Preparing to Build the Temple – You Don’t Have to Be on a High Level!
Moshiach Is Not Your Cleaning Lady
The world has become a bloodbath filled with violence and insanity.
We are almost up to Tisha B’Av, the worst day in our Jewish history. We mourn and weep over the destruction of our two Temples. This is our focus for the entire Three Week period and culminates on Tisha B’Av. But what happens when it’s over? We just pick ourselves up, dust off the ashes and go out to eat or back to work the next day?
Moshiach is coming. He’ll fix the world. He’ll make everything all better and clean again. The world will be transformed into a magical wonderland, Moshiach will rebuild the Temple and everything will be okay.
No.
Rebuilding the Beit HaMikdash/Temple is a collective mitzvah.
Yes, Moshiach will come, and we await his coming daily as we are commanded, but we have responsibilities that we must fulfill in the meantime.
The Beit HaMikdash/Temple is not some elusive pipe dream of the future or the stuff of ancient Jewish history, but the Temple is for NOW; for TODAY in our times. We cannot just sit back and wait for Moshiach to come and fix everything. We live in a broken world that is a complete mess. But, at times it seems that we are used to this mess.
We go about our daily routines and, like a messy house, we just step over or walk around the broken pieces and the piles of clutter. “Not my job. Moshiach is coming.”
No again. It is your job. It is OUR job.
I hear many people say, “I can’t focus on the Temple during the entire year. It’s too much. I have a life. I have a job, kids, and responsibilities.” Well, the Temple is also your responsibility. It’s not all about YOU. It’s about the world. It’s about all of humanity that is caught in an endless cycle of violence and suffering. We all have a Divine responsibility to take care of the world. Yes, WE ARE our brother’s keeper.
Instead of shoving the dirt under the rug or tossing the clutter into an out-of-the-way closet until Moshiach comes to clean it up, let’s start cleaning up our own mess, shall we?
Many people have told me, “But I don’t feel that I’m on that level spiritually.” Relax, because that’s not one of the requirements for doing a required mitzvah.
From Times of Israel, here.
