Rebuilding the Temple

The Jerusalem Talmud states: “If the Holy Temple is not rebuilt in your lifetime, it’s as though it were destroyed in your lifetime.” The commentaries learn from this that the Temple’s destruction is an ongoing event.

On Tisha B’Av, we do not mourn events that occurred 1,900 years ago. . . . The destruction of the Temple takes place every single day—and a Jew must cry out for Redemption as if he has witnessed that destruction today.

A person watching the Temple going up in flames at this very moment—even one with a heart of stone—would do everything in his power to stop it.

The more a Jew increases in the joy of Torah and mitzvos, the more that joy will break down the last vestiges of exile, and reveal G-dliness within the exile itself. And when we reveal G-d’s unity within the exile itself, then “golah—exile” itself transforms into “geulah—redemption.”