The Three Weeks: Rebuilding the Beis Hamikdash Through Rachmanus and Achdus

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Three weeks as we approach Tisha B'Av, it's important, of course, to talk about what the Churban Habayis means to us today, practically speaking, and what is our avodah in these three weeks to hasten, hasten building the Beis Hamikdash and the coming of Moshiach. Chazal tell us that it's not enough to say the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed years ago, but we're at fault if we don't bring about the binyan Hamikdash today. Kol shelo nivneh b'yamav, ki'ilu nechrav b'yamav, Chazal tell us. So it's not something that we could just wash our hands and say, Yadeinu lo shafchu es hadam hazeh. It's not our responsibility. It's not something we've caused. No, we're directly responsible. We're going to be held accountable if the Beis Hamikdash is not nivneh b'yameinu. So what is our avodah? What should we do in order to hasten the binyan Hamikdash becomes what we must speak about, we must... I identify what we must do today, in these days. So I'd like to bring out a nekudah, an understanding in Churban Habayis, and this would lead us to understand the anecdote of Binyan Habayis, how to be zoche to have the Beis Hamikdash built in our times. I'd like to begin with an interesting Medrash, a very touching Medrash. Medrash Eichah tells us that the night of Tisha B'Av, Avraham Avinu enters the Beis Hamikdash, and he wanders around. The Ribono Shel Olam grabs Avraham Avinu and He tells him, Mah l'yedid b'veisi? Yedid, my friend, what is my friend doing in my home? Interesting expression. What are you doing here? No, it's with a title, yedid, my friend. Avraham Avinu responds, I'm here, ba'ani heichan heim? Came searching for my children. I want to know where they are. Sefer Bina Le'itim, it's quoted in Reb Chaim Ginsburg shlita, the chashuv talmid chachamim of Lakewood Yeshiva, recently became Rosh Yeshiva in Ponevezh, put out a sefer on the inyanim of Churban and three weeks and Beis Hamikdash. And in the sefer he quotes from the sefer Bina Le'itim that discusses this question, why... The title, Yedid, Yedid. Ma li Yedid b'veisi. And also he discusses there the shakla v'tarya, the discussion: what was the Rabbeinu Shleilam asking him? What was Avraham Avinu responding? You can look there for a full analysis of this medrash. I'd like to offer a different pshat. I saw the kasha there, so I'm giving credit to where credit is due. But I'd like to offer a different interpretation. What is a yedid? Avraham Avinu was called Yedid. We say this by the bris milah, the bracha: Asher kidesh yedid mi-beten. Tosafos says it's either going on Avraham Avinu or it's going on Yitzchak. Regardless, either Avraham is the yedid, Yitzchak's the yedid, and why yedid? Say the mefarshim, yedid implies an extreme close friendship, almost to a pact, a bris of friendship. That's a yedid. We think yedidus is, yeah, I see him in shul and I wave hello and goodbye to him. That's not a yedid. It's close, it's a start, it's a good...

