The Temple Institute, the center of research and preparation for the third Holy Temple, has released a powerful new video to awaken world Jewry and re-frame the traditional three-week period of mourning into one of preparation for the rebuilding of the Third Holy Temple.
According to the institute’s press release, “although millions of Jews worldwide will fast on the Ninth of Av (starting Saturday night, August 10, at dusk) and strictly adhere to the other halachic requirements of mourning the destruction of the two Holy Temples, for too many the concept of rebuilding the Temple is like a far-away dream. These are the people the Temple Institute wishes to awaken from their slumber.”
The video is the seventh in a series which began with “The Children are Ready,” which received more than a million views. The video challenges people’s’ preconceptions of Tisha B’Av as a day of eternal mourning, evoking Isaiah’s promise that the Third Temple is the secret of world peace and harmony and the hope of all mankind: ‘And is shall be at the end of days, that the mountain of the Temple of God will be firmly established as the head of the mountains, and it will be exalted above all the hills, and all the nations will stream to it.’”
The Institute’s goal is to shake up Orthodox Jewish communities worldwide emotionally by re-framing the sacred day, focusing away from the past and towards the future.
“The idea is for people to focus on the true meaning of Tisha B’Av” said Rabbi Chaim Richman, international director of the Temple Institute. “Tisha B’Av is not about just mourning, it is about acting to bring the Holy Temple back to the world.”
