Israel goes to the polls on October 27 in an election that could reshape the country’s government and determine the future direction of the Israeli right.
But buried beneath the familiar election issues is something few would have imagined becoming part of Israel’s political conversation:
Moshe Feiglin, who has spent decades advocating Jewish sovereignty over the Temple Mount and the eventual rebuilding of the Temple, has just joined forces with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party. Feiglin is slated for the No. 2 position on their joint electoral list, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly welcomed the alliance.
Then came an extraordinary exchange.
Asked what would happen to the mosque on the Temple Mount when the Third Temple is built, Feiglin didn’t dismiss the question as fantasy. Instead, he predicted that Arabs would eventually voluntarily vacate the site and that the nations themselves would want to help Israel build the Temple.
Feiglin acknowledged that this sounds “far-fetched” and impossible under today’s conditions. But he pointed to something else that once appeared impossible: the Jewish people returning to their ancient homeland after nearly 2,000 years.
It is an extraordinary prediction.
But Feiglin’s comments aren’t occurring in isolation.
When The Impossible Becomes Possible
Consider how dramatically Israel’s circumstances have already changed.
For nearly 1,900 years there was no sovereign Jewish state. Jerusalem passed from empire to empire, while the Jewish people remained scattered throughout the nations.
Nineteen years later, Israeli soldiers captured Jerusalem’s Old City and the Temple Mount during the Six-Day War.
Yet Israel left administration of the Islamic holy sites with the Muslim Waqf, and for decades Jews visiting the Temple Mount were forbidden from praying there.
Even that is now changing.
In January, police began permitting specially prepared Jewish prayer sheets on the Mount. Then in August, Jewish worshipers were reportedly permitted to bring actual siddurim — Jewish prayer books — onto the site and openly pray from them. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has himself openly prayed there.
The formal status quo has not been abolished. The Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque remain in place, and the Muslim Waqf continues administering Islamic religious activities.
But what happens on the ground has unquestionably changed.
Sacrifices Are No Longer Merely Theoretical
Something else is happening.
In May, Israeli police arrested 21 people suspected of trying to bring a young goat onto the Temple Mount for a sacrifice. Weeks later, another group was arrested attempting a Shavuot-related sacrifice.
These remain small activist movements, and police prevented the sacrifices.
But think about what that means.
Nearly 2,000 years after Temple sacrifices ceased, there are Jews not simply studying the sacrificial system but actively attempting to restore it.
For students of Bible prophecy, that deserves attention.
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Three New Red Heifer Candidates
The red heifer story is also entering a new phase.
For several years, attention centered on red heifers imported from Texas. Now efforts are increasingly focused on producing qualifying animals inside Israel itself.
This year, reports have emerged of multiple red-heifer calves born in Israel and being examined as potential candidates.
A second calf was reported in July in the Golan Heights. Those raising it deliberately avoided attaching the normal ear tag because of concerns that doing so could affect its eligibility under the stringent requirements surrounding the Numbers 19 purification ceremony.
Subsequent reports have described a third candidate in the Jordan Valley.
None of these animals should yet be called “the red heifer.” They must mature while continuing to satisfy demanding biblical and rabbinical requirements.
But that misses the larger development.
The significance isn’t that Israel has found the red heifer.
It is that Israelis are increasingly building the infrastructure intended to make finding one less a matter of extraordinary chance.
Preparing For A Temple That Doesn’t Exist
Temple-oriented organizations have spent years researching vessels, priestly garments, ritual purity and the practical requirements of Temple worship.
Kohanim — men identified with the priestly line — have participated in training and study surrounding Temple service. Researchers and rabbis continue working through the practical and halachic questions that would arise if sacrifices were restored.
Once again, none of this means the Israeli government has decided to rebuild the Temple.
But the nature of the conversation is changing.
For centuries the question was theoretical: Could there ever be another Temple?