It's a good thing, not a bad thing. But a yid takes more than just a wave of hello and goodbye. What is a yid? A yid is almost like a pact. Thank you very much. I see you're a wise man. Besides being a good baal middos tovos. Yedidus goes with a bris, with a treaty. We know Avraham Avinu had treaties of friendship with Aner, Eshkol, and Mamre. Friendships come with the yedidus. I believe that the bris of milah brings out the fact that Avraham was yidid, and that's why by the bris we say, Asher kidesh yedid mibeten. Avraham made a bris, made a treaty. It was a pact with the Ribono Shel Olam. Notice that at the bris we sing, Yedidim romemucha. We bring out the Klal Yisrael are yedidim. Avraham Avinu is wandering in the Beis Hamikdash. He is coming v'hizaktin yedid sufateivekin. He's coming to protect. He's coming to claim amnesty for Klal Yisrael. Protect them, protect them. Zokt der Ribono Shel Olam, Mah l'yedid b'veisi. It's not about yedidus. That's not going to protect. That's not going to bring out the haganah, the protection for Klal Yisrael, because avru bris. They went against the treaty. They've sinned in the carnal aveirus, the gimel aveirus chamuros, the tenets of Torah, the tenets of the bris of Torah. So, ma li yedid b'veisi? The fact that Avraham Avinu, that you're a yedid, if that's your ta'ina, if that's your sanegor, if that is going to be your defense for Klal Yisrael, ma li yedid b'veisi? It's not going to work. Says Avraham, I'm not coming that Klal Yisrael should have amnesty because they're yedid, because they kept the bris. No. I understand that they didn't keep the bris. I'm coming because banai heichan heim. They're still the children. And as banai, Chazal tell us, Yisrael af al pi shechatu, they're banim, they still remain banim. That title and that kesher with the Ribono Shel Olam never falls away. In Bina Leah, it's similar talk, but this is a little bit different along the kav that we're speaking. He also learns that Avraham was coming to protect, Avraham was coming to ta'ina. Ayin sham. But I would like to say this pshat, that Avraham was claiming yedid. That's what the Ribono Shel Olam is saying: You think you're going to claim that you're a yedid, and therefore I should protect Klal Yisrael, Avrum? Bris. They're not yedidim. Says Avraham, I'm not coming al yedid. I'm coming because banai, they're my children. And because they're my children... Therefore, I feel that you should protect them and grant them, so to speak, amnesty. Grant them mechilah, overlook the aveirah. What is the point of banai? I'd like to tell you over a beautiful pshat from the Birurim. What is the basis of the love of the Ribono Shel Olam for Klal Yisroel? Yedua, b'shtei d'ahavah. Where is the ahavah? Where is it linked to? What is the shoresh of the love? Says Reb Yerucham, it's a mefurash pasuk in Devarim, perek yud, pasuk tes-vav: Rak b'avosecha chashak Hashem l'ahavah osam. Actually, the Ribono Shel Olam has cheshek, has love for the avos, and therefore, Vayivchar b'zaram achareihem, bachem, mikol ha'amim kayom hazeh. Says Reb Yerucham that the Yid carries the genetic makeup, so to speak, of zechus avos, is the avos, and the Ribono Shel Olam loves the material, so to speak, of what the avos are made of: the rachmanim, the bayshanim, the gomlei chasadim, the middos, the chesed. And so, Klal Yisroel, as the children of those avos.

Have those same tchunos. Mameila, l'zakar biyuchim, that's the Torah is teaching us the secret of the kosher, the secret of the love the Rabbeinu Shalom has, the unconditional love. Where does it come? Why? What's the unconditional love? The teretz is because bonai heim. Yisrael, af al pi shechatu, they still have a din banim. Maybe the bris they were over, but deep down in the middos, the middos, middos of bonai they still have. Avraham is coming to claim, and the pasuk, it says that you care about the banim of the avos and you love them, so be moichel, protect, give them the amnesty. This, l'choira, is the pshat in the Chazal. Notice, rabboisai, something interesting. Chazal tell us that the first Beis Hamikdash was nechrav because of the gimel aveiros chamuros. How long after the first churban was the Beis Hamikdash rebuilt? Seventy years later. It took seventy years to clean up, so to speak: shfichas damim, giluy arayos. The last Beis Hamikdash, the second one, was because of sinas chinam, and still two thousand years later, we're still stuck in it. We're still