In the Torah, God commanded the Children of Israel to build a tabernacle, a Mishkhan, a dwelling place for His Presence, the Shekhinah. God told Moshe to choose Betzalel to be the architect of this holy project, as the Torah testifies that he was an inspired individual - "filled with the spirit of God, with wisdom, understanding and knowledge" (Exodus 31:3). King David longed to build a permanent Sanctuary for the Shekhinah in Jerusalem, but because he was a man of war, it was his son, Solomon, a man of peace, who actually built the first Temple there. Our sages taught that over four hundred year later God allowed this first Temple to be destroyed by the Babylonians because the Jewish people committed the sins of idolatry, adultery and murder.


A second Temple was built on the same site when the Jews returned from exile seventy years later, but our sages teach that the Shekhinah did not dwell in this House of God as it did in the first Temple. The second Temple stood for another four hundred years but was destroyed by the Romans because of the sin of senseless hatred. The sages point out that although the Jews committed more serious sins during the First Temple period, since they were relatively united among themselves, the Babylonian exile lasted only seventy years. The Roman exile, on the other hand, lasted for two thousand years because of the lack of brotherly love among the Jewish people. Although the Judaism that we practice developed in the Diaspora during these two millennia without a Temple in Jerusalem, an important aspect of our faith is the belief that the exiles will be gathered and returned to the Holy Land where a Third Temple will be built.

I believe that there is much confusion about the nature of this Third Temple, as there is about pretty much everything associated with the Messianic era. One thing seems to be clear from the Scriptures, however: the Third Temple is not just for the Jews it is for all peoples. This can be seen from the following verses, "Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to God, to serve him, and to love the Name of God, to be his servants, every one that keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and all that take hold of My covenant. Even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted on My altar; for My house shall be a house of prayer for all nations" (Isaiah 56:6-7). "The time shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see My Glory... And they shall bring all your brethren out of all the nations for an offering to God upon horses, and in chariots... to My holy mountain Jerusalem, says God, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel to the house of God. And I will also take of them for Kohanim (priests) and for Levites, says God" (Isaiah 66:18-21).

According to tradition, the Kohanim that served in the first two Temples were all descendants of Moshe's brother, Aharon. Moshe and Aharon were from the tribe of Levi. In the Torah, God chose this tribe to be the caretakers of the Sanctuary, and He chose Aharon and his sons to be its priests. In the desert, the Levites carried the Tabernacle tent and its vessels, curtains, and beams from place to place. The work of the Levites continued in the Temple in Jerusalem. They guarded the Temple, opened its gates in the morning, and locked them at night. They played instruments and sung songs of praise in the Temple courtyard as an accompaniment to the holy service that was exclusively performed by Aharon's descendants, the Kohanim.

Only they were allowed to enter the Temple to offer sacrifice, light lamps and burn incense. Kohanim prepared and ate the
sacrificial meat and bread that the people brought to the Temple to atone for their sins. Throughout the first two Temples, one High Priest, the Kohen Gadol, was chosen from the Kohanim to serve as Aharon's representative. He is the only Kohen allowed to serve in the Temple on the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. And only on this day is he allowed to enter into the inner sanctum of the Temple, the holy of holies, the place where the Ark of the Covenant sits, above which God's Shekhinah dwells, and speaks to the prophets.


The passage from Isaiah quoted above, however, says that God will take Kohanim and Levites from the nations to serve in the Third Temple - priests and guardians that are not from Aharon's family, not from Levi's tribe, and not even from the nation of Israel. This seems to fit with the passage that calls the Third Temple "a house of prayer for all people", but how will this universal Temple actually come about? Should we be striving to build it ourselves on the Temple Mount, and reinstate animal sacrifices? Would we then all agree who would get to be the Kohanim? Would we all agree who would get to be the Kohen Gadol? These questions are all the more difficult if Kohanim can be chosen even from other nations. Is that why there is a tradition that the Third Temple has to descend in fire from Heaven? And what about the extremely sensitive issue of what to do about the two mosques that presently sit on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem?

I believe that as long as we primarily think of the Temple - in the usual religious way - as a physical building located on a particular mountain in the city of Jerusalem, it will be impossible to fulfill the Biblical prophecies of the Third Temple. One the other hand, if we think of the Temple primarily as a spiritual place, it is much easier to fulfill these prophecies. According to Joseph Campbell and Ken Wilber, something truly spiritual must be universally and perennially accessible. It must be available to anyone, anywhere. And therefore, if we primarily think of the Temple - in a spiritual way - as something internal, inside of ourselves, rather than something external, outside of ourselves, the Temple becomes immediately and universally available.


