When extreme political and religious views converge it’s safe to expect some serious tensions. That’s the story, thousands of years old, when it comes to the Jerusalem temple.
As the Holy Month of Ramadan begins this week all over the world, there is extra sensitivity around the Temple Mount, Haram al Sharif, the site sacred for so many generations of different religions and now in of yet another political storm.
The debate over the central status of this site for different religions is historical. The site of what’s at present, and for hundreds of years, an important Muslim sacred site of worship was once a Crusader church, a pagan temple to Jupiter - and twice the site of the Jewish temple. It was possibly an indigenous site of worship even before Solomon built it 3,000 years ago.
The deep desire of some Jews, mostly messianic extremists for yet the rebuilding of the third temple in our lifetime, is not new. But it is getting louder and more dangerous.
Today we will encounter the hints of how important this debate was for the people who populated Jerusalem 2,500 years ago. They too were deep in debate - and those who favored building a temple won. It’s their version of history that also got to write the story down - including in the biblical book we are beginning today, with extra curios caution.
Welcome to the 10th of the minor prophets who made a career of fusing faith with a national agenda and religious real estate. In the context of his time he maybe managed to unite the people - but it’s important to question the meaning of his message and success of his project in both their context - and today’s complicated reality.
Haggai the prophet welcomes us into a different era in Jewish history: The pioneering days of the return to Zion under the Persian regime in the 6th century BCE.
He is considered one of the ‘latter prophets’ - distinguishing him and a few others from the prophets who lived before the Persian period which would usher in the era in which the Bible as we know it would be edited, curated and ultimately sealed.
With just two chapters he delivers a series of carefully dated speeches all intended to rouse the people from their fatigue, propel the rebuilding of the temple and bring energy to the renewal of the nation back on its land - while many preferred to stay behind in the diaspora.
It is impossible to read these words today without reflection on the whims, ironies, and tragedies of history, back then and right now.
The tensions and ties between religious zeal and political aspirations, the reliance on foreign powers, and the inner struggles between leaders and ideologies link the days of the return to Zion 2,500 years ago to the Zionist revival of today.
To understand Haggai’s messages, the debate he was engaged with, and perhaps what those can do to help us make sense of the mess that Israel’s in right now -- we will benefit from a bit of historical context.
Haggai dates his visions - but he’s the first prophet in the Bible who does not name the reign of Jewish kings - but that of foreign power. That’s a very telling shift.
He begins his book on the first day of the Sixth Month, which would be August 29th in the year 520 BCE. It’s when Darius celebrates two years on the Persian throne, and the Judean return to Jerusalem is about twenty years old - and in need of renewed energy.
Darius the Great is the Persian King of Kings, the third to rule the Achaemenid Empire, from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE. The Persians defeated Babylon and built on the expansion of a vast empire that was started two centuries earlier by the Assyrians, continued by Babylon, and expanded by the Persians, especially by Darius’ father, the famous Cyrus.
It was Cyrus that declared, twenty years before Haggai’s words are written down, that the minorities of the east, exiled under Babylon, can return to their homelands and rebuild their temples - as long as they don’t aspire to have their own kings. Among the ones granted return were the people of Judah. Thus began the hesitant and gradual rebuilding of Jerusalem and the period that will be known as the era of the Second Temple.
The other historical figures named by Haggai are the two Judean leaders. Zerubbabel is the grandson of King Jeconiah who was exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with the elites, in 597 BCE. Some 70 years later, Zeubabbel, of royal Davidic stock, is the political governor of the slowly growing settlement of Judeans returnees - although he is not allowed to wear the crown or be a king. The second leader is Joshua the High Priest - is the grandson of the last high priest of Jerusalem.
It is not clear how old Haggai was - it’s not likely that he was old enough to have seen the original temple. But like the other two leaders whom he names and to whom he will direct his words, he is picking up where two generations earlier had tragically paused.
Haggai, like the governor and high priest, is under a relatively benign political regime. But the Persians had their limits and were suspicious as to what the Judeans could or couldn’t do as they resettled the region.
One of the greatest sources of tensions was the rebuilding of the temple. To build or not to build?
