How the Four Places Called "Zion" are All the Same

Will The Temple Be Built This Year?

Every year at this time, we mourn the destruction of the Temple and pray for its rebuilding. Does this mean that the Temple will actually be built this year?

Still No Holy Temple - What Are We Missing?

I don't understand what exactly we are missing by not having a Beit Mikdash. Throughout both the Written and Oral Torahs we see that the Temple is something tremendous and amazing – but in order for me to really mourn over its absence, can you help me understand what exactly it will give us?

How Large Is The Kotel?

Will Life With the Temple Rebuilt Still Be...Fun?

I'm quite afraid of what life will be like when the Temple is rebuilt. Does it mean that we won't be able to go to the beach anymore? Will we just learn and bring sacrifices all day?

Can we Identify the True Eizov?

Is eizov hyssop? May an eizov be used more than once?

Levi'im and Kohanim- What's the Difference?!

Ein Aya, Shabbat 2, 246

We all know that the Levi'im (Levites) have a special status & had unique roles in the Beit HaMikdash, but what is it? What's the common denominator between their singing, guarding, opening the gates & their role as the Torah teachers of Israel? Levi means "accompany" & they escort both the aristocratic Kohanim & the "lay" Israelite farmers. They are the visible & "hear-able" go-between at the entrance of the Temple, & the Torah educators who go around the country. They are not the super-stars, but rather represent the functional & necessary, which often go "unsung". A review of all of the details of the Levite laws beautifully show this point, & explain the Talmudic connection between them & Lashon Hara (negative speech).

Blemished in Our Day

Do We Really Want to be Tahor?

Sifting the Makom HaMikdash

Recently, someone asked me a shaylah that involves what is probably one of the most heart-breaking issues I was ever asked. The question was: “Are there any halachic issues involved in sifting through the earth removed by the Waqf from the Makom HaMikdash?” To explain this shaylah, I will first explain what has happened, then discuss the halachic issues involved — and finally explain the answers. There is also a fascinating halachic-architectural issue that I noticed while studying photographs of the Moslem construction, which I will discuss at the end of this article.

The Heart of Jewish Unity

The Purpose of the “Western Lamp”

Hanukah Lights and Jacob’s Small Vessels

Inheriting the Land of Israel on the Temple Mount

Rabbi Melamed writes what late Religious Zionist leader Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook would have decided about the halakhic question of ascending the Temple Mount had he seen the political situation today.

Rabbi Goren and the Temple Mount

The controversy with the Wakf is a nationalistic issue, but there is also an halakhic issue on which rabbis disagree. The late Chief Rabbi Goren tried to arrange a mass prayer on the Mount in 1967 and was stopped by the government.

Can We Offer the Korban Pesach Without the Beis HaMikdash?

Rav Tzvi Hersh Kalisher, the rav of Thorn, Germany, who had studied as a youth in the yeshivos of Rabbi Akiva Eiger and the Nesivos HaMishpat (Rav Yaakov of Lisa), published a sefer advocating bringing korbanos in the location where the Beis HaMikdash once stood in Yerushalayim. Rav Kalisher considered it not only permissible to offer korbanos before the Beis HaMikdash is rebuilt, but even obligatory.

The Third Bet Hamikdash

The Two Jerusalems

NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM

Sifting the Makom HaMikdash

The Waqf have been constructing at Makom Hamikdash - our Holy of Holies, what are the Halachic implications of the finds? How does one regard the finds?