Since we have a pretty long time for this discussion, therefore, I think we should break it up into some parts. Maybe that'll make it, first of all, more interesting, because constantly to be on the same subject for two and a half hours, I don't know if I would be able to take it, I don't know if you would be able to take it. But the truth is there are a few parts here. First of all, there is the halachadik part of the Beit Hamikdash, which means the laws of the Beit Hamikdash as they are written in the Rambam taken from the Mishnayot, taken mainly from the Mishnah itself. And the Rambam has his own opinion based on the Mishnah obviously, but he has his opinion on what the Beit Hamikdash looked like. Not too many differences between others, but there are a few differences between the Rambam's opinion and the opinion of Rashi and other מפרשים. So, we have the Rambam, who has the Hilchot Beit Habechirah, the laws of the Beit Hamikdash, so that is one part of this. Then we have another part and that is the deeper meaning, we could say the concept of the Beit Hamikdash, which is the פנימיות, as we could say, the kabbalistic explanation in what the meaning of the Beit Hamikdash is or the explanation of the Chassidut, according to Chassidut, what the meaning of the Beit Hamikdash is. Then we have another part which is the part of korbanot. As we will see soon, the purpose of the building of the Beit Hamikdash was in order to bring the korbanot, the sacrifices. And that is a subject in itself. The truth is that in Hilchot Beit Habechirah the laws of the Beit Hamikdash, the Rambam doesn't even touch upon the laws of the korbanot. We are also not going to touch upon the laws of the korbanot, but we're going to discuss the inner meaning of what the korbanot are, because after all, the purpose of the Beit Hamikdash is for the korbanot, at least according to the Rambam, as we will see soon. So we have to discuss since this is the purpose, what is the idea of korbanot? And then there's another part to all this, and this is the idea of the three weeks. That the reason we're learning these halachot and we're discussing them is because we are now in the three weeks. Especially that we are now not only in the three weeks, but we are now also in the תקופה, the period which is called the Nine Days. So we have to understand a little bit, what is the meaning of the three weeks? What is the meaning of the Nine Days? And what is bichlal the meaning of Tisha B'Av and the meaning of the חורבן בית המקדש. Just like we're discussing the Beit Hamikdash itself, the building of the Beit Hamikdash, we also have to understand the meaning of the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash. Because there, too, there are two ways to look at it, and there is the simple way, and then there is the deeper explanation in what the meaning of the חורבן בית המקדש is, and we'll go into that, too. So, as it seems like we're going to have here three or four subjects: one will be the Beit Hamikdash itself, the more technical part of the Beit Hamikdash, the halachot; then we will have the kabbalistic or Chassidut interpretation of what the meaning of the Beit Hamikdash is; then we're going to have the interpretation of what korbanot are; and then we're going to have the concept of the three weeks and the Nine Days. The truth is that we are not only in the three weeks and in the Nine Days, today starts another period, because as we all know, that the three weeks are divided into different periods, and as the time passes, it gets, let's say, worse and worse, which means the strictness of the morning gets worse and worse. Now, the general period is called the three weeks, or the other name for it, bein hametzarim. The expression bein hametzarim is taken from Megillat Eicha, where he refers to it, השיגוה בין המצרים, and that's why it's called bein hametzarim. It starts from Shivah Asar b'Tamuz, and then finishes off on Tishah b'Av. Shivah Asar b'Tamuz, we have to fast, and on Tishah b'Av we fast. The reason we start on Shivah Asar b'Tamuz is because that's when they actually broke through the wall of Yerushalayim. It starts really earlier, Asarah b'Tevet, but it was not that year, a year or three years before, I believe it's two, I don't remember exactly. Asarah b'Tevet that's when they surrounded, they besieged Yerushalayim, and that's why we fast then, too. And in one way that is the strictest of all, because that is the beginning of all the tzarot. If they wouldn't have besieged Yerushalayim, then we wouldn't have a Shivah Asar b'Tamuz, we wouldn't have a Tishah b'Av or a חורבן בית המקדש. So it started then, and that's why Asarah b'Tevet is very, very strict. As the halachah is according, at least according to the Avudraham, he says, that if it would have been possible that Asarah b'Tevet would come out on Shabbos, we would have to fast Asarah b'Tevet on Shabbos. It just can't, according to the calculations of the calendar, Asarah b'Tevet can never come out on Shabbos. It could come on a Friday, and normally when the fast day is on Friday, we don't fast on Friday, but Asarah b'Tevet we do. But the Avudraham says even more, if it would come on a Shabbos we would have to fast on Shabbos because the pasuk says, בעצם היום הזה, in the essence of the day, they besieged Yerushalayim, and that expression בעצם היום הזה, it's that on Yom Kippur. Because בעצם היום הזה תענו את נפשותיכם, the pasuk says that we should fast on this day, and it says בעצם היום הזה. And since it says the same expression, so the dinim of Yom Kippur apply to Asarah b'Tevet, too, and just like Yom Kippur, even if it comes out on Shabbos we fast, Asarah b'Tevet we would also have to fast Tishah b'Av would come on a Shabbos, we wouldn't fast. As we do, it does come out on Shabbos many times, and we don't fast. But עשרה בטבת we would have to fast. That's the beginning. But nevertheless, it is the beginning, but that is just a beginning. Later on, there was a period of three weeks which started on שבעה עשר בתמוז and finished off on תשעה באב. Three weeks is a cheshbon of 21 days. The navi, Yirmiyahu, was hinted by Hashem that this will take three weeks, 21 days, because in one of the nevuot, one of the prophecies, as we say in one of the haftarot also, in the first haftarah of the three weeks, which was the Haftarah this year of פרשת פינחס, sometimes it's פרשת מטות, but it's the haftarah after the first Shabbos after שבעה עשר בתמוז. So one of the things it says there is that Hashem said to Yirmiyahu, \"What do you see?\" He showed him something, and he says, \"Well, I see מקל שקד. I see a stick of almonds.\" And he said Hashem said to him that this is a hint that this the tzarah, the problem that you're going to have, will last as long as it takes for almonds to grow. And it takes 21 days for almonds to grow, and that was a remez to him that it'll take 21 days. So it started on שבעה עשר בתמוז, finished off on תשעה באב. Now during that period, from שבעה עשר בתמוז starts the three weeks, which is one level, and that's how we got really into this. Four days, it depends what day of the week תשעה באב is, but whatever it is, from after שבת חזון, which is the Shabbos before תשעה באב, till תשעה באב is called the week, shavua, or שבת שחל בו תשעה באב, the week that תשעה באב comes out. That is even stricter than the previous days of the nine days. Within that itself, from ז' אב, from the seventh day of אב, is even stricter. This year happens to be that both are together. The week of תשעה באב starts today, and today is the seventh day of אב. But even if it wouldn't be that way, ז' אב would be another level, because that is the day when the goyim actually entered into the בית המקדש. They surrounded it, they surrounded it in עשרה בטבת, then they broke through the wall on שבעה עשר בתמוז, but they entered into the בית המקדש on ז' אב. And what they did there we could imagine. They had all kinds of parties there and they brought in avodah zarah and everything, but they did not put it on fire till Tisha B'Av, the ninth day of Av. And even that, they put it on fire towards the evening of Tisha B'Av. The reason we fast on Tisha B'Av because it started on Tisha B'Av, but still, as we all know, that even the day after Tisha B'Av, this Asarah b'Av, till noon, you're still not allowed to do anything that you weren't allowed to do during the nine days. You're not allowed to drink wine or not allowed to eat meat, you're not allowed to wash, wash clothes, you're not allowed to wear new clothes. Everything that applied to the nine days applies even on Asarah b'Av till chatzot, because the fire burned through the 10th day of Av. Today is the seventh day of Av, so today we start almost the last period, almost, because the worst period is on Tisha B'Av itself, or Erev, really the truth is Erev Tisha B'Av is even worse than from ז' Av, and Tisha B'Av itself is the worst. But still, we are from the stricter times of the three weeks. So therefore, it's very appropriate that this learning of הלכות בית הבחירה came out on today, on ז' Av, because as we all understand that since we mourn the חורבן בית המקדש, we have to learn about the building of the בית המקדש. Now just to give a little introduction before we get actually to the הלכות, to the learning of the בית המקדש, you have probably read the flyer, I thought I had one with me. Well, anyway, I brought one with me, I don't remember where it is, whatever, it makes, isn't so important. Flyer, that flyer, and you notice a quote there from the Midrash, I don't know if you see if it says here from where it is, but anyway, this is taken from Midrash Tanchuma. And this Midrash is really the source of the purpose of learning the הלכות בית הבחירה. It would seem that the purpose is, well, since we mourn the destruction of the בית המקדש, it is the appropriate time to study about the בית המקדש. It makes, only makes sense. But the truth is it is more than that. In this Tanchuma it says that Hashem spoke to Yechezkel. Yechezkel was a navi. And Hashem had commanded him and told him all the laws of the בית המקדש, of how the בית המקדש has to be built, what it has to look like. The truth is, what he told him was concerning the third בית המקדש, because the second בית המקדש, which looked something like this, was not built like the dimensions or the structure as it was told to Yechezkel, since it was told to him about the third בית המקדש. But nevertheless, it was before the building of