 19 and rabbinical instruction. Otherwise the priests would have to use the vessels in a state of impurity. Citing security concerns, Richman would not comment on the search for the red heifer. The institute has also begun mass production of priestly garments. It recently received rabbinic authorization to use special sewing machines to produce the apparel, bringing the price of each garment down from about $10,000 to $800.

Dozens of kohanim (members of the priestly line dating to Aaron) have placed their orders.

Until construction on the Third Temple can begin, the institute seeks to build a World Center for Temple Knowledge outside Jaffa Gate.

Slated for construction in 2012, the 2,500-square-meter facility will offer a 3-D experience of "going up to the Temple" as well as in-depth exhibits and galleries.

These and other projects aside, the institute's long-term goal is to rebuild the Temple, which Richman insists must be preceded by a shift in thinking.

"Everything that goes on in this country relates to the spiritual struggle behind it all -- especially with the people of Israel. It's all about a total struggle about who we are and what our destiny is. We're not called to be the best doctors and lawyers and Hollywood producers -- that is not our destiny. We're called to be a nation of priests," he says.

"The Temple is a real litmus paper test of that equation. We are talking about the big existential question: Who are we?

The above article can be found at: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017549115&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Will the Jews return to the Temple Mount?
WorldNetDaily
March 22, 2009

JERUSALEM -- A prominent U.S. rabbi recently ascended the Temple Mount -- Judaism's most revered site -- stirring a quiet debate among some within the Jewish religious community about whether Jews should be permitted to enter the mount.

Some rabbis forbid Jewish entry, while others permit it. Those who oppose ascending the mount may indirectly contribute to the current Islamic consolidation of the site, argued Rabbi Moshe Dovid Tendler, a Jewish law and ethics professor and top rabbinic scholar.

"The reality is that slowly the area has become without Jews," Tendler told WND. "The claim of the Arabs that it belongs to them is being affirmed by our (Jewish) absence."

A video of Tendler visiting the Temple Mount in January was released this past week on YouTube by the Temple Institute, a nonprofit organization promoting awareness of the mount.

The video sparked controversy within the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, where some rabbis forbid Jews to go up to the mount until the Third Temple is built, even though there are records of Jews, including some of the most prominent Jewish law scholars, visiting the Temple ruins from the Byzantine period until recently.

On Vosizneias, a popular ultra-Orthodox blog, user opinions regarding Tendler's visit ran the gamut from praise for the rabbi to calling for him to be excommunicated.

"Way to go Rabbi Tendler," wrote one reader. "Continue to show the world that you are not religious."

Another commented, "(More power to you). About time someone has the guts to stand up for the real (Jewish law)."

Many contemporary rabbinic authorities permit entry to the outer areas of the Mount, which can be measured by a change in the kind of foundation stone. According to Jewish law, the sanctity of the Temple Mount is structured in concentric circles. In the innermost circles, where the Holy of Holies was said to be located, the restrictions of access are the greatest.

During Temple times, only the Kohen Hagadol, or High Priest, could enter the most restricted area, and this only once a year, on the fast day of Yom Kippur. The outer circles are less restricted.

Tendler, who is a professor and rabbi at Yeshiva University in New York, told WND the exact locations of the restricted areas are well-known. He asserted establishing proper Orthodox Jewish tours of the Temple Mount would help those who currently ascend the Mount from violating Jewish law.

"The rabbinic ban has not been working. We know how to visit the (mount) properly. As of now, secular tour guides take people where they should not to go; they have become a negative force. We need to correct this."

Most rabbis who ban Jewish visits justify their decrees by claiming Jewish ascent may violate the sanctity of the mount.

Tendler countered: "[Holiness] is not emphasized by not going into a place of [holiness], but by going into a place of [holiness] properly prepared.

"The idea of forbidding this area because it's an area of [holiness] is counter to what we know about man's relationship with [holiness]. … Holiness comes from man's behavior. The holiness of [the Temple Mount] comes from all the [holiness] of the [Jewish nation]." Tendler added, "If we come and pray here, we make the place holy."

