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Given the centrality and importance of the Temple in Jerusalem from Biblical times to period of the Herod's Temple, one would expect Jewish literature to carefully follow attempts at Jewish restoration. Instead one finds that the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, which were composed during this period, are almost devoid of any mention of Jewish nationalism or attempts to rebuild the Temple.

Missing Jewish History Restoration Literature has been censured by leading Rabbinical figures. For example Ibn Ezra writes of Sefer Zerubabel that "[these books] were not compiled by prophets or sages, and that they contained ideas which run counter to an appropriate understanding of Torah."

In fact, Rabbinic opinion actually discourages nationalistic attempts at restoration of the Temple. According to majority Rabbinic opinion, the Temple will be built not by man but by the Messiah and there is nothing to do but pray and wait. Moreover, given that Jews are in a state of ritual uncleanliness in the absence of the "red heifer" it is forbidden to enter the area where the Temple was located. Further, in the absence of precise information as to where it was located, a blanket ban was imposed on access for Jews to the entire Temple Mount.

There always has been a small dissenting view, some Rabbis basing their view on a ruling of Maimonides. However, these Rabbis are of the opinion that sacrifices would not take place in a rebuilt Temple because Maimonides seems to imply that God has moved Jews away from sacrifices towards prayer -- as a higher form of worship.

The vast majority of Rabbis have opposed any attempts of building the Temple. During the messianic claims of David Alroy (1160 C.E.), the Jewish Exilarch and the Rabbinic academies were expected by the authorities suppress and control any attempts at nationalism. It is probable that this was the expected role of the Exilarch and the rabbinic academies throughout the entire period of Islamic rule.

In spite of numerous attempts spanning five hundred years to attempt reconstruction of the Jewish Temple, in the centuries following the Islamic conquest and the construction of the Qubbat Al-Sakhrah, Dome of the Rock in 692 C.E., there has been no further serious attempt on the part of Jewish leadership. Any attempt during the Islamic conquest and immediately thereafter to share the Temple mount is not mentioned in Rabbinic literature, and literature that hints at nationalistic restoration has been censured by leading Rabbinical figures. For example Ibn Ezra writes of Sefer Zerubabel that "[these books] were not compiled by prophets or sages, and that they contained ideas which run counter to an appropriate understanding of Torah."

To gain insight as to why Rabbinic Judaism has adopted this counter-intuitive view, one must look closely at the two conquests of Jerusalem. The first conquest was in 614 CE by the Persians with the assistance of up to 20,000 Jewish soldiers. The second was in 638 CE by Islamic forces under the command of Khalif 'Umar, with an unknown amount of Jewish aid. These events were separated by only twenty-four years, and many of the factors that affected the first conquest were present during the second conquest. As will be explained below, the common thread throughout both of them was the nationalistic ambitions of the Jewish Exilarch, the secular leader of world Jewry.