“Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus [Yeshua] was in the Temple area walking in Solomon’s Colonnade.” (John 10:22–23)
Some years ago, a group of Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount reported seeing ancient beams dated to the First and Second Temple period being used as firewood by the Arab community.
The beams were used in the construction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and became visible to the public in the 1930s while the building was being refurbished. These beams may have originally been part of the Holy Temple’s roof structure.
Byzantine-era designs were also discovered etched on some of these beams.
“It appears that this is part of the systematic attempts by Arabs to destroy all connections between the Jewish people and the Temple Mount,” a spokesperson from one of the groups trying to secure Jewish rights on the Temple Mount said (Arutz Sheva).
Despite Arab denial that any Jewish Temples ever existed on the Mount, and despite their unauthorized excavations on the Mount that destroy evidence of such a Jewish presence, there are groups of Jews and Christians planning to build a Third Temple on this holiest site in the world.
In fact, the furnishings, instruments, and vessels for Temple worship have already been created and are on display at the Holy Temple Visitors Center in Jerusalem.
“They shall make for me a sanctuary, and I will dwell among them.” (Exodus 25:8)
The Temple Institute
Just beyond the courtyard of the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem is Misgav Ladach Street, a sheltered cobblestone road that leads Israelis and tourists to the Temple Institute (Machon HaMikdash). There, visitors can view Temple treasures that have not been seen in over 2,000 years.
The Temple Institute also offers group tours that can be organized ahead of time and given in Hebrew, English or other languages so that anyone can take in the well-documented history of the Jewish Temple.
A gift shop with Temple-themed books, posters, puzzles, games, jewelry, and replicas await visitors. But these items pale in comparison to the 25 years of research and craftmanship that the Institute has invested in creating the Temple treasures.
These are no mere models or replicas. They have been created for use in the Third Temple, which could possibly be constructed within our lifetime. Every dazzling piece in the Institute’s collection is made of pure gold, silver, copper, and other authentic materials.
They have been crafted only after lengthy research into the designs and practices of the original Temple, as required in the Torah and Talmud (oral law). Researchers also studied images on ancient coins and other artifacts that survived the Second Temple era.
The Institute relied on dozens of people—rabbis, scholars, scientists and other experts—who contributed their talents to recreate the Temple vessels.
According to its website, one of the Temple Institute is “dedicated to all aspects of the Divine commandment for Israel to build a house for G-d’s presence, the Holy Temple, on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.”
So, in addition to the vessels and furnishings, a variety of paintings, which were commissioned by the Temple Institute, cover the exhibit walls.
Each one provides a rich context for understanding the various utensils, golden bowls, jugs for sanctified oil, the Golden Altar, Showbread Table, and other tools used for cleaning or preparing sacrifices that line the rooms.
The Temple Treasures on Display
The clothing and breastplate of the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) are on display along with instruments specific to prayer, sacred assembly, and musical worship.
This includes silver-plated shofars (ram’s horns) for fast days and gold-plated shofars for blowing on Rosh HaShanah (literally, Head of the Year, the Jewish New Year).
“On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of Sabbath rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet [shofar] blasts.” (Leviticus 23:24)
Silver trumpets used for public prayer and multiple lyres also line the walls. The lyres have 10 strings based upon verses in the Psalms.
Symbolic Treasures: A Journey to Wholeness
“Every morning and evening they present burnt offerings and fragrant incense to the LORD. They set out the bread on the ceremonially clean table and light the lamps on the gold lampstand every evening.” (2 Chronicles 13:11)
The Institute also highlights three pieces from the Holy Sanctuary that are symbolically linked:
the Menorah (Exodus 25:31–40), signifying spiritual blessing;
the Shulkan (Exodus 25:30), which held the Lechem HaPanim (Showbread), signifying physical blessing; and
the Golden Altar (Exodus 30: 1–9) between them, on which the Ketores (Incense Offering) burned as a physical element that was “transformed into spiritual.”
