The organizations that created the original Trump-Cyrus Coin are now minting a special edition “70 Year Redemption Coin” focused on generating an international effort to build the Third Temple. The timing, coming just before Israel’s 70th birthday, is essential, and the organizers see the Temple as the only hope in averting the developing multinational conflict looming on Israel’s northern border.
“The Temple, as a house of prayer for all nations, is the source of true peace,” Rabbi Hillel Weiss, spokesman for the nascent Sanhedrin, a biblically mandated court of 71 elders, told Breaking Israel News. “It has been presented in the media as a ‘flashpoint’, the focus of conflict. That is the opposite of the truth and has actually made this lie into a reality.”
The coin, a joint effort of the nascent Sanhedrin, the Mikdash (Temple) Educational Center and the United Temple Movements, prepared it to honor Israel’s 70th anniversary next week on April 19. The coin will feature images of US President Trump and Persian King Cyrus, as did the previous coin minted in February. The president’s image on the coin is intended as a clear message of gratitude for officially recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital..
“In the context of the coin, we are expressing gratitude for President Trump’s bold decision to transfer the American Embassy to Jerusalem thereby recognizing King David’s capital and the site of Solomon’s Temple as the true capital of Israel,” Mordechai Persoff, head of the Mikdash Educational Center, a non-profit organization for education about the Temple, told Breaking Israel News.
He went on to explain that superimposing the images of the two leaders, separated by more two millennia and coming from two separate parts of the globe, is meant to emphasize their common characteristics.
“They are non-Jewish leaders who played an essential role in the return of the Jews to Jerusalem,” Persoff said. “Hopefully, Trump will continue in this path and, like Cyrus, play a central role in the building of the Temple.”
But this tribute to leaders is not limited to just Persian kings and US presidents. Directly after Trump won the election in November 2016, the Sanhedrin invited him to initiate a joint effort with Russian President Vladimir Putin in building the Third Temple.
“If Putin decides that he would prefer to build the Temple with Trump rather than go to war with him, then we would be happy to put his image on the next coin alongside Trump and Cyrus,” Rabbi Weiss said to Breaking Israel News.
The motive behind the coin, a multinational effort to build the Temple, was graphically illustrated on the face of the coin. The menorah (seven-branched oil lamp that stood inside the Temple) stands in the center of the coin along with the Persian Lion, the symbol that appeared on the flag of Persia until the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
“This is a reference to Persian King Cyrus, who helped the Jews build the Second Temple, but this is also an open invitation to the current nation of Iran to accept their role in building the Third Temple,” Rabbi Weiss said.
The deep spiritual connection between the US and Israel is represented by an image of the Seal of the United States of America.
The universal symbol for peace, a dove holding an olive branch in his beak, also appears. Persoff explained that the symbol has two origins in the bible: as Noah’s post-diluvian emissary and also from the Prophet Isaiah.
Who are these that float like a cloud, Like doves to their cotes? Isaiah 60:8
Persoff explained that this verse is a description of the nations of the world as they brought their offerings to the Temple in Jerusalem.
“There was a time when ships would sail to Israel in peace, to serve God, each in their own way,” Persoff said. “Now, since we don’t have the Temple, navies from all over the world are sailing the Mediterranean, ready to make war.”
The new design is engraved with a Hebrew verse from the Book of Ezra in which Persian King Cyrus calls upon all the nations of the world to participate in the building of the Second Temple. This declaration is translated into English and Arabic on the coin.
Thus said King Cyrus of Persia: God of Heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has charged me with building Him a house in Yerushalayim, which is in Yehuda.Anyone of you of all His people—may his God be with him, and let him go up to Yerushalayim that is in Yehuda and build the House of God of Yisrael, the God that is in Yerushalayim; Ezra 1:2-3
The coin, in the same manner as Cyrus’ declaration, is intended as an invitation to the nations to rebuild the Temple.
Though the coin commemorates the establishing of Israel 70 years ago, it is intended more as a reminder of what still remains to be done.
“Establishing Israel was a realization of God’s covenant with Abraham but it is not complete,” Rabbi Weiss said. “It will only be complete when the Jewish Temple is restored to its proper place.”
The rabbi said that the return to the Temple this year may have been hinted at by the Prophet Jeremiah.
For thus said Hashem: When Babylon’s seventy years are over, I will take note of you, and I will fulfill to you My promise of favor—to bring you back to this place. Jeremiah 29:10
“Normally this is understood as speaking about the return from the Babylonian Exile, which lasted 70 years,” Rabbi Weiss said. “But it may be this was also a hint that we would return to the Temple 70 years after the establishment of Israel. In any case, 70 years is an auspicious period of time that should be recognized in a significant manner.”
The coin is currently being sold on the Mikdash Education Center’s website. All proceeds from sales will be used for reenactments of Temple ceremonies, education on the Temple or transferred to the Third Temple when it is built.
What percentage of the purchase of said coin goes to the mint and to the temple rebuilding project?