Throughout
the Torah we hear the phrase, HaMakom Asher Yivchar HaShem L’shacayn Shmo Sham.
..The place that G-d will choose to have His name reside. This place becomes known as the Beit
HaMikdash…the Holy Temple. It was built
by King Solomon in order that G-d’s name would become known. In fact, the Temple was not just a place
where Jews went. Non-Jews were invited
to the Temple as well. The first Temple in
Jerusalem was our first successful attempt at making G-d’s name known to the
Goyim, the other nations.
The Temple served
as a focal point from which the universal message of monotheism was advanced. The universal goal of having a better world
was promoted at the Temple by insisting that there were behaviors that would
bring light to the world. In reality the story of the Temple was the story of
the Jewish people and its relationship with G-d. It was not the story about an exquisite building
that was destroyed twice. The Temple’s
story is the story of how we went into exile because we lost our relationship
with G-d.
Our national
story began with the Exodus from Egypt.
It was the point at which we developed an identity as a people. Part of that identity was that G-d was
present in our midst. As we traveled we
were shepherds living a nomadic life. When we settled in the Land of Israel…we went
from being shepherds to being farmers.
According to the Torah, G-d guided us to the Land with a vision for the
future. That vision was of an ideal
state with an eternal Temple, one where all people would one day recognize G-d
as their King. It was a dream that
managed to sustain us throughout the centuries and is still with us today. The Temple structure was established as an
enclosure for the experience of the divine.
It provided a vision of the ideal.
It provided a way of searching for a tangible relationship with
G-d.
I think you
recognize that it can be problematic for individuals who are finite to be
expected to love a G-d who is infinite. How do you relate? The Temple was
created to establish something physical to which the people could relate. We’re not allowed to have images of G-d. That would be idolatry. So the Temple was built not as a tangible
representation of G-d but as a place where individuals could go to feel G-d’s
presence and feel close to G-d. The
power of the Temple was that it was one place where Jews would go to pray. They were not alone. They functioned as a community and their
prayers were united. It brought the
people together. They met each other at
the Temple, socialized, mingled, and by feeling connected to their fellow human
beings they felt an intensified relationship with G-d.
One can only
imagine what the people felt when it was destroyed. It sent their lives spinning into
turmoil. How did Judaism survive such a
trauma? It survived by having a
collective memory and creating new ways in which to recreate the spiritual
avenues for having a relationship with G-d.
In some ways, we created synagogues in many different locations and relied
on prayer to help us transcend space. We
never lost our vision of the Temple as a unifying force in the world. So when we talk about the rebuilding of the
Temple in our prayer book we are talking about reestablishing a strong
connection with G-d and all of humankind.
In a way, it is a messianic vision of an idealized world…one where
tzedek and mishpat , righteousness and justice, prevail. As one of my teachers at the Pardes
Institute, Lea Rosenthal, said, “ The
secret of Jewish survival is our ability to see beyond our tortured
history.”
Tisha B’Av
is a day that should not be forgotten.
It teaches us about our unrealized dreams for the world/the tragedies we
have faced/ and the resiliency we have displayed. At the end of reading the Book of
Lamentations, Eicha, we pray that G-d should return as in days of old. In reality what we are saying is that we want
to feel reconnected with G-d. We want
human beings to act in a way that will bring G-d back into the world. This is not a message that died with the
destruction of the first or the second Temple.
It is a message that forms the backbone of Judaism. It is our messianic vision of a world at
peace, perfected, striving for unity.
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