“The three vessels of the Sanctuary thus signify the correct balance of life; a mixture of the spiritual and physical worlds that brings the human soul to wholeness,” an exhibit sign explains.
The Menorah
Although the table and vessels for the oil and incense are on display inside the Temple Institute, the Menorah stands outside in full view in the Old City’s Jewish Quarter, which is fitting since its light would have been visible during Temple times.
The Menorah had a central role because it is a sign of God’s Shekhinah (Divine Presence) among B’nai Yisrael (Children of Israel) and is symbolic of spiritual illumination. It was, therefore, the first sacred vessel to be recreated since the Second Temple was destroyed in AD 70.
Although the Menorah sits outside, the Menorah’s two-litre oil pitcher, used to replenish oil in the jug that feeds the golden menorah, is on display inside the Institute.
Along with the Menorah, this was the vessel involved in the miracle of Hanukkah. After defeating the Greek invaders, the Hasmonean priests found such a pitcher, which was sealed to protect the purity of its oil.
The Table of the Showbread
Exodus 25 provides instructions for the design of the Table of the Showbread, which stood within the Sanctuary in Jerusalem.
Twelve loaves of bread called Lechem HaPanim (Bread of the Presence) were to be on this table to stand before God at all times.
“This bread is to be set out before the LORD regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant.” (Leviticus 24:8, see also Exodus 25:30; Numbers 4:7; 2 Chronicles 2:4; 1 Kings 7:48; Hebrews 9:2)
Leviticus 24 describes how these loaves were to be made and placed on the Golden Altar.
“Take fine flour and bake twelve loaves of bread, using two-tenths of an ephah for each loaf. Set them in two rows, six in each row, on the table of pure gold before the Lord. Along each row put some pure incense as a memorial portion ….” (Leviticus 24:5–7)
The Talmud (oral tradition) states that these loaves miraculously remained fresh and hot all week—just like freshly baked bread, and that this was taken as a confirmation of the Divine Presence (Shekhinah).
The bread symbolized, among other things, God’s providence and physical provision.
The Incense Offering
Like the light of the Menorah shining forth from the Temple windows, the incense offering also had a palpable presence during Temple times. It is believed that its aroma would travel 25 miles beyond the Temple itself, connecting the greater community with this offering of worship.
An institute sign explains how the incense was offered:
“Once the coals were on the Golden Altar [Mizbach HaZahav], one priest would pour the incense spice mixture from the chalice into the second priest’s hand. The second priest would then sprinkle the incense over the coals and a wonderful aroma would fill the sanctuary.”
This incense was sacred, and its formulation was a closely guarded secret, passed down through the generations.
Exodus 30:34 identifies four of the 11 ingredients: balsam, onycha, galbanum, and pure frankincense. The Bible does not identify the herb that caused the smoke to rise in a straight column, which is called Ma’aleh Ashan, or the other spices.
The Torah makes it plain why this formulation was guarded:
“Whoever makes perfume like it and whoever puts it on anyone other than a priest must be cut off from his people.” (Exodus 30:33)
For that reason, even though the priest offered it on the Golden Altar, according to the Talmud (oral tradition), only one family—the Avtinas—knew the identity of the spices, as well as the exact amounts and the manner they were prepared.
Rebuilding the Temple in the Last Days
“My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” (Isaiah 56:7)
The Temple Institute is entirely dedicated to rebuilding the Temple on the Temple Mount.
A major obstacle to the realization of that goal is the presence of two Islamic structures now occupying part of the Temple Mount: the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
While Jews look forward to the building of the Temple as a beacon of hope and spiritual reconciliation for the entire world, Believers in Yeshua and the Brit Chadashah understand another reality for the Temple and for the world.
In the Last Days, the “man of lawlessness” will “oppose and exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:4)
Who could this man of lawlessness be? How will we know when he has arrived?
Daniel gives us good clues:
“He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.” (Daniel 9:27)
Some translations don’t use the word “Temple,” but the idea is similar: the man of lawlessness will do what is detestable to the Lord, and according to the Brit Chadashah (New Testament), he will clearly do it in the Temple for all the world to see.
