Implications Of The Lack Of A Temple For Jews

[Calm]

I had not really deeply considered what not having a temple meant for Jews except as a symbol of their religion and their commitment to God, but a comment in an article about ritual purity made me wonder about the far reaching implications it might mean even on a practical level when it was no longer possible to participate in sin offerings and such to regain ritual purity, the implication being that they were unable to atone for sin (or have the sacrifices that atoned for them). Did this mean they were then in a perpetual state of sin and/or ritual impurity? Plus it makes me wonder how those who were not able to attend temple events due to distance, health or financial restrictions were able to manage. There must have been created ways to compensate otherwise the lack would eventually lead to an entire nation of ritually impure. It makes understandable the extreme measures taken to avoid contamination even by mistake, but eventually given enough time contamination must occur especially if one associated with Gentiles...and then wouldn't one's ritual impurity be passed on to others (and would they make those coming in contact impure as well?). So what replaced the temple ordinances/sacrifices?

[thesometimesaint]

calmoriah:

Judaism has never been one unified belief. Even in the time of Jesus there were factions within it. I would say that the local synagogue now largely, but not entirely, takes the place of their temples. But I'm not Jewish so you'll have to ask them what they believe.

[Calm]

I know that there were other temples available in the past as well as variations of interpretation and practice. We have in the Book of Mormon a probable example of a group doing without Levitical priesthood who apparently allowed nonLevite to perform necessary ordinances.

I am speaking specifically of those sects who believe a temple along with practicing Levites and priests were needed to perform specific sacrifices for the purpose of atonement and how they have adapted over the years without temple access of any kind.

[thesometimesaint]

calmoriah:

I don't know as after the captivity in Baylon and the Dispora by Rome there were enough Levites left to do the work. I do know that while the Christians rejoiced the Jews did lament the loss of the temple. I'm not sure as to how long they lamented, they may still for all I know. But they do not perform the rituals anymore.

[Calm]

Yes, I know that the rituals are no longer available to them, at least in the temple form. That isthe question I am asking...have they formed substitutes and if not, what are the teachings that deal with the loss.

I know that there is a group preparing to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, in part by training Kohanim priests in sacrificial procedures so it would appear that sacrifices are still believed to have validity at least by sone sects.

Edited November 30, 2011 by calmoriah

[thesometimesaint]

calmoriah:

Not that I know of. But then I'm not the best person to ask about present day Jewish beliefs. I guess we'll have to wait until a Jew or convert Jew posts here.

We do have Scripture about the day when the Jews once again offer up a sacrifice in righteousness. I don't know that this or anyother present day group meets the defintion of "In righteousness".

[LeSellers]

We do have Scripture about the day when the Jews once again offer up a sacrifice in righteousness. I don't know that this or anyother present day group meets the defintion of "In righteousness".

Technically, it's not the "Jews" who will offer up again an offering in righteousness, but "the sons of Levi". The distinction may be trivial, but it may be of considerable weight.

Lehi

[thesometimesaint]

Lehi:

Maybe. It well could be that there are not enough technically correct sons of Levi left to do that. I doubt it. But I really don't know.

[ksfisher]

The "sons of Levi" are Aaronic Priesthood bearers. Every week in sacrament meeting they are making offerings to the Lord.

[KevinG]

I can see allowing Aaronic Priesthood holders to perform offerings in the temple leading to its destruction!!

[volgadon]

Yes, I know that the rituals are no longer available to them, at least in the temple form. That isthe question I am asking...have they formed substitutes and if not, what are the teachings that deal with the loss.

I know that there is a group preparing to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, in part by training Kohanim priests in sacrificial procedures so it would appear that sacrifices are still believed to have validity at least by sone sects.

There are several substitutions in place. Prayer, studying the laws of sacrifice, tears, fasting, even martyrdom. I can post some specific examples, if you'd like.

[Calm]

I would appreciate greatly if you would.

