Monday, April 2, 2018

Famous rabbi sees Trump rebuilding Temple




Famous rabbi sees Trump rebuilding Temple
Sees it as 'final, historic reparation for his entire nation'
President Trump places a written prayer into a crack at the Western Wall, Jerusalem, Israel, on May 22, 2017.
WASHINGTON – Donald Trump might not be the most popular person inside the beltway, in California, on U.S. college campuses or in the American media, but his support is growing in Israel, with one prominent rabbi saying he believes the president is destined to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple before the coming of the Messiah.

Rabbi Yosef Berger, the son of a widely revered Hasidic leader in charge of King David’s Tomb on Mount Zion, told Breaking Israel News Trump will play this “final historic reparation for his entire nation.”

“No leader in history has recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the Jews and Israel,” Berger said. “[Trump] has already created a great tikkun (reparation) for the Christians through his unprecedented relationship with Jerusalem. Trump is the representative of Edom that will perform that final historic reparation for his entire nation by building the Temple.”

Edom is an ancient adversary of Israel, founded by Esau, the twin brother of Jacob, whose name was later changed to Israel, according to Genesis. As the slightly older brother of Jacob, Esau famously rejected his birthright for a mess of pottage or stew when he was famished after a hunting excursion. Some ancient rabbis saw Edom as a spiritual progenitor of Christians.

Meanwhile, Trump mania runs strong throughout Israel, according to public polls.

Public opinion surveys show Trump approved by 65 percent or more of Israelis, who seldom form such strong consensus about politicians – foreign or domestic.

Berger cited a medieval rabbinical source that predicted that while the first two temples were built by Israel, the third would be built by the “descendants of Edom,” a phrase that in some later rabbinical literature is used as a euphemism for the Christian world.

The Temple in Jerusalem was believed by most archaeologists to have been located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, the current site of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque, yet the most important religious site in all of Judaism. The rebuilding of the Temple is associated by many Jews and Christians with a coming messianic age – for Jews, who don’t believe the Messiah has come, and Christians, who believe He came as Jesus of Nazareth and will return to restore Israel to glory, along with the rest of the world.

 

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