stuck in the problem. Is it shaveh? Is it shakul? You see from here an unbelievable thing, that after the shvichas dam and the galus, still we could come back quickly and have a Beis Hamikdash. Seventy years of galus, He's able to correct that. Two thousand, thousands of years, isn't enough to correct sinas chinam. Pelei ployim, pelei ployim. And the teretz is, the way we're saying is beautiful, because the ahavah, the love that the Ribono Shel Olam has for Klal Yisroel, is ahavah which is תלויה only on one davar, that is that they have the middos. They have the chesed, they have the rachmanim, the bayshanim, the gomlei chasadim. So if that falls away, then there's no Beis Hamikdash. Galus, avodah zarah, yet the gimel chamuros, from the gimel chamuros, seventy years, all right, you did teshuvah. Sinas chinam goes to the heart of the kesher the Ribono Shel Olam has with Klal Yisroel. You know, the mefarshim ponder: why is it that sinas chinam is goyrem that the Beis Hamikdash should be destroyed? I mean, how is it, zeh l'umas zeh, how is it midah k'neged midah? What's the kesher? What's the shaychus? So a lot of mefarshim discuss that the inyan of the Beis Hamikdash was to be meyached Klal Yisroel, was to unite Klal Yisroel. People don't realize the beauty of the Beis Hamikdash. By the regel, when Yidden used to come together, it was a mitzvah for everyone to come. Was there room for everyone? How could everyone fit into a Beis Hamikdash? Beis Hamikdash is 500 amos by 500 amos, sach hakol. That's it. How could you fit? How could you fit Klal Yisroel in 500 amos? Chazal said, Mi'oidam loi amal, tzar li hamakom. It fit. Omdim tzefufim, ומשתחוים רווחים. I always say to myself, what's omdim tzefufim? Together, tzafuf. That's how they stood. But when they bowed, they had room. It's making a nes already that they should be omdim revachim. Why do you need that they should be omdim tzafuf, that they should stand squished together, if I may use the language, squished together, squashed? And then when they bowed, make already a nes that they should stand comfortably. Make it a comfortable experience to come to the Beis Hamikdash. And the answer is, omdim tzefufim, but you'd stand together, close together. Hey, it's not supposed to be considered uncomfortable.

And that brings out the nes of Mishtachavim b'revach. You know, it's when you don't like each other, there's not enough room. The shul could be so big, there's never enough room. A small little shul, the shtiebelach, tight, small little room, fit many more people than you can imagine. As the galus gets longer, shuls have to get bigger. I'm not saying, Baruch Hashem, I'm not one to give mussar. Trust me, you know me already long enough. I don't give mussar. I don't think I'm right to give mussar. I talk from the heart, what I feel, what I observe. And I observe that there was a time and a place where a small little shtiebel was good enough to fit many more people, and you can fit into a very, very big large shul. Omdim tzfufim, u'mishtachavim b'revach, is the beauty of the Beis Hamikdash. Achdus is the point of the Beis Hamikdash: to unite. We united around the Ribono Shel Olam. We all had one cause. We united around avodah and the korbanos. And this is what the meforshim are saying: if there's no achdus, there is no point in the Beis Hamikdash, and therefore the Beis Hamikdash had to be taken away because of sinas chinam. I would like to offer another pshat, based on everything we've spoken till now. You know, the Beis Hamikdash represents, so to speak, the house, the home. Klal Yisroel is married to the Ribono Shel Olam. Yom chasnuso, yom simchas libo. And where is the home? The home is the Beis Hamikdash. You know, you could do things wrong, and then it needs to be counseling, help, tikkun. But if the ahavah is not in the home, then the home ceases to exist, even if it stands. The ahavah that the Rabbeinu Shalom has for Klal Yisroel, like I spoke to you, is based on their middos. It's based on their ahavah, their love one for the other. That's what it's based on. And if that's not there, then the home is not there either. Just like a home, if there's problems, it can be fixed, the problem. But if the base is not there, the love is not there, the ahavah is not there. I believe, sinas chinam, the poksedo at the heart of the ahavah the Rabbeinu Shalom has for us. Now, of course, the ahavah is still there. It's as if the ahavah is not there. We know the keruvim