Eldad Levi: "I Had a Dream - To Make People Want the Temple Rebuilt"

The streets in downtown Jerusalem have witnessed many interesting scenes over the years, but such a large number of people leaving a museum with tears in their eyes is something they haven't seen in a long time. This scene is not a one-time event; it has repeatedly taken place throughout the past year, thanks to the Jewish Music Museum established in the city's center last year.

Eldad Levi, a talented musician with a deeply Jewish soul, is responsible for establishing the museum. He notes that for the past twelve years, he has repeatedly asked himself - how can we awaken in the people of Israel the tremendous desire to build the Temple? How can we awaken in everyone the personal interest in making it happen?

"I have always been connected to music," he shares, "and I understood how deeply it affects the soul. My feeling was that the desire for the Temple's construction should come from an internal awakening, and what would lead to such awakening would be music and melodies. One day Hashem planted the idea in my mind to establish a Jewish music museum. A museum that would allow us to experience the music that existed throughout the years during all the exiles the Jewish people went through, and that would also reflect the sounds that were typical in the Temple. All this is so that, ultimately, people will want to touch the good, believe in the Land of Israel and the people of Israel, and as a result, also want the Temple to be built."

Wanderings Around the World

Years have passed since, during which Eldad managed to visit every music museum worldwide and ensure that there is no other place that presents Jewish music in his style. Simultaneously, he began to gather a collection of ancient musical instruments he purchased from various places. "Each instrument has its own story," he shares, "I collected them over the years, and in total, we now have 260 musical instruments, some arrived via collectors and some from various other places around the world."

About five years ago, the idea started to move into practical steps, when a man named Laurent Levy decided to sponsor the project. "Together, we decided to step forward and establish this place," Eldad recounts. "First, we purchased several old buildings in downtown Jerusalem, renovated them, and established the 'Music Square,' which includes the Jewish Music Museum, kosher restaurants, a music gallery, and a boutique music shop with unique items. Outside the structure, there is a central stage playing Jewish music throughout the day."

Upon entering the museum itself, one can see that it combines many different cultures. "The more I researched the world of music, the more I discovered how much Jewish music and its poetic words influenced all Eastern and Western cultures," Eldad explains, "and therefore, we decided to document and store here the musical heritage of our people along with representations of musical instruments from all the diasporas, as well as ancient historical documents of important poets. To present everything in the correct order, we established seven rooms in the museum, each characterizing a different exile of the Jewish people. Visitors essentially move from room to room, experiencing a kind of cycle that the Jewish people went through, and eventually return to the Land of Israel."

And the seven rooms, as can be seen, were all built with special architecture. "Do you see the ceiling?" Eldad asks us, pointing to a ceiling constructed in a circular and stylized manner. "We decided to build the ceiling in the Moroccan style. To do this, I traveled with Avraham Abergel, our architect, to Morocco without yet knowing where we would manufacture the ceiling. We arrived at relatives in Casablanca, and they were impressed that I could play an ancient piano called 'Biblical Piano.' The relatives invited the Moroccan ambassador to Switzerland, who was in Morocco at that time. He stayed with us during Shabbat, and on Saturday night after Havdalah, I played the song 'Elijah the Prophet' for him, and he was moved to tears. He informed us that we were granted diplomatic immunity in Morocco, and we could reach anywhere we wanted. This was truly a special divine providence, and thanks to the immunity we had, we managed to reach the factories where the King of Morocco produces the accessories for his palaces and luxury mosques. At some point, we decided it would be easier for us to manufacture the ceiling by hand in Morocco. So we worked there on the ceiling's production, then brought it part by part by machine to Israel and assembled it in the country. The final result is truly spectacular. This is just one example of the special effort we made, but in fact, the entire establishment of this museum was one big effort."

Building the Temple

But the pinnacle of effort came in the creation of the museum's final room, where Eldad decided they would place a special model of the Temple, using a special viewer to create a three-dimensional illusion and literally enter it to see the priests at work and the Levites in their singing.

"It's an amazing production," he gets excited, "but the truth is there were many dilemmas before its creation. We wanted the Temple to look genuinely tangible and as close to its true appearance as possible. All this required tremendous and painstaking work to ensure, on one hand, all the halachic details and then carry them out most accurately. To complete the task, I also wrote suitable music that truly reflects longing, desires, and a time of favor. We faced a significant dilemma when we tried to ask ourselves whether it was more correct to build a model of the First Temple or the Second. In the end, we decided to create a reality combining the First and Second Temples, with the thought that when we pray for the building of the Temple, we are not referring to the first or the second, but to the Third Temple, which is something entirely new."

Ultimately, Eldad says his goal was for people who watched this exhibit for ten minutes to awaken within them the true and deep desire to anticipate the building of the Temple. "When I see people leaving with tears in their eyes, and even the rabbis who were here compliment us - I understand we really accomplished the mission," he says.

But their biggest surprise was discovering that Muslims also come to visit the museum. "The truth is, we didn't initially think about it, but when we see tourists from all nations of the world coming and watching the exhibit, I say to myself that maybe this is really the opportunity to educate the nations that our place in the Land of Israel is inseparable from our existence. After all, this in itself is part of the redemption."