the second yet, and Hashem told him what to do concerning the בית המקדש. And the Midrash says that Yechezkel, this Midrash I've quoted here says that Yechezkel Hanavi, the prophet Yechezkel, asked Hashem and said to Him, \"Why do You tell me now the laws of the Beis Hamikdash, and You want me to come to the Jews and teach them the laws of the Beis Hamikdash, when we're still in galus? We can't build it anyway now, so what is the use? Wait till You take us back to Eretz Yisrael, then You will tell me or tell the navi who will be then, and he will teach it Because then it'll be important for the building, we will have to know how to build. And Hashem said to Yechezkel, what do you think? That because we are in galus, the Jews are in galus, the building of the Beis Hamikdash should be בטל? The בנין ביתי בטל? We shouldn't build the Beis Hamikdash because you are in galus? No, he says, you should continue learning the Beis Hamikdash, the laws of the Beis Hamikdash, and by learning the laws of the Beis Hamikdash, it's as if you actually build it. So what is really the Midrash saying? What does Hashem say? That by learning the laws of the Beis Hamikdash, it's actually as if we are building the Beis Hamikdash. And it's not just the peshat, and I'll go a little bit into the details, it doesn't doesn't just mean that when we learn about it, it is a zecher. A lot of things that we do, זכר למקדש, many things throughout the year that we do which is a zecher, to remind us of the way things were done at the time of the Beis Hamikdash. We don't need any more, anything better than Pesach, by the Seder. We have a zecher to that, to the קרבן פסח, we have a zecher to the קרבן חגיגה, we do many things during the year which is a zecher to the way it was in the time of the Beis Hamikdash. So it would seem that when we learn about the Beis Hamikdash, it reminds us of the Beis Hamikdash, and it's a good zecher. But that's not what Hashem said, the way it says in the Midrash. Hashem said that when you learn the laws of the Beis Hamikdash, it is as if you're actually building the Beis Hamikdash, which means, as we will learn soon, there is actually a mitzvah to build the Beis Hamikdash. One of the 613 commandments is to build the Beis Hamikdash. Just like there is a commandment to put on tefillin every day, there is a commandment to keep Shabbos, to keep Yom Tov, to eat matzah on Pesach, there is a commandment to build the Beit Hamikdash. There are certain conditions of when this commandment could be fulfilled. So in the actual building, we cannot do it now, but nevertheless, it seems from this Midrash, that by us learning the laws of the Beit Hamikdash, we are actually fulfilling the mitzvah of building the Beit Hamikdash, even though we don't bring it down to action, we don't build it, but from the Midrash it seems that this is part of it. An example to it: where do we find that by doing one part of something and not actually doing the whole thing, still we fulfill the mitzvah? Give you the best example. When a person does a sin, chas v'shalom does an aveirah, if he does it b'shogeg, unintentionally, in order for Hashem to forgive him, he had to bring a korban chatat, a special sacrifice. And that was only in the time of the Beit Hamikdash. Nowadays, if a person does an aveirah b'shogeg, and he does teshuvah, he can't bring a sacrifice. Does that mean that he is not forgiven a hundred percent? That is not true. Now that we don't have the Beit Hamikdash, Hashem says, well, you will be forgiven even if you don't actually bring the korban. By just doing the part you are able to do now, Hashem forgives you as if you had brought the korban. In the time of the Beit Hamikdash, if a person would have not brought the korban, just done teshuvah and everything, he still would have been missing in the kaparah, Hashem didn't forgive a hundred percent. Now that we don't have the Beit Hamikdash, and we don't have the korban, so we do as much as we can, and Hashem says I forgive you. There is a better example. We all know that in order to convert, become a ger, a גיור כהלכה, על פי הלכה, we all know there are three things that you have to do: you have to first of all קבלת מצות, you have to accept upon yourself to to do all the mitzvot, you have to go through milah, if it's a male, you have to go through milah, circumcision, and the third thing is tevila, you have to go to the mikveh. Most people don't even know, unless a learned person, that there is really something else you're supposed to do in order to become a ger, and that is there is a special korban that you must bring. Because all the laws of giyur, all the laws of conversion are learned out from the Jews when they converted. All the Jews by Matan Torah, when, as we can say, they all were similar to converts, and we look through what happened there in the Torah, the chachamim say we learn it out from there. They had to accept the Torah, they said נעשה ונשמע, they had to go to the mikveh because it says in Chumash that before Matan Torah, Hashem told them all to go to the mikvah. They had to have circumcision because when they left Mitzrayim, which was the beginning of Matan Torah, they went through circumcision. Then there was korbanot that they brought before Matan Torah. So a convert, the Rambam פסקנ'ט, and that's the din that the Rambam and the, that a convert in order to become a Jew has to do all four things. Nowadays that we don't have a korban, will we say that this goy who converts and does the three which are possible, and doesn't bring the korban, that he is not a complete Jew? That is not so. When Mashiach will come, all the converts will have to bring korbanot, that is true, but it doesn't mean that till Mashiach comes, until the Beit HaMikdash is built, there's anything missing in The level of being a Jew of these converts. They are Jews a hundred percent as other Jews who are born from Jewish parents, and the truth is, in one way they have something over other Jews. As the famous letter that the Rambam wrote to Rabbeinu Ovadiah HaGer, there was a great chacham in the time of the Rambam, Rabbeinu Ovadiah HaGer. And this Rabbeinu Ovadiah wrote a letter to the Rambam saying to him that he feels very bad whenever he remembers that he is a ger, it makes him feel bad. And he writes what bothers him, because, \"I know other Jews have yichus. They have, they are descendants from Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. But I don't have yichus because my parents were goyim. So I feel bad.\" So the Rambam writes to him, \"You feel bad about that? You don't have yichus, you think? That other Jews, they have their yichus to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. You,\" he says, \"have יחוס למי שאמר והיה העולם, to Hashem who created the world.\" So there is even more in a ger. And this the Rambam wrote to Rabbeinu Ovadiah HaGer in his time when there was no korban. So this Rabbeinu Ovadiah HaGer didn't bring a korban either. But nevertheless, he was a Jew as much as any other Jew, even though there was no korban. Why? Because now that we don't have korbanot, the part that you're able to do, you do, and then you have it fulfilled. This all leads us back to the Beit HaMikdash. In the building of the Beit HaMikdash, there are two parts. Just like in any building, when you go to build a building, what would be considered the building? How, which part would you, would we consider that we start building? If you wanted to take it very narrow, we would say, well, when you actually start digging, when you start putting the bricks on, that's when you start building. But before that, you didn't build. But if you look at the concept of building in a much broader way, building starts from when you hire the contractor, and he sits down to make the blueprints, and he starts working on the blueprints, and studying the blueprints, that's when you started building, because this is the process of building. First you make blueprints, then you look at the blueprints, and you study it, and you're careful with it. Then, when you're all finished with the blueprints, then comes the second stage: the stage of actually building. Nowadays, we cannot do the second stage because Hashem gave us conditions when that could be done. Nowadays it can't be done. The first stage can be done now too. To study the blueprints, we could do that now too, there is no, nothing stopping us. So it comes out that now we can do, actually, one stage of building the Beit HaMikdash. So when we study the laws of the בית המקדש, whether it are the laws, the halacha of it, or we're studying about the inner meaning of the בית המקדש, what we're studying about the בית המקדש, which really means we are studying the blueprints of the בית המקדש, this is part of the building of the בית המקדש. By doing that, we fulfill the mitzvah of building the בית המקדש. Ay, we have to stop, after we finish with the blueprints we can't con- continue to the second stage, that doesn't mean that the first stage is not there. It doesn't mean that we don't have the mitzvah. Just like this ger, who cannot continue to bring the korban, but he does whatever he is able to do, what the Torah allows him to do, and he becomes a complete hundred percent ger. So we fulfill the mitzvah of building the בית המקדש. Now, you imagine that, that when we study the laws of the בית המקדש, it is not only that we know about the בית המקדש, it's not only that we're making a zecher to the בית המקדש, but this actually means that we are fulfilling the mitzvah of building the בית המקדש. Now, when is the most appropriate time to do this mitzvah? This mitzvah is not a mitzvah which has a time limit. There are certain mitzvot that you do certain times of the year. Matzah you eat on Pesach, shofar you blow on Rosh Hashanah. The mitzvah of building the בית המקדש has no time limit. Any time of the year you must build, except Shabbos and Yom Tov you're not allowed to build, and except on, at night you wouldn't, didn't have to build. On the other hand, learning the blueprints of the building of the בית המקדש you could do on Shabbos and Yom Tov also. After all, this is part of Torah, so you could study that too. So really, building the בית המקדש you could do all year round. But if we wanted to pick an appropriate time, when is it the best for us to involve ourselves in building the בית המקדש? Imagine, let's just think, imagine if Mashiach is here, halavai he is here now, maybe he'll come soon this afternoon, and he makes an announcement, \"Who wants to come to help build?