was not the Beis Hamikdash. The Rabbeinu Shalom made it to look like there was tremendous ahavah. Ahavah is always there. That's, V'ahavas olam ahavתיך. The love the Rabbeinu Shalom has for us can't go away. That's impossible, to fall away. But churban is where the love, where the Klal Yisroel loses its chein, where Klal Yisroel loses its—what the pasuk says, Rak b'avoseicha chashak Hashem, l'ahavah osam, vayivchar b'zaram achareihem. If that falls away. So then the whole kesher falls away. That's why sinas chinam is so, that tremendous, that tremendous churban habayis. It speaks to the heart of the tenets of what the bayis is all about. The relationship with Klal Yisrael and the Ribono Shel Olam is based on the ahavah that Klal Yisrael has—I'm sorry, that the Ribono Shel Olam has for Klal Yisrael. And when that disintegrates, the bayis automatically disintegrates. So we've learned something very interesting, rabosai. To make a one-minute chazarah, and then we'll continue with the thought, with the idea. The bayis, the home, the Beis Hamikdash, it represents the ahavah the Ribono Shel Olam has for Klal Yisrael, which is actually a pasuk: Toichi ratzuf ahavah mibnos Tzion. It's a pasuk in Shir HaShirim. What is the essence, the toich, is the love the Ribono Shel Olam has for Klal Yisrael. And as we've spoken, that that love is dependent on the middos, that we are bnei Avraham, Yitzchak, v'Yaakov, like the pasuk tells us. And that means that—

So even if there's going to be a gap, a gap in avodah zarah, in giluy arayos, because ... is against bein adam l'chaveiro, it's a discussion for itself. But even if the shvatim, the shvatim chamuros, are transgressed, the kesher still stands on the ahavah. That's enough to bring it over. It's enough to carry it over past the bris that they sinned and that they broke. But if the ahavah, which is based on the middos of Klal Yisrael, that's not there, then everything falls away, and that becomes churban habayis. I'll tell you, rabosai, where I saw this mefurash in Chazal. Chazal tell us that the shevatim, the shevatim—it's a Medrash in Bereishis Rabbah, tzaddik tes—the shevatim fought between themselves that the Beis HaMikdash should be built in their chelek of Eretz Yisrael. Each one wanted to be zocheh that his shevet should be the one to host the Beis HaMikdash. HaKadosh Baruch Hu decides that Binyamin is going to be the one to host the Beis HaMikdash, because all the other shevatim were involved in mechiras Yosef. All the other shevatim were involved in the sinas chinam by mechiras Yosef, while Binyamin wasn't. Therefore, Binyamin is the one to be zoche to have the Beis Hamikdash. Zeh shteit in Medrash Rabah Yisro. The Sifri goes one step further and says, you can ask me about Yehuda, I'll answer you in a minute. That's part of the shiur. Facts the Chalav al hazeikut. It's a pleasure to learn with you. It's a mazel to learn with you. Be zoche for many years together to learn. The Sifri says one step further. The Sifri says not only about sinas chinam, which is a Yiddish word, a shtem, it's a me'akev, it holds back the Beis Hamikdash, but it's actually deeper and more because Binyamin showed rachmanus while the other shevatim didn't. It's by the mefurasha Siforno. Hashem imanachnu al hachinah asher ra'inu b'tzaras nafsho, b'hischanen eleinu v'lo shamanu b'kolo, says the Siforno, what was the ta'ina? Not the mechirah, not the actual sale, because that was right al פי halacha. There was a beis din, the Rabbeinu was part of that beis din. What was the ta'ina? Al asher ra'inu b'tzaras nafsho. Rachmanus. We should have had rachmanus, which is a question if the psak beis din is that he's chayiv, where does rachmanus play a role? A discussion for a different time. But we see that the shoresh of the chet, true we talk about sinas chinam, but deep down there was a lack of rachmanus. Zogt the Sifri, their Beis Hamikdash is built on rachmanus. What is the Beis Hamikdash? It's מלא רחמנים. The Ribbono Shel Olam is rachmanus on us. He's mechaper all our aveiros. And so the Beis Hamikdash needs to be built on the land, the shoresh, the basis of rachmanus. A few shailos on that side. First of all, you know what? You see an interesting thing. Why don't we say that the reason the Beis Hamikdash was built where it was in Yerushalayim because of Yerushalayim? And why in Yerushalayim? Because it's Har HaMoriah. And why Har HaMoriah? Because of the Akeidah. Why? Because of the