# How is a new Jewish temple founded? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 27, 2025, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212 "2025-03-27T17:52:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212/81 "2025-03-28T12:57:22Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Potentially, any section of the ground anywhere on earth could have a body buried in it. To completely avoid this, the kid lived in penthouses and traveled only by helicopter. What kind of stone is the Temple Mount made of? Hopefully not a fossil bearing kind šŸ˜Ÿ ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212/82 "2025-03-28T12:59:26Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > There are very small places where modern understanding is allowed to override the rabbis of the past, mostly having to do with protecting life. OTTOMH I think the definition of life in Jewish law has changed as well. A drowning victim pulled to land used to be considered dead. Then, CPR and such came around. We can restart a heart that stops beating etc. While most Jews say it is permissible to harvest organs from an organ donor, not everybody agrees. > [@puzzlegal](#): > > No one ever claimed Orthodox Judaism was egalitarian. This is one of the contradictions in the Torah for me. We are taught that God made only one man and one woman so that nobody could say ā€˜I am better than you because of my ancestorsā€™. Makes sense. But, then we have the curse of Ham. We have the descendants of the kohain and levites given special priviliges because of their ancestors not worshipping the golden calf. If the Talmud says (and it does) ā€˜The son does not bear the guilt for the crimes of his fatherā€™ how does it make any sense to reward people for something their ancestors did? ETA > [@Babale](#): > > What kind of stone is the Temple Mount made of? Hopefully not a fossil bearing kind šŸ˜Ÿ AIUI ritual impurity applies to human remains only, Otherwise, all kohainim would need to be vegetarians. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212/83 "2025-03-28T13:07:28Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > AIUI ritual impurity applies to human remains only, Otherwise, all kohainim would need to be vegetarians. Or thereā€™s an exception for kosher meat only, and touching a dead non-kosher animal would cause impurity? > [@Babale](#): > > What kind of stone is the Temple Mount made of? Hopefully not a fossil bearing kind šŸ˜Ÿ Google says itā€™s limestone, which usually contains fossils of sea creatures. Are ammonites kosher? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212/84 "2025-03-28T13:08:33Z")
Ritual impurity is very complex, and very common. If you have been in a house that has the wrong kind of mold on the wall, you are ritually impure. If you are close to a person with certain diseases, you are ritually impure. If a woman menstruates she is ritually impure. If a man ejaculates outside a womanā€™s vagina he is ritually impure. (Yes, wet dreams count.) If a woman gives birth, she is ritually impure. If anyone comes in contact with a dead human body, they are ritually impure. Thatā€™s just off the top of my head. There are also a variety of ways to regain ritual purity, of which the most common is to bathe (dunk in a mikvah) and wait until the next day. I think the purity to offer sacrifices may be a special case. And i donā€™t think it has to do with dead bodies. But i am certainly not an expert in how to resanctify the Temple. Thereā€™s separately an injunction on kohens to avoid dead bodies. They arenā€™t supposed to be in a room with a dead body unless itā€™s an immediate relative. Maybe thatā€™s related? ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212/85 "2025-03-28T13:18:29Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > AIUI ritual impurity applies to human remains only, Otherwise, all kohainim would need to be vegetarians. Also carrion. I think any animal that died and was fossilized in pre human times would qualify as carrion. And there are all kinds of rules about impurity travelling through substances and making those substances impure too. Usually vessels, like pots, which makes sense - if you have a lot holding food and it becomes impure you need to clean the vessel before you put food in it. But Iā€™m not sure how that applies to rocks. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212/86 "2025-03-28T13:18:37Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > dead bodies. Oh, I am aware that an awful lot of things make some one ritually impure and that almost everybody is ritually impure for one reason or another. > [@puzzlegal](#): > > Thereā€™s separately an injunction on kohens to avoid dead bodies. IIRC this also applies to nezhir, like Samson. Nezhir are also not allowed to have contact with grapes. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212/87 "2025-03-28T13:19:33Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > Google says itā€™s limestone, which usually contains fossils of sea creatures. Are ammonites kosher? Itā€™s my understanding that kosher laws stop being relevant for food at the point that it stops being food, which is defined as the point when even a dog wonā€™t eat it. Some have argued that gelatin can be kosher, even if it originated from unclean animals, because itā€™s so heavily processed that, in the middle of the processing, even a dog wonā€™t eat it. Certainly, fossilized shellfish are past that point. (but no, fresh ammonites definitely wouldnā€™t be kosher. The kosher laws for seafood are clear and definitive, without any unknown territory like for land animals.) > [@puzzlegal](#): > > Thereā€™s separately an injunction on kohens to avoid dead bodies. They arenā€™t supposed to be in a room with a dead body unless itā€™s an immediate relative. Maybe thatā€™s related? Christians (if they paid attention) might be familiar with this from the parable of the Good Samaritan. One of the people who passed by the injured man was a priest, who was on his way to his ritual duties, and who didnā€™t want to risk impurity. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212/88 "2025-03-28T13:21:13Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > And there are all kinds of rules about impurity travelling through substances and making those substances impure too. Usually vessels, like pots, which makes sense - if you have a lot holding food and it becomes impure you need to clean the vessel before you put food in it. But Iā€™m not sure how that applies to rocks. And the assumption in the law that you canā€™t really completely clean anything out of a dish makes more sense if you realize that most of their dishes were unglazed pottery at the time those rules were made. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212/89 "2025-03-28T13:23:09Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Christians (if they paid attention) might be familiar with this from the parable of the Good Samaritan. One of the people who passed by the injured man was a priest, who was on his way to his ritual duties, and who didnā€™t want to risk impurity. I pointed that out in a thread a long time ago. Somebody insisted I was missing the main point of the story and that one of the people who passed by was a kohain was an uninmportant detail. It is actually a rather important detail. The kohainā€™s strict adherence to the law makes him walk far away from a perceived corpse. Had he gotten closer, he would have seen the person was still alive. So, one of the points the story makes is that strict adherence to Jewish law can lead to doing the wrong thing. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212/90 "2025-03-28T13:24:51Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > IIRC this also applies to nezhir, like Samson. Nezhir are also not allowed to have contact with grapes Didnā€™t Samson take honey out of a dead lion? I guess if he was careful not to touch itā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212/91 "2025-03-28T13:25:25Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Ritual impurity is very complex, and very common. If you have been in a house that has the wrong kind of mold on the wall, you are ritually impure. If you are close to a person with certain diseases, you are ritually impure. If a woman menstruates she is ritually impure. If a man ejaculates outside a womanā€™s vagina he is ritually impure. (Yes, wet dreams count.) If a woman gives birth, she is ritually impure. If anyone comes in contact with a dead human body, they are ritually impure. Thatā€™s just off the top of my head. There are also a variety of ways to regain ritual purity, of which the most common is to bathe (dunk in a mikvah) and wait until the next day. People on StackExchange are speculating about whether receiving a transplant makes you ritually impure, and whether there is any way to regain ritual purity without having the organ removed. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212/92 "2025-03-28T13:27:53Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > I pointed that out in a thread a long time ago. Somebody insisted I was missing the main point of the story and that one of the people who passed by was a kohain was an uninmportant detail. > > It is actually a rather important detail. The kohainā€™s strict adherence to the law makes him walk far away from a perceived corpse. Had he gotten closer, he would have seen the person was still alive. So, one of the points the story makes is that strict adherence to Jewish law can lead to doing the wrong thing. Iā€™ve heard this before, but the explanation given was that the priest was afraid the man would die while he was trying to help him, thus making the priest ritually impure. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212/93 "2025-03-28T13:34:25Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > (but no, fresh ammonites definitely wouldnā€™t be kosher. The kosher laws for seafood are clear and definitive, without any unknown territory like for land animals.) Even when it comes to land animals with very clear rules, Iā€™ve seen that some people argue that an animal is only kosher if thereā€™s a specific tradition of it being kosher. I remember that turkey becoming kosher has a whole story behind it, but I donā€™t remember the story at the moment. I think the only extinct animals you could definitively class as kosher or not kosher would be fish (we just need a body plan and skin impressions) and ruminants (although Iā€™m not sure if cud chewing fossilized, would we just have to rely on phylogenetic bracketing?). If youā€™re looking for badass extinct and kosher critters to bring back and ranch, Iā€™ll nominate the Irish Elk or the Sivatherium. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212/94 "2025-03-28T13:35:35Z")
For reference, all the story actually says is > [@](#): > > 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. No explicit mention of the reasoning of either of them (and Iā€™m not sure what impurity laws would apply to a Levite). ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212/95 "2025-03-28T13:41:59Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > Didnā€™t Samson take honey out of a dead lion? I guess if he was careful not to touch itā€¦ Samson also defeated an entire Philistine army with the jawbone of a donkey, and his superpower was super strength, not telekinesis. (Presumably he also touched some dead Philistines while he was defeating them multiple times in battle). The rules for Samson seem to have been related to the specific vow his mom made while praying for a child, which was about not cutting his hair or drinking. Not ritual purity specifically. Eta: but actually, you _would_ think that the honey itself would be impure, in that scenario? The whole bit with Samson asking a riddle only he could know the answer to felt a bit like a genre shift. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212/96 "2025-03-28T13:49:47Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > If youā€™re looking for badass extinct and kosher critters to bring back and ranch, Iā€™ll nominate the Irish Elk or the Sivatherium. I was more thinking dinosaurs. Theyā€™re basically birds, right? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212/97 "2025-03-28T13:51:29Z")
Sadly, the rule for birds boils down to, ā€œif our ancestors ate it, and we have a continuing tradition of eating it, itā€™s kosherā€. So no dinosaurs. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212/98 "2025-03-28T13:51:47Z")
I was going to say, Samsonā€™s super strength plus the riddle but gives very Greek vibes. And that does seem to be a theory: that the storyā€™s contents were in fact inspired by the Philistine invadersā€™ own culture. For context, the Philistines (Plishtim in the source material), are often identified with the Peleshet of Egyptian sources, who were one of the Sea Peoples that invaded the region immediately before the Late Bronze Age Collapse, and the leading theory on their origin is that they were Mycenaeans from Greece. That would go a long way towards explaining Samsonā€™s Herculean vibes. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212/99 "2025-03-28T13:52:40Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > For reference, all the story actually says is > > > [@](#): > > > > 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. > > No explicit mention of the reasoning of either of them (and Iā€™m not sure what impurity laws would apply to a Levite). The same law would apply to a levite, and Jesusā€™ audience wouldnā€™t have needed to be told that Kohens and Levites avoid dead bodies. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2025, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212/100 "2025-03-28T13:52:44Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Sadly, the rule for birds boils down to, ā€œif our ancestors ate it, and we have a continuing tradition of eating it, itā€™s kosherā€. So no dinosaurs. Except for the turkey! šŸ¦ƒ I really do need to look up the story of how the turkey became Kosher again, it really was interesting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-a-new-jewish-temple-founded/1016212.md?page=6)