I was wondering just how much it would cost to build the 1st Beis HaMikdash today. Admittedly, I am not an economist or an expert on the commodities market. What follows is a very superficial and generalized calculation.
In Divrei HaYamim Perek 29, we find that between Dovid HaMelech and Shlomo HaMelech they spent 15000 kikar in gold, 10000 kikar in silver and 18,000 kikar in copper. (Although the Navi says that Dovid contributed 3000 kikar gold and 7000 kikar silver the Medrash says that the silver was really gold. It was called "kesef" because it put the other gold to shame ("hichsif").
I found on the internet on 2 different websites that 1 kikar= 30 kg.
Now, as of today (July 18, 2007) an ounce of gold (really a troy ounce which is 1.097 regular ounce) is worth $665.90. An ounce of silver is $12.91 and a pound of copper is $3.5562.
Given that 1 kg = 35.2 ounces, we can calculate the following.
1 kikar gold= $642,275 and 15,000 kikar gold = $9,634,131,972
1 kikar silver = $12,452 and 10,000 kikar silver = $124,519,842
1 kikar copper = $235 and 18,000 kikar copper = $4,224,766
This gives a grand total of $9,762,876,580 or $9.76 billion.
This does not include the 100,000 kikar of iron or the wages for all the workers and the lumber used.
Of course this all is based on the price of gold and silver. 5 years ago gold was only $300 an ounce.
If anyone has a better way of calculating the price let me know.
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