YEHUDA Glick is a 44-year-old US-born Jew who spends the
greater part of every day preparing for the arrival of the Messiah in
Jerusalem.
Since becoming executive director of the Temple Institute,
Mr Glick's main task has been to supervise the manufacture of the utensils
needed by the high priests when the day arrives.
Crowns and other instruments made of solid gold fill glass
cases in the Temple Institute Museum in Jerusalem's Old City. There are
trumpets made of silver and garments to be worn by the high priest woven from
golden thread. Handmade harps and lyres lie ready for the Messiah's appearance.
So, when can we expect this momentous event?
''That is a very good question,'' Mr Glick told The Age this
week.
''All that we know is that we are now living in the age of
miracles, and all of those miracles are predicted in the Book as happening on
the eve of the end of days,'' he said. ''It could well be tomorrow, but it
might be another 100 years, or even 400 years.''
We are sitting in the Quarter Cafe in the Jewish sector of
the Old City, overlooking the most contested religious site on Earth.
Jews call it the Temple Mount, or Mount Moriah, and believe
it to be the site of the Foundation Stone, where God gathered the dust to
create Adam.
Muslims call it al-Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary,
and believe it to be the spot from which the prophet Muhammad ascended to
heaven on his miraculous night journey. According to Judaism, the Temple Mount
is also the site of the first temple constructed by King Solomon. After it was
destroyed, a second temple was built around 500BC, and stood for 500 years
before it was destroyed by the Romans.
Judaism holds that a third temple will be built upon the
arrival of the Messiah. ''That is why we have engaged two architects,'' says Mr
Glick. ''It will be a modern building, with car parks and elevators, but it
will look very much like the second temple.'' The museum contains a scale model
of this third temple.
Today, the site is dominated by the al-Aqsa Mosque and the
golden-topped Dome of the Rock. The Old City is in East Jerusalem, territory
occupied by Israel in June 1967 and subsequently annexed by the state, a move
that has never been legally recognised by the international community.
''Al-Aqsa can stay,'' says Mr Glick. ''It's not even on the
Temple Mount proper. But we intend to just build over the Dome of the Rock. We
might be able to find a way to include it in the third temple.''
Since its foundation, the Temple Institute has become a
fixture for Americans on evangelical tours of Israel. Thanks largely to their
donations, the Temple Institute has so far spent $US27 million ($A29 million)
on preparations.
''We started with $US100,'' says Mr Glick. ''There are 70
million evangelical Christians around the world, and most of them have become
Israel's strongest supporters.''
Mr Glick is interrupted by the arrival of another US tour
group. Among them is Johnnie Butler, a retiree from Missouri on his first visit
to the Holy Land.
''I would be willing to die for Israel,'' Mr Butler told The
Age. ''Ever since I was saved by Jesus, I have been praying for the return of
the Jewish people to their ancient homeland.''
Ordinarily, the state of Israel prevents Jews from visiting
the Temple Mount. It's considered so sensitive that when then Israeli
opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited with hundreds of Israeli riot police in
September 2000, it sparked a wave of violence that came to be known as the
second (or al-Aqsa) intifada, or ''uprising''.
''This 'Temple Institute' is a right-wing extremist movement
interested in nothing more than provocation,'' says Khatem Abdel Qader, the
Palestinian Authority minister in charge of Jerusalem affairs.
''We will vigorously defend our right to manage this site.
No amount of insulting behaviour from these people will succeed in removing
us.''
Israel