Ra'anana Community Kollel - Parshat Terumah 5764

By the Western Wall

Rabbi Dovid Horwitz

Although we haven’t read about the sin of the Golden Calf yet in our weekly Torah reading, the commentators tell us that the instructions to build the mishkan that we find in this week’s parshah were actually given to the Jewish people after they sinned and were forgiven for the sin of the Golden Calf. Once we had fallen, due to our sin, to a level where we could no longer live with the Divine presence around us, G-d delegated the Shechinah to a contained area. From that time onward, the Mishkan, and afterwards the Beit Hamikdash, became the central point around which the Jewish people revolved. When the Beit Hamikdash was built by Shlomo Hamelech, it became the place where all prayers were directed. The halachah therefore states that Jews throughout the world should always pray in the direction of the Beit Hamikdash. It is for this reason that those who live in America and Europe place their Aron Kodesh on the Eastern wall of the Beit Knesset in order to pray to the east. Those who live in South Africa pray to the north and those in the Far East direct their prayers to the west. The Talmud Yerushalmi writes that even after the destruction of the Temple, its site remains the place to which our prayers are directed.

Certainly, when the Beit Hamikdash was standing, there was a special preference in davening at the very site itself, more so than davening from afar and directing one’s prayers there. Is there anything special about praying at the site of the Western Wall, even after the Temple’s destruction? The Midrash tells us that the Shechinha will never depart from the Western Wall, even after the Temple’s destruction. Indeed, all throughout our long exile, Jews have always come to the Kotel to offer up their prayers as we have always believed that prayers expressed at the Kotel will be accepted more easily due to the nature of its holiness. Many write their prayers and requests on small pieces of paper and slip them into the cracks between the stones.

As the season of salvation and redemption approaches with the upcoming holidays of Purim and Pesach, we await with great longing the rebuilding of the Beit Hamikdash and the ingathering of Jews to their homeland. A curious question to ponder is which contractor will be tendered to build the Beit Hamikdash? Who can rise to the challenge of building an edifice of such intricate detail and beauty which will put even the most architecturally beautiful building of today to shame?

According to the Rambam, the Mashiach himself will rebuild the Beit Hamikdash. That is, he will be imbued with such Divine insight that he will be able to direct the Jewish people in how to build the Temple according to G-d’s wishes. According to Rashi and Tosafot, the third and final Beit Hamikdash will be built by none other than G-d himself. As the first two man made Temples were destroyed, this Temple built by the Almighty will endure forever. May we see its building speedily in our days!