civ2, I appreciate what you're trying to do with this thread, but your method is crap. You are ignoring some questions, answering some with answers that don't address the question, not quoting what you are answering, answering with bizarre statements, filling your posts with spoilers & smileys & contradicting yourself. You are confusing the
goyim. Please take this seriously if you are going to do it & remember that the questioners don't know what you know about Judaism. They don't even know what Chabad is or why you continually link to it's website instead of answering yourself. Please keep the above in mind if you're going to maintain this thread. Shalom, brother.
Questioners, civ2 lives in a very insulated & religious community. His knowledge of Judaism runs deep, but he probably doesn't know much about Christianity, so don't assume he knows what you're talking about when you mention New Testament happenings that seem to be common knowledge to you.
The amount of miscommunication so far in this thread makes my head hurt. I don't really want to participate because these threads always end in train wreck & the mods are historically very tolerant of antisemitism That being said, I think the root of bigotry is ignorance & I have a child who I don't want to be affected by any more bigotry than I or generations before me were.
Is it true that everything is ready for the Temple to be built?
I don't think so. There's no cache of stone & timber standing by for that purpose, if that's what you mean. On the other hand, there have been architectual plans drawn up based on ancient accounts & the lineages of the priesthood have been maintained.
Could it be done in a month, or your best guess?
I seriously doubt it. Not in Israel. I don't want to guess.
I assume all that is needed is a peace accord?
That's not nearly enough. There are two huge mosques on the site. Jews are forbidden to damage a house of G-d, even a Muslim one. Even if the Muslim world willingly handed over control of the site, which it would never do, the Temple still couldn't be rebuilt. Nobody is holding their breath waiting for the Temple to be rebuilt.
Is the outer wall still considered part of the temple destroyed in 70AD?
Sort of. The Temple was the building that housed the Holy of Holies & the Ark. The wall you're talking about is just the foundation of the plateau that the Temple stood on. It's all we have left so it's special to us.
Would the Jews allow both the Temple and the Dome sitting next to each other?
I don't think that would work for Muslims or Jews. The site is very specific. The Dome of the Rock is built right where Muslims believe Mohammed ascended to heaven. That's also the spot that Jewish tradition says Abraham almost sacrificed his son on & the spot where both Temples stood. Neither structure would serve it's purpose if built somewhere else.
I have heard from, Catholic friends that baptism and praying for the dead were both based in Jewish practices around the time of Christianity's founding. Can you verify or dispute this?
Yes, this is true.
Ritual bathing is a very old Jewish practice. It was an old practice during the time of the Gospels. It's purposes are very complicated to explain & I really don't want to try as it would take awhile & be easily misunderstood. It occurs in a bath structure called a
mikveh that is built to capture rainwater as groundwater is considered to not be spiritually pure enough. The Gospel account of "John" conducting ritual bathing in a river is downright bizarre & one of several apparent examples of the Gospel authors not knowing very much about Judaism.
"Praying" for the dead is also an ancient Jewish practice, but not in the way you might think. The concept of praying doesn't exist in Judaism the way it does in Christianity. Praying means asking for something. Jewish "prayer" tends to be thanksgiving & praise of G-d, not asking for stuff. In that way, we don't pray for our dead. When a parent, spouse or child dies, we say a "prayer" called the Kaddish at least once a day for the deceased for a year. The Kaddish is essentially a proclamation of G-d's positive attributes. I could probably find a translation to post if you're curious. "Prayers" in Hebrew are called
brachas. The closest English translations are "blessings" or "prayers," but there isn't really a word in English that properly conveys the idea. We don't pray or bless. We say
brachas.
It's allot more complicated than that, but that's enough for now.
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