The Last Days are here and two things remain before the Anti-Messiah arrives on the scene: the building of the Temple and the confirming of a covenant with Israel.
Those two events are in sight.
“I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.'” (Isaiah 46:10)
The Hebrew prophets all proclaimed that in the last days, the exiles of Israel would return to the Promised Land and that the Temple would be rebuilt.
“Then the nations will know that I the Lord make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.” (Ezekiel 37:28)
These phenomenal end-time events are unfolding before our very eyes!
The Prophetic Return to Israel and the Third Temple
“I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them.” (Amos 9:14–15)
So many skeptics around the globe like to proclaim that God has rejected the People of Israel and that Israel has been rebirthed by man alone. Yet, we find in Scripture that God never intended to reject His People forever:
“You, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, Descendant of Abraham My friend, you whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from its remotest parts and said to you, ‘You are My servant, I have chosen you and not rejected you.” (Isaiah 41:9)
God always planned to bring the Jewish People back to the Land on His terms not man’s. And just as the prophets foretold, the Jewish People are returning to the Holy Land from the four corners of the earth after 19 centuries of global exile:
“Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, And gather you from the west. “I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring My sons from afar And My daughters from the ends of the earth.” (Isaiah 43:5–6)
Not only are the exiles of Israel returning to the Promised Land, but preparations to build the Third Temple are progressing through the efforts of the Temple Institute and various Temple Mount advocacy movements.
Why Build the Third Temple?
“Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me. We are signs and
symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.”
(Isaiah 8:18)
You might ask yourself, “If the sanctuary was ‘a copy and a shadow of what is in Heaven (Hebrews 8:5),’ and Yeshua (Jesus) ‘serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord (Hebrews 8:2),’ why contemplate building the Holy Temple?”
The Holy Temple in Jerusa lem was never simply a building or structure, but an earthly dwelling place for the Divine Presence of God.
The Lord said,
“Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell [shakan] among them.” (Exodus 25:8; see also Exodus 40:34–35 and 1 Kings 8:11)
This dwelling (shakan) forms the related word Shekhinah, which is not found in the original Hebrew Bible, but it is used in rabbinic literature and Bible translations to describe the Lord’s Divine Presence.
The Prophet Ezekiel witnessed the departure of this Divine Presence from the Temple (Ezekiel 10:18–19).
But he also saw the rebuilding of an eternal and permanent dwelling place of God on the Temple Mount in the Holy City of Jerusalem.
“The glory of the Lord entered the temple through the gate facing east. … I heard someone speaking to me from inside the temple. He said: ‘Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet. This is where I will live among the Israelites forever.’” (Ezekiel 43:4–7)
Rambam (Rabbi Moses Maimonides), a medieval Jewish philosopher and Torah scholar, said that the Temple has eternal significance.
He wrote in Hilchos Bais HaBechirah (The Laws of God’s Chosen House)
that the Temple had two primary purposes:
To reveal to mankind the Divine Presence of God, which dwelt above the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant.
“There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the Ark of the Testimony, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.” (Exodus 25:22)
To facilitate the offering of the required sacrifices.
Since the destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70, however, the Jewish People can no longer offer these sacrifices. In fact, 202 out of the 613 mitzvot (commandments) in the Torah cannot be performed without a Temple.
(Temple Institute)
With no Temple in Jerusalem, the Jewish people now worship the God of Israel in their local community synagogues and in the study of Torah.
Instead of offering animal sacrifices, they now offer Tefillah (prayer), Teshuvah (repentance), and Tzedakah (charity).
Many think that animal sacrifices have been done away with forever, but according to Bible prophecy, this simply isn’t so. The Lord tells the Prophet Ezekiel that in a future Temple, the prescribed sacrifices will be offered:
“The north and south rooms facing the temple courtyard are the priests’ rooms, where the priests who approach the Lord will eat the most holy offerings. There they will put the most holy offerings—the grain offerings, the sin offerings and the guilt offerings—for the place is holy.” (Ezekiel 42:13)
But a serious question arises not only for the Jewish community, but for all Believers in Yeshua: will the next Temple—the Third Temple—be Ezekiel’s Temple where the Divine Presence will once again reside—or will some other presence reside in another Temple?