\" Who wouldn't run? I mean, we'd all take a plane or sit on the eagles or whatever way it'll be, and we'll run. Who won't want to help? The halacha, the Rambam paskent, that every person is obligated to donate to the building of the בית המקדש, and is obligated to help physically in the building of the בית המקדש. Now, if so, imagine if Mashiach is here and says, \"Please come help me, you'll fulfill the mitzvah of building the בית המקדש.\" This is something we've been waiting for two thousand years, we'd all run. Here we have an opportunity without running to Jerusalem, sitting here and building the Beis Hamikdash, we're fulfilling the mitzvah. So this is a very important thing. When is the appropriate time to build? When we think about the churban. That's when we say, \"Ah, the Beis Hamikdash is destroyed, let's start building it.\" So here today on the day of Av, we're starting to build the Beis Hamikdash. We're doing part of building the Beis Hamikdash. The truth is we have to do this all year round, but like a lot of things that you do all year round, but nevertheless there is a certain time in the year when this is the main stress and from there it goes to all year. For instance, there is a mitzvah of מזכיר יציאת מצרים, every day of the year. During the day and the night we have to mention that we went out of Mitzrayim. It's a constant mitzvah, every day, in the morning and the evening. Nevertheless, we know that there is a special mitzvah on Pesach night לספר ביציאת מצרים, to tell the miracles and speak about יציאת מצרים. What is the difference? If every night and every day there is a mitzvah, so what do we mean there's a special mitzvah Pesach to speak about יציאת מצרים? And the answer is very simple: Pesach, one of the answers, there are many answers on this question, but one of the answers is, on Pesach the mitzvah is to elaborate. And with the Rambam it seems like that, he says you have to talk about the nissim and the niflaot, the miracles and all the things that happened, all the different details. All year round, we don't have to do that. If we just mention that we were in Mitzrayim and we left, that is enough and we fulfill the mitzvah. So what it really means is that once a year Hashem gave us a time and he says, \"This is the time when you elaborate on it and it's the most the point to stress.\" All year round you, as an extension of this one day, every day you must mention it. The same is with everything. Matan Torah. Every day Hashem gives us the Torah, there's no question about that. The best proof is that in the bracha that we say, we say, \"ברוך אתה השם נותן התורה.\" We don't say, \"נתן התורה,\" He gave us the Torah, we say, \"נותן התורה,\" He gives us the Torah. So there is Matan Torah every day. So what is the whole big tzimmes, as we say, we make from Shavuos? Shavuos is זמן מתן תורתנו, שבועות is the day of Matan Torah. And we say every year on Shavuos Hashem again gives us the Torah, because everything that happened the first time happens again every year. Like the Arizal says on \"והימים האלה נזכרים ונעשים,\" it says by Purim that these days are mentioned and done, so he says, not only are they mentioned every year, but they are done. Every year when it comes Purim, the same thing that happened on Purim in the spiritual sense happens again. And the same thing with מתן תורה. So what do we mean by that when every day really we have מתן תורה? The answer is, there's one day which is specifically set aside, this is מתן תורה. From that we have every day. And the same thing with this. Every day we have a mitzvah of building the בית המקדש, and in our case, which we can't build it with our hands physically, it is the mitzvah of studying the בית המקדש. But still, once a year, really not once, a certain period of the year, which is the Three Weeks, and mainly especially the Nine Days, especially the last few days before Tisha B'Av, certainly we have to study about the building of the בית המקדש. And by doing that, we're actually building the בית המקדש, and then when Mashiach will come and we will know the blueprints, it'll be much easier for us to build. And let's look at it very practically. We study all the laws, when Mashiach will come, those, and everyone will be asked to help, those people who studied הלכות בית הבחירה will be in the first line. They won't have to waste time to study and know what to do, they already have the blueprint, they already studied the blueprint, so we'll run to Jerusalem and we'll right away get to work. We'll start building, because we know exactly what we have to do. We know what's supposed to be here, what's supposed to be there, we'll be able to work. But if somebody doesn't, Mashiach will first say, \"Well, sit down, go to a shiur, get a class on הלכות בית הבחירה, and then we'll see, we'll talk to you about building the בית המקדש.\" This could lead us into starting to study. We're not going to study the laws inside, but we're going to go through some of the laws in הלכות בית הבחירה, but this concept that I'm trying to use here as an introduction really leads us to the beginning of הלכות בית הבחירה. הלכות בית הבחירה in the Rambam, the laws of the בית המקדש, which he calls בית הבחירה, בית הבחירה means the chosen house, and it is a chosen house because the pasuk says, \"והיה המקום אשר יבחר השם,\" the place that Hashem will choose, and that's why the בית המקדש is called the בית הבחירה. So in the laws of בית הבחירה the Rambam has eight perakim, eight chapters. We will go through some of the chapters, not inside and not through all the halachot, we'll try to go through each one and I'll give a little synopsis of what the Rambam talks about. Mainly, on each perek we're going to stop at a certain halachah and try to elaborate, more than what the Rambam actually says, we'll try to elaborate a little bit on it. But just to start off with the first words. Now, the first words of the Rambam seem to be saying what I've been saying till now, that by learning the laws it is not only that we're remembering the בית המקדש, but we're actually doing something more, we're actually doing the mitzvah of building the בית המקדש. Because, as the Rambam has his order and his style, that before he starts a sefer, he quotes a pasuk. Now, some people think that this pasuk that he quotes always is just because the Rambam was a very great mesudar, everything worked is very orderly, and everything was made very nice and fancy, so it is only proper, you know, first to start with a pasuk, and then you say, and then in many prints it even starts always with בשם השם קל עולם... which is really like ברוך ה׳, and everything is in fine in order, so he quotes a pasuk to make it look nicer. The truth is, the Rambam, everything he writes is meduyak, is exact. Everything has meaning, not just to be fancy, plus, there is one more rule we have to remember, and this will be important, I believe, later on, we'll see how far we'll get with this inyan, that the Rambam gave a a rule in the beginning. The Rambam has an introduction to his whole sefer, not only Beis Habechirah, to all the laws he writes. So, in his introduction, he writes that you should know that the reason the purpose of this sefer is that this sefer is halachot halachot. It's halachot, it's laws. There are many sefarim that deal with history. There are many sefarim that deal with philosophical interpretations, many sefarim deal with reasonings and explanations. Then there are sefarim that deal with halacha, but the Rambam said that his sefer is a sefer of halachot, laws. And therefore, every single word, and I'm repeating it again, every single word in the Rambam has to deal with halacha. Even though sometimes, not many, I mean it's many, but compared to all the other halachot it's not many, we do find in the Rambam where he brings a little story, brings a learning from a pasuk, he brings a mussar vort. The truth is, the mefarshim always look into this and try to figure out how these words are also a halacha. So, when the Rambam quotes a pasuk in the beginning of a sefer, because he wants to tell us a halacha with that pasuk. Now, in this sefer, beginning right before Hilchot Beis Habechirah, the Rambam quotes a pasuk. And the the pasuk is שאלו שלום ירושלים ישליו אהביך, which means, \"Ask for the peace of Yerushalayim, and your beloved should have shalvah, should have peace,\" etcetera. It's a very nice pasuk, fits to the Beis Habechirah, because he's starting to talk about Yerushalayim, שאלו שלום ירושלים. But really, the Rambam wants to tell us a halacha here. Because the Rambam wants to tell us that learning these halachot really is more than just remembering what happened in the years ago there was a Beit Hamikdash, but this is a mitzvah in itself. The pasuk says שאלו שלום ירושלים, ask for the peace of Yerushalayim, investigate, look into what happened in Yerushalayim. It's an obligation, the pasuk quotes as an obligation. And the Rambam specifically quotes this pasuk, not another pasuk. The Gemara in other places quotes a pasuk that teaches us that you have to make a zecher for the Beit Hamikdash. The Gemara brings a pasuk where it says concerning Yerushalayim and the Beit Hamikdash, it says דורש אין לה, that the Navi is complaining why there is no דורש, why no one is investigating in what happens to Yerushalayim. So, the Gemara says מכאן שצריכה דרישה, from here we see that you have to investigate, you have to. And mikan the Gemara says, from here we learn out that you have to make a zecher, you have to remember what happened. The Rambam could have quoted that pasuk here. He doesn't, cuz then all it would mean is that you have to remember. The Rambam quotes a pasuk where it says שאלו שלום, it's an obligation, שאלו שלום ירושלים, ask for, look into it, find out what happened in Yerushalayim, study about what happened in Yerushalayim. And it doesn't only mean Yerushalayim, it means the Beit Hamikdash. And sometimes the word Yerushalayim means the Mikdash. Sometimes when it says Mikdash it means Yerushalayim, sometimes opposite, but it definitely means the Beit Hamikdash also. So, the Rambam is telling us that before you start learning Beis Habechirah you should know that by doing that you're actually fulfilling the mitzvah, by learning it you are obligated to learn and you fulfill the mitzvah of learning of building the בית המקדש.

