RETURN FROM EXILE · 2 OF 3
Altar and foundation
An altar is built before the Temple foundation is laid. Later, praise and weeping rise together. Learn to follow the actual stages of rebuilding without losing the people whose memories fill the scene.
In this lesson
A community begins again
In the first reading, Cyrus king of Persia authorized return and rebuilding, people prepared to go, and neighbors supplied help. Ezra 2 then describes returnees settling in their towns and contributing toward God’s House. Chapter 3 brings them together in Jerusalem.
The Temple, also called God’s House, is the central sanctuary in Jerusalem. The First Temple had been destroyed by Babylonian forces. This rebuilding belongs to the beginning of the Second Temple story. An altar is the structure on which offerings are presented; it is not the whole Temple. A foundation is a building’s supporting base.
Priests, or kohanim, are descendants of Aaron assigned priestly service. Levites are members of the tribe of Levi with other sanctuary roles. A burnt offering, or olah, is an animal offering consumed on the altar rather than a meal for its giver. We are reading about this community’s worship, not learning instructions for performing sacrifices today.
Jeshua son of Jozadak is the high priest; Haggai 1:1 calls him Joshua son of Jehozadak and names Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel as governor of Judah. This Jeshua is not Joshua son of Nun, the earlier leader who succeeded Moses, and not Yeshua of Nazareth. Shared names do not make people identical. Nor should we assume that every Jeshua in a later list is this high priest.
Hashem, “the Name,” is our reverent way of referring to God in study. Israel here names our people. The Torah of Moses is the teaching Hashem gave Israel through Moses.
Context: Ezra 2:68–70; roles and names: Haggai 1:1. Vocabulary background: Numbers 3:1–10 and Leviticus 1:3–9.
Read what comes first
Sukkot, the Festival of Booths, is a Torah festival in the seventh month. It recalls our people’s life in booths after the Exodus, the departure from Egypt. Rashi, the classical commentator Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, identifies this seventh month as Tishri. A new moon marks the beginning of a month; the appointed seasons are sacred times for worship. A freewill offering is willingly given.
כַּכָּתוּב, בְּתוֹרַת מֹשֶׁה אִישׁ־הָאֱלֹהִים
1. When the seventh month arrived and the Israelites were in their towns, the people gathered as one person in Jerusalem.
2. Jeshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his fellows, arose and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as written in the Torah of Moses, the man of God.
3. They set the altar on its bases, for fear of the peoples of the lands was upon them. They offered burnt offerings to Hashem on it, burnt offerings for the morning and evening.
4. They observed the Festival of Booths as written, offering the daily burnt offerings in their number, according to the requirement for each day.
5. Afterward came the regular burnt offering, the offerings for the new moons and all Hashem’s appointed sacred seasons, and those of everyone who willingly brought a freewill offering to Hashem.
6. From the first day of the seventh month they began offering burnt offerings to Hashem, although the foundation of Hashem’s Temple had not yet been laid.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
Verse 3 does not hide the community’s fear. Metsudat David, a traditional biblical commentary, explains that fear prompted them to build the altar and seek Hashem’s help in their offerings. That is the commentator’s explanation of the connection; it is not an additional sentence in the verse or advice to disregard danger.
Rashi on Ezra 3:1; Metsudat David on Ezra 3:3; festival context: Leviticus 23:34,42–43.
1. Who builds in verse 2, and what exactly do they build?
Jeshua son of Jozadak with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel with his fellows, build the altar. The object is not a completed Temple. Haggai supplies their offices in our opening context; this verse names their action.
Worked reading: identify the object
A quick reading might say, “Verse 3 mentions bases, so the Temple foundation must already be there.” Test that conclusion against the nouns rather than against the general impression of a building scene.
וַיָּכִינוּ הַמִּזְבֵּחַ, עַל־מְכוֹנֹתָיו
3, opening: “They set the altar on its bases”
וְהֵיכַל יְהוָה, לֹא יֻסָּד
6, closing: “although the foundation of Hashem’s Temple had not yet been laid”
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
- Name the object. Verse 3 concerns the altar; verse 6 concerns the Temple.
- Keep the negative. Verse 6 explicitly says the Temple foundation had not yet been laid.
- Make a limited conclusion. Offerings have begun on the altar before the Temple foundation is laid. The two verses do not contradict each other.
2. Explain how the altar can have bases while the Temple has no laid foundation.
They are different structures. Verse 3 identifies the altar and its bases; verse 6 names the Temple and says its foundation was not yet laid. A word such as “bases” cannot identify the building by itself. First ask what it belongs to.
3. What wording in verses 2 and 4 connects the worship to a pattern already given?
Verse 2 says “as written in the Torah of Moses”; verse 4 again says “as written.” The offerings and festival follow Torah. Cyrus’s authorization permits rebuilding, but the king does not invent the worship the community renews.
Work, music and a new foundation
Quarriers cut building stone; craftspeople prepare and work materials. Sidon and Tyre are coastal cities. The timber route runs from Lebanon, the source of cedar wood, by sea to the port of Joppa.