Daniel, Yeshua, the Anti-Messiah, and the Third Temple
In the prophetic writings of the Book of Daniel and the Brit Chadashah (New Testament), we find significant details about the role of a rebuilt Temple in the end times.
Both Daniel and Yeshua (Jesus) tell us that the Anti-Messiah will defile the Third Temple before the return of the true Messiah.
They both call this spiritual defilement in the Temple the abomination of desolation:
“So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” (Matthew 24:15–16; compare with Daniel 9:27, 11:31, and 12:11)
According to the Prophet Daniel, the Messiah would be cut off before the Temple is destroyed:
“After the sixty-two weeks the Messiah [Mashiach] will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince [ruler, nagid] who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.” (Daniel 9:26)
This prophecy was fulfilled in AD 70 with the destruction of the Temple, just forty years after Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah) was cut off by his execution on a tree.
Through the study of numerous end-time Scriptures, we believe that this prince or ruler (nagid)—the anti-Messiah—will appear just as Daniel describes.
Daniel says he will confirm a covenant of peace “for one week” (often interpreted as seven years) but break that covenant in the middle of the term.
“And he [the prince] will make [some translations say ‘confirm’] a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate [some interpretations say, set up an idol on the wing or precipice of the Temple], even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.” (Daniel 9:27; see also Matthew 24:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:4)
The anti-Messiah will also proclaim himself to be God!
“He [the man of lawlessness] will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” (2 Thess. 2:4)
The Temple Institute is the main Jewish organization responsible for making preparations for the Third Temple and the reinstatement of sacrificial worship, supported by a growing network of modern Temple Mount advocacy groups.
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Other organizations have plans, too. One wants to pitch a tabernacle-style tent on the Mount; another wants to build a synagogue in one of the corners of the platform.
Why? Because as Rabbi Chaim Richman, the long-time director of the Temple Institute states in his Myth Buster video series, “Buildings don’t fall down from heaven.” He adds that “it’s a mitzvah to build the Temple,” citing Exodus 23:8 and that Jews should be performing all 613 mitzvot, which requires a Temple.
He also says that the Third Temple will “bring the Light back into the world” that left the Temple Mount when the Lord’s Divine Presence departed.
Moreover, he believes the Temple will “reconnect all of creation with one another. It is the Holy Temple that enables all of humanity to engage in direct dynamic relationship with God and provides the opportunity for every individual to rise to our greatest potential.” (Temple Institute YouTube: Myth Busters Part 1)
Daniel 9 and 11 as well as Brit Chadashah writings, however, help us see that an alternate reality exists for the Temple.
Nevertheless, the ritual garments and vessels have been created.
Even the Golden Menorah—the seven branched candelabra—has been crafted, along with Levitical musical instruments, such as silver trumpets, lyres, and harps to worship the Lord, just as King David did 3,000 years ago (1 Chronicles 23:5).
The Temple Institute’s School is training certified Cohen (descendants of the High Priest Aaron) to perform the Temple duties.
And the final element, candidates for the Red Heifer, are being raised and monitored in Israel to be sacrificed in the ritual purification of the priests and the vessels, so they may formally enter the holiest of holy area on the entire earth.
Everything is ready for the rebuilding of the Third Temple. Everything, that is, except the land on which to build it.
Since the liberation of the Mount in 1967, the Muslim world has made great efforts to claim the entire 37-acre (150,000 square meter) platform as its own sacred land, calling the site in Arabic al-Ḥaram al-Šarīf—the Noble Sanctuary.
To protect the Noble Sanctuary, the Muslim world has become expert organizers of riots on the Temple Mount and terror on the streets of Israel. Incitement to such violence increases whenever rumors spread that a Jewish presence will be established on the Temple Mount or its own Muslim structures harmed.
