In the afterward to his novel, internationally acclaimed author, Yishai Sarid shares his compulsion to pen his provocative new work titled, The Third Temple. Sharid asserts he was motivated to write his apocryphal yarn, “by a troubling element in Israeli culture, after Rabin’s assassination ---the hardline fundamentalist groups whose vision is rebuilding the temple.” Though fiction, The Third Temple, reads like a cautionary tale forewarning an inevitable apocalypse of the Jewish State, in our time.
Sometime in the late twenty-first century during the devastating “War of Evaporation”, the Amalekites, Israel’s mortal enemy dropped nuclear bombs on Israel’s coastal cities. They obliterated Tel-Aviv and Haifa, annihilated most of the Jewish population and poisoned the land with radiation. The surviving remnant of true believers turned to Jehoaz for leadership. A year prior G-d had revealed Himself to Jehoaz with “divine validation” for Israel’s redemption on one condition, that Jehoaz reinstate the original covenant between G-d and His people. Jehoaz was crowned King, redeemer and High Priest. He immediately commanded the laying of the cornerstone for the third temple.
Employing the most sophisticated technology, Jehoaz located the heretofore lost ark of the covenant -- intact with the ancient Mosaic tablets—and placed it inside the temple’s inner sanctum where the “divine shekhina” would return home. He directed the new Sanhedrin to stringently interpret the ancient laws. Only the Jews identified with a chip, embedded within their bodies, were permitted entry to the temple mount for worship. David the King’s son headed the new army; Another son, Joel, dealt with matters of protocol and fund raising.
Against the Sanhedrin’s repeated admonition--- based on Halachic Law that forbids anyone with a disability to serve “in a holy position inside the temple”--- Jehoaz appoints his youngest son, Jonathan, crippled by an injury “in both legs and in-between” to supervise the procedural matters of animal sacrifices at the altar. That reckless act of nepotism was the first of many Halachic infractions warning of impending disaster. Other blasphemous acts followed. Jehoaz took a second wife, a union the Sanhedrin strongly condemned. Joel, the fund raiser,
permitted one generous donor “a quick peek inside the inner sanctum,” a privilege permitted only to the High Priest.
A tidal wave of mysterious events begins to portend the temple’s dissolution. To his horror, Jonathan discovers a pig’s carcass among the sacrifices on the altar. A rotting smell of decay pervades the sweet smelling city of Jerusalem. The King’s son becomes severely injured in battle. And an eagle-faced stranger demands the King’s resignation from the throne “ before Yom Kippur…in seven days”. Who is this strange individual ? Who permitted him to enter the temple mount unchecked? Is Armageddon at hand?
A bloodcurdling, rather mordant, phantasy in which author Sarid claims has already taken root with “some groups,” The Third Temple nevertheless remains compelling fiction--- for now.