Vestments are the priests’ service garments. David is an earlier king of Israel, not a person standing at this ceremony. The “sons of Asaph” name the ancestral musical group among the Levites. Heads of ancestral houses are extended-family leaders. You do not need to memorize every name: notice how several groups contribute.
וְיִסְּדוּ הַבֹּנִים, אֶת־הֵיכַל יְהוָה
7. They gave money to the quarriers and craftspeople, and food, drink and oil to the Sidonians and Tyrians, to bring cedar timber from Lebanon by sea to Joppa, according to the authorization Cyrus king of Persia had given them.
8. In the second year after their coming to the House of God in Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak, the rest of their fellows, the priests and Levites, and all who had come from captivity to Jerusalem began the work. They appointed the Levites aged twenty and above to oversee the work of Hashem’s House.
9. Jeshua, his sons and his brothers, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, stood together to oversee those doing the work in God’s House, along with the sons of Henadad, their sons and their brothers, the Levites.
10. When the builders laid the foundation of Hashem’s Temple, they stationed the priests in their vestments with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise Hashem according to the direction of David, king of Israel.
11. They sang out in praise and thanksgiving to Hashem: “For it is good [to give thanks], for His kindness toward Israel is forever.” All the people raised a great shout in praise of Hashem because the foundation of Hashem’s House had been laid.
12. Many of the priests, Levites and heads of ancestral houses, the elders who had seen the first House standing on its foundation, were weeping loudly with this House before their eyes; and many raised their voices in joyful shouting.
13. The people could not distinguish the sound of joyful shouting from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people raised a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
The bracket in verse 11 is deliberate. Rashi explains “for it is good” as good to give thanks to Hashem. The supplied words make that reading visible rather than pretending they are all written in the Hebrew. The foundation, not a finished building, is the occasion for this praise.
Rendering note: Rashi on Ezra 3:11 guides the bracketed phrase. “Oversee” in verses 8–9 is our work-oriented rendering; Rashi reads those expressions through musical direction. The explicit instruments and praise in verse 10 remain clear under either reading.
4. Find one material or construction action in verses 7–9, and one worship action in verse 10.
Material actions include paying the quarriers and craftspeople, supplying food, drink and oil for the cedar route, or overseeing the work. In verse 10 priests with trumpets and Levites with cymbals praise Hashem. The account joins skilled work and worship without making them the same task.
5. Which time markers prevent us from reading the whole chapter as one day?
Verse 6 names the first day of the seventh month as the beginning of offerings. Verse 8 explicitly moves to the second year after arrival, in its second month. The chapter follows stages; noticing a month number without its year would lose the sequence.
Listen to both responses
כִּי טוֹב — כִּי־לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ, עַל־יִשְׂרָאֵל
“For it is good [to give thanks], for His kindness toward Israel is forever.”
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
Praise does not erase what the elders remember. Verse 12 identifies people who had seen the First Temple and now weep. Rashi explains that its remembered grandeur lies behind their tears, while those who had not seen it rejoice at having come out of exile. That explanation helps us hear the different experiences within the gathered community.
Our rendering of verse 12 follows Rashi in describing the remembered First House standing on its foundation. It does not say these elders watched the First Temple’s original construction. The present ceremony concerns the new foundation described in verses 10–11.
Rashi on Ezra 3:12. The verse reports remembered sight and tears; Rashi supplies the fuller explanation. Neither the elders nor the rejoicers are labeled unfaithful by the narrator.
6. What two responses do verses 11–12 report, and what does Rashi add?
The text reports praise and joyful shouting, alongside the elders’ loud weeping. It says the elders had seen the First House. Rashi explains their remembered grandeur and the different experience of those who had not seen that earlier Temple. Keep the verse’s report and the commentator’s explanation connected but distinct.
Now read the ending’s wording for yourself:
וְאֵין הָעָם, מַכִּירִים קוֹל תְּרוּעַת הַשִּׂמְחָה, לְקוֹל, בְּכִי הָעָם
“The people could not distinguish the sound of joyful shouting from the sound of the people’s weeping”
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
7. Does verse 13 mean that no one was joyful? What could the listeners not distinguish?
Joy is explicitly present. The listeners cannot distinguish its shouting from the sound of weeping. The narrator describes the combined sound, not the absence of joy and not a verdict condemning either group. Shared gathering does not require identical memories.
Return tomorrow
9. Reconstruct altar → foundation → completed House. Give one source for each, then add one Torah or worship detail.
Altar and offerings: Ezra 3:2–6. Foundation and praise: 3:10–13. Completed House and dedication: 6:15–16. An added detail might be the written Torah in 3:2,4 or the priests’ and Levites’ praise in 3:10.
Check your memory against the objects and actions in the verses. Our people’s renewal includes worship, work and remembrance; the text lets us honor each without collapsing their stages.
Return to the sources
- Ezra 3: the complete chapter, verses 1–13, is rendered here.
- Rashi on Ezra 3: Tishri, the praise and the elders’ remembered Temple.
- Metsudat David on Ezra 3:3: the connection between fear and seeking Hashem’s help.
- Ezra 6:15–16: completion and dedication, from the Aramaic account.
- Haggai 1:1: the governor and high priest.