In the 1970s, Israel's Chief Rabbinate ruled it was forbidden to enter any part of the mount. Followers of Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook, one of the leaders of the religious Zionist movement, opposed the ban. The past few years, more and more rabbis have ruled visits to the mount are permitted.

Some have argued the rabbis who forbid Jewish entry to the Temple Mount may indirectly contribute to the current Islamic consolidation of the site. The lack of a large number of Jewish visitors is likely a major factor in Israeli government's restriction of Jewish ascent to the Mount.

Temple Mount: No-pray zone

Israel recaptured the Temple Mount during the 1967 Six Day War. Currently under Israeli control, Jews and Christians are barred from praying on the Mount.

The Temple Mount was opened to the general public until September 2000, when the Palestinians started their Intifada by throwing stones at Jewish worshippers after then-candidate for prime minister Ariel Sharon visited the area.

Following the onset of violence, the new Sharon government closed the Mount to non-Muslims, using checkpoints to control all pedestrian traffic for fear of further clashes with the Palestinians.

The Temple Mount was reopened to non-Muslims in August 2003. It remains open, but only Sundays through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., and not on any Christian, Jewish or Muslim holidays or other days considered "sensitive" by the Waqf.

During "open" days, Jews and Christian are allowed to ascend the Mount, usually through organized tours and only if they conform first to a strict set of guidelines, which includes demands that they not pray or bring any "holy objects" to the site. Visitors are banned from entering any of the mosques without direct Waqf permission. Rules are enforced by Waqf agents, who watch tours closely and alert nearby Israeli police to any breaking of their guidelines.

During Tendler's visit to the mount, he can be heard in the video complaining about the Israeli rules.

"I'm little bit annoyed at the instructions that we get," he quipped, "as if we were aliens and have to be told how to behave on [the Temple Mount]."

Muslim holy site?

King Solomon built the First Temple in the 10th century B.C. The Babylonians destroyed it in 586 B.C. The Jews built the Second Temple in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. The Romans destroyed the Second Temple in A.D. 70.

The First Temple stood for about 400 years, the second for almost 600. Both Temples served as the center of religious worship for the whole Jewish nation. All Jewish holidays centered on worship at the Temple -- the central location for the offering of sacrifices and the main gathering place for the Jewish people.

According to the Talmud, God created the world from the foundation stone of the Temple Mount.

The site is believed to be the biblical Mount Moriah, where Abraham fulfilled God's test of faith by demonstrating his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Jewish tradition also holds that Mashiach -- literally "the anointed one," the Jewish Messiah -- will come and rebuild the third and final temple on the Mount in Jerusalem and bring redemption to the entire world.

The Western Wall, called the Kotel in Hebrew, is the one part of the Temple Mount that survived the Roman destruction of the Second Temple and stands to this day in Jerusalem.

The Temple Mount has remained a focal point for Jewish services for thousands of years. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple have been uttered three times daily by religious Jews since the destruction of the Second Temple. Throughout all the centuries of Jewish exile from their land, thorough documentation shows the Jews never gave up their hope of returning to Jerusalem and reestablishing their Temple. To this day Jews worldwide pray facing the Western Wall, while Muslims turn their backs away from the Temple Mount and pray toward Mecca.

Muslims constructed the al‐Aqsa Mosque around A.D. 709 to serve as a place of worship near a famous shrine, the gleaming Dome of the Rock, built by an Islamic caliph, or supreme ruler.

About 100 years ago, Muslims began to associate al‐Aqsa in Jerusalem with the place Muhammad ascended to heaven. Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night from "a sacred mosque" -- believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia -- to "the farthest mosque," and from a rock there ascended to heaven to receive revelations from Allah that became part of the Koran.

While Palestinians and many Muslim countries claim exclusivity over the Mount, and while their leaders strenuously deny the Jewish historic connection to the site, things weren't always this way. In fact, historically, Muslims never claimed the al‐Aqsa Mosque as their "third holiest site" and always recognized the existence of the Jewish Temples.

