Longing for Beit HaMikdash (the Temple)

B"H

When you walk through Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter in the Old City today, you will mostly find antique sites from the Second Temple period. Here and there are some remains of the city wall from the period of the First Temple, however, everything else concentrates on the Second Temple. The Kotel HaMa'aravi - West(ern) Wall or the nearby Ophel. You can join tours taking you 30 meters below where the original market street in front of the Temple used to be. Where we stand today is about 30 meters on top of the original site where Rabbi Akivah or Rabbi Gamliel used to walk.

It is very emotional walking through the tunnel system underneath the Kotel as well as seeing the stones (from the top of the wall) thrown down by the Romans during the Second Temple destruction. On some of those stones you can still see black spots from the fire when the Temple was burning.

In the Ophel, right next to the Kotel Plaza, you can walk along the ancient shopping mall in front of the Second Temple. Where the Jews used to buy their sacrifices for the Temple. You can sit there and imagine how it used to be in those days. Busy streets, Jews buying sacrifices and walking up to the Temple. Going to the Mikweh (ritual bath) and then handing in the animal to be sacrificed.

What a great feeling must this have been and how could the people 2000 years be so ignorant of all the Shechinah (G - d's presence) surrounding the Temple. At least in those early days of the Second Temple when corruption among the Cohanim did not yet take place.

How could the Jews start fighting when they had a Temple ? When the Prophet Jeremiah (Yirmeyahu) was warning them.

The question is if we today would be so much better. We may think so but when it comes to fights, arguments and priorities we are probably not so much better than our ancient ancestors. Is it of any use sitting in the Ophel and dreaming about the good old days with the 

Second Temple ? Of course all those ancient sites and stones provide the visitor with a certain emotional feeling but how about concentrating on the future ? As we know from the Talmud, the Second Temple didn't include such a high level of the Shechinah as the First Temple did. There was no more Aron HaKodesh (ark with the tablets), all the great prophets were gone, the Shamir (a kind of small animal King Salomon used for cutting the stones of the First Temple) had vanished and all the other visible miracles were gone.

The Talmud Tractate Yoma explains us that only a bit more than 40,000 Jews came back to Israel from the Babylonian Diaspora. Hundreds of thousands of other Jews preferred staying in Babylon where they had built up their businesses. Why returning to Jerusalem where there are only ruins ? The result was that the Second Temple has never reached the level of Kedusha (holiness) as the First Temple did.

Instead of dreaming about a glorious past we should concentrate on the future; meaning on Meshiach and the Third Temple. Not looking back in history but imagining us sitting in the Third Temple and we should all do something that we get there very soon.

The RAMCHAL about the Three Temples

B"H

The famous Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto - the RAMCHAL (born in Padua / Italy in 1707 – died in Israel in 1747) cannot be left out whenever talking about Jewish teachings. He wrote Mussar (Ethics) – books (such as "The Path of the Just" or "Derech HaShem – The Way of G – d") but he also published plenty of kabbalistic writings (e.g. Adir BaMarom). There is no Yeshiva today where the concepts of the Ramchal aren't taught.

In one of his writings, he explains us his understanding of the Three Tempels. Here are a few of his concepts:

According to the Rambam (Maimonides), the Third Temple is already being built in heaven and waiting to come down into our world (see also Exodus 15:17). But not only the Rambam said that the Third Temple has already been built in heaven; Rashi comes to the same conclusion.

But what exactly is the meaning of: The Third Temple has already been built in heaven and is ready to come down. Only Meshiach has to come and then we will see the Temple.

Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto interprets:
In Kabbalah and in Chassidut every single material things (and even humans) has / have its counterpart in the spiritual upper worlds (in heaven, so to speak). On Earth, we are very human with all our strengths and weaknesses but our own perfect counterpart is to be found in the upper spiritual worlds. My own totally perfect "I" or "ME".

After I die, this perfect counterpart of myself will show me what kind of person I should have been while I was alive. It is like standing in front of a mirror and someone is listing us all our sins and failures. Then my perfect "I" comes into the picture and shows me how I should have behaved, solved problems or dealt with people.

"Jerusalem" or the "Temple" have their own counterparts in the upper spiritual worlds. A perfect Jerusalem with perfect people and a Temple where there is no more corruption or anything, but just Holiness (Kedusha).

The meaning of "the Temple already being built in heaven" is not that G – d took some stones and started building. The concept we are talking about is not material but spiritual. A spiritual Temple, a spiritual "I" or "Me", a spiritual city of Jerusalem. These counterparts don't exist in a material sense but only show us spiritual perfection.

Let's remember:
With the arrival of Meshiach, we are receiving a higher soul level which doesn't even let us think of any more sinning. No more crime, anything negative or jealousy; people will be very different. And this way we are going to connect the perfect spiritual world with our material physical world.

Furthermore, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto asked the question why the Prophet Yechezkel (Yezekiel) saw the Third and not the Second Temple in his vision. In his time, the First Temple was destroyed but the Second hadn't even been built.

Yechezkel reached a level of prophecy called BINA; a complete total understanding beyond time and space. And due to this high level he was able to look into the future by even overlooking the Second Tempel (beyond time). The Second Temple itself was only due to be build in another 56 years from then on. But Yechezkel only saw a vision of an eternal unique G – dly Temple and this definitely couldn't have been the Second Temple.