TRADITION QUESTIONS: Beit HaMikdash Logistics
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What Is It?
In 2019, after six years of excavation, the Israel Antiquities Authority opened a 2,000-year-old stepped stone path that once connected the Pool of Siloam to the Beit HaMikdash. This road reflects one element of the non-ritual infrastructure that was critical for aliya la-regel in ancient times. In 1987, The Temple Institute was founded with the short-term goal of raising public awareness about the Beit HaMikdash and the long-term goal of bringing about its rebuilding in our time. A major focus of the Institute has been the construction of sacred vessels for service in the Holy Temple.
Why Does It Matter?
In imagining the missing components for a renewed Beit HaMikdash, it is only natural to focus on the vessels that occupied center-stage in the Temple service. The symbolic power of these elements was reflected in the Arch of Titus, not to mention Parshat Teruma. Yet, much more goes into building a ritual center. How will pilgrimage logistics work in a renewed Temple? When reflecting on the stone path between the Pool of Siloam and the Temple Mount, we should consider how millions of people will one day travel to Jerusalem. Where will they lodge? How will they have water, electricity, food, health care, and, most importantly, safety?
Given the Maimonidean belief that even in the Messianic age the natural order will still prevail, we should preemptively look to contemporary pilgrimage centers for cautionary examples. The 2021 crowd rush in Meron took the lives of forty-five men and boys and marks the deadliest civil disaster in the State of Israel’s history. Similar tragedies have taken place in Mecca (1990, 1997, 2006, 2015), in Kashmir (2022), and in Allahabad, India (2013).
When envisioning a resumption of pilgrimage to Jerusalem, what modern infrastructure will be needed? While focus on tragedies can give us a sense of what happens when planners fail, we must also learn from their successes. The Hajj example can prove useful. Focusing just on roads, an eight-lane, 75-kilometer superhighway is being created to connect Jeddah with Mecca. The Haramain High Speed Railway was inaugurated in 2018 to carry three million pilgrims annually. Huge road systems to carry 20,000 buses have been built between Mina and Mount Arafat.
For the 2.5 million people who arrived in 2019, thirty-five bakeries baked five million loaves of bread. Ice factories produced 1.5 million blocks of ice a day. One million prepared meals were given out at 1,500 centers. How many people might one day travel to Jerusalem for Sukkot, and how will they eat?
What Questions Remain?
Beyond the physical logistics, we must also consider the spiritual logistics. How will the pilgrim experience aliya la-regel? What activities will he or she engage in during a stay in Jerusalem? How will this experience transform a person? How will people feel when they depart?
The building of a ritual center requires human infrastructure, as well. Abilities to administer these vast systems, not to mention the contentious questions of what will take place “on stage,” are critical to the success of such a project. Before building vessels, we would do well to consider how we might build this human infrastructure. As recorded in the Talmud and Josephus, the Second Temple was destroyed on account of civil strife, much of which emerged from the Temple itself. The experience of Jewish secular and religious political organization since the establishment of the State of Israel should likewise give us pause. What metrics might we develop to chart our progress in improving our political culture such that one day we might come to a successful consensus to resolve the religious and logistical questions that will most certainly arise?
Chaim Strauchler, an associate editor of TRADITION, is rabbi of Cong. Rinat Yisrael in Teaneck.