And now we will get more to the point of what the Rambam actually says in the laws of Beis Habechirah. He starts all the laws of the בית המקדש by saying that there is a mitzvat aseh, there is a positive commandment, and I'm going to quote the lashon of the Rambam, מצות עשה לעשות בית לה׳, there is a positive mitzvah to make a house for ה׳, מוכן, to be ready, to be prepared, להיות מקריבים בו הקרבנות, that they should be able to sacrifice the korbanot there, וחוגגין אליו שלש פעמים בשנה, and we should have the place where we're able to go up three times a year on Yom Tov. Because we all know that there is a mitzvah of aliyah laregel, on Yom Tov, which is Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot, there was a mitzvah for every Jew to go up to Yerushalayim, to the בית המקדש. So, that's what the din is, that you have to build a house for Hashem, prepared to bring korbanot and ready that this should be the place where the Jews should go up. And he quotes the pasuk where it's taken from, it says ועשו לי מקדש. When ה׳ spoke to Moshe to make the Mishkan in the desert yet, He said to him ועשו לי מקדש, \"Make for me a מקדש.\" And the Rambam uses at least here, this pasuk as the source that we have to build a בית המקדש. Other places in Hilchot Melachim the Rambam uses another pasuk, and the commentaries discuss this, why the Rambam sometimes uses one pasuk as the source, other places another pasuk, we will not go into that, that will be too complicated. But at least he quotes a pasuk where we see that there is a mitzvah to build a בית המקדש. And then the Rambam goes through the details of a little history about the בית המקדש. Now as I said before, there is no history in the Rambam, so obviously this history is also important for laws of the Beit Hamikdash, but again, we can't go through every single halachah and explain it in detail. But the history is as follows: Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu, \"Make for me a Mikdash.\" So Moshe Rabbeinu in the desert made a Mishkan. Now the Mishkan was only a temporary dwelling for Hashem. It wasn't a building. It was a building that was portable. You could put it together and take it apart, and that's actually what they did. When they would travel, was put together, was folded, and then when they would stop, they would put it up. And when they would start again, they would fold it again. Certain places they stayed for a long time, one place they stayed for 19 years, I believe, was up for 19 years. Some places they stayed for a short while, it was up for a short while. It was only a temporary place. And the pasuk says actually, דהלך באהל, I mean was going, Hashem says, \"I lived in a tent.\" A tent is when you're on the road, you live in a tent. Hashem said, \"I lived in a tent, that was the Mishkan.\" This lasted throughout the time the Jews were in the desert, and this is about 40 years. Really, it's less than 40 years, about 39 years, because they put up the Mishkan, they put it up on Rosh Chodesh Nisan, the year after they went out of Mitzrayim. And they entered Eretz Yisrael, also in Nisan, 39 years later, so the Mishkan stood 39 years. There are differences of opinion when Hashem commanded him to make the Mishkan, whether it was before the חטא העגל or after the חטא העגל. Was it before they sinned with the golden calf or afterwards? There are three opinions. The Zohar says, and this is interesting because only in the Zohar is brought this opinion, the Zohar says that Hashem had commanded Moshe before the חטא העגל yet to make the Mishkan. And the Mishkan was actually, not the that was put up already, not put up actually to be standing as a building, but all the things were made before the חטא העגל yet. The Jews were commanded to give the donations, and they gave the donations, and they started working before the עגל yet. You can imagine that's a very short while because the עגל was made 40 days after the Torah was given, and in between that time, already they managed to make the Mishkan. The Midrash says, and Rashi brings it down, that everything was after the עגל. The whole purpose, reason why they made the Mishkan, why Hashem wanted them to make a Mishkan, was because of the עגל. Since the Jews sinned with the עגל, then they did teshuvah, now Hashem wanted them to show them that He forgave them for the sin, so He said to them, \"Make a Mishkan.\" So He commanded them to make a Mishkan, and they actually worked on the Mishkan, everything was after the עגל. Then there's the opinion of the Ramban, and also in one place in the Zohar the opinion is that the commandment for the for the Mishkan was before the עגל, but actually the donations were given and the building was made after the עגל. But whatever it is, whenever it was made, it lasted for 40 years. Then the Jews entered Eretz Yisrael, they crossed the Yarden, they put up the same Mishkan, the same structure they put up in Gilgal, and that lasted for 14 years. Those are the 14 years that it took to conquer Eretz Yisrael and to settle Eretz Yisrael, divide and settle. So during those 14 years, they had the same Mishkan. After that, they built a structure in a city called Shilo, and in Shilo the Mishkan stood. It was a building, a building made of stone, as the Rambam says, but it had no roof. The roof was the same roof as the Mishkan. In the Mishkan the roof was יריעות. There were certain skins of animals that were put together, certain a certain material, and that was the roof of the Mishkan in Shilo. So the difference was it was a building, a structure of stone without a roof, but with the יריעות. That building lasted for 369 years. They had that Mishkan in Shilo. Then, when Eli got killed, when Eli died, it was at a time when they had a war with the Plishtim, and the Plishtim conquered, took away the Aron, took away the holy Ark, so then the Mishkan in Shilo was destroyed, and they moved to Nov. They were a place in Nov and Givon. Now exactly what the building looked like in Nov and Givon is not exactly clear, but whatever it is, it was similar to the building in Shilo. In Nov, it stood for 20 years, and in Givon it stood for 37 years. All together was 57 years. Then came the Mishkan the Beis Hamikdash on Har HaMoriah, on the Har HaBayis in Yerushalayim in the proper place. And then there were two Beit HaMikdash's as we know. The first one stood for 410 years, the second one stood for 420 years. There is the famous, famous remez, the famous hint for that is that the pasuk says that Hashem commanded Moshe Rabbeinu that you should light the menorah, and it says the oil should be כתית למאור, should be squeezed to light. Now the word כתית, which means squeezed, It says refers to the churban, because when the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, it was squeezed, the Jews were squeezed. Now, the word כתית is כ ת, י ת. So, it's a remez. כ ת is 420, י ת is 410. So, a remez for the two בתי מקדשים, two בתי מקדש, that one stood for 410 and one for 420. And the pasuk says, גדול יהיה כבוד הבית האחרון הזה מן הראשון. The pasuk says that the second one will be bigger than the first. And the second one, the Gemara says two opinions, but they're both true, that the second one was bigger בשנים ובבנין. In years, it stood 10 hun- 10 years more than the first, and it was a bigger structure. The first one was only 40 amot high, and the sec- and the second one was 100 amot high. So, it was a bigger a bigger structure physically, the second Beit HaMikdash. Right? Huh? Just for the people, an amah is How many feet? An amah, let's assume an average, an amah is a foot and a half. A foot and a half. There are different opinions. One opinion is an amah is two feet. One opinion is an amah is, you know, a foot and three quarters, but there's one opinion that amah is a foot and a half. That's the more accepted view. An amah is a foot and a half. It's not only important here, but it's also important for a lot of things. You know, tzitzit, a tallit katan that you wear must have an amah. Some people aren't aware of that, but it must be an amah. An amah this way, and an amah this way. Each line, excluding the neck. So from the end of the neck till the bottom of the tallit katan, has to be an amah and has to be an amah this way. Now, how much is an amah? So if you want to do the מצוה כתיקונה as you should, your tallit katan should be about two feet, it should be 24 inches. That's why many people are makpid to have a tallit katan. What size do you want when you go into the store? Give me a tallit, what size? 24. Some people are extra careful, want a 26. But 20 Some people take a 22. But 18 would be, so to speak, I would say the minimum. I don't know if to use the word minimum is proper, but something like that, it's 18 inches, because then it's it's an amah. But anyway, getting back to the point here. So, the second בית המקדש was 100 amot high, as you will see later on in the Rambam. This is the order of the the way the בית המקדש went. This is just the his- the history. After the בית המקדש was destroyed, about 1,900 and 20 years ago, how much it is already, something like that, so the third בית המקדש is going to be a בית המקדש נצחי, that's going to be an eternal בית המקדש. It'll never be destroyed, and it'll stay forever. Why don't we build one now? What? Why don't we build one now? There are certain I I maybe we'll get into that. There are certain conditions, laws, when you can build and when you can't. We don't have the power, we don't have We don't have the power, you have to have a navi. He's asking a question, why don't we build it now? One of the things that we have to do is we have to have a navi. A prophet has to come and say that the time has come to build it. We don't have a navi. Plus, we have to have the we have to know exactly where the mizbe'ach is. The mizbe'ach, the בית המקדש itself has a place, but if you go off a few inches here, a few inches there, it doesn't matter. The mizbe'ach, which here is, right? No, this here. The mizbe'ach, which is where the place of the korbanot, has to have an exact place. Now, we don't know where that is. Even at the time of the second בית המקדש, as the Rambam says, we'll see later on, that they had to have Oh, this is the mizbe'ach. Okay. So, what? That the mizbe'ach, the navi, a navi had to testify where the place of the mizbe'ach is. It says that ג׳ נביאים עלו עמהם מן הגולה, three prophets came when they built the second בית המקדש. And each one had to tell us, tell them a different din because they didn't know. One of the three, it was Chagai, Zecharia, Malachi, and one of the three said that this is the place of the mizbe'ach, and you cannot change it. That has to be, and we don't know where that is. Plus, there are a lot of more things, that we don't know