[Bill Hamblin]

I've got a chapter on this issue, with lots of bibliography, in my Solomon's Temple: Myth and History (2007)

[volgadon]

I've got a chapter on this issue, with lots of bibliography, in my Solomon's Temple: Myth and History (2007)

Cool.

[Calm]

Thanks!

[kolipoki09]

The "sons of Levi" are Aaronic Priesthood bearers. Every week in sacrament meeting they are making offerings to the Lord.

They're also those who will perform an actual animal sacrifice in the last days.

I nominate David Bokovoy to place the innards, torso, head, and fat of the sacrificial victim upon the fire.

I hear he knows how to make a wickedly sweet savor.

[volgadon]

In the Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan A, the classic statement is that of R. Yohanan b. Zakai (Ribaz) when viewing the destroyed temple, that deeds of loving-kindness will atone for Israel now that the temple lies in ruins. The prooftext is Hosea 6:6. Hosea 14:3 also played a big role in substitution thought as it allowed for real bulls to be replaced with prayers.

Another line of thinking can be found in the Babylonian Talmud t. Menahot 110a. Anyone who studies the laws relating to sacrifices is considered as if he offered them himself. This is an acceptable substitution, which, at the same time, elevates the importance of Torah.

Rav Sheshet considered fasing a substitue, as his blood and fat were diminished by it. Thus, it was as if they were laid on the altar as they were in the temple.

B. Talmud t. Berachot 17a. This line of thought is continued in poems for Yom Kippur. For Levi ibn Altaban, this is what the fasters do.

Abraham ibn Ezra offered not only this symbolic blood and fat, but his heart also, considering himself a sacrificial lamb.

Shlomo ibn Gabirol played on the similarity between dam (blood) and dimah (teardrop), imploring God to accept sprinkling of tears as if it were a sprinkling of blood. Song was also an appropriate substitute.

All these and more can be found in chapter 3 of Michael Fishbane's "The Kiss of God."

In Hasidism, the Tzaddik's table was considered an altar at which the priest, IE the Tzaddik, officiated.

[Calm]

Very interesting, thank you.

[Robert F. Smith]

calmoriah:

I don't know as after the captivity in Baylon and the Dispora by Rome there were enough Levites left to do the work. I do know that while the Christians rejoiced the Jews did lament the loss of the temple. I'm not sure as to how long they lamented, they may still for all I know. But they do not perform the rituals anymore.

The early Christians (who were Jews) did not rejoice at the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. Of course the Jews lament the loss of their temple. They also lamented the loss of Jerusalem during the past 2,000 years. The mishna contains details of the ancient temple rites, which will someday be restored.

There have always been plenty of Levites, including kohens, for Jewish temple function, and priests do have some limited functions which they still perform today (blessing the congregation at Yom Kippur [Day of Atonement], pidyon haben [redemption of the firstborn], etc.), but the Pilgrimage festivals are now held at home or in the Synagogue -- the Day of Atonement rites largely taking the place of the ancient temple sacrifices.

Edited December 1, 2011 by Robert F. Smith

[volgadon]

the Day of Atonement rites largely taking the place of the ancient temple sacrifices.

With the reader consciously playing role of priest.

[thesometimesaint]

Robert F.Smith:

http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/transcripts/?id=58

The temple in itself is not a fetish—it is not a palladium (aegis; cf. fig. 30, p. 125); because the Jews attached their hopes in the end to a building, its destruction had the most crushing effect on them. The Christians exulted, but the Jews thought they would never be restored again because the temple had been destroyed and the Jews themselves felt utterly discouraged with the passing of the temple—it was all over with

[volgadon]

Robert F.Smith:

http://maxwellinstit...nscripts/?id=58

The temple in itself is not a fetish—it is not a palladium (aegis; cf. fig. 30, p. 125); because the Jews attached their hopes in the end to a building, its destruction had the most crushing effect on them. The Christians exulted, but the Jews thought they would never be restored again because the temple had been destroyed and the Jews themselves felt utterly discouraged with the passing of the temple—it was all over with

