The wind cuts down from the Mount of Olives as three Jewish men named Cohen hunch their shoulders against the cold and start up the wooden ramp to the Temple Mount, breath clouding in the Jerusalem air.
In a scene that could stand in for countless real family journeys, their grandparents’ stories trace lines through Poland, Tunisia and Iran, but here the paths merge: walking the worn stone their Israelite forefathers once crossed in white linen, lips shaping the same psalms those priests sang when the Temple still stood and the smoke of offerings climbed into the winter sky.
If this trio had wanted more than a symbolic ascent—if they had wanted to learn how to bless, to sing and to serve as their ancestors once did—they could now find a place to do it.
An emerging effort to revive the Aaronite priests and Levitical assistants of ancient Israel has grown into a nearly 100-strong professional community of Kohanim and Levites in just a month, led by a young Israeli doctor and Temple Mount activist.
Nathan Huberman, 32, a Canadian-born physician, Israel Defense Forces veteran and longtime Temple Mount guide who lives outside Jerusalem, recently talked to JNS about his work turning ancient hereditary roles into a concrete program of training, identity and public engagement.
“These communities are professional communities, founded on four principles,” Huberman said. “Identity, an identity that comes with responsibility, knowing the actions you are meant to perform, and setting professional standards for those actions.”
The Kohen community operates under Mamlechet Kohanim, which runs a basic training course using life-sized replicas of Temple vessels—including an altar and menorah—and brings in specialists to teach practical workshops.
The aim is to grow both the number of participants and their level of professional preparedness for traditional priestly functions.
He notes that biblical, rabbinic and archaeological sources describe how the Temple workforce was divided, and that some families today claim descent from the Second Temple-era mishmarot, or service divisions.
In theory, he adds, modern genetic research could be used to help sort contemporary priests and Levites into their ancestral family lines, further refining how the two communities are organized.
“I’m here just connecting dots,” said Huberman. “There are people out there doing great work, and these communities invite people to take part in those dots that are already there and connect to them.”
The Levi project rests on what Huberman calls a quiet revolution in Jewish access and religious expression on the Temple Mount over the past decade.
Where once Jews risked being expelled or even arrested for closing their eyes too long or appearing to pray, he says it is now possible to sing and even dance openly under the eyes of Israeli police without interference.
1 comment:
What we do know - 666 enters the temple in the middle of the tribulation and declares himself god. Best guess - construction of temple begins shortly after 666 confirms the Daniel 9:27 convenant.
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