I will bring some traditional sources to try to show that this is primarily a matter of aligning our mind-bodies with our souls. If we sanctify our bodies, hearts and minds, we become holy Temples for our souls, and the Shekhinah dwells in us. In this manner, it is possible for all human beings to attain such an alignment, and thereby 'construct' themselves into spiritual Temples. Likewise, every human being can become a spiritual Levite that guards and protects this Temple, and sings beautiful songs of praise inside it. Any human being can be a spiritual Kohen that goes within to perform service in this Temple, or even be a spiritual Kohen Gadol that enters into the holy of holies and achieves atonement - at-one-ment - with God. As soon the Temple, Kohen and Levi, etc. are taken out of external, literal interpretations that are fixed and limited in space and time, and raised to internal, metaphoric, spiritual interpretations, they immediately become eternal, universal and attainable. And the idea of a spiritual Temple is not original or new, as we will see. The first source I will bring is the following Midrash:

"These are the accounts of the Mishkhan (dwelling place); the Mishkhan of the Testimony..." (Exodus 38:21), that is why the Scriptures say, "God, I love the habitation of your House; and the Place where your Glory dwells" (Psalms 26:8). Thus, the Temple is precisely aligned with the Place where God's Glory dwells. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said: This implies that the Temple below is precisely aligned with the Temple above, as it says, "a Place for you to rest in; a Sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established" (Exodus 15:17).

This Midrash interprets the doubling of terms in the above verses to be referring to two different Mishkhans. One Mishkhan - the Temple above - is a spiritual Place where God's Shekhinah, His Glory, always rests and dwells. The other Mishkhan - the Temple below - is a physical habitation that has a particular place in time and space. The Temple below is understood to be the temporary 'body' of the Temple above which is its eternal 'soul'. When the two are precisely aligned, the Shekhinah has a dwelling place on the physical plane, in the realm of time and space. The Kabbalists teach that this is the main purpose of creation, to make a dwelling place for God in the lower realms. Indeed, the following Midrash teaches that the building of the Mishkhan parallels and is equal to the creation of the world:

Rabbi Yaakov the son of Rabbi Assi said: The building of the Mishkhan is equal and parallel to the creation of the world. This can be seen from the following comparison: It is written, "God with wisdom founded the Earth; and established the Heavens with understanding. With his knowledge the depths were broken, and the clouds drop down dew" (Proverbs 3:19-20); and it says, "I have called upon Betzalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Yehudah: and I have filled him with the spirit of God, with wisdom; and with understanding; and with knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to contrive works of art"
(Exodus 31:2-3). This is to teach us that the Mishkhan is equal to the entire world and parallel to the formation of Adam who is a microcosm of the world.

The above comparison becomes even stronger when we consider the following verse: "With wisdom a house is built, and with understanding it is established, and with knowledge are the chambers filled with all precious and pleasant riches" (Proverbs 24:3). Because Betzalel, the builder of the Mishkhan below, had his body aligned with his soul, the house he built was aligned with its 'soul', that is, the Mishkhan above. The proof of this alignment is that he was divinely inspired - filled with the spirit of God, with wisdom, understanding and knowledge. In other words, Betzalel was able to build a dwelling place for the Shekhinah because he was a dwelling place for the Shekhinah. In the following passage, Rabbi Moshe Hayim Luzzatto says that in the Third Temple this alignment will be so complete that the Mishkhan above will not just influence the Mishkhan below, it will spread down to it in such a way that there will no longer be two different dwelling places for the Shekhinah, only one:

During the reign of Solomon, the first Temple below was aligned with the Temple above. That is why the Shekhinah found a resting place in it and dwelled there. The second Temple was not aligned with the one above, however, and thus the Shekhinah did not dwell in it. But in the future, it is not enough that the upper and lower Temples will be aligned, rather the Temple above will spread out and reach below. This is why our sages said the third Temple is the work of the hands of God. It is not that the House above is uprooted from its place, it will just spread out and reach below, and then a material structure will be built around it, as is the way of this world. The two structures will be united as one, and not separate from each other. The Glory of God will thus dwell in it with complete revelation.