According to an Israeli attorney, Dr. Shmuel Berkovits, Islamic tradition mostly disregarded Jerusalem. He points out in his book "How Dreadful is this Place!" that Muhammad was said to loathe Jerusalem and what it stood for to the other monotheistic faiths.

Muhammad also made a point of eliminating pagan sites of worship and sanctifying only one place -- the Kaaba in Mecca -- to signify the unity of Allah. As late as the fourteenth century, Islamic scholar Taqi al‐Din Ibn Taymiyya, whose writings later influenced the ultraconservative Wahhabi movement in Arabia, ruled that sacred Islamic sites exist only on the Arabian Peninsula, and that "in Jerusalem, there is not a place one calls sacred, and the same holds true for the tombs of Hebron."

Not until the late nineteenth century -- when Jews started immigrating to Palestine -- did Muslim scholars claim that Muhammad tied his horse to the Western Wall and associate Muhammad's purported night journey with the Temple Mount.

The above article can be found at: http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=92578

The rebuilding of the temple will no doubt be preceded by the mass expulsion of troublesome Palestinian Muslims and Christians near the temple precincts. And that is precisely what’s happening now, with Israeli officialdom stepping up efforts to evict Palestinian residents from their ancestral homes in Arab East Jerusalem:

60,000 Palestinians at risk in Jerusalem, UN warns
Inter Press Service (IPS)
May 1, 2009

JERUSALEM -- A report published Friday by a United Nations agency has warned that the problems facing the people of Silwan, who are facing eviction from their homes, are replicated throughout East Jerusalem.

At least 60,000 out of the estimated 225,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem are at risk of having their homes obliterated because they have been deemed illegal by Israeli officialdom, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated.

Some 90 Palestinian buildings were demolished in 2008 alone, uprooting about 400 people.

All this destruction is being wrought as part of a systematic policy of ensuring that the entire city of Jerusalem falls into Israeli hands, even though a raft of UN resolutions have insisted there is no legal validity to building settlements in East Jerusalem. To date one-third of East Jerusalem has been expropriated by Israel and almost 200,000 settlers housed.

A makeshift tent of black net walls connected to a tarpaulin roof with nails and timber has become the nerve centre of a struggle to save 1,500 Palestinians in East Jerusalem in immediate danger of having their homes destroyed.

Fakhri Abu Diab has lived here in the Silwan district all 47 years of his life but has been told that he and his family must leave so that a plan to use Biblical archaeology for political ends can be executed. According to the municipality of Jerusalem, 88 houses must be demolished to extend the nearby City of David, a park honoring the king reputed to have conquered the city three millennia ago.

The Israeli flag that rolls down the facade of a gleaming block of apartments on the hill overlooking the protest tent signifies the local authority's real intentions, Diab believes. Whereas the state has spared no expense providing armed security for the Israeli settlers who have moved into the building, the Arab community who had been here beforehand lacks a secondary school and other essential services.

"We know the municipality wants to bring settlers here," said Diab. "They want the land without us, without Palestinians."

Like many of his neighbors, Diab lives in a house that was built before Israel seized East Jerusalem in 1967. "We have been here for many generations," he said. "I have no other place to go."

A short stroll from the American Colony, a family-run hotel that seeks to recreate the ambience of the early 20th century, the residents of the Sheikh Jarrah district are preparing for the next wave of evictions. In 1972 two organizations representing Israeli settlers convinced their country's land registrar that 28 dunums (28,000 squared metres) here should be registered in their name.

In the living room of Maher Hanoun's house, political activists from Scotland and the Czech Republic sip coffee and smoke cigarettes. Hanoun has long refused to pay the rent demanded by the settler organizations. Last year this father of five was imprisoned for not complying with the terms of an eviction order.

"Many times the lawyers for the Israeli settlers have offered us a lot of money," he said. "It is not a matter of money. Here is the house where I was born and my kids were born. After they evacuate us, they will build 250 apartments for settlers."

Hanoun, who is embroiled in a protracted court battle, vows to continue resisting. "We are not fighting with weapons," he said. "We are fighting with our bodies and our voices."