Like all temples, the Jerusalem sanctuary that housed YHWH was a central source of national pride, religious importance, political power and economic essence.
That’s why some of the other people of different ethnic origin who were settled in the area during the two generations of Judean exile opposed the idea of a rebuilt temple and did all they could to convince the Persians that it’s not a good idea.
They were not alone. There were also Judean voices who objected to the temple being rebuilt. They didn’t want the resumed religious system of the central role of Jerusalem. Haggai quotes them, mockingly. But their voices would be eventually silenced, heard through the fierce tones of the debate against them - led by Haggai.
By the time Haggai steps up - no telling how old he is - the initial phase of temple building has been stopped and nobody has energy, money or will to pick up where the pioneers had left off twenty or so years ago.
There may also have been an idealogical debate that curbed the project.
There was a functioning altar but the temple project was on hold.
Haggai’s name means ‘My Holy Days’ and may be an allusion to the prophet’s lasting message - restoration of the pilgrimage holidays and the ways with which the temple will be once again a source of celebration and pride.
He wants the building to continue and the temple to rise. It is his key message. And, incredibly, along with a few other prophetic voices and other political factors that will play in their favor, and against the opposition -- he’ll succeed.
The two chapters ascribed to him suggest that the secret of his success was not just pressure but also his appeal to common sense and basic well being.
He appeals to the leaders and the people with an economic equation. Only the temple will bring back the affluence and confidence their ancestors once enjoyed.
The sense of united mission, and the eventual revenue from a well-run religious system benefiting from pilgrims and priestly procedures - will be a win win.
Haggai raised up the people’s hopes and also gave them something that they may have not have heard in at least a generation -- a prophetic message from their very own deity:
וַֽיְהִי֙ דְּבַר־יְהֹוָ֔ה בְּיַד־חַגַּ֥י הַנָּבִ֖יא לֵאמֹֽר׃ הַעֵ֤ת לָכֶם֙ אַתֶּ֔ם לָשֶׁ֖בֶת בְּבָתֵּיכֶ֣ם סְפוּנִ֑ים וְהַבַּ֥יִת הַזֶּ֖ה חָרֵֽב׃
“And the word of YHWH through the prophet Haggai was heard:
Is it a time for you to dwell safely in your houses, while this House is lying in ruins?”
Haggai 1:3
After the trauma of the destruction of Jerusalem and two generations of exiled living it is possible the people were not sure that God was still on speaking terms with them.
The temple’s continued state of neglect was likely a combination of many factors but Haggai brought back the voice of the divine and roused people up from the safety of their homes, their struggles to put food on their plates - and created a specific collective vision of the future.
Both high priest and governor were roused, as were the people - and the temple project seemed to pick up again, with the blessing of the Persian rulers. Initially, anyway. It would be bumpy along the way.
It takes 24 days from his first speech until the people begin working on the new temple. Three weeks to ignite a reconstruction campaign, despite some opposition that will eventually be ignored and mostly forgotten.
There is just one more chapter of Haggai’s words, paving the path for the temple of the future and leaving us with questions about the sometimes unholy alliances of faith and prosperity, motives and motivation, and what any of that ancient history has to teach us about the delicate balance between religious and national narratives in our own complicated lives.
While there are those for whom the building of the next temple is the whole point of the Israeli project, there is a reasonable, both religious and secular sane majority that knows better than to fall back on ancient models of worship that have no role or room in the current complex geographical and political reality.
This majority echoes the voices that rejected Haggai’s vision as well.
And yet - the clamor for the temple is heard from the extreme fringes, including those who quote Haggai’s visions for the temple to be rebuilt.
Time will tell, but let’s hope that what we take from these old words is symbolic meaning, rousing us from our selfish focus to find a common purpose that will bring renewed kindness, compassion and a more united human focus on the sacred vision for a better, less divided world.
In the second and final chapter of Haggai we’ll continue to make sense of what this debate is really about and why the temple was and is not everybody’s idea of the ideal sacred center. What we yearn for is not always the embodied idea of love but the idea of love itself.
Image: Haggai predikt, Jan Frederik Christiaan Reckleben, 1829 - 1879, Rijksmuseum, CC
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