Only an incredibly respected, trusted, and honored man by both Muslims and Jews will be able to establish a peace plan that allows the Jewish People to worship the Lord in a Temple on the Mount that King David purchased (2 Samuel 24:18–25).
Whoever this man is and whatever trouble awaits us (known as Jacob’s Trouble) when he breaks the peace plan as Daniel 9:27 predicts, we can be confident that God is on the throne and in control.
As King David writes in Psalm 121:4: “He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”
We know that end-time Bible prophecy concerning the Third Temple is soon to be fulfilled because Israel was prophetically reborn as a nation in 1948 (Isaiah 66:8), and most of these Temple preparations only started in the last 40 years.
As we persevere through these end-times, join us in introducing the Sar Shalom (Prince of Peace) Yeshua HaMashiach to the Jewish People so that He may dwell in them and bring them a peace and Joy they have not yet known.
Now that the whole world is talking about the Third Temple in Jerusalem, let’s go there. I am a Jew, a Chabad follower, and a rabbi, so you can trust what I’m about to share a lot more than the conspiracy theories podcasters have tried to share in my name.
First, the old news:
Yes, Jews believe that we will have a Third Temple, on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, in the same location where our first two Temples once stood. It’s not some secret that the Mossad is hiding, nor something that Chabad subtly pushes, and it’s certainly not a code being signaled through patches on IDF uniforms.
It has been in the public record for thousands of years:
2,800 years ago, Isaiah prophesied: “… concerning Judah and Jerusalem … at the end of the days, the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be firmly established at the top of the mountains … and many peoples shall go, and they shall say, ‘Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mount, to the house of the God of Jacob …’” (Isaiah 2:2)
2,600 years ago, Ezekiel prophesied: “In the visions of God … He placed me on a very lofty mountain and upon it was like the building of a city from the south … And He said to me, ‘This is the place of My throne where I shall dwell … this is the teaching of the House; Upon the top of the mountain, all its boundary round about shall be most holy…’” (Ezekiel 40:2)
2,000 years ago, Jewish sages composed a blessing that is recited in our daily prayer liturgy: “Return in mercy to Jerusalem Your city and dwell therein as You have promised … rebuild it, soon in our days, as an everlasting edifice … restore the service to Your Sanctuary and accept with love and favor Israel’s fire-offerings and prayer…”
1,900 years ago, the Talmudic sage Rabbi Yehuda composed a prayer that we recite several times every day: “May it be Your will, L-rd our G‑d and G‑d of our fathers, that the Holy Temple be rebuilt speedily in our days.”
So now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s continue.
What about the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine? Aren’t we going to be sensitive to these holy Islamic sites? This is an important consideration, but I wonder – is anyone sensitive to the fact that the Temple Mount was a holy site for Jews thousands of years before Muslims conquered and built their sites?
The Muslim conquest of Jerusalem occurred in the 7th century CE. Shortly after that, they built both the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa on the Temple Mount, the site where the two Jewish Temples had stood.
Now let’s take a trip down Jewish memory lane.
The Bible is filled with references to the Temple Mount. Adam, the first human, was created out of earth gathered from the Temple Mount. 3,700 years ago, G-d told Avraham to offer his son Isaac to Him. Where? Upon the Temple Mount. 3,600 years ago, when Jacob was running away from his brother Esav, he fell asleep and had a dream. In it, G-d told him: “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac; the land upon which you are lying, to you I will give it and to your seed.” Where did this occur? Yes, upon the Temple Mount.
Before entering Israel, the Bible records what G-d told the Jewish people (Deuteronomy 12:11): “And you shall cross the Jordan and settle in the land the Lord, your God, is giving you as an inheritance … And it will be, that the place the Lord, your God, will choose in which to establish His Name, there you shall bring your sacrifices…”
Again, that “place that G-d chose” – the place where we were commanded to build a Temple – is the Temple Mount.
About 3,000 years ago, King David successfully conquered Jerusalem, fulfilling G-d’s promise and beginning preparations for the Temple. It was his son King Shlomo who built the first Temple, which stood on the Temple Mount for 410 years, until the Babylonians savagely destroyed the Temple and exiled the Jews.