The way of this world, according to Luzzatto, is the idea that the world, the macrocosm, and every human being, the microcosm, is created in this same way: from the greater to the lesser, from above to below, from inside out. Thus, the building of the Temple and the creation of the world parallel and are equal to the formation of Adam - the soul descends and builds a body around itself. In Luzzatto's classic The Way of God, he describes how the form of Adam is unique in that it is a combination of two opposites, namely, an unlimited and eternal divine soul; and a limited and temporary physical body. This combining of opposites is accomplished through an intermediate entity that is somewhere in-between the two. Although it could be referred to as the most ethereal part of the body, in the following passage, Luzzatto calls it the lower part of the soul:

This type of soul also exists in all living creatures and is a very ethereal entity. It is transmitted through the genetic material at the time of conception, and then continually spreads, construction a body appropriate for each particular species... In man's lower soul, certain attributes and faculties can be distinguished. These include his imagination, memory, intelligence and will. ...Besides this, however, there exists in man a spiritual entity, a divine soul that is much higher than this. The only reason this entity becomes part of man is to bind him to the highest Roots. ...The higher soul directs the lower soul, and through it performs its necessary functions in that it is linked to the body via the most ethereal element of the blood.

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, who translated The Way of God into English, wrote in a note that this highest element of the 'blood' is actually the neural impulses that flow through the nerves. The Kabbalists called this ethereal blood, 'the life of the brain', because all mental activity depends on neurological impulses. Kaplan wrote that the lower soul is intermediate between the spiritual and the physical and can be identified with the information contained in man's mind and body as well as with its ability to process it. In modern terms, we can also call this lower soul, the mind, since it contains imagination, memory, intelligence and will, all things we usually associate with mind. We will therefore say that according to Luzzatto, the soul descends to dwell in us by using the mind to create a material brain around itself, which is the highest aspect of the body, and through which performs its necessary functions.

Thus, the formation of man is from above to below.
This idea is found in mystical world-views from many different cultures and times, it is part of the perennial philosophy in which the greater creates the lesser, and in which the soul is seen as being a more powerful reality than the mind, which in turn, is a more powerful reality than the brain. This is the opposite of the perspective of the materialist who claims that the material brain is the only reality, and it is the brain that produces mind that sometimes imagines a soul. The materialist perspective that believes that the lesser can create the greater is quite common, even though is it so irrational, and it has many forms - both scientific and religious. But the mystical tradition and its corresponding world-view sees the building of the Temple paralleling the formation of Adam in that the greater, the soul - the eternal spiritual Mishkhan - descends in the form of divine inspiration, wisdom, understanding and knowledge, the mind that creates the lesser, an appropriate body - the temporary material Mishkhan - that it builds around itself.

I believe that he complete revelation of God's Glory that Luzzatto mentioned in his essay about the future Temple is associated with the outpouring of divine revelation, ruah hakodesh, the spirit of God, wisdom, understanding and knowledge, to all of humanity, which is an important aspect of the Messianic era, as can be seen from the following quote from Luzzatto's Essay on Fundamentals:
When this time comes, ignorance will cease to exist in the world, as all hearts will be filled with wisdom. Divine inspiration will be poured out over all flesh in such a manner that all mankind will attain it without any difficulty whatsoever, as the prophet said in God's name (Joel 3:1-2): "I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My spirit".

People whose entire beings, body, heart, mind and soul, are aligned with God are holy people. Luzzatto described the nature of a holy person in the following passage from his classic work, Mesilat Yesharim. Notice that the holy person's alignment with God is so great that the supernal angelic realms and the eternal world to come 'spread out' and reach him while he still inhabits this temporary, physical world. And Luzzatto says that such a person himself is considered to be a Temple for God:

One who is holy is constantly attached to God. His soul strolls through the teachings of the Wisdom of Truth with love and reverence for God. Such a person is considered to be strolling before God in the realms of eternal Life while he is still here in this world. This happens when one's awareness and mind are always firmly incorporated in the greatness of God, His majesty and His holiness - so much so that it is as if one was actually attached to the supernal angels while still in this world. A person cannot do this all by himself. He can only arouse himself to want this and strive to achieve it. After he has prepared himself with all the necessary preparations... then a spirit will be poured upon him from Heaven, and God will cause His Name to dwell upon him, as He does with all His holy ones. Then he will actually be like an angel of God, and all of his actions - even the most lowly and material - will be like offerings and worship. A holy person is himself considered to be like a Sanctuary, a tabernacle, an altar. As our sages said, The righteous are themselves the merkava, because the Shekhinah rests upon them as it did in the Holy Temple. Thus, the food they eat is like burnt offerings that go up upon God's altar.

