RABBI YAHACOB YEHUDA LEON “TEMPLO”

The rabbi who reconstructed the Temple in miniature

Rabbi Yahacob Yehuda Leon (1603–1675) was a seventeenth century Sephardic rabbi, scholar, artist, and educator whose name became permanently associated with the Temple of Jerusalem. He signed his works “Leon Hebreo,” but most writers of his time referred to him as “Leon Templo” or “Yehuda Templo.” The reason was simple: he devoted his life to studying, reconstructing, and publicly exhibiting the Temple and its vessels. Through his work, the structure of the Beit haMiqdash, which until then existed only in texts and imagination, became visible and understandable to audiences across Europe, both Jewish and Christian.

Rabbi Leon lived in the Dutch Republic, mainly in Amsterdam and Middelburg, within the flourishing Western Sephardic community formed by Jews of Iberian origin who had returned openly to Judaism after generations of forced conversion. In addition to his rabbinic learning, he was a trained artist and designer specializing in heraldry, the design of coats of arms, a respected technical art in early modern Europe that required precision drawing, proportion, and symbolic literacy. These artistic skills enabled him to undertake a project no rabbinic scholar before him had attempted: the construction of a three dimensional scale model of the Temple of Jerusalem based entirely on classical Jewish sources.

To build the model Rabbi Leon relied on all available textual authorities describing the Temple: biblical passages in Kings, Chronicles, and Ezekiel; the Mishnah tractate Middot; historical descriptions of Josephus Flavius; and the architectural halakhot codified by Maimonides in the Mishneh Torah. By comparing these sources and reconciling their measurements and descriptions, he produced a coherent architectural reconstruction. In 1641 he completed the model of the Temple on a scale of approximately 1 to 300. The structure measured about 1.30 by 1.20 by 0.60 meters and contained the courtyards, gates, chambers, altar of sacrifice, bronze sea, sanctuary, Holy of Holies, Ark with cherubim, and the two pillars Yakhin and Boaz. The model was designed not as decoration but as a scholarly visual representation of the Beit haMiqdash according to rabbinic tradition.

Rabbi Leon prepared an explanatory work to accompany the model titled “Retrato del Templo de Salomon” (Portrait of the Temple of Solomon). The book functioned as a guide for viewers and readers, describing each enclosure, vessel, and structural element of the Temple and explaining its placement and function. Although originally published in Spanish, the language of the Western Sephardim, the work attracted wide interest beyond Jewish circles and was soon translated into Hebrew, Dutch, French, English, German, and Latin. The combination of a physical model and a systematic textual explanation made Rabbi Leon’s reconstruction accessible to scholars, clergy, and educated audiences throughout Europe.

The Temple model was first exhibited in Rabbi Leon’s own house in Amsterdam, where it quickly became a noted attraction. Visitors included Jews, Christians, and civic figures who came to see the detailed representation of the biblical Temple. In 1642 the exhibition received distinguished guests when Henrietta Maria of France, Queen consort of England and wife of King Charles I, visited the house of Rabbi Leon accompanied by Prince William of Orange and his fiancee Mary Stuart. Their visit to a Jewish scholar’s home to view the Temple model reflects the intellectual and cultural position of the Amsterdam Sephardic community in the seventeenth century and the broad interest that the Temple held in Christian biblical scholarship.

According to several historical accounts, Rabbi Leon later brought the Temple model to London around 1671. A letter of recommendation written by the Dutch statesman and scholar Constantijn Huygens to King Charles II of England supported Rabbi Leon and his exhibition there. Traditions also state that during his time in England Rabbi Leon produced heraldic designs, consistent with his known artistic specialization. The Temple model remained in London for many decades and continued to be exhibited by Rabbi Leon’s descendants, including Isaac de Leon and Moshe Isaac de Castro. A documented exhibition in London in 1729 announced that the public could view at the Royal Exchange the model of the Temple of Solomon with its halls, gates, chambers, altar, bronze sea, Ark, cherubim, incense altar, tables, candlesticks, and the pillars Yakhin and Boaz. The notice shows that the model continued to function as an educational display nearly a century after its construction.

Rabbi Leon extended his Temple studies into additional illustrated works. In 1647 he published in Dutch “Treatise of the Ark of the Covenant,” a detailed description and depiction of the Aron haBerit. He also wrote in Latin a treatise on the cherubim explaining their form and symbolism. In 1654 he published in Spanish “Portrait of the Tabernacle of Moses,” describing and illustrating the Mishkan according to biblical and rabbinic sources. These works demonstrate that his project encompassed not only the Temple building but the full material culture of Israelite worship as described in Jewish tradition.

Rabbi Yahacob Yehuda Leon “Templo” died in 1675. His scale models and books represent one of the earliest known attempts in early modern Europe to reconstruct the Temple of Jerusalem visually from Jewish textual sources and to present that reconstruction publicly to both Jewish and Christian audiences. Through scholarship, artistic skill, and public exhibition, he transformed the textual descriptions of the Beit haMiqdash into a form that could be seen, studied, and taught across cultural and religious boundaries.