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Erin set her map down and turned to Natasha. "I would like to have gotten to
know your grandfather more."
Natasha nodded. "You would have liked him."
"I already did."
They drove in silence another few minutes. Then, still gazing out the window
at farmland covered with oil wells, Natasha said, "He was convinced he was
going to live to see the Temple rebuilt. For most of my life, I thought he was
crazy. Even when I was studying to follow in his foot-steps, I thought his
obsession with the Temple and the Ark was all a little much."
It was quiet again for a few minutes; then Natasha picked up the thought.
"It's funny," she said softly. "I thought of archeology as the study of the
past, but my grandfather always said it was about the future. `What good is
digging up relics today if it doesn't affect how we live tomorrow?' he used to
say. To him, finding the Temple treasures wasn't simply about proving that the
Jews controlled Jerusalem thousands of years ago. It was about setting into
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motion the building of the Third Temple and thus ful-
filling the words of the Hebrew prophets."
"But you didn't buy it?" asked Erin.
"He was the zealot in the family, not me. After my parents died, I decided
there couldn't be a God so capricious that He would leave me and millions of
other children around the world orphaned. But my grand-father never gave up on
me. He wanted me to
134
be a believer."
Again they drove for a while in silence.
Then Jon spoke up. Forgive me, Natasha, but I'm curious. What exactly do
Jewish
"
people believe when it comes to rebuilding the Temple?"
In some ways, Natasha dreaded the question. It had been a mistake to say
anything.
She would have preferred to suffer in silence. But then again, her grandfather
had taught her well, and perhaps the chance to pass along some of his
knowledge would help keep her mind off of how utterly alone she felt without
him.
"That's like asking Christians what they think about the pope," she replied.
"Ask a
Catholic and you'll get one answer. Ask the Greek or Russian Orthodox, and
you'll get quite another. Everything depends on your point of view."
"I've heard some people say the building of the Temple will precede the coming
of the Messiah," Erin said. "Others say the Messiah will build it Himself."
"Well, you're right about that," Natasha replied. "It's been an age-old
debate. Even some of our wisest sages were confused. Read Maimonides. At
various points, he made the case for both sides. But the truth is, until the
last few months, most Israelis secular ones, anyway didnt believe the Temple
would
'
ever be rebuilt, nor did they much care.
With the Dome ofthe Rock and the Al-Aksa Mosque there, it just seemed
impossible.
Obviously, religious Jews particularly the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox
believed it would happen, though most couldn't imagine how.
"That said, ever since we reunified Jerusalem and took control of the Temple
Mount in 1967, the movement to rebuild has certainly been growing from just a
handful of true believers into a very powerful force. They've been publishing
books and holding conferences about it. They've been making implements for
Temple service and training priests in Temple rituals. And then came October
13, 2004.
"
"What happened then?" asked Bennett.
They were now approaching the outskirts of the city, and Natasha could see the
Sea of Galilee glistening in the morning sun.
"That was the day the Sanhedrin was reconvened right here in Tiberias,
actually
for the first time in over 1,600 years."
"The
Sanhedrin?" Erin asked, astonished. "The same one that condemned Jesus and
sent Him to Pilate, hoping the Romans would execute Him?"
"Well, most Jews don't exactly think of that as the group's defining moment,
but yes, that's the one," said Natasha. "The original Sanhedrin was the
governing religious council of the Temple, made up of the seventy-one most
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prominent rabbis in the country. They met in the Temple. They oversaw its
daily life and practice. After Jerusalem was sacked and the Temple destroyed
in the year 70, the Sanhedrin went underground. They were convinced the city
and the sanctuary would be rebuilt. They were convinced the Messiah would come
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