Rabbis Claim Foxes on Temple Mount Are Sign of ‘Jerusalem Returning To Its Former Glory,’ Harbinger of Forthcoming Temple
by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Foxes were spotted walking on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem last Thursday, fulfilling a prophecy from Lamentations just days before the Tisha B’Av fast that commemorates the destruction of both temples.
In the NASB, KJV, and a variety of Jewish translations of Lamentations 5:18, the foxes walking on Mount Zion are given as a sign of its desolation, but some rabbis were quick to point out that a Talmud tractate gives the same sign as a harbinger of the Temple’s rebuilding.
“Until the prophecy of Uriah with regard to the destruction of the city was fulfilled I was afraid that the prophecy of Zechariah would not be fulfilled, as the two prophecies are linked,” says a laughing Rabbi Akiva to his weeping companions in Makkot 24b when they see a fox poking its head out of the Temple Mount.
The rabbinical tradition is that Micah’s prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem was originally given by Uriah, its fulfillment showing the reliability of the word of God to perform the Zechariah prophecy as well, which foretells the rebuilding of Jerusalem and its Temple.
“The simple meaning is that the appearance of foxes on the Temple Mount specifically is a key element that opens the way for more prophecies to come to be, most specifically Jerusalem returning to its former glory,” Rabbi Yosef Berger told Breaking Israel News. “The real glory of Jerusalem is embodied on the Temple Mount in the Temple as a House of Prayer for all Nations.”
On Tisha B’Av Sunday, the liturgy of which happens to be the book of Lamentations, a record 1,729 Jews entered the Temple Mount to pray when Israeli police pushed back Muslim protesters.
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told the Times of Israel that the quadrupling of the number of Jews ascending the holy site in the last four years signaled the success of his policy to “strengthen Israeli sovereignty on the mount.”