About 2,500 years ago, the Persian Emperor Cyrus permitted the Jews to return to Israel and build a second Temple, on the Temple Mount. This Temple stood for 420 years, until the Romans destroyed it and exiled the Jews.
If you ask where the Jews have been since then, the answer is simple. We wish we could have been living as G-d had promised – as a sovereign nation in the land of Israel, with a Temple on the Temple Mount. But alas, antisemitic hatred and persecution led to our destruction and banishment from the land. We never “left” the land or “gave away” our G-d-given gift to anyone else.
Let’s move on. Are we going to build a Third Temple?
In 1948, we Jews finally reclaimed control over our homeland – or at least some of it. Only in 1967 did we gain control over Jerusalem’s Old City and the Temple Mount. That is when this question became realistic.
And yet, in the past 60 years, we haven’t built the Third Temple, nor are there any substantial plans or efforts to do so. Why?
Obviously, there are geopolitical considerations, which are significant, but my focus is on what the Jewish sources say. Contrary to what many assume, and as my colleague Rabbi Y. Shurpin explains so well on Chabad.org, Jewish tradition does not say we should simply start building a Temple tomorrow. In fact, a close examination of the sources reveals several major obstacles:
The obligation to rebuild the Temple is understood by many to apply only when the majority of the Jewish nation resides in Israel. Currently, less than 50% of Jews live in Israel.
The obligation to rebuild the Temple is understood by many to apply only when there is a Jewish king or prophet, which we don’t have nowadays.
We don’t even know how to construct it. Ezekiel’s prophecy outlines the blueprint of the Temple, but there are many different interpretations about how to understand these instructions.
One of the central items in the Temple is the altar for sacrifices. Our sages teach that the altar must be placed in the exact spot where Adam was first formed, and where Avraham built an altar for Isaac. Today, we don’t really know where this is. (When building the Second Temple, prophets came to vouch for the precise location.)
Even if we figured out how and where to build the Temple, we might be forbidden to enter it in our state of impurity. To become purified requires the ashes of a red heifer, which we don’t currently have.
The Temple will be staffed by “kohanim” – descendants of the biblical priest class. To be appointed, a kohen will need a genealogical verification of being a direct descendant of Aaron – something most kohanim don’t have nowadays.
The kohanim will need to wear special clothing, and today we aren’t clear about the identity of some of the materials, such as the techelet dye or the precious stones for the High Priest’s breastplate.
So how will the Third Temple be built?
The answer to this is not so clear.
In general, regarding all matters concerning the Jewish belief about messianic times, including universal peace, ingathering of the exiles, an end to evil, restoration of the Jewish monarchy, resurrection of the dead, and the return of worship in the holy Temple, all of these are shrouded in mystery and ambiguity. Not for lack of certainty about them, nor for a shortage of sources confirming them. Rather, these sources have been understood differently over the ages, and ultimately it appears that G-d deliberately wants these matters to remain enigmatic – for now.
That being said, there seem to be two general opinions about how the Temple will be built:
Maimonides rules that the Temple will be built by King Moshiach. In other words, we will need to wait for the arrival of Moshiach.
Others are of the opinion that in the Messianic era, the Temple will miraculously descend ready-built from heaven.
The bottom line:
In summary, as much as we yearn for the building of the Third Temple, and we know that it will happen one day, we are not currently in a position to fulfill this Jewish religious commandment.
So, for now, will everyone please relax, and will the conspiracists please educate themselves. Neither Chabad nor any other community with influence is making any such plans.
Instead, as per a core teaching of the Chabad-Lubavitcher Rebbe, we are focused on something more important for now: To practice unconditional love, to promote acts of kindness, to teach the word of G-d, to strengthen faith and purpose, to fill the world with true peace, and to prepare humanity for Messianic times.
Also:
End-Time Prophecy: Why is the Third Temple so Important?
Also:
Are we building the Third Temple?