Bible

According to the Rabbis, the Temple in Jerusalem belonged to no particular tribe, but to all Israel.  As if to prove this, the boundary between Judah and Benjamin passed through the middle of both the city and the Temple so that, according to tradition, the porch and the sanctuary were in Benjamin, while the altar and the Temple courts remained in Judah. The Shekinah, the divine presence of the Lord, filled the Temple of Solomon like a cloud  (2 Chron 5:13,14) so that the priests could no longer stand to minister.  God’s presence remained in the Holy of Holies for only a short season, and was never experienced in the Second Temple.   As the Rabbis lamented: “For three years and a half abode the Shekinah on the Mount of Olives, waiting whether Israel would repent, calling upon them, ‘Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.’  And when all this was in vain, then the Shekinah returned to its own place.” The stones of the Temple sanctuary were twice “poured out in the top of every street” (Lamentations 4:1) on both occasions in the Jewish month of Av.  And at Tish B’Av, to this day, these events are remembered during a time of deep mourning by the Jews.  Twice also, there were those who wept as they prophesied the Temple’s coming destruction.  Jeremiah, the weeping prophet was imprisoned by King Zedekiah for his prophecies.  They were offensive; not what Judah’s king desired to hear, therefore the voice of the prophet had to be silenced.   Centuries later, Yeshua “beheld the city and wept ” as he rode out of Bethany on the foal of a donkey.  Like Jeremiah, Jesus was deemed to be offensive and a week later he was nailed to a Roman cross. [Read more…] about Temple in Jerusalem