{"id":75609,"date":"2020-06-06T09:59:42","date_gmt":"2020-06-06T06:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=75609"},"modified":"2020-06-06T09:59:42","modified_gmt":"2020-06-06T06:59:42","slug":"ezekiels-temple-is-not-a-national-spiritual-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/ezekiels-temple-is-not-a-national-spiritual-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Ezekiel\u2019s Temple Is Not A National Spiritual Center"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"75609","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":72948,"related_cahpter":"496","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"","content":"

According to Ezekiel’s prophecy, the changes in this Temple include not only the outer structure of the edifice, but there are also fundamental differences in who enters it. This change relates both to the measure of access afforded the people, but also the division of roles among the various leaders of the nation, and the degree to which they are connected to the Temple.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Temple for Ezekiel is not a spiritual center for the entire nation. The Temple serves the <\/span>priests<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>levites<\/span><\/i>, who perform their service within it as representatives of the people, while the only roles that are given to the people are the auxiliary functions and appearances: funding of the sacrifices, prostration, and a partial view of the Divine service.<\/span><\/p>\n

This distancing seems to be aimed at protecting the Temple from elements that may lead to its defilement, thereby causing its destruction. In this way, Ezekiel\u2019s prophecy of an eternal dwelling, an eternal covenant and an eternal Temple can be fulfilled. This Temple of Ezekiel is not a Temple that will be a magnet, an international center; rather, it will be a place in which \u2013 in light of the sins of the past \u2013 there is no place for strangers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The priests who neglected their role and failed to instruct the people during their difficult time \u2013 even if they did not actually mislead them \u2013 will not be given a role in the future Temple. In contrast, those priests who are descendants of Zadok, who demonstrated faithfulness to the house of David and followed God\u2019s ways, even in times of crisis, will indeed merit to minister in the Temple.<\/span><\/p>\n

To the extent that the Temple service is performed by a smaller team of priests, the expectation is that it will be performed with greater skill and with more punctilious attention to the laws of ritual purity. In this way, the future Temple will be protected from the defilement that brought about the destruction of its predecessor in Ezekiel\u2019s time. This is why Ezekiel emphasizes that the most important function of the priests in the future \u2013 as in the past and the present \u2013 is instructing the people to follow the ways of God; this is even more important than offering sacrifices.<\/span><\/p>\n

What caused the destruction of the Temple was not a lack of sacrifices, but rather a lack of basic understanding among the people about what the service of God entails, what it means to have an exclusive commitment to God and God\u2019s Torah.<\/span><\/p>\n

Published in conjunction with<\/span> www.hatanach.com<\/span><\/a>. For the full article,<\/span> see here<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Ezekiel\u2019s Temple Is Not A National Spiritual Center","main_caption":"Distancing the people from the Temple and limiting their involvement to protect it from future defilement and destruction","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75612,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75609\/revisions\/75612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}