Rabbi Richman details plans to rebuild Jerusalem’s Temple Mount
Rabbi Richman, director of the International Department of The Temple Institute, says he is committed to rebuilding Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.
Israeli Brigade Commander Col. Motta Gur captured the Temple Mount in 1967.
After the capture, he announced: “The Temple Mount is in our hands! The Temple Mount is in our hands!”
Image/ Yaakov Shoham
Retaking the temple was important to the Jewish world because the site was where King Solomon built the first Jewish temple. When that temple was destroyed, a second temple was built, only to later fall in 70 AD to the Romans.
Recapturing the site meant the Jews could have their long-awaited third temple.
“It would be hard, I think, not to see what’s happened in the past 50 years as a tremendous – not just fulfillment of prophecy – but a tremendous jump start, a tremendous fast forward,” Richman said. “It’s more than prophetic. It’s like a kiss from Heaven. It’s like a divine kiss. It’s like an intimate brush with the reality of God’s compassion and love. He keeps His promises.”
The Institute is already working on blueprints for the new temple.
“Today there’s a lobby in the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) of how many members of Knesset that are constantly speaking about Jewish rights to pray on the Temple Mount,” Richman said. “There are members of Knesset that actually talk about the rebuilding the Holy Temple. Do you realize that 20 years ago these people wouldn’t have been given a moment on prime time television to say these things. They would have been laughed out.”
photo courtesy of Fathom Events
Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, served with the 55th Paratroopers Brigade that captured the Temple Mount. After the victory, a Jordanian guide gave them a remarkable tour.
“His job was to carry the company machine gun,” Richman explained. “There’s a very beautiful photograph of that. He actually – the first night of the liberation of Jerusalem – he was given the task of guarding over the spot of the Dome of the Rock, which of course is where is the Holy of Holies.
“The story, though, that he told us is that the soldiers were on the Temple Mount and it was just like the first hour or so. And they were approached by a Jordanian fellow in Western dress who explained that he was the official tour guide for the Jordanian parliament and he offered to take the soldiers and to show them the sites on the Temple Mount.
“He takes the soldiers, you know, and the rabbi there and he says, ‘well this is exactly where the sanctuary stood. This is where the altar stood and then this is where the Menorah stood.’
“He tells them all these things about the history of the Holy Temple … Finally, the rabbi asked him, ‘why are you telling us all this?’ And he said, ‘well, we have tradition from our fathers [and] they from their fathers that one day the Jews would wage a war and conquer this mountain and rebuild the Holy Temple, and I assume that you’re starting tomorrow. I want this to be my part, my part in helping you,'” he said, according to Rabbi Richman.
“What was their reaction to that story?” CBN News asked Richman. “Well, I guess they were pretty surprised, but the bottom line is in hindsight; it doesn’t look like we were ready.”