the exact place of the בית המקדש either. We don't We're all tamei, and we don't know the kohanim. So many things that don't allow us to build the בית המקדש now. So, the best that we could do now in fulfilling the mitzvah of building the בית המקדש is what we're doing now, is studying about the laws of the בית המקדש, the structure of the בית המקדש. What is the purpose of the בית המקדש? And again, not as I'm going to go in a little later, so there's still time, into a more spiritual explanation of what the purpose of the בית המקדש is. But I'm point talking now about the halachic explanation. What is the technical explanation of the reason why Hashem wanted, what was the purpose, what did Hashem want with the building of the בית המקדש? So as we see here in the Rambam, the Rambam has his opinion very clearly. The Rambam says מצות עשה, what is the mitzvah? לעשות בית לה׳, to make a house to Hashem, for what purpose? He gives the purpose right away. מוכן להיות מקריבין בו קרבנות, to have a house that should be ready for korbanot. So really, the whole purpose is korbanot. Hashem wants we should bring korbanot to Him. But we have to have a house in order to bring korbanot. Afterwards, as the Rambam says, even if you don't have the house you still can bring korbanot, but first when you build it, it has to be a house, a place for korbanot. So according to the Rambam, the purpose of building the Beit HaMikdash is for korbanot. On the other hand, the Ramban, he said a different reason. He says the purpose of building the Beit HaMikdash is to have a place for the Shechinah, a place where Hashem should be able to dwell. In other words, the purpose is to have the Kodesh HaKodashim, the Holy of Holies, where the aron stood. That's what the Ramban says. And based on this argument, there are another argument. The Rambam has a sefer as we all know called Sefer HaMitzvot, the sefer where he numerates every single mitzvah for 613. The truth is there are many many more mitzvot than 613 mitzvot. There are only 613 which go into this grouping of 613, and there are many rules which mitzvah would be considered one of the 613, which would not be considered. So concerning the Beit HaMikdash, there we have to build different vessels in the Beit HaMikdash. And the main vessels as the Rambam says later, was to build a menorah, you have to build a shulchan, the special table that was inside, you have to build a mizbeach. Then there is also the aron that you have to put. Now, the Rambam says that when the Torah commands us to build the shulchan and the menorah and the the mizbeach, the Rambam says they are not considered as separate mitzvot. He doesn't count the mitzvah of building the shulchan as one mitzvah, the mitzvah of building the menorah as another mitzvah, even though the Torah says clearly, you should make a menorah. So we would think that this is a mitzvah in itself. But the Rambam says sure it's a mitzvah in itself, but the reason I don't count them is because they are all included in the one mitzvah of building the בית המקדש. But the Ramban says no, they are not included in building the בית המקדש. He also says that we don't count them as a separate mitzvah, but for a different reason. He says that the reason we don't count for instance the menorah, just give an example, in making a menorah as a mitzvah, he says is because there is a mitzvah that we have to do with the menorah. What was the purpose of the menorah? To light the menorah, and that is counted as a mitzvah. So he says the mitzvah of making the menorah is part of the mitzvah of lighting the menorah, because in order to light the menorah you must have a menorah. The mitzvah of making the מזבח is included in the mitzvah of bringing the korbanot. So that's why he doesn't count them. But the Rambam doesn't do that. The Rambam says that the reason he doesn't count it is for a different reason, because they are all included in the mitzvah of making a בית המקדש. Now, the reason these two reasons of the Rambam and the this argument, the two sides, the Rambam and the Ramban, follows their own their own shita, follows their own view. The Rambam, being that he holds that the whole purpose of the בית המקדש is for korbanot, and when we say korbanot, we don't only mean actually the sacrifices, we mean all the עבודות, all the service that you have to do there, which includes putting the bread on the table, putting lighting the menorah, bringing the korbanot. So the Rambam who holds that the purpose of the building is for these things, so that's why the Rambam says that the reason we can't count them as separate mitzvot because they are part of the building. If you don't have those kelim that allow you to do the service, there is no purpose in the building, because according to the Rambam, the whole purpose of the building is for the service. So he says that we can't count these vessels which are for the service because they are part of the building. But the Ramban, according to him, even if you wouldn't do the service in the Beit HaMikdash, you still have accomplished what the Beit HaMikdash is for. You didn't do what you're supposed to because you have to do the service, but still have accomplished the mitzvah of building the Beit HaMikdash because the purpose is the תכלית, the goal, is to have a place for Hashem. So as long as you have the ארון with a place for Hashem, you have fulfilled the mitzvah and the תכלית, the goal, of building the Beit HaMikdash. So therefore according to the Ramban, the building of the מזבח or the making of the מנורה is not included in making the house, in making the Beit HaMikdash. So he says that you can't say the reason we don't count them as a mitzvah is because they're part of the building, so he gives a different reason because each one is part of that mitzvah. Now get to another halachah here, which is also history, but nevertheless it's part of halachah, that during these periods that we said before that you had the משכן and then you had the the Shiloh, and then you have Nov veGivon, and then you have the Beit HaMikdash, that at certain points the Jews were allowed to make a במה. A במה really is a private individual מזבח, altar. People were allowed to in their backyard, make a מזבח wherever it was, in any place of Eretz Yisrael, and bring certain korbanot. Now, that was allowed only at certain times. It was only allowed when they were in Gilgal, it was only allowed when they were in Nov veGivon, or in the times in between. The time of Shiloh, when the משכן stood in Shiloh, it was not permissible to bring korbanot privately. After the Beit HaMikdash was built, from then on, it is never permissible to build to build a מזבח privately. And that's why even though we don't have a Beit HaMikdash now, we can't bring our own korbanot, because the the דין of a במה stopped right then when the Beit HaMikdash was built. Unless, with one exception: If a נביא would come, like Eliyahu HaNavi. The story of Eliyahu HaNavi that he wanted to prove to the נביאי הבעל, to the prophets of the Baal, that השם הוא אלקים, השם is God, and he proved it by bringing a korban, and he brought a korban on Har HaCarmel. Now the question is asked, he lived at the time when you were not allowed to bring a korban anywhere else but in the Mishkan, because in time of Shiloh. So how was he allowed to bring a korban on Har HaCarmel? Because he was a navi. And a navi has a right if he comes and says that Hashem told me that today we have to do a certain aveirah, only for today. If he says that Hashem came and said from now on a certain mitzvah doesn't apply, you don't listen to him, you know he's a נביא שקר, he's a false navi. But if he comes as a הוראת שעה, he says temporary Hashem said, and we know he's a navi from chazakah, from the previous experiences with him, we have to listen to him. So that's why he to bring korbanot to Hashem even now on a bamah. Goyim are allowed, because the din is that goyim are allowed to bring korbanot, not themselves, but if a goy sends a korban to the Beit HaMikdash that it should be brought to Hashem on his name, the goyim are allowed to do it. Not only for the Beit HaMikdash, now even goyim are allowed to make a bamah. And it says that the Jews are even allowed to tell them what to do, but not allowed to help them, because we have an issur nowadays that we're not allowed to bring, and that is called שחוטי חוץ. To shecht the korban outside of the Beit HaMikdash is a lav. But a goy is allowed. So please don't publicize it to the goyim, because we don't want them to start doing this. Anyway, getting back to the point. So

we're still in the middle of the first perek. The Rambam says there is a mitzvah to build the בית המקדש. What is the main structure of the בית המקדש? So the Rambam goes and says like this: The main structure has to be made of three compartments. And when we talk about the structure at this point, we're talking—let's use like this model—we're talking about this part. Because when we speak generally of the בית המקדש, we mean this whole thing. This whole thing was called the בית המקדש. Now, in this בית המקדש, only a small part of it was a building, was actually a closed building. The rest of it was like a courtyard. And in the courtyard itself there were different levels, which had different titles as we will see soon. But generally speaking, this was all a courtyard. There was only one area which was a building. And the Rambam says that the main structure, that the main structure of the בית המקדש is, meaning the main structure of this house that was a closed-in house, was to have three compartments. The first compartment was the one that was the closest to the מערב, to the west, and that was the קדש הקדשים, the Holy of Holies where you had the ארון. In front of that, you had the קודש, which was called also the היכל. And that was a room in itself, and in that room you had the שולחן and the מנורה, the table, the מנורה, and you had the the מזבח, a small מזבח, because there were two מזבחות: one small מזבח for קטורת, for spices, and one big מזבח which stood on the outside which was for קרבנות. So here you had the מזבח. In front of that, the Rambam says, you have to have an area which was called an אולם. The אולם really means a hallway. But this also must be. And if you notice, let me just make it clear before we go any further, you see this structure here, let's look at it from the top. This is looking from the top, an aerial view from an airplane. So this is the building, and this is the אולם that's sticking out. As we see here in the in the picture, everyone could see like in this picture. This is the בית המקדש, right? So if you see, this is the area, the front of it. Here's This is this building is really this as you see on top here, this