Like Hanoun, the Al-Kurd family lived in a house built as part of a project implemented jointly by the Jordanian government and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The project was designed to accommodate 28 Palestinian refugee families who fled from their homes during the violence of 1948, a period which the state of Israel considers a war of independence but which Palestinians label the 'nakbah' (catastrophe).

In November last year, Israeli soldiers forced the Al-Kurds out of their home. Later that month Mohammad Al-Kurd, also known as Abu Kamel, died from a massive heart attack that locals attribute to shock.

In the 1990s, pressure exerted by Madeleine Albright, then U.S. secretary of state [and crypto-Jew -- 800], led to the freezing of work on an Israeli settlement in Ras Al-Amud, another part of East Jerusalem. Although the construction work resumed after she left office, human rights activists cite it as an example of what can be achieved on the rare instances when Israel is challenged in strident terms by its chief ally.

So far, the current head of U.S. diplomacy, Hillary Clinton, has only delivered a mild rebuke to the expansion of settlements by describing them as "unhelpful". In a leaked internal document, the European Commission went further earlier this year by contending that Israel's activities in and around Jerusalem "constitute one of the most acute challenges" to the prospect of an eventual peace accord with the Palestinians.

Jeff Halper from the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions said that this was the second such report that the European Union's executive arm has drawn up in recent years. Yet when it made similar observations in a previous report, no follow-up action was taken.

Nevertheless, Halper voiced optimism that the election of Barack Obama as U.S. President and the international revulsion at Israel's attacks on Gaza in December and January may prompt both the U.S. and the EU to demand genuine change in Israeli conduct. "People are beginning to speak out in ways that they haven't done before," he said. "It is too early to say if this is the beckoning of a new era or just a passing phenomenon."

The above article can be found at: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46697

The idea of a reconstructed temple in Jerusalem also permeates Jewish pop culture, as can be seen from the following excerpts from an interview with a major Israeli music producer:

Top Song Producer Lawrence Dermer returns to Jewish roots
Israel National News
June 12, 2008

“Israel We Are Strong” is the latest chapter in the story of Lawrence Dermer, a Grammy-nominated, BMI Award-winning producer for big time acts such as Jennifer Lopez and Gloria Estefan. Although his name is not well known, a quick search on the internet reveals his hand in a huge number of pop hits starting in the 1980s. But that all changed several years ago when a life-altering personal crisis lead the Dermer family to temporarily give up music and turn to Judaism.

With a little help from Chabad, Dermer returned to music with “Third House Rising,” a full length album with Jewish themes. Recently, Dermer visited Israel to produce the single “Israel We Are Strong” for Israel's 60th anniversary. Israel We Are Strong is a power-pop radio-friendly anthem with English lyrics and backing vocals by famous Israeli singer Shlomo Gronich. The accompanying video features Dermer and his family singing with groups of different segments of Israeli society. Proceeds for sale of the track go to the S.O.S. Sderot Emergency Fund.

Question: Tell us about the songs on the “Third House Rising” album.

Lawrence Dermer: I wrote all the songs with my wife Robin. It was a family project for us. The message is that we all have a higher purpose here and a divine purpose and our purpose is to heal the world and create inspiration in each other and lift each other up and make the world a better place.

Question: What about the music? Why did you make it a dance track?

Lawrence Dermer: We wanted to make this whole project mostly danceable. I felt it was going to be an interesting combination of elements. Dancing brings joy and elevation, but usually when we think of dance music, usually the message is very lightweight. There's not a lot of meaning in the lyrics. It's just kind of "let's jump up and down and dance and have a party with a great beat". So we wanted to try and combine the physicality of dancing with an uplifting positive spiritual message. The bulk of the album is definitely up-tempo. There are some ballads as well.

As far as the music, sometimes things just kind of channel through me. Where it takes me is where it takes me.

Question: What does “Third House Rising” mean?

Lawrence Dermer: What it means to us is the Third Temple. We're talking about the Beit Hamikdash. But we're talking about it not only in a physical sense, the Third Temple being rebuilt, but also a state of mind and reference to the coming of Moshiach and how we don't feel like we're waiting for that day to come.

