A Temple State of Mind, Taking a tour of the Beit Hamikdash

The last few parshiot, Teruma, Tetzave, Ki Tisa, Vayakhel, and Pekuday (coming this week), which are devoted to the construction of the Mishkan and its various vessels, have gotten me into a Temple state of mind. I have written about the Mishkan from a traditional Torah perspective on my other blog devoted to Parshat Hashavua. What I am really interested in is seeing these vessels and reliving the experience of visiting the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem that ultimately housed them. This can be both a great educational lesson for students learning these Parshiot and the various books of Tanach that describe the Temple, as well as a great emotional experience in our anticipation of the rebuilding of the Third Temple. What better way to relive this than through the help of virtual reality and the Internet?

There are various websites devoted to the Temple and its vessels. Here are some of the best starting with a brief virtual tour of the Second Temple as rebuilt by Herod:
Temple in Virtual Reality

• http://www.ust.ucla.edu/ustweb/Projects/israel.htm This team at UCLA created the virtual tour featured above. 
• The Jerusalem Archeological Park offers interactive timelines and maps, virtual walkthroughs and articles about the Temple Mount spanning from 3300BCE to the present.
• Panaramic 3D depiction of the Second Temple complex on Jerusalem's Temple Mount by National Geographic.
• The Holy Temple by Chabad.org features pictures, models, and diagrams together with descriptions of the various areas in the Temple and their function.
• Reuven Weiser's Virtual Mikdash features detailed 3D models of various Temple Vessels.
• The Temple Institute seeks to recreate full scale models of various Temple vessels. In addition to pictures of the vessels, it features a tremendous gallery of pictures of different biblical scenes from the Temple and study tools for Jewish holidays, the most notable being it's detailed depiction of the Yom Kippur Avoda which is indispensable when teaching Sefer Vayikra.
• Museum of the Beis Hamikdash by Camp S'dei Chemed features 'rooms' with pictures, drawings, diagrams, and descriptions of archeological artifacts from the Temple time period.
  
• http://baishamikdosh.blogspot.com/ Blog devoted to resources on the Temple.

Finally, below is another video which is a virtual tour of the Temple. It is a 3 minute promo for a 75 minute Beis Hamikdash in 3-D that can be purchased here.


May we all merit to see the Third Beit Hamikdash rebuilt speedily in our days.