Here’s My Story: Building Towards Redemption
Rabbi Yisroel Dov Levanoni
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Although I was raised in a chasidic family — we belonged to the Zidichov community in pre-war Czechoslovakia — I knew nothing about Lubavitch which was then based in Russia. Only in 1959 when I came to America — after my family was liberated from an internment camp in Hungary and after settling in Israel — did I learn of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and became his follower.
My family name was originally Weiss. But while I was in Israel, the British — who controlled the Holy Land at the time — were pursuing me as a member of HaHaganah, the Jewish underground force, so I changed my last name to hide from them. I chose the name Levanoni because the Talmud says that the word “Levanon” refers to the Temple (Beit Hamikdash) that stood in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, before it was destroyed by the Romans. The name comes from the Hebrew word lavan, meaning “white,” and the Talmud says that the Temple was called “Levanon” because it whitened sins.
I have been fascinated by the Temple since I was a child, when I saw diagrams in Tractate Middot of the Mishnah, which my father was studying. This lifelong fascination led me, after I retired and was living in Israel, to build a scale model of it and write a book about it.
I started to prepare for this work in 1987 by first immersing myself in the writings of Maimonides (also known as the Rambam) on the subject. After that, I worked for about three years — 10 to 12 hours a day — until I constructed my first miniature model of the Second Temple. To do so, I used a caliper which can measure up to 10 micrometers or one thousandth of an inch. But I was not satisfied with the end result, so I destroyed it and built a second model. When I finished it, in 1992, I was very excited and I wanted to show it to the Rebbe.
I made an appointment to visit the Rebbe, but then I got a high fever and could not go. Just before the second appointment I made, I got sick again, but this time, despite 102 fever, I went and, as it turned out, it was a good thing I did.
I brought in my model, which was mounted on a little table. When I showed it to the Rebbe, I removed the roof, so that he could see all the parts.
The Rebbe glanced at it and immediately asked me, “Where is the ramp?” He was referring to the ramp going up to the altar where animal sacrifices were offered. I pointed it out. The Rebbe had a sharp eye, and in that quick moment, he detected a problem. “It must be much bigger,” he remarked. I responded that the model was built to a scale of 1/200. The Rebbe didn’t question the proportions further; he just said, “Well, you probably measured it.” He then gave me a blessing for success and said, “May G-d grant you the merit to see the Third Temple.”
The Rebbe’s comment about the size of the ramp bothered me, so I remeasured everything, and I found that the Rebbe was right — I had made the ramp to the altar 3 millimeters too short! That miniscule difference on the model translated to 60 centimeters, or just under 24 inches.
What was my mistake? I knew that the recorded length of the ramp was thirty cubits, but I had made my calculations at the wrong place. Instead of measuring the Temple floorspace that the ramp spanned, I had measured the top surface of the ramp itself, which would have made the ramp about two feet shorter in reality. Once I realized the source of my error, I didn’t try to fix it so that I could show the model to people and tell them the story of how the Rebbe picked up a tiny discrepancy in my model.
I ended up selling that model and with the money I got for it, I was able to pay off my mortgage, and then I built a new model — a more accurate one this time.
That meeting with the Rebbe happened by Divine Providence, because the day after I had visited him, he suffered a devastating stroke, and after that it was impossible to see him. So, if I had waited any longer, I would never have been able to bring it to the Rebbe and learn about my mistake.
Since then, I have also built a scale model of the Third Temple. This was a very difficult project because the prophecies about it are hard to understand. Even Maimonides says so. Yet, I persevered, and I do believe I succeeded because the Rebbe had given me a blessing to have the merit to see the Third Temple. I was able to see it in my mind’s eye and faithfully construct a model of what Ezekiel prophesied. This model has been on display in Kfar Chabad and in Jerusalem, and thousands of people have come to view it.
May Mashiach come soon, and may we all merit to behold the Third Temple in actuality.
Rabbi Yisroel Dov Levanoni (1921-2019), the author of The Temple in Jerusalem: A Description of the Second Temple, was a dentist and model maker, who lived in Jerusalem. He was interviewed there in April 2007.
