Temple Institute Builds Sacrificial Altar on Day Jews Mourn the Destruction of the Temple

Teresa Neumann : Jul 31, 2009
Yuhudah Lev Kay - Israel National News/Arutz Sheva

"In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. It was necessary, then, for the copies of the Heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the Heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered Heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. Nor did He enter Heaven to offer Himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not His own. -Hebrews 9:22-25

(Israel)—Israel National News reports that The Temple Institute was to begin building the sacrificial altar on Thursday, July 30, Tisha B’av, a fast day when Jews mourn the destruction of the Temple some 2,000 years ago.

According to the report, The Temple Institute, which has already built many of the vessels for the Temple, such as the ark and the menorah, has now embarked on a project to build the altar.

Temple Institute director Yehudah Glick said. "We are building an altar of the minimum possible size so that we will be able to transport it to the Temple when it is rebuilt. Even a minimum size altar will work out to be approximately 4 meters tall, 6 meters long, and 6 meters wide. Workers have collected around 10 cubic meters of rocks weighing several tons already."

The rocks were reportedly gathered from the Dead Sea area and wrapped individually to assure they remain whole and are not touched by metal, as the Torah requires. (Photo: Arutz Sheva)

"The Torah says that no iron tools should be used on the altar’s stones," Glick explained. "The altar represents a connection to life and to the creation of the world. Iron is the opposite—it is used to build tools of war, death, and destruction."

Interestingly, the report notes that "the stones will be cemented together with a mixture of sand, clay, tar, and asphalt. Researchers from the Temple Institute visited the Finish glass factory near Yerucham to learn how to create a mixture which would remain as cool as possible under the altar’s unremitting fires and protect the Kohanim, who always worked in the Temple barefoot."