c. 1999 Religion News Service

(Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.)

UNDATED _ Last week an evangelical Christian friend sent me a booklet describing in great detail what will occur in Jerusalem at the beginning of the millennium, now less than six months away.

The complex”Millennium Menu”included intricate biblical graphs and arcane time charts pointing to a series of wondrous events in the year 2000. Some of the material was so obtuse it resembled what I imagine atomic bomb formulas must look like.

But no matter. What really caught my eye was the confident prediction the Third Jewish Temple would soon be built in Israel’s capital city. Indeed, on July 21, Jews everywhere will commemorate the day of mourning (the 9th of Av in the Hebrew calendar) when both the First and Second Temples were destroyed. Those two catastrophes are indelibly etched into the collective memory of the Jewish people.

The First Temple was destroyed in 586 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylonia (present-day Iraq), who sent the Jewish survivors to Babylon as captives. But only 40 years later Cyrus, the Persian monarch, captured Babylonia and allowed the Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem, and in 515 B.C. the Second Temple was completed.

That Temple stood for nearly 600 years until other foreign invaders, the Romans, demolished Jerusalem in 70 A.D. In those years, the Jews of Israel fought four brutal wars with the hated Roman occupiers and lost them all. Historians estimate that during those conflicts the Romans killed 580,000 Jews out of a total Jewish population of 5,000,000.

However, the destruction of the Second Temple did accelerate the synagogue’s importance as a place of Jewish prayer and study.

Incredibly, 1929 years after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, there is now talk among some Christians that the Third Temple will be built soon. When that happens, there will be the restoration of the”Kohanim,”the Jewish Temple priests and their ancient worship liturgy. Once the Temple is rebuilt, Jesus will then return in glory to Jerusalem _ the Second Coming.

While I was impressed by the specificity and certainty of this prediction, I foresee some serious problems ahead for the Third Temple folks.

For starters, the Temple Mount, the site of the two Temples, is currently occupied by the Al-Aksa mosque, built about 705 A.D., and the Dome of the Rock, built in 691 A.D. Both are sacred to Muslims.

Because of the Temple Mount’s great sanctity and sad history, traditional Jews will not enter the large esplanade for fear of profaning the area. The Mount remains highly sensitive space for both Jews and Muslims. It remains under Islamic religious supervision, but its security is protected by Israeli police.

I vividly remember when in 1969 Dennis Rohan, an Australian evangelical Christian who was visiting Israel, set fire to the Al-Aksa mosque in hopes of destroying it. Fortunately, Israeli authorities moved quickly to arrest Rohan and prevent the fire from doing significant damage. Rohan’s arson was both criminal and theological in nature because he ardently believed the Islamic holy place had to be removed by whatever means to make way for the Third Temple and the return of Jesus.

My friend’s millennium booklet does not, of course, suggest any criminal actions to advance the Third Temple building timetable, but this century has clearly shown that true believers of any ideology or faith are not reluctant to carry out violent acts to advance their goals.

As the millennium nears, Israeli officials in Jerusalem are on high alert to prevent a repetition of Rohan’s destructive behavior by other Christian zealots. The last thing a religiously polarized world needs is an act of violence carried out in Jerusalem by Christians against an Islamic holy place for the purpose of reconstructing the Third Jewish Temple.

Israelis are also mobilizing psychologists, psychiatric social workers and concerned Christian clergy to treat millennium visitors who may contract what is called the”Jerusalem Syndrome.”Fortunately, this malady does not usually involve fire bombings or explosives.

Rather, Christian visitors, usually first-timers, become so overcome with the history and texture of Jerusalem that they stand in holy places and disrupt the worship of others by preaching in a loud and intrusive manner. Much worse, however, is when the”Syndrome”causes Christian visitors to participate in personal passion plays that can involve suicide with the expectation of returning from the dead three days later.

Frankly, my spiritual life does not require the Third Temple. A secure Israel, a dynamic Jewish community throughout the world, and my neighborhood synagogue will do just fine.

DEA END RUDIN