Identifying Kohanim at the Kotel: Preparing for the Third Temple

Very Interesting:

 

As crowds pushed to receive the Priestly Blessing on Passover at the Western Wall, security personnel tried to identify priests, a task that will take on even more significance when the Third Temple is built.

As Josh Wander did explain that the mere “name check” for recognising Kohanim isn’t foolproof, as many men with last names that might identify them as kohanim, could in fact not really be so.

The guards were checking for lineage (pedigree) indicators that they are from a long line of actual Kohanim.

City of David – The Ashes of the First Temple

An aerial view of the City of David area and the Temple Mount area, and if you look not too far away is the 'parking lot' area dig in the video below. In this picture it is in the center left, opposite from the excavation site on the southside of the Temple area walls, and down the street from the Gate into which we all go to reach the Kotel. What fascinates me is the aerial view. Imagine the Third Temple being there.

A short video but exciting to see the floor and the ashes from the First Temple 

Yearning for Mashiach and Yearning for the Rebuilt Temple

The Sages taught,

 "Any generation in which the Temple is not built, it is as if it had been destroyed in their times" (Yerushalmi, Yoma 1a).

The same lack of merit resulting in its destruction has resulted in its not being rebuilt. In fact, the Midrash states a frightening outcome of not yearning for the rebuilding of the Temple, "All the communities that fell, it is only because they didn't inquire after and demand the Beit HaMikdash" (Midrash Socher Tov, Shmuel 31). https://ohr.edu/holidays/tisha_bav/mourning/1088

We can add to the following list the over 70 years we have been allowed back on our Land and the Temple has not been rebuilt. B”H Yerushalayim is being beautified.  And B”H the City of David is being exposed, with its connection to Har HaBayit. We can follow the underground pathways to historical moments in time, 



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