building. Now this build this place here was In See, on the outside we can't see, but inside it had three compartments. This is the אולם. This picture or this model plus this picture and most of the pictures that we have does not fit according to the Rambam. According to the Rambam, it did not look like this. According to the Rambam, it was square. It didn't stick out here. All this is based on one thing. What makes the how the mefarshim say that it looked like this? Because the the Mishnah says that the structure of this building was like a lion, it says. Which means in the front it was wider, and in the back it was narrower. So I guess it's like a lion that the face is smaller and it widens He's wider and gets small, I'm sorry, I meant to say. He's he's wider and gets smaller. So that's why they learn, and according to the חשבונות it says that how big the אולם was, says how wide the אולם was, this area, and it says how wide the other two compartments were, so it seems very clear that this was much wider, and therefore they come out with this structure. The Rambam learns that it was all square, but in the inside the אולם was wider, while this was narrower, but there were certain compartments here on the sides that if you looked from the outside, it was all the same, but inside, it was narrow and wider. But the Mishnah does say that the structure was wider on the outside and narrower towards the back, wider in the front, narrower towards the back. So the Rambam learns that the פשט is that the way it was built, that even though we said it was square, but it wasn't exactly square. Towards the end, it tilted a little bit and it became a little bit narrower in the back. So really it was, I do have a picture in one of the other books according to the Rambam, because most, this book, very small pictures, so I don't know if we'll be able to. Anyway, so this, so this area was called the אולם, and these two are the היכל, the קדש הקדשים and the קדש. Now, all three together are also sometimes referred to as the heichal, because they all really made up one thing as the heichal. The reason the Rambam says we know that we have to have these compartments is because the general structure of the בית המקדש follows the general structure of the Mishkan. Now in the Mishkan, we know they had, Hashem told them to make the קדש הקדשים and the קדש. But, there is one problem. In the Mishkan, there was no אולם, this third compartment wasn't there. So the commentaries ask, and I didn't notice any answer to the question, that what in the Mishkan did represent it, what in the בית המקדש was the אולם? Whatever it is, this is the building. Then the Rambam says, what else we need here is that around this building, you have to have walls, which refers to these walls, that have to include in itself an עזרה, a place which is a courtyard where there you would have the rest of the things, which would mainly be the מזבח and some of the other things that we will see later on. Then the Rambam says, as part of the structure, you have to build certain things, certain כלים for the בית המקדש. You have to have a שלחן and a מנורה, and you have to have a מזבח, and the other מזבח. It's interesting to note that the Rambam does not mention that you have to have an ארון. Among the כלים that he says that the structure must have, he says like this, I'll read it inside. ועושין במקדש כלים, in the מקדש you make כלים. What are the כלים? מזבח לעולה ולשאר הקרבנות, a מזבח for the קרבנות, וכבש עולה למזבח, the מזבח had to have a ramp, as we see in this here, had a ramp to go up. You weren't allowed to go up in steps. The מזבח was very high, and in order to get up to the מזבח, you had to go on a ramp. The מזבח was mamash like a building in itself. In this area, it took up a big space, and it was, and it was 10 אמות high. 10 אמות, imagine, 10 אמות is 15 feet high, and it was, it was 32 by 32. It was a whole building. To get up, you had to have a כבש, that's what the Rambam says you have to have. Then he says, you have to have a כיור. Right outside this building, there was the faucets with water that they had to wash their hands and feet. Then he says you have to have the other מזבח, then you have to have a מנורה and a שלחן. These last three were inside this room. And he says which way it stood. The מנורה was in דרום. When you walked, the מנורה was south. Then the, which is the left, when a person that walks in from מזרח, it was on the left side. The שלחן was on the right side, and then both of them in front of the קדש הקדשים, he says, and the מזבח was further in the middle, which is like a סגול, the מנורה and then the שלחן, and then you had the the the מנורה, the שלחן, and then the מזבח. But the Rambam does not mention at all that one of the כלים, the vessels that you have to make in the בית המקדש, is an ארון, which obviously would be one of the important vessels. And the reason for that is, because, at least that's what we could say, because the Rambam holds that the מנורה, I mean, that the ארון is definitely part of the building itself. As much as we said the other כלים were part of the building, and the best proof that the Rambam holds that the other כלים were part of the building, he says because they're not counted as a separate mitzvah, but even more than that. You see, let me get it clear, I don't want to get confused, I see I'm getting, I'm confusing. We have, we're studying now Hilchos Beis Habechirah, the laws of the building of the בית המקדש. There is a separate part in the Rambam called Hilchos Klei Hamikdash, that's a separate halachos, the laws of the כלים of the בית המקדש. So why in the world the Rambam mention here that you have to make this כלי and this כלי and that כלי, you have to make a שלחן and a מנורה? That belongs in Hilchos Klei Hamikdash. The reason is, because according to the Rambam, these כלים are also part of the building. Nevertheless, these כלים are not part of the building, if you don't have the כלים, then there is no purpose in the building, because the Rambam learns that the building was in order to do the avodah, to serve, to do the service. If you don't have these vessels that you have to use for the service, then you didn't accomplish anything by making the building. But nevertheless, they are not actually part of the building, which means if you made the building without them, you didn't accomplish the purpose, but you still have a building which could be called a בית המקדש. If you don't have the ארון, even according to the Rambam, then you're missing in the building. And the the proof of that is that later on in the fourth perek, where the Rambam starts actually explaining the structure of the building, because in the previous פרקים, the second and the third, the Rambam explains what the מנורה looked like, what the שולחן looked like, what the מזבח looked like, in the fourth פרק he starts talking about this building exactly, how the walls were made, and the compartments, different things. But in the beginning of the same פרק where he talks about the building, he starts off by where the ארון stood. Now why does the ארון, where the ארון stood belong in that פרק? And as I said, the Rambam was so exact that everything he wrote, not only the words, even in the order, there is a halacha, he means to say something. Someone might ask, did the Rambam actually think of all these things when he wrote it? I mean, first of all, maybe he did. Probably he did. But I'll tell you even more. The Kereiti U'Peleiti, one of the Acharonim writes that there are so many things, the commentaries on the Rambam that explain words of the Rambam, that is the order of the Rambam, and all kinds of things. So he writes, some people ask, did he really think of it all? So he says, even if he didn't, when the Rambam wrote his sefer, he wrote it ruach hakodesh. The the spirit of Hashem was within him. So every possible deal, every possible wording being exact that could possibly fit there, was put into it. Whether he thought of it or not, but it's there. So therefore, even if the Rambam when he wrote didn't actually have that in mind, but if if it seems that way and the mefarshim say it, this is it. So we see that the Rambam put the place of the ארון, where the ארון was stood and exactly what happened to it later, he puts it in the beginning of the הלכות that deal with the building, because the Rambam holds that is mamash part of the building. And that's why before when he says you have to make כלים, vessels, he doesn't mention the ארון, because that's not like a vessel. That is more than that. That is structure of the Beit Hamikdash itself. Yes. What about the second Beit Hamikdash? If we're saying here that the ארון is part of the building, and if you don't have an ארון, at least this is the shita of the Rambam we're talking, others might not say like that, but according to the Rambam, if you don't have the ארון, then you don't actually have the building, because the building, just like if you make only half of it, the building isn't complete, so if you don't have the ark, the ארון, you also didn't complete the building. Now what about the second Beit Hamikdash according to the Rambam? The second Beit Hamikdash, I'll explain the question, the ark, the second Beit Hamikdash did not have the ark. The Gemara says that חמישה דברים, five things that were in the first Beit haMikdash, were missing in the second. And one of them is the ark. In the קדש הקדשים, there was a stone which is called the אבן שתיה. אבן שתיה is is the stone that they still claim now is still there. That's called the Dome of the Rock, that rock is called אבן שתיה. There are questions whether they are it is true what they say. I saw a report, an archaeological archaeological report in one of the magazines which looked very very impressive. Very long report. And there he makes all kinds of חשבונות. I I don't know who it was written by, I didn't name wasn't familiar, but quoted quoting from the Rambam and from the Mishnayot, and from everything, exactly where the Beit haMikdash stood, and where the קדש הקדשים was, it seems like where they claim that stone is, this אבן שתיה, is removed pretty far away. It doesn't so according to that opinion, it is not that stone. But that's not important here. There was a stone that stood in the in the קדש הקדשים. That's called אבן שתיה. Why is it called אבן שתיה? Let me explain that too. The word שתיה comes from the from the expression משם הושתת העולם. שתיה means the foundation. From that stone, the world started. When Hashem created the world, it started and it formed into a ball. Now, it started at one point. At what point did the world start? From that stone. The first thing Hashem created was the אבן שתיה, and משם הושתת העולם, from that stone, the whole world was