lethargic_man | Monday, July 2nd, 2012

When the individual has completed reciting the Amidah, they then recite the meditation of Mar Rabina, following which traditional siddurim then have a further paragraph, commencing with יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְפָנֶיךָ ה' אֱלֹהֵינוּ וֵאלֹהֵי אַבוֹתֵינוּ שֶׁיִבָּנֶה בֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ בִּמְהֵרָה בְיָמֵינוּ, וְתֵן חֶלְקֵנוּ בְּתוֹרָתֶךָ "May it be Your will, Lord our God and God of our ancestors, that the Temple be built speedily in our days, and grant us a share in Your Torah" which seems to be the saying of Yehudah ben Tema in Mishna אבות ch. 5 mishna twenty-something (20 in the Hebrew University online Mishna, 24 in the ArtScroll and 23 in the Singer's Prayerbook).^*

* Though curiously the Hebrew University site has him saying rather כן יהי רצון מלפניך ה' אלוהינו שתיבנה עירך בימינו, ותיתן חלקנו בתורתך, ועם עושי רצונך—can anyone explain this discrepancy?

Longing for the Temple to be rebuilt is something that goes to the heart of traditional Judaism. The story is told of Napoleon going past a synagogue on Tisha BeAv and hearing the sound of weeping from within. Upon asking what was going on, he was told the Jews were mourning their Temple, which had been destroyed. Filled with anger, he demanded to know who had done this to subjects to his, so that he might right this wrong. "You misunderstand," he was told. "This happened seventeen hundred years ago."

I have no difficulty with praying for the Temple to be rebuilt, or for Jerusalem to be rebuilt speedily in our days. The problem I have is with praying for the Temple to be rebuilt speedily in our days, because the site it occupied is currently taken up by the Dome of the Rock.

There are those on the loony fringe who say this is not a problem, and have drawn up plans for the Third Temple to be built on stilts above the Dome of the Rock. Needless to say, I can't see the Moslem world being enthralled about this.

Traditional Judaism talks about מְחֶבְלֵי מָשִׁיחַ, the birth pangs of the Messiah, meaning that there will be a time of trouble and war when the Messiah first arises, before the Messianic Age of peace amongst mankind is ushered in. This is part of the reason Reform Judaism has switched from praying for a Messiah to praying for the Messianic Age written about by the literary prophets.

Personally, I can't see the opportunity for the Temple to be rebuilt in peace coming along until such time as traditional Islam is no longer a major force in the world, which will take centuries at least, possibly millennia. The best one can hope for is a commentator to arise of stature higher than al-Ṭabari, who would declare once and for all that the furthest mosque to which Muḥammad was transported in his night journey was not Jerusalem:

The connection between Islam and Jerusalem rests entirely upon an interpretation of Qur'ān 17:1:

Praise to Him who made His Servant to travel by night from the mosque of sanctuary to the furthest mosque, whose surroundings have We blessed to show him of our signs; indeed it is He who is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing. سُبْحَٰنَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَسْرَىٰ بِعَبْدِهِۦ لَيْلًۭا مِّنَ ٱلْمَسْجِدِ ٱلْحَرَامِ إِلَى ٱلْمَسْجِدِ ٱلْأَقْصَا ٱلَّذِى بَٰرَكْنَا حَوْلَهُۥ لِنُرِيَهُۥ مِنْ ءَايَٰتِنَآ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ هُوَ ٱلسَّمِيعُ ٱلْبَصِيرُ

This text makes no reference to Jerusalem; however, al-Ṭabari, the most highly respected Islamic commentator, says (Jami 15:3):

They say: It has been recalled to us that the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, was at one nighttime caused to travel by night to the furthest mosque while he was sleeping in the house of 'Umm Hāni' the daughter of Abū Ṭālib. Those who recount this are: Ibn Ḥamīd told me, quoting Salma, quoting Muḥammad bin Iṣḥāq, quoting Muḥammad bin al Sā'ib, about Abū Ṣāliḥ bin Bādhām, about 'Umm Hāni' daughter of Abū Ṭālib in regard to the night journey of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that she used to say: "The Prophet of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, was not caused to travel by night except while he was in my house sleeping at mine that night, so he prayed the final night prayer, then we slept, and when it was just before the dawn, the Prophet of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, awakened us, and when he had prayed the morning prayer and we had prayed with him, he said, "O 'Umm Hāni', I have prayed with you the last night prayer as you remember, then I came to the bayt al-maqdis and I have prayed in it, then I have prayed the daytime prayer with you now as you see."

بيت المقدش (bayt al-maqdis), like Hebrew בֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ (both literally "holy house"), refers to the Temple in Jerusalem (or the site of it by the time of Muḥammad). Unfortunately, al-Ṭabari's commentary is venerated so highly that his interpretation cannot be overruled; I cannot see one of higher stature arising in Islam any time soon.

And that is why, when I daven the paragraph at the end of the Amida, I emend the words, taking two words from elsewhere in the liturgy, and say:

May it be Your will, Lord our God and God of our ancestors, that the Temple be built at a good time, speedily in our days, and grant us a share in Your Torah. יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְפָנֶיךָ ה' אֱלֹהֵינוּ וֵאלֹהֵי אַבוֹתֵינוּ שֶׁיִבָּנֶה בֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ בִּזְמַן טוֹב בִּמְהֵרָה בְיָמֵינוּ, וְתֵן חֶלְקֵנוּ בְּתוֹרָתֶךָ ׃

—because, whilst I have no problems in praying for the Temple to be rebuilt as soon as possible, I do not want it rebuilt when doing so would cause darkness and suffering, and the birth pangs of the Messiah, rather than the light and tolerance of the Messianic Age.