You'll be hard pressed to find much evidence that the earliest Christians rejoiced when the temple was destroyed. The destruction of the temple was a heavy blow to the Jews not because they attached their hopes to a building, but because the temple represented a link between heaven and earth, which was where God's presence on earth was centered, and because the majority of atoning and purification rituals took place in it. A sizeable portion of the Torah deals with the temple, so of course the temple's loss could cause a religious crisis. That "attached their hopes to a building" bit sounds like the old canard levelled against us- we believe that church is a building. I don't buy it here and I don't buy it there.

Yes, the destruction of the temple cause a crisis but its consequences were mitigated.

The rabbis taught: When the first Temple was destroyed, groups of young priests, who had the keys of the Temple, went up to the roof and said: "Creator of the Universe! it being that we were not destined to live and be trustworthy keepers of thy treasure, we herewith return the keys." With that they threw the keys up into the air, and something like a hand was seen to come forth and grasp them, whereupon the priests immediately threw themselves down into the fire beneath.

http://www.jewishvir...ud/taanit4.html

Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai once was walking with his student, Rabbi Joshua, near Jerusalem after the destruction of the Temple. Rabbi Joshua looked at the Temple ruins and said: "Alas for us! The place that atoned for the sins of the people Israel through the ritual of animal sacrifice lies in ruins!" Then Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai spoke to him in these words of comfort: "Be not grieved, my son. There is another equally meritorious way of gaining atonement even though the Temple is destroyed. We can still gain atonement through deeds of loving kindness, for it is written, 'Loving kindness I desire, not sacrifice' (Hosea 6:6)."

http://judaism.ajula...=919&u=8962&t=0

From the time when the latter (Second) Temple was destroyed, ascetics became numerous in Israel, and they would not eat meat and they would not drink wine. Rabbi Joshua went to address them. He said to them, “My children, why do you not eat meat?” They said to him, “How can we eat meat? Every day the daily sacrifice used to be offered upon the altar, and now it is no longer [offered].”

He said to them, “Let us not eat even figs and grapes, for they used to bring first- fruits from them on Shavuot. Let us not eat bread, for they used to bring the two loaves 73 and the showbread from them. Let us not drink water, for they used to offer libations from it on Sukkot.”

They were silent.

He said to them, “Not to mourn at all is not feasible, for the decree has already been decreed. But further, to mourn excessively (also) is not feasible. Rather, thus the sages have said, ‘A man shall plaster his home with plaster and leave over a small bit as a remembrance of Jerusalem.

‘A man may prepare all the needs of a meal, and leave off a little bit as a remembrance of Jerusalem.

‘A woman may prepare all her ornaments and leave off a little bit as a remembrance of Jerusalem,’ as it is said, ‘If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning; let my tongue cleave to my palate if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy,’ (Ps. 137:5).”

All who mourn over Jerusalem will merit to see her joy, as it is said, “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all who love her, join in her jubilation all who mourn over her” (Is. 66:10).

http://cojs.org/cojs...estroyed_Temple

One of the goals of the Bar Kochba Revolt was to restore the temple. An attempt was also made in the days of Julian the Apostate, and in other incidents throughout the generations.

Edited December 2, 2011 by volgadon

[Calm]

Is this a decent website for a quick historical overview? http://www.jewishhistory.org/the-destruction-of-the-second-temple/

I was looking for information about Nibley's claim that the rabbis rejoiced and went to ask Vespasian to be allowed to build a school...which makes it appear they saw the temple with the priesthood as competition and saw their chance to become the primary/only? religious leaders of the Jewish community. Otoh, the website makes it sound like they were attempting merely to safeguard what was left and to establish something they could then use to keep the Jewish people intact.