We feel like it's in all of us to do our part to bring the new era to the world and a new era to Israel and where everybody is elevating themselves and G-d and preparing themselves for a new way of life -- a better way of life -- where there's no more evil and no more terrible things happening in the world. No more greed and everybody is just living a great and enlightened existence.

It sounds a little idealistic but that's the message, and we know a lot of people share that message and we do our part and we feel if everybody tries to do their part this will bring a better day in the world.

Question: What concerts have you done? Where else have you performed?

Lawrence Dermer: We've been doing shows all over Florida in Chabad houses and JCCs, we're going to Corpus Christi, Texas for a big JCC fundraiser over there. We were actually in Crown Heights for a big Shabbaton. There was about 800 or 1,000 people there. We've been going all over the place.

The complete interview can be found at: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126478

It’s worth noting that even bizarre alien cults, such as the International Raelian Movement, are -- while simultaneously condemning Israeli violence against Palestinians -- also calling for the reconstruction of the temple in Jerusalem:

Yahweh speaks to Rael
Westender (Australia)
April 20, 2009

Rael, founder and leader of the International Raelian Movement, recently proposed a one-state solution for Palestine in which Jews and Palestinians would combine resources to create a powerful, wealthy state forged from brotherhood and love. He said today that the need to achieve that goal has become especially urgent.

“On April 12, the fourth full day of Pessah (Passover), I received a message from Yahweh, the leader of the Elohim, the extraterrestrial scientists who created all forms of life on Earth,” Rael said in an official statement released this morning. “This message from the Elohim, our creators, was directed to the Jewish people.”

Rael said that although the first messages he transmitted from the Elohim years ago reminded Jews to return to IsRael, the new one reprimands them, saying they were not meant to steal the Palestinians’ property and massacre them.

“The message says they were to be both Zionists and Palestinians -- that they were to return and unite in love with the people living there, who are genetically their brothers,” Rael said. “By combining their knowledge and resources with those of the local population, they could have created a rich, unified state that would have set an example for the entire world. That was their sacred mission. Instead, they robbed the Palestinian people, taking their property and forcing them into exile. And they have even driven them into concentration camps, where they recently massacred them in Gaza. Yahweh said these actions have transformed the Chosen People into criminals who have created a racist, violent state that He compared to a cancer in humanity because it despises life and the rights of non-Jews.”

Rael said Yahweh told him that because many Jews have betrayed the mission assigned them by the Elohim, that of guiding humanity toward more love, tolerance and consciousness and less violence, that the state they created has been condemned.

“Yahweh said the violent, monstrous state of IsRael will vanish quickly, and that Jews who try to preserve it will no longer be part of the Chosen People,” Rael said. “He warned that unless they immediately start working toward a unified Palestinian state and renounce racist Zionism, they will be dispersed in an unremitting Diaspora lasting seven generations.

“Those who opposed crimes against humanity perpetrated by the currently racist state of IsRael, including the recent genocide in Gaza, will still be part of the Chosen People, retaining their right to Judaity,” Rael said, adding that Yahweh has given them new instructions. “They’re to start working toward Palestinian Zionism -- a state where Muslims, Christians and Jews can live together in harmony with equal rights,” he said.

“They must help prepare the construction of the Third Temple, the Embassy of the Elohim. And they must welcome my return as Yahweh’s son and Last Messenger of Our Creators, who will bring centuries of peace on Earth with their return."

Rael said messages brought from the Elohim by previous prophets gave recipients centuries to accomplish things.

“This new message from Yahweh gives them only several years at most -- and it could be just a matter of months,” he said. “They have not a moment to waste.”

The full content of the April 12, 2009, message given by Yahweh to Rael is available at the Raelian press site www.raelpress.org and also at www.raelnews.org.

The above article can be found at: http://www.westender.com.au/news/503/15/Yahweh-speaks-to-Rael

Finally, to download an excellent 2008 audio file by Christian pastor and researcher Texe Marrs -- in which Marrs postulates the destruction of the two mosques by a manmade earthquake in an “Operation Jericho” -- click HERE.

READ PART ONE OF THIS POST HERE