Today, on the Fast of Av, Jews throughout the world mourn the destruction of the two Holy Temples of Jerusalem and pray for the rebuilding of the Third Temple.
But one organization has been doing a lot more than just praying.
The Temple Institute has released a modern three-dimensional architectural rendition of the future Third Holy Temple, utilizing the latest building material and techniques.
The vivid, three-minute video walks viewers through the main sanctuary, showcasing decades of research and tens of innovative Halakhic (Jewish law) solutions to various perplexing issues that were resolved to create fully functional, ready-to-use plans.
While staying true to the Halakhic requirements and dimensions, the project also adds some clear modern twists.
As the visual tour sweeps through the sanctuary, one can see the menorah, incense altar and showbread table, all of which have already been prepared by the Institute, among 70 other sacred vessels.
The presentation was specially released to coincide with the Ninth of Av, the Jewish national day of mourning which commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples.
The video comes one year after the Temple Institute appealed to its supporters to take part in an Indiegogo crowd funding campaign that raised over $100,000 for the architectural plans. The video was first released to supporters of a current campaign to raise the first kosher Red Heifer in Israel in over 2,000 years. Over the past five years, the organization has released its most ambitious campaigns and poignant videos to reframe the mourning period into one of active preparation for the Third Holy Temple.
Rabbi Chaim Richman, International Director of The Temple Institute noted that one of his organization's key aims is to educate Jews about the centrality of the Temple to Judaism, after nearly 2,000 years without it
"One third of all Torah commandments pertain to the building of and service in the Holy Temple," Rabbi Richman noted. "Today, we not only mourn the destruction of the two Holy Temples, but also our inability to fulfill one third of the Torah."
"Over the last three decades, the Temple Institute has done everything in our power to research and prepare for the Third Temple. As world Jewry sits on the ground mourning the first two Temples, we have taken a huge leap towards the rebuilding, by releasing a 3D architectural rendition of the Third Temple.
The Temple Institute is the center of research and preparation for the Holy Temple. In addition to educational activity focused on the centrality of the Temple Mount and Holy Temple, the Institute have also recreated over 70 sacred vessels for use in the Third Holy Temple, which can be seen at their Visitors Center in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Satanic Temple's plans for 'largest public satanic ceremony in history' backfire after Detroit protesters force them to unveil huge goat-headed Devil statue in private
The Satanic Temple unveiled a controversial goat-headed bronze monument at a secret Detroit venue on Saturday.
The 8½-foot-tall Baphomet monument shows Satan with horns, hooves, wings and a beard.
Backed by an inverted pentagram, it weighs more than a ton and is flanked by statues of two young children gazing up at the creature.
The Satanic Temple, a group that advocated for the separation of church and state, was originally going to host the statue's revealing at a popular restaurant until the owner backed out after receiving threats.
Instead, the group held a secret, ticketed event at an undisclosed location in the city.
The group's co-founder Lucien Greaves told the Associated Press that people had threatened to burn the venue down prior to the unveiling.
WJBK reported that hundreds of people showed up for the event, including protesters who are strongly against the group.
The statue was to have been unveiled July 25 at Bert's Market Place in Detroit's Eastern Market district, but Bert Dearing said he gave the group back it's $3,000 rental fee when he learned who booked the place.
'Detroit is a very religious area,' Dearing said.
'When I rented the place, I just thought it was a church. I didn't know about the unveiling of a statue. We weren't aware they were into devil worshiping.'
Hundreds of people waited in line to The Satanic Temple's unveiling of the goat-headed statue on Saturday in Detroit
The Satanic Temple Detroit chapter founder Jex Blackmore has said the group doesn't worship Satan but does promote individuality, compassion and views that differ from Christian and conservative beliefs.
The statue was designed and built at a cost of more than $100,000 and had been planned for the state Capitol in Oklahoma City until Oklahoma's Supreme Court banned religious displays, including a monument of the Ten Commandments on Capitol grounds.
Greaves said the statue will not remain in Detroit and that The Satanic Temple wants to erect it outside Arkansas' Statehouse in Little Rock where a Ten Commandments monument also is planned.
Detroit was selected for the unveiling because The Satanic Temple in the city has a 'strong congregation,' Greaves said.
The BBC has witnessed more heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine as rebel forces appeared to attack Ukrainian army positions with mortars and a tank on part of the front line in the east of the country.
Both sides accuse the other of shelling its positions on a daily basis, as the conflict shows no sign of calming down.
In Ukraine there are rumours that a summer offensive by pro-Russian forces is imminent. However, the rebels accuse Kiev of shelling residential areas they hold in the east.
BBC correspondent Tom Burridge, producer Will Vernon and cameraman Stuart Antrobus spent an evening on the front line with Ukrainian troops in the village of Opytne near Donetsk.
There is evidence of an ongoing resurgence of the Planet X (also known as Nibiru) cataclysm conspiracy theory following the publication of new scientific studies in 2014 claiming evidence of a mysterious unnamed planet lurking beyond Pluto. The scientific claims were based onobservations of gravitational influences on a group of space bodies termed the “extreme trans-Neptunian objects” (ETNOs) orbiting our Sun beyond the planet Neptune. A slew of messages and YouTube videos currently being circulated in the conspiracy theory blogosphere claims that a NASA study published in 1988 revealed details about the mysterious Planet X/Nibiru with an estimated orbital period of more than 1,000 years. The study, according to conspiracy theorists, demonstrates that NASA and the U.S. government have been aware for decades that the rogue Planet X is coming with catastrophic consequences for humanity. Credit to Skywatchtv.com http://skywatchtv.com/2015/07/23/nasas-planet-x-files-leaked-nasa-knows-nibiru-is-coming-say-conspiracy-theorists/
Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, Commander of Iran’s Basij (volunteer) Force, on Thursday aired a whopper of a conspiracy theory, claiming that Israel and the US - which Iran just signed a nuclear deal with - are behind Islamic State (ISIS). Naqdi, who just this Tuesday said the nuclear deal makes Iranians hate America "100 times more" and in March said "wiping Israel off the map is not up for negotiation," was quoted by the semi-official Fars News Agency in a message to the Iraqi public.
"The ISIL's theorization and ideology production center is in Haifa and its field operations room in the region is the US embassy in Baghdad," Naqdi claimed, using an alternate acronym for the Sunni ISIS that Shi'ite Iran has been fighting - as has the US.
But that's not all; he claimed the US and Israel had created ISIS as a "successor to their former agent in the region Saddam Hussein," indicating the Iraqi dictator who was toppled by none other than the US.
This isn't the first time Naqdi has accused the US and Israel of creating ISIS.
Back in 2014, Fars reports he told a crowd of thousands of Basij troops that "the criminal US created, equipped and armed the ISIL terrorist group with the help of the wicked Britain and the child-killing Zionist regime as well the petrodollars of oil-rich countries and they ordered it (ISIS) to carry out crimes and large-scale massacre of Shi'ites and Sunnis and disrupt their tranquility on the pretext of a sectarian Sunni war on Shi'ites." According to Naqdi, the US created ISIS to "introduce a tainted image of Islam" through acts of brutal savagery in executions and the murder of women and children - even as Iranian-backed terror groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah are in fact guilty of committing similar acts.
Iran has increasingly shown hostility towards the US despite the deal, with an aide to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei saying Tuesday that Iran won't let international inspectors visit its covert military sites such as Parchin, where Iran's illicit nuclear weapons testing is thought to be occurring.
Earlier on Tuesday US Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged for the first time that Iran's vows to defy the US are "disturbing."
