Where did our Temple go?

 

The second temple's destruction came with even more changes than the first. The week before spring break, we did several exercises discussing where we could see changes and the effects of the Jewish people. We see the arrival of Synagogues which allowed worship to be capable outside the temple as long as they have minon (10 men hanging out being homies with their bestie God). But what I think is extremely important is the shift of the need for a temple. The poem I recited, "Jerusalem my Happy Home," describes the period's relationship with the temple as not something physical but rather heavenly. They began seeing the temple as a sign of the end times when God would come down and bring about messianic times. I think this shift will be extremely important for the future of Jerusalem and why we will continue to see fights over Jerusalem. Although there is more importance of scared time, I think it could be possible that the idea of their Axis Mundi has shifted from physical to a metaphorical bridge connecting the Jewish people to the heavenly Jerusalem. I think this is theoretically one would think that if there is a shift to seeing the temple as a heavenly place, then there would slowly be less of the importance of Jerusalem over the years since God would bring the righteous home when it was time. To an extent, we see this with the diaspora that has exponentially grown since the Hellenism period. But at its core, Jerusalem is almost more important without the temple. As we have shifted to seeing more importance for scared time, I say this because the need to practice scared time in Jerusalem increases. Celebrations like Passover turn into a mix of scared time and scared place, all reflecting on things that once were. Despite thinking the Axis Mundi that is Jerusalem is now a greater metaphor for heaven, I actually think the need for Jerusalem grew stronger without the temple. It represents all that was and will come, combining sacred time and space to be one unifying thing precious to its people.