Rabbi Ephraim Sprecher, Dean of Students and Senior Lecturer at Diaspora Yeshiva, is not only a popular speaker and teacher, but also a dynamic thinker and writer. A student of Harav Yaakov Kamenetsky and Harav Gedalia Schorr, Rabbi Sprecher was granted smicha (rabbinical ordination) by Torah Vodaath Yeshiva. Prior to his current position, Rabbi Sprecher was a professor of Judaic studies at Touro College in New York. In addition to his duties at Diaspora Yeshiva, Rabbi Sprecher writes a regular column on various Judaic topics in the Jewish Press, and lectures regularly at the OU Israel Center in Jerusalem.
The Third Temple-Larger Than The Temple Mount?
Published: Thursday, February 11, 2016 08:11:45 PM
Number of views: 1748

The Haftora of Parashat Tesaveh deals with the construction of the Third and Final Temple.
 
A major problem is that Yehezkel's vision of the Third Temple in Ch. 48 describes a sanctuary of enormous dimensions. It will be so huge, that Abarbanel claims it will be even larger than the entire Temple Mount. It will be so big, that the Malbim in Zechariya Ch. 2 claims that Yehezkel's Temple will be even beyond the borders of Jerusalem.
 
Is there a way to bridge the gap between Yehzkel's heavenly vision of a super-enormous Sanctuary and Yehezkel's prophecy that very much seems to depict a physical building that exists on earth? The Minchat Yizchak compares the relationship between Yehezkel's heavenly Temple and the earthly Temple to the relationship between the body and the soul. Just as the body is a product of this world, into which the soul descends, so too, the Final Temple will be built in this world by us, and then the spiritual Heavenly Temple that comes from G-d will descend into it.
 
Now, just as the soul is not measurable in human terms in this world, so too the Heavenly Temple, which is so immense in Yehezkel's visions, may not manifest itself in the same way here on earth. It may be that the model of a spiritually enormous entity-the Heavenly Temple that occupies, animates, and transcends the physically limited confines of a physical body or a physical building, that is being described here by Yehezkel.
 
Thus, all the pieces may fit together. We can integrate Yehzkel's prophecy with the Heavenly Jerusalem and Final Temple, and the geographic locations of Jerusalem and the Sanctuary.
 
All of this makes sense in a Final Temple that is physically constructed by human beings, but infused with a Spiritual Soul Temple sent by G-d from heaven.
 
This idea should challenge us to realize that we too, need to transcend our physical limitations to reach for a higher and more spiritual existence.

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