Akeidah? Because that's even where Adam was already makriv a korban. Har HaMoriah was the place where the korbanos and the avodah, from Adam HaRishon, the Rambam brings it down. As a matter of fact, the Rambam says Adam HaRishon was born from there, mimakom kaparaso, sham he was nivra. It's the pinnacle of the world. Say that's the reason why the Beis Hamikdash is in Yerushalayim, Har HaBayis. Unless what Chazal mean, that's why Binyamin got it. That's what it means. You're right, it had to be there, but why would Binyamin get that chelek? The teretz is because Binyamin needed to be the host of the Beis Hamikdash. And the reason is because he didn't have sinas chinam and he had rachmanus. Or maybe we could say—

Hey, all true. The avodah is still not enough to say the Beis Hamikdash should be there. The lack of sinas chinam, the purity from sinas chinam, is enough, is the reason why the Beis Hamikdash is in the chelek of Binyamin. Let's go one step further, rabosai. The Medrash, the Sifri, is telling us, and though Klal Yisrael are doing aveiros, through HaKadosh Baruch Hu, we mechaper them. Oh, but there's aveiros. That's still not a problem for the Beis Hamikdash, because that's what it's there for. The Beis Hamikdash is there to come and say, I did aveiros. That's what it's there for. That's what the Sifri is saying. Klal Yisrael has to come with korbanos saying, Ribbono Shel Olam, we're chaytim. We've done so many and so and such an aveiros and teshuvah, and that's not a problem. Fakert, that's the point of the Beis Hamikdash. What's a problem for the Beis Hamikdash? Sinas chinam rooted in a lack of rachmanus. That's going to be a me'akev in the Beis Hamikdash. Ah yes, Yehudah. Yehudah was the one that was mesaken the achvah by coming to fight to protect Binyamin. That was the whole Yehudah. The idea of Yehudah was, and that's what Yosef saw, that Yehudah now nimtza chamufa Binyamin. So he comes now to the achdus midrashim. It's not the time, I only have another minute or so. Yehudah was the one that reestablished the achdus in the shevatim, and therefore a chelek of it. of the Beis Hamikdash is by Yehuda, bigger by Binyamin, and also by Yehuda. With this, rabosai, I want to answer and then tell us lemaaseh. Medrash says, it's a Yalkut Shimoni, that when Mashiach comes, he's going to stand on the roof of the Beis Hamikdash, and he's going to call out, Anavim, humble ones, anavim, humble ones. He gives zman geulah, the time of your redemption has come. I see the Mashgiach, Rav Nosson Zechutzadik Livracha, asks, others ask it as well, why anavim? Why is this the title to call back Klal Yisrael into geulah, back to Eretz Yisrael, back to the Beis Hamikdash? So Rav Mashgiach has a mahalach. For a different time we'll get into his mahalach. I would have said simple: galus makes a person humble. That's what, you know, anavim, you went through galus, you're humble now. Galus could break a man. Hitler, machshemo, America does a good job on our humility of who we are, baal topanim. I think maybe we could say a third pshat based on everything we said. In Nesivas HaRav, Yitzchok Blazer says anav is the base of mavra lamidos. The Alter from Kelm in Chochmah UMussar, chelek aleph, page nun ches, says anavah is the base of rachmanus. Actually, when we call them anavim, we're saying— Those that don't have sinas chinam, anavim, those that have rachmanus, ... to come back, because the Beis Hamikdash is built on the lack of sinas chinam, the tikkun of sinas chinam. It's built on the rachmanus and the baishanim, the gomlei chasadim, the bonai. For Bnei Avraham, Yitzchak, v'Yaakov, bonai heichon heim. Anavim is another way of saying that they have the middos of Avraham, Yitzchak, v'Yaakov, and that's why we call them back with the word anav. Lesson, rabosai. We can do our little part to help build the Beis Hamikdash: chesed, rachmanus, bikur cholim. And on a simple level, you walk into a shul, mechazek another person, mechazek another person. Sees down, everyone has his issues and his problems. Have compassion. Simple. Yahadus is beautiful when it's simple. Take it literally. Don't have to make big organizations, rabosai, to be baalei chesed. Baalei chesed can be simple things: a simple hello, a simple chizuk, a bikur cholim. And who knows which is going to tip the scale, and the Ribbono Shel Olam says, Anavim, here's matan...

Biyas hagoyl, to the Binyan HaMikdash. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.