An even stronger expression of this last point can be seen in the following quote from Rabbi Hayim from Volozhin, the main disciple of the Vilna Gaon in his classic work, Nefesh HaHayim:

Certainly, the main concept of the holy - and the Sanctuary, and the dwelling of God's Shekhinah - is the human being. That is, if a person makes himself properly holy by keeping all the mitzvot, ...such a person himself is actually the Sanctuary, and God, Blessed is His Name, is inside of him. Our sages point out that in the verse, "Make for Me a Sanctuary, and I will dwell inside of them" (Exodus 25:8), it does not say, and I will dwell inside of it, rather it says, "and I will dwell inside of them"... Our sages also said that the continuation of this passage, "According to all that I show you, the pattern of the Mishkhan, and the pattern of all its vessels, and so you shall make" (Exodus 25:9), is a commandment for all generations. That is, God is telling us here, Do not think that My main intention is the making of the external Sanctuary. Rather, know that the entire purpose of My wanting this pattern of the Mishkhan and its vessels is only to hint to you, that you should look at it and make yourselves, via your good deeds, into this pattern of the Mishkhan and its vessels - all holy, proper and fitting for My Shekhinah to actually dwell inside of you. And that is why I said, "Make for Me a Sanctuary, and I will dwell inside of them", them specifically, because in all that I am showing you the pattern of the Mishkhan, and all its vessels, my main intention is that you should make yourselves into such a dwelling place for Me.

This is the truly spiritual, universal, and perennially accessible Sanctuary - the internal one, not the external one. Making such a shift in thinking, I believe, is essential for transforming this Messianic promise from merely a dream to a reality, an immanently available reality. This does not diminish the importance of physical Temples and Sanctuaries, indeed, our body is a physical Mishkhan for the Shekhinah that dwells in our soul. And in the Messianic era we will still need buildings in which people gather together to worship God. My point is that if we sanctify ourselves and raise our consciousness to a universal, world-centric level - one that does not erase ethnic and religious differences, but embraces them in a larger whole that is greater than the sum of its parts - then the structures we build will also be truly universal and without the ethnic biases that structures built with an ethnocentric point of view always have.

And this universal, pluralistic perspective does not diminish the importance of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. It just shifts the emphasis from a less important, smaller Temple to a more important, larger, more inclusive one. And this shift in emphasis led me to an interesting realization during a recent visit to the Old City of Jerusalem. A friend of mine took me to a rooftop that is precisely in the center of the Old City where one can look out over all four quarters of this ancient walled city. The Temple mount was directly in front of me, where the Western Wall stands, and where the two mosques with their metallic domes sat sparkling in the sun. In front of me to my right was the Jewish Quarter; to my left the Muslim Quarter; behind me to the right was the Armenian Quarter, and to the left was the Christian Quarter. There were many churches, mosques, synagogues, tombs of saints, yeshivas and monasteries all around me and on the hillsides outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.


It struck me then that there is already now in Jerusalem a reality that is very different than the way things were in the past. For example, when the Christians Crusaders would conquer this Holy City from the Arabs, they would destroy the mosque that was on the Temple Mount and erect a church in its place. And when the Arabs captured Jerusalem from the Christians, they, too, would destroy this church and build a mosque in its place. Even after the State of Israel was established, from 1948 to 1967, Jews were not allowed to go and pray at the Western Wall, the remnant of the first two Temples, which is the holiest site in the world for Jews. However, when the Jews conquered the Old City of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War of June 1967, they did not continue this unfortunate pattern. In fact, Israel allows the Arabs to retain administration of the Temple Mount, and Muslims are free to worship God in the mosques there, as are Christians free to worship God in the various churches in Jerusalem as well.

It struck me than the pluralistic allowance and encouragement of religious freedom for all religions in Jerusalem is already an expression of Isaiah's prophecy of a house of prayer for all nations. In fact, there is a tradition that in the Messianic era the holiness of the Temple will spread to all of Jerusalem; the holiness of Jerusalem will spread to the entire Holy Land; and the holiness of the Holy Land will spread to the entire planet.
Perhaps instead of wanting to build a Temple in Jerusalem and reinstate animal sacrifices in some future time, we should be appreciating more how - right now - the entire city of Jerusalem is already a house of prayer for all nations. And maybe such an appreciation will help all of us - Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike - achieve the world-centric consciousness that will enable us to sanctify our bodies, hearts and minds and be filled with enough divine inspiration, wisdom, understanding and knowledge to manifest and complete in deeply spiritual way all that is necessary for humanity to attain in the Messianic era, as expressed beautifully in the following famous prophecies from Isaiah:

"And it shall come to pass in the end of days, that the mountain of God's House shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all the nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of God, to the House of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth Torah, and the word of God from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and rebuke many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Isaiah 2:2-4).

And: "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the viper's nest. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of God, as the waters cover the seas" (Isaiah 11:6-9).

David Friedman Zefat, Israel June 2003