There is also his claim that the later Christian leaders/doctors saw it as a positive and necessary sign of the political and religious defeat of the Jews and continue to see it as so in his story of Truman being told by the Pope that the temple must never be rebuilt. I can see leaders concerned about political power putting that first above religious concerns and traditions or those Christians---who saw the lack of the temple as meaning the Jews had fallen from being the Chosen and they themselves replacing Jews rather than joining with them in God's works----becoming threaten by the idea of a reappearance of a Jewish temple as it would seem to indicate God was accepting their o obedience and sacrifices; but those seem to be concerns of the elite and not necessarily what the 'rank and file' might feel.

I am curious as to what you think of his analysis.

Ps: I took one of my heavier drugs to sleep tonight and didn't quite time it right so the letters have generous taken over all of the typing and most of the composition in order to get this post done so I then can fully succumb to their ministrations, though as editor i'm supposed to be giving final approval, I fear they may be in full revolt and taken over the presses as well....so I apologize if the last few posts I've made are nonsense, I have no clue if they were where they were supposed to be since they have put on

their colours and are about to go clubbing. They have an obsession with line dancing, just picking themselves off the page and dancing in great style like technicolored brilliant caterpillars out for one last fling before hitting the cocoon and adulthood.

Edited December 2, 2011 by calmoriah

[coolrok7]

An article from a local paper here in southern California:

Sacred Ground

(The Orange County Register, Saturday, October, 31, 1998 Focus on Religion section)

WORSHIP: Some Jews want to reconstruct the temple built by King Solomon

By LAURIE COPANS

The Associated Press

From Jerusalem

At the foot of the Temple Mount, dozens of people waving Israeli flags and blowing rams’ horns crowded around a man with a knitted skullcap shouting into a bullhorn.

The time has come to rebuild the Jewish Temple destroyed two millenniums ago, said Gershon Solomon of the Temple Mount Faithful, a group that advocates razing the Al Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques now on the site.

“We came to say to the whole world that the Arab occupation of the Temple Mount is finished forever,” Solomon said before leading his followers up a ramp to the mosque compound’s Moghrabi Gate during a rally Oct. 7.

Underscoring his point, Solomon brought along a flatbed truck carrying a 4½-ton “marble” cornerstone for a new Temple.

Israeli police blocked Solomon at the Moghrabi Gate and prevented the truck parked about 200 yards away from unloading its cargo.

Only a decade ago, people like Solomon were dismissed as eccentrics on the fringe of Israeli society. Most observant Jews stayed away from the Temple Mount, heeding Rabbis’ rulings that they cannot tread on such holy soil unless they have undergone an extensive ritual of purification.

GAINING SUPPORT

However, in recent years those seeking to reclaim the Temple Mount for the Jews have increasingly moved into the mainstream, winning support from some rabbis and prominent politicians.

A Jerusalem convention of the movement in September drew some 1.000 people — double last year’s turnout — who cheered speaker after speaker demanding the building of a new Temple.

In the convention center, musicians in Biblical costumes coaxed wailing sounds from replicas of silver trumpets played at ceremonies in the ancient Jewish Temple before it was torn down by Roman soldiers. A large oil painting depicted a fantasy scene of Jews filing out of 20^th century buses into a new shrine.

The movement’s growing legitimacy could encourage violence, warn experts who track extremist groups. Israeli police reportedly beefed up their watch over the Temple Mount recently amid warnings that Jewish militants were plotting attacks on Muslims worshipers.

Even the slightest confrontation can trigger violence over the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary.

When rumors spread one day in October 1990 among Muslims that Solomon and his followers planned to take over the mosque compound. Palestinian riots erupted. Israeli police stormed the site and killed 17 Palestinians.

TROUBLED HISTORY

In 1996, Israel’s opening of an archaeological tunnel alongside Temple Mount triggered Palestinian protests that escalated into gun battles that killed 80 people.

Sheik Ahmed Yussin, leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas, said an attempt by Jewish militants to seize control of the Islamic shrines would lead to a bloodbath. “They will start a fire in which they shall perish, “Yassin said.