created. This בכלל explains another thing, which is not important here, but it's a question that asked by many people, Rashi says in Chumash and other times, and the Gemara says Eretz Yisrael or ירושלים גבוה מכל ארצות. Eretz Yisrael, the highest part in the world, which is not so. Eretz Yisrael and Yerushalayim is not the highest level, not the highest point by sea level, I mean it's not the highest, there are much more higher places. Why do we say Yerushalayim is the highest? Now what do we mean the highest, when we have a ball, a circle, if a How can we say one point is higher than the other? Wherever you're going to start, that is the top. But the point that you start making the ball, that would be considered the the top point. That's the point it started and it continued from there. That's why Eretz Yisrael or Yerushalayim is considered the highest, because it started with that point, with the אבן שתיה. Anyway, they had this stone. In the first Beit haMikdash, on top of this stone stood the ארון. Now in the second Beit haMikdash, there was no ארון. And not only the ארון, but There were a few more things that were went away. One of the things is the stick of Aharon when, after the story of Korach, and Hashem said that every שבט, every נשיא, every prince of every שבט, should give a stick, they'll put it into the משכן, and the one that will start blossoming, that'll prove that that שבט, that person is chosen. And it says Aharon's stick started blossoming with almonds. And that stick, Hashem says put it back, and it was in the קדש הקדשים with the ארון. Then they had other things, the fire, and the אורים ותומים, other things. And all these five things were missing in the second Beit Hamikdash. That's why it says in the pasuk \"ואכבדה\", Hashem says, \"I will have the kavod\", and since in the second Beit Hamikdash it says \"ואכבד\" without a ה at the end, because five things, the ה, ה is five, were missing. Now, according to what we're saying just till now, that without an ארון you have no Beit Hamikdash, now how did the second, how was the second Beit Hamikdash, according to the Rambam, this opinion, a Beit Hamikdash? The truth is, this is answered, now let's turn to the fourth perek, the Rambam says a very interesting thing in the beginning of the fourth perek when he starts talking about the ארון. He starts off, and I'll read the halacha in the Rambam: \"אבן היתה בקדש הקדשים במערבה\", in the מערב side, in the west side of the קדש הקדשים there was a stone, \"שעליה היה ארון מונח\", and the ארון stood on top of that. \"ולפניו צנצנת המן ומטה אהרן\", in front of that stood the bottle of מן. The מן that the Jews ate in the מדבר, השם told משה, \"Take a little bit of it, put it into a jar, keep it forever.\" That stood in front of the ארון. \"ומטה אהרן\", the stick of אהרן. \"ובעת שבנה שלמה את הבית\", when שלמה המלך built the house, \"וידע שסופו ליחרב\", and he knew that the end will be it'll be destroyed, \"בנה בו מקום לגנוז בו ארון\", he built in the בית המקדש a place to hide the ארון, \"למטה\", under, under the קדש הקדשים, \"במטמוניות עמוקות ועקלקלות\", in hidden tunnels, curvy tunnels that you shouldn't be able to find. \"ויאשיהו המלך\", and later generations Yoshiyahu the king, \"צוה\", he commanded, \"וגנזו\", and they hid it, \"במקום שבנה שלמה\", in the same place that Shlomo built. \"שנאמר\", and he quotes the pasuk by Yoshiyahu, it says, \"ויאמר ללוים המבינים לכל ישראל הקדושים להשם תנו\", he said to the Levi'im, \"תנו את ארון הקדש בבית אשר בנה שלמה בן דוד מלך ישראל\", put the ארון in the house that Shlomo built, and that referred to that tunnel underground. \"אין לכם משא בכתף\", now there is nothing to carry on your shoulder, there's no ארון, \"עתה עבדו את השם אלקיכם\", go serve Hashem. And he says in Rambam, \"ונגנז עמו מטה אהרן וצנצנת ושמן המשחה\", and all the other things were hidden together with the ארון when he hid it. Now, as we heard there before, there is a machloket what happened to the ארון. Some say that the ארון was captured by the goyim, was taken away. One opinion is that Yoshiyahu the king hid the ארון. Now the Rambam, for what reason does he pascan, does he accept the view that it was hidden? And many questions that... I'll give another question: we know that the structure of the בית המקדש was all given by Hashem. There's a pasuk that says \"הכל מיד השם עלי השכיל\". We know that the pasuk says \"הכל מיד השם עלי השכיל\", everything came from Hashem. Here the Rambam says that since Shlomo Hamelech knew that the בית המקדש will be destroyed, that's why Shlomo Hamelech made that tunnel, which seems to be saying on his own, he knew it'll be destroyed, so on his own he decided to add a tunnel. How could he on his own add a part to the בית המקדש when it wasn't told to him? And many more questions, which I don't want to go into, it'll take too long. The peshat is like this: because, as we said, the Rambam holds that in order to have a בית המקדש, part of the building is the ארון, the Rambam is bothered by this question: so how was the second בית המקדש a בית המקדש when they had no ארון? That's why the Rambam says that when the בית המקדש was built in the beginning, it was built with a tunnel under the קדש הקדשים, where you should put the aron, so mimela the aron is always in its right place! So even in the second בית המקדש, the aron was in the קדש הקדשים! It was under the tunnel. And it says that it was built lechatchilah, why does the Rambam say he put it, he didn't do it on his own. The Rambam doesn't mean he decided on his own, he was told by Hashem to do it. The Rambam, when he says that he knew it would be to be destroyed, the Rambam just tells us that that Shlomo, when he built it, he knew the purpose of building it, 'cause if he wouldn't know why Hashem wanted him to build the tunnel, he wouldn't have made it holy with the kedushah of קדש הקדשים. When you build the בית המקדש and the different compartments had a different level of holiness, while it was built, they were mekadesh it. They did things to make it get that level of holiness. Now if Shlomo Hamelech would not have known why he was commanded to build the tunnel under the קדש הקדשים, he wouldn't have been mekadesh it with the kedushah of the קדש הקדשים. That's what the Rambam means. He knew it would be destroyed, so he knew why Hashem wanted him to make that tunnel, so he put it, made it there. So later on, when it was put there, it wasn't taken away from the בית המקדש, on the contrary, it was put into the קדש הקדשים, just like when Shlomo Hamelech put it in. It says in the pasuk he put the aron into the קדש הקדשים. Yoshiyahu Hamelech, when he told them to hide it, it says the same expression: put the aron into that place. The pasuk should have said take away the aron. Doesn't say take away the aron, it says put the aron. It was another form of putting the aron in the קודש הקדשים. So the second בית המקדש also had the aron, the only difference is you couldn't see it. But that doesn't take away. Had the שני לוחות, sure, it was the same aron, there was never another aron made, so it had the שני לוחות. So the second Beit HaMikdash did have it.

Okay, roughly short, because there is a seder, an order of things. It says the Rambam writes in Hilchot Melachim that when they entered Eretz Yisrael they were commanded to do three things: first which is מינוי מלך, מחיית עמלק, and build the Beit HaMikdash. So they had to go through this, first of all there had to be a king appointed, without a king you can't have a Beit HaMikdash, you have to have and you have to destroy Amalek, and then build. And that all took all these years, until what happened, Shaul was the first king. Now you could ask a question that why didn't Hashem appoint a king before? Well you can ask a lot of things, but that's the that's the order of events. And even after that, when David was already king, Hashem said to him that after all you are still not going to be the one. David made the foundations, built the gates, but still the Beit HaMikdash was not built with David. Hashem said, why? That is an interesting thing. He said to him, דם רב שפכת, because you spilled you spilled a lot of blood. The blood he spilled was rightfully spilled, he didn't do it against the הלכה חס ושלום, but still, to build a Beit HaMikdash, you can't be a person that spilled blood, you know. Your son Shlomo, that he is going to be a person of peace, שלום יהיה בימיו, he will build the Beit HaMikdash. But nevertheless, the gates were built by David. And interesting, if David would have built the Beit HaMikdash, it would have never been destroyed. Because anything that David did is נצחי. That's why the gates were not destroyed. It says טבעו בארץ שעריה, they sank into the ground. It says if Moshe Rabbeinu would have built it, it also wouldn't have been destroyed, the same thing like David. Now since it wasn't done by David, it was done through Shlomo, it was destroyed. But that's why it took so long. It took so many years till each step took place. And the other question is, a question today if the Beit HaMikdash will be a, will it be a, will it be gashmiyut, the third Beit HaMikdash? Yeah, everyone hopes it'll be gashmiyut. How it'll be an actual It sounds funny, but with all the modern improvisations, whether it's electric or whatever, will these things be allowed to be used in the Beit HaMikdash? Right, no idea. I don't know. Air conditioning? Yes. You know, I really don't know. No, you're asking a good question, but I doubt anyone who'd know. When Mashiach will come When Mashiach will come we'll ask him. Rebbe says that the Beit HaMikdash is going to be built by the Rabono shel Olam, not by us. You wanted to touch upon that point? Okay. A very good question. We're talking about the third Beit HaMikdash. Who will build it? Now the Midrash says, and Rashi and Tosafot bring it down in Sukkah, that the third בית המקדש יבוא מן השמים. It says it's ready in שמים, in Heaven, it's going to come down from שמים. On the other hand, the Rambam פסקנ'ס not like that. The Rambam at the end of Hilchot Melachim, when he talks about Mashiach, and the last two פרקים are even referred to in some places as Hilchot Mashiach, he says there, in the order of how will we know when Mashiach came, or who is Mashiach, things like that, so he goes through a whole order, and he says that first there will be a king, a מלך, a person who is going to be a big תלמיד חכם, who will learn a lot of Torah, Torah Shebichtav, Torah Shebe'al Peh, he is going to make sure that all the Yidden will do teshuvah, and all the Yidden will become frum, and then he will have wars, fight מלחמת ה׳. Then, ובנה בית המקדש במקומו. He, Mashiach, will build the בית המקדש. So obviously the Rambam holds that it will be built by the by a person. The truth is, it's