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Short Summary
Main recommendation: Become a "walking, talking Beis HaMikdash" by making yourself a sanctuary, and by doing chesed (acts of kindness) every day alongside daily Torah learning. Rabbi Paysach Krohn argues that the loss of the Beis HaMikdash (the Temple) was about baseless hatred and that the path to rebuilding it, and to the coming of Moshiach, is loving and caring for other Jews.
Key Points
- The Tosafot explanation: Rabbi Aron Kotler, citing the Tosafot, explained that the Beis HaMikdash mattered because people who came there saw the dedicated service of the Kohanim and others, which inspired them to greater intent, Torah study, and mitzvos.
- Rashi says every person can be a sanctuary, and the Malbim, on the verse "Let them make for Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell among them," explains it means "I will dwell in them": each person should build a Mikdash in the chambers of the heart.
- The Malbim's body analogy: the head is the Aron (holding Torah), the heart is the Shulchan (the table), and the stomach is the Mizbeiach (the altar), so one should guard thoughts, feelings toward others, and kashrus accordingly.
- The Gemara (Yoma 9b) cites baseless hatred as a reason the Second Beis HaMikdash was destroyed, while Torah and mitzvos were being done.
- Citing the Gemara, the speaker says Torah study alone is not enough; Hashem wants people to care for others, and chesed is how one's own needs get met.
- The Kamtza and Bar Kamtza story is used as a warning: the rabbis who failed to stand up for a humiliated Jew are seen as a cause of the Temple's destruction.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions:
- Every day, learn something (men and women alike; women may learn Mishnah or Chumash if not Gemara).
- Every day, do at least one act of chesed for someone else.
- Before a visit to Israel, have grandchildren prepare questions to ask the tzaddikim they meet, and have them ask every tzaddik the same questions.
- Find out where a group prayer for those in need is taking place (the speaker mentions a coordinated effort on the 15th of Av, right after Tisha B'Av) and pray at home, saying Tehillim chapters. The speaker names Tehillim 127 and 128 (family, children, marriage) as the most important for this purpose.
- Show care for other Jews, including those far from observance, reaching out rather than rejecting them.
- Examples given: the speaker's wife was in seminary in Jerusalem when the Kotel opened to the public after the 1967 war; a soldier who was not religious cried at the Kotel, not knowing why.
- Named tzaddikim the speaker's grandchildren met: Rabbi Weinberger (Jerusalem, speaks English), Rav Zilberstein (gave a sefer as a bar mitzvah gift; gives a monthly shiur for doctors), Rav Shalom (American, runs a yeshiva in Jerusalem), Rav Pinchas Brener (from England), Rav Gamliel, Rav Noiman, and Rav Langer.
- The speaker praises Hidabroot for bringing Jews into the fold, including reaching out to women in difficult situations.
- Nigel Collins, a photographer in Queens Gardens, New York, took and emailed photos of children receiving Purim money from the rabbi, unasked, as an example of chesed.
Bottom Line
Spiritual rebuilding starts with individuals: learn daily, act with chesed daily, and treat fellow Jews with care, since the speaker frames baseless hatred as the root of the Temple's destruction and mutual love as the path toward rebuilding it.