The Temple Mount is in the walled Old City, which was captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war.

Immediately after the war, then-Defense Minister Moshe Dayan decided to give Muslim clerics from the Islamic Trust, or Waqf, autonomy in administering the mosques.

Jews were allowed to enter the compound but could not pray.

At the time, Dayan did not want to provoke the Muslim world by taking control of the Temple Mount. He did not face opposition at home because of the rabbinical ban on Jews visiting the site.

INSPIRATION IN 1967

Yet, the 1967 war planted the seeds for the movement to reclaim the Temple Mount for the Jews. Israel’s capture of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem — part of the Biblical Land of Israel — was seen by some as a sign from God that the messianic age of redemption was drawing near, a time to rebuild the Jewish Temple.

At first, there were just a few firebrands, such as Solomon and Yehuda Etzion, who served four years in prison in the 1980s for plotting to blow up the mosques.

From time to time, usually on Jewish holidays, they would try to enter the compound. Police would bar them. Sometimes, they’d walk away. Sometimes, they’d get arrested.

But in recent years, the movement to reclaim the Temple Mount has gained a new respectability.

In 1995, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the time the opposition leader, asserted the right of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount. At the gathering of the temple movement in September, Deputy Education Minister Moshe Peled sent videotaped greetings.

“Without a doubt, there is an increase in numbers,” said Hanan Porat, a legislator in Netanyahu’s coalition and a patron of the Jewish settlement movement in the wesy Bank and Gaza.

Porat said he and Peled were helping to lend greater legitimacy to the movement. He said the immediate goal is to fight for permission for Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, until the day “when with the help of God, the Waqf won’t be there.”

Porat said there was nothing wrong with dreaming about a new temple. He dismissed concerns that encouraging such ideas could tempt some to take violent action.

In light of the above consider the following:

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17)

I believe that we are ever closer (maybe even in our lifetime) to this happening based on the present world situation but I’m not predicting.

[coolrok7]

Jews of course no longer have a Temple at Jerusalem as it was destroyed exactly as Jesus said it would be:

Prelude to the Second Desolation of Jerusalem

Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, as well as most every one of the prophets of Israel, give us copious amounts of information telling us why it was that Israel was taken into exile in Babylon and why the magnificent First Temple should be destroyed. The terrible loss of life and all the associated suffering which took place especially on the 9th of Av, 586 B.C.E. were followed by a slow restoration. By the time of Yeshua (Jesus), 600 years later, Israel enjoyed a modest place among the nations of the Middle East. Gone was the great military prowess she had enjoyed under King David. Gone was the King - Israel had been a vassal state under foreign dominion for centuries. However, a respectable Temple stood in Jerusalem. Sacrifices and offerings and the externals of her religion were in place. The priesthood was corrupted and the number of the godly who were faithful to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was very few. There was little evidence of real spiritual life from God. Demonic activity and occult practices were at an all time high, as the Christian gospels reveal, and the Jews were not highly regarded by the Greeks and Romans for their religion, or for their exemplary lifestyles. The internal politics of a once unified people was divided into factions of Herodians, Hellenists, Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Scribes. Thankfully, a tiny believing remnant remained faithful to the Holy One of Israel. . . .

Shortly after the death and resurrection of Jesus, the mad Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus - nicknamed Caligula ("little boots") - attempted to desecrate the Temple. Everywhere else in the Roman empire subjugated peoples had been forced to conform to the cult of Rome and acknowledge not only Caesar as Lord but also fall into line by adopting the Roman pantheon of gods. The Jews had been left alone and it was time they began to conform. Caligula gave an order to set up his statue in the Holy of Holies in the Temple:

Now Caius Caesar did so grossly abuse the fortune he had arrived at, as to take himself to be a god, and to desire to be so called also, and to cut off those of the greatest nobility out of his country. He also extended his impiety as far as the Jews. Accordingly he sent Petronius with an army to Jerusalem to place his statues in the temple, and commanded him that, in case the Jews would not admit of them, he should slay those that opposed it, and carry all the rest into captivity. (Ref. 1)