not only the Rambam. In Yerushalmi it says in different places, in one place it says it'll be built by מן השמים, in a different place in Yerushalmi it says it'll be built by people. In the Zohar, we have two different opinions. There are so many different quotes of how the these two different places, different sources I mean, not quotes, different sources of who's going to build, whether it'll be built by people, or it'll be built by by by Hashem, which means come מן השמים. Now, בכלל the rule is, that whenever we find an argument, whether it be in Gemara or between רבנים, between חכמים, if we're only able to find a solution that they're not really arguing, they're both true, we usually do that. And in this case, there are many explanations given that really it's not even an argument. One of the explanations is based on what we said before. The gates are there already. What's going to happen is the בית המקדש will come down מן השמים, now the gates will have to be attached, because they won't come מן השמים, they're there. They'll come out of the ground, and Mashiach, or people who will help Mashiach, but it's human beings, will attach the gates. Now the din is, in Bava Batra the Gemara says, that if somebody has a building, and one person puts the doors on, he is קונה, it's as if he built the whole building. So it could be considered as if we built. So they're both true. It'll come משמים, and that. Then there's another explanation. The other explanation is that the Rambam here says the following. When he speaks about the second בית המקדש, he says that the second בית המקדש was built mainly like the first, a little bit like it says in Yechezkel. We mentioned in the beginning in Yechezkel Hashem told them how the בית המקדש will look, and that is the third בית המקדש. The second one, they built a little bit like it will be in the third, mostly like the first. And the Rambam says that what it says in Yechezkel is not clear. We don't know, we could not build a בית המקדש based on what it says in Yechezkel. We need more explanations. When Mashiach will come, we will be explained, but now we don't know. So it comes out that parts of the בית המקדש will be built as this one was, some things will be changed, and it will be different some additions, whatever it'll is be. So some מפרשים say that those parts in the בית המקדש, in the third one, that will look like this, will be made by people. The additional parts, those are the parts that will come down משמים. Are those parts that were captured by goyim, will be returned, like the menorah? Not Not necessarily, you could make another menorah. The ארון you can't make another ארון, you have to have the ארון, but the menorah you could make another menorah. I don't know if it'll be returned or not, but it doesn't have to be. In other words, it could be made a new menorah could be made. You could tovel it. Okay. Yeah, at one point like time of Chanukah, they didn't use the regular menorah, they made it it was tamei. הגם טומאה הותרה בציבור, but then they could have used the oil also. It's the famous kushya why did they need a miracle when they could have used the tameidike oil because טומאה הותרה בציבור. Pnei Yehoshua's kushya, whatever. As I said before, had a lot of time, but I see the time is flying, it's already 11:30, so

I think let's get a little bit further here into the general structure of the בית המקדש, not to go into the details, but just to to see more or less what the בית המקדש looked like. Now, I don't know how this model is, can I turn it upside down, will it fall? We don't want that, I mean. Just like this, to be able to see, okay. Sir, will you take that seat and show them? Will you take that seat right over here, sir? No, it's okay, I'm okay here. This is This part here is called... stand from this side... This part here is called the עזרת נשים. The courtyard is referred to, I'll do it like this, the courtyard is referred to as the עזרה. The עזרה is the court Now, the עזרה had three compartments. One is called עזרת נשים. In a ווייבער שול, a women's shul is called an עזרת נשים. Now, nowadays when we say that part of the shul is called the עזרת נשים, it means that that's the place where the women sit, or the women's that's their place. The בית המקדש was not like that. עזרת נשים doesn't mean that's the place where the women went. As a matter of fact, the men came here, not the women. Whenever the women had to come, in when it was crowded, so especially at time of שמחת בית השואבה, when they had all the dancing and singing during Sukkos during Sukkos and they had here, the men stood in here. The women, where they where they stood was that out of the walls were sticking out גזוזטראס, sticking out big poles, and when they needed it, they would put boards on top of those poles and it became a floor all around, and that's where the women stood on top and they would look down. It says in the Gemara that originally the men both men and women were downstairs, but the Chachamim saw that that's not such a good idea. I mean, we don't need explanations for that. Just go into a Reform temple and you'll know. So the Chachamim decided that you have to change that, and what they did was they said that they would make the second floor. So during the year there were no floors, it was just just the poles sticking out, but then they would put these boards on. The reason that it's called עזרת נשים How did they get to the second floor? I guess they had ladders going up there. Yeah, they didn't have built stairs, but they could put stairs there. It was a ladder there, and that's not a problem. Yeah, you could figure they could work it out. Now, the reason it's called עזרת נשים is because this up till here, the end of this compartment, that's where the women were allowed to enter. Further than that, women were not allowed to go. That's why it's called עזרת נשים, because that was the borderline of the women as far as the women were able to go. Then afterwards there's another compartment which was called the עזרת ישראל, a much narrower This is a very Where's the fifteen steps, is it by עזרת נשים? Supposed to be fifteen steps. Well, just look inside here. Oh, yeah, yeah, I see, okay. They would go They're going through the door here. Then there was a place called עזרת ישראל where Yisraelim, Yidden were allowed to go who were not Kohanim. Then you had an area further which was called עזרת כהנים where the Kohanim were allowed to go. And this all was all before this building, not only before this building, before the Mizbeach. Now, I heard people ask, and that's the, and the question comes as a result of not pashut knowing the details, that how can we say that there was an end to how far the Kohanim were allowed to go when the Mizbeach was further? Who brought the the korbanot on the Mizbeach. The Kohanim! So what do we mean that this was till here was עזרת כהנים? The Kohanim were allowed to enter this by the Mizbeach only when they had to do the avodah, when they had to shachat the korban, slaughter the korban, or when they had to put the meat or the fat, the אימורים on the Mizbeach. But otherwise, they were not allowed to go there. How far were they allowed to go if they weren't doing the avodah? Then there was a place called עזרת עזרת כהנים. Now, between the עזרת נשים and the עזרת ישראל, there was a wall. But between the עזרת ישראל and the עזרת כהנים, or by the end of the עזרת כהנים and further Well, I'm using our thing. Really, yeah, that's the right that's yeah, that's the right way to pronounce it. Listen, we don't pronounce anything right. That's the truth. When you learn Gemara, probably every second word that we pronounce in Gemara or whatever, is not the right way. Only when you layen the Torah, we try to medayek. Anyway, so there was no wall, but there were signs showing that up till here is עזרת ישראל, and up to here is עזרת כהנים. In this עזרת נשים, as you see here, there were four compartments, there were four rooms that the rooms were made for different reasons, not going to detail what what they were used for. Because different things were different parts of the Beit HaMikdash were used for different things. You have to have a place to keep the oil, a place to keep the animals, a place to keep the knives, a place to keep the the the the כלי זמר, the the musical instruments, everything had a place. Money. A place for money, sure. Yeah. So, these were the compartments that were used for the different things. Here you had a circular staircase, and here they would go in. And here with with the building here, there were more steps here. Now, the whole Beit HaMikdash was not flat, as it seems. It's on a mountain. And they didn't flatten out the grounds. What was, it was levels. This was one level, then you have to go up to another level, you go up another level. Now if you would stand here, you would be able to see the top. Not only the top of the building that it stuck out, because everything was elevated. Here take this off. Here again, after the עזרת כהנים, this is a place where the Mizbeach stood. Now in this here you don't have the mizbe'ach, but this was really where the mizbe'ach, and the mizbe'ach had the ramp facing this way. Here is a ramp. There's this. Yeah, this yeah, here you have the ramp, and here you have the The other one does have the mizbe'ach, but anyway, you couldn't see it because I can't take it up. And this mizbe'ach, as I said before, was a very big structure that they would go on the mizbe'ach with a ramp, they would shachat the korban on under, and they would go up to the mizbe'ach to bring the korbanot and to to do all the different עבודות. And certain korbanot had to like all the korbanot, you had to spray the blood in certain ways. Now the mizbe'ach itself was made up of a few compartments, and the Rambam in Hilchot Beit HaBechirah goes through the הלכות of the mizbe'ach. This mizbe'ach, see Look at it this way. Okay. This is the mizbe'ach. The mizbe'ach had it was, as we said, 10 אמות high, but it wasn't straight 10 אמות like this. It had like this. 10 אמות, usually an אמה is six six טפחים. It's measurement, six טפחים. How much is a טפח, now? So if you figure out an אמה is a inch and a is a foot and a half, six טפחים. Sometimes an אמה is referred to, is is it is called a five טפחים. By the mizbe'ach, when we say it was 10 אמות high, eight of the 10 אמות were made of six טפחים, and two were of five טפחים. So really it wasn't it wasn't 60 טפחים high, but it was 58 טפחים high. First they had a יסוד. When we say it was 32 wide by 32, it was only the bottom part was 32 by 32. Then it went up one טפח, one אמה, five טפחים, then it went in, then it went up again, and that was called the the סובב, and then it went up again, so here it had four corners. On top