The Case for the Temple

Deseret News reported that the Temple Institute had spent the previous two years making Temple vessels and priestly garments. It also reported computer-drawn Temple blueprints and a Temple-research conference sponsored by the Institute. These preparations followed its founding, which its English-language About us page dates to 1987.

The Temple Mount Faithful planned to lay a cornerstone for a Third Temple; clashes on the Mount left at least 19 Palestinians dead. The idea of rebuilding was already enough to cause bloodshed.

The revived court reached beyond Jews, recognising a council of non-Jews who pledged to keep the Noahide laws "under the guidance of the developing Sanhedrin".

The Institute's gold-covered menorah, built for Temple use, was moved to a glass case on the stairway facing the Temple Mount.

A newly completed laver for the priests' washing was unveiled, and Temple-style silver trumpets sounded, at a reenactment in the Old City.

By late 2008 the Institute had made more than 60 vessels, including the showbread table and incense altar, and had begun producing priestly garments to order.

On the fast day mourning the Temple's destruction, the Institute began building a stone altar it said it intends one day to bring to the Temple Mount.

The Institute's exhibit included a High Priest's garments with a breastplate of 12 precious stones, and a replica Ark of the Covenant. The original Ark is lost; this is a reconstruction.

Chief Rabbis David Lau and Yitzhak Yosef signed a declaration reaffirming the religious ban on Jews visiting the Temple Mount. Other rabbis permitted visits that avoided prohibited areas; the disagreement runs within Orthodox Judaism itself.

An international crowdfunding campaign raised $105,000 to commission architectural plans for a Third Temple.

The Institute released a 3D architectural rendering of the Third Temple, showing vessels it had already made inside a modern design.

The Institute began a programme to breed a red heifer, the animal needed for the purification ritual that precedes Temple service.

Survivor of the 2014 shooting, Glick entered the Knesset and used his first speech to call for an end to the ban on Jewish prayer on the Mount.

A school for priests to serve in a Third Temple had 14 students in a pilot and plans to grow.

Before the embassy move, the Sanhedrin asked Trump and Putin to take up Cyrus's role and back a Third Temple. The same Cyrus theme returned on the 2018 Temple coin.

A Temple group minted a coin pairing Trump with Cyrus, the king whose decree led to the Second Temple; a movement outlet named the nascent Sanhedrin as its partner. The embassy decision was read in Temple terms.

Lambs were slaughtered in a Passover sacrifice rehearsal at the foot of the Mount, with an MK attending. Sacrifice is being practised beside the site.

The United States opened its embassy in Jerusalem. The diplomatic move placed an American embassy in the city where the Temple stood, adding to Jerusalem's international political importance.

Preparation for sacrifice moved from plans to a completed object: activists dedicated a portable 'Temple-ready' altar outside Jerusalem's Old City.

A court ruled one man's quiet prayer on the Mount was not a crime; the decision was overturned two days later after Jordanian and Palestinian protests.

Six months after the heifers arrived, the site was ready too: land bought facing the Temple Mount, and priests kept pure for the ceremony.

AFP reported that the Temple Institute had formed a men-only choir a few months earlier to train Levite singers for a rebuilt Temple. Choir director Menahem Rozenthal explained that the singers needed to learn before Temple service could resume. The Institute's own account dates the choir's establishment to January 2023.

A video showed priests reciting the Priestly Blessing on the Mount facing the Dome of the Rock; Hamas condemned it.

Nearly 1,000 Levites rehearsed the Temple's psalms at the Mount's Southern Wall, five days before 7 October.

Six months into the war, both sides were describing Gaza as a fight over the Temple Mount, and the red heifers had become part of that story.

Al Jazeera reported preparations for a red heifer ceremony on the Mount of Olives. The same preparation is read as hope by one side and as a threat to the mosque by the other.

Police arrested 21 people trying to bring Passover sacrifices toward the Mount, some hiding goats in strollers.

The minister in charge of the police declared that "the political echelon permits prayer"; Netanyahu's office said the status quo had not changed.

A serving minister said he would build a synagogue on the Mount if he could. Netanyahu's office said policy had not changed, and Orthodox voices objected too. The idea is now spoken in government, though not adopted.

An activist carried a sacrificial animal onto the Mount itself before police removed him; no sacrifice was completed.

On Jerusalem Day, Ben-Gvir announced from the Mount that Jews may pray and bow there; Jordan condemned it.

A serving minister prayed openly on the Mount on Tisha B'Av, and activists reported a record 3,527 visitors. The government again said policy had not changed.

The Temple Institute said the burning was "only an exercise" and "all of the ashes are completely ineligible". It said the samples were collected by people who were ritually impure, which contradicts online claims that a priest kept in purity gathered them. Four heifers remain under observation; the real rite is still to come.

Slovenia moved its embassy to Jerusalem and revoked its recognition of a Palestinian state.

Glick, the former Temple Institute director and Likud lawmaker, presents the Mount as a 'house of prayer for all nations' and invites churches, synagogues and schools to visit. He says daily Jewish prayer, singing and prostration are already taking place. Access to the Mount is being framed as a route to shared worship and peace; this is his advocacy, not an adopted government programme.

Hamas's new political chief pledged a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and Al-Aqsa as the symbol of resistance. Both sides now name the same hill as the heart of their cause.

On Tisha B'Av, the fast that mourns the Temples, Ben-Gvir led one of the largest Jewish entries to the compound on record while Palestinian worshippers were barred, Al Jazeera reported.

The Guardian reported prayer and tents at the centre of the compound under police protection; Arab states and Jordan called it a "blatant provocation". Practice on the ground is moving ahead of stated policy.

Ben-Gvir confirmed Jewish men were allowed to pray with prayer books on the Mount for the first time, described as an "initial experiment". Open Jewish prayer is what the 1967 arrangement ruled out.

Nauru opened an embassy in Jerusalem, the ninth country to do so. Recognition of the city keeps spreading.

Archaeologists reported evidence at Shiloh and Kiriath-jearim matching where the Ark of the Covenant was housed. Claims about the Temple's sacred objects now draw mainstream coverage; they remain the researchers' interpretation.