The Roman writer Tacitus adds that Caius commanded the Jews to place his effigies in the Temple. Josephus records that the Jews pleaded with Petronius not to do this. The Jews in their stubborn monotheism were willing to sacrifice their whole nation before they would allow the Temple to be defiled. Petronius marveled at their courage and ceased with the process so confrontation was temporarily averted. An enraged Caligula commanded that Petronius be put to death. Josephus records that Caligula himself died soon thereafter and due to bad weather at sea, the letter ordering Petronius' death arrived three weeks after the news arrived of Caligula's death. Petronius was not executed and the Temple was spared this particular abomination. . . .

The Second Temple Destroyed - As Predicted

During the last days of his life Jesus had assembled his disciples together on the Mt. of Olives overlooking the Temple. The disciples were uncertain and anxious about the future especially in light of Jesus' cleansing of the Temple and stopping the sacrifices, and his astonishing statements delivered in holy anger denouncing the Pharisees. The disciples opened the conversation by talking about the beauty of the temple and its courts. Jesus opened his amazing and detailed reply by predicting the soon-coming destruction of that magnificent building:

Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, "You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another, that will not be thrown down." As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?" (Matthew 24:1-3)

Both the Temple and the City of Jerusalem were indeed about to be destroyed. With four Legions, Titus the Roman General, later to become Caesar, began the siege of Jerusalem in April, A.D. 70. He posted his 10th legion on the Mount of Olives, directly east of and overlooking the Temple Mount. The 12th and 15th legions were stationed on Mount Scopus, further to the east and commanding all ways to Jerusalem from east to north. The 5th legion was held in reserve.

As Daniel had predicted the Temple was destroyed after the Messiah had come, not before.

Bible scholar Ray C. Stedman comments on the predictions of Jesus and their fulfillment in history a few years later,

In Luke 21:20 we have other details of this predicted overthrow of the city and the Temple. There Jesus adds, "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near." Forty years later the Roman armies under Titus came in and fulfilled the prediction to the very letter. With Titus was a Jewish historian named Josephus who recorded the terrible story in minute detail. It was one of the most ghastly sieges in all history. When the Romans came the city was divided among three warring factions of Jews who were so at each others' throats that they paid no heed to the approach of the Romans. Thus Titus came up and surrounded the city while it was distracted by its own internecine warfare. The Romans assaulted the walls again and again, and gave every opportunity to the Jews to surrender and save their capital from destruction. . . .

During the long siege a terrible famine raged in the city and the bodies of the inhabitants were literally stacked like cordwood in the streets. Mothers ate their children to preserve their own strength. The toll of Jewish suffering was horrible but they would not surrender the city. Again and again they attempted to trick the Romans through guile and perfidy. When at last the walls were breached Titus tried to preserve the Temple by giving orders to his soldiers not to destroy or burn it. But the anger of the soldiers against the Jews was so intense that, maddened by the resistance they encountered, they disobeyed the order of their general and set fire to the Temple. There were great quantities of gold and silver there which had been placed in the Temple for safekeeping. This melted and ran down between the rocks and into the cracks of the stones. When the soldiers captured the Temple area, in their greed to obtain this gold and silver they took long bars and pried apart the massive stones. Thus, quite literally, not one stone was left standing upon another. The Temple itself was totally destroyed, though the wall supporting the area upon which the Temple was built was left partially intact and a portion of it remains to this day, called the Western Wall. (Ref. 2) (from the website: The Destruction of the Second Temple)

While it still stood until A.D. 70 and its ordinances performed as it had been for centuries by the Levitical Priesthood, there was really no longer a need for it after Jesus’ death (some additional statements of Jesus’ concerning this):

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. (Matthew 23:29-38)

And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. (Luke 21:20-24)

Edited December 2, 2011 by coolrok7