This Shabbos is called שבת נחמו. It's the Shabbos after Tisha B'Av, and the haftorah starts with the words נחמו נחמו עמי יאמר אלקיכם, which means that the נביאים were saying to the Yidden that the Eibershter is saying, נחמו נחמו עמי, my nation should be comforted, they should be comforted. And the question that's obvious is, why does it say twice the word נחמו? So in the Midrash, in Yalkut Shimoni, it says this expression: לפי שכתוב שתי בכיות, since it says בנוגע the חורבן בית המקדש twice the word crying, it says בכו תבכה, which means for the בית ראשון and the בית שני, crying for the first בית המקדש and for the second בית המקדש, לכך נאמר נחמו נחמו עמי, so therefore also the נחמה, the comfort, has to be for both בתי מקדש. The question that obviously comes up from here: why would we need comfort for both בתי מקדש? Usually, when would we need two comforts? Comfort comes when somebody, something happened, a tragedy to a person, so you comfort him. Then chas v'shalom another tragedy happens, you comfort him again. And if two things happen one after another, and when you come to comfort him for both of them, you will comfort him a double comfort, for this and for that. But we're talking here about a case where the first בית המקדש had destroyed, and they got back the second בית המקדש. The second בית המקדש is destroyed, and the comfort is that we'll have the third בית המקדש. So we'll only need one comfort, that the third בית המקדש will be the בית המקדש that we need, so that is one comfort which takes care of both. So why do we need a double comfort because it happened twice? It's like somebody who lost something, and then he found it, and then he lost it again. You have to comfort him twice? You only comfort him once, because really, the bottom line, he lost it once. Ela mai, he lost it and found it and lost it again, but you don't need a double comfort.

So the Rebbe explains that the reason why we need a double comfort for both is because normally we assume that the בית ראשון, the first בית המקדש, was greater than the second בית המקדש. We know that Gemara says that the second בית המקדש, there were missing five major inyanim, including the ארון, which is the מקום of the שכינה, was missing in the second בית המקדש. So obviously the second בית המקדש is lower than the first. But on the other hand, the pasuk says in Chagai: גדול יהיה כבוד הבית הזה האחרון מן הראשון, that this בית, this Beit HaMikdash, the second one, will be greater than the first. That's what the Gemara says in Bava Batra. True, the Zohar uses this pasuk for the third Beit HaMikdash, but the Gemara in Bava Batra, דף ג', says that this goes on the second Beit HaMikdash, will be greater than the first. And the Gemara, there are two opinions, which both of them are true: one means that it is going to be bigger in size, in space, and it was a bigger building; and one says in years: the first one stood for 410 years, the second one stood for 420 years, so it's בשנים, one says בבנין, one says בשנים. So we see there is a maalah in the second Beit HaMikdash. And this is the pshat: each one has a maalah. It's not the pshat when the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, they got back the second Beit HaMikdash, and mimela it's the same as the first. They got back the second, which doesn't have the same maalot as the first, but it has its own maalah, which means each one of the two has a maalah that the other one doesn't have. And just bekitzur, what is the difference? The first one has the maalah of the level of Shechinah. The level of Shechinah, how the Shechinah came down to the Beit HaMikdash, was more in the first than in the second. The second didn't have the aron, etc., etc. On the other hand, the second one has a maalah that the Beit HaMikdash was built from the avodah, as it says in חסידות, מלמטה למעלה. It came from within the Yidden. That means the first Beit HaMikdash was מלמעלה למטה, the first Beit HaMikdash came from the Yidden the way the Eibershter gave them the koach, and the second one came from the Yidden themselves.

Let's put it in other words: the first one was built by tzadikim. The time of Shlomo HaMelech, Yidden were all on the level of tzadikim, they built the Beit HaMikdash. The second one was built by baalei teshuvah, because the reason the בית המקדש was destroyed because they did aveirot. If they wouldn't have done teshuvah, there would be no reason to give them back the בית המקדש. So when they got the second בית המקדש, it's because they were baalei teshuvah. The difference between a tzaddik and baal teshuvah is a tzaddik does everything that Hashem said, mainly מלמעלה למטה. Vadai, he does it, but still it's a koach he got and he does it. A baal teshuvah was a person who went away, and nevertheless came back, so that's something that comes from within him. So the first בית המקדש, the kedushah, the Shechinah that came down is similar to the level of a tzaddik, which means it's a kedushah that came down, as we call it in חסידות, מלמעלה למטה. The kedushah came down, the Shechinah came down, and that's it. The second one was a lower level of Shechinah, a lower level level of kedushah, but מצד דלמטה, מצד די וועלט, it penetrated into the world more than the one before, and that's why it lasted longer. Because if it comes מלמעלה למטה, as long as the גילוי מלמעלה is there, it's there. But when that goes away for whatever reason, then you don't have it. But when it comes מלמטה למעלה, that comes from the person himself, from down here, so then it penetrates more, and the bottom, the hamatah, is absorbed with the kedushah that is there, and it stays for longer. And that's why the second בית המקדש, in which way was it greater? More in time and more in space. That's the hamatah. The world is time and space, because it came from the building of the hamatah. Also, it was because Koresh, who was even a goy, pushed for it and helped for it. That's all how די וועלט itself was doing something for bringing down the Shechinah, while on the first בית המקדש you didn't have it. So basically, the first בית המקדש has a maalah in the level of the Shechinah, and the second בית המקדש has the maalah how much it penetrated into the gashmiyut, into די וועלט. And each one has its own maalah.

But the third בית המקדש will be built, it'll have both maalot. It'll be the highest level of Shechinah, even higher than the first Beit HaMikdash, and it will penetrate into di velt, and therefore in the world it'll stay longer, which means it'll stay forever. The second one stayed longer, but it wasn't forever yet. But the third Beit HaMikdash will be forever, because it'll have the maalah of מלמטה למעלה. And that's the peshat, נחמו נחמו עמי, a double nechamah for the first Beit HaMikdash and the second, because each one has a maalah, and the third Beit HaMikdash will have both maalot, and that's what we say in the haftarah of Shabbat Nachamu, that we're expecting and we're asking the Aibershter to do it, like the Aibershter said, נחמו נחמו עמי, he'll give us the third Beit HaMikdash, which will have the double nechamah, it'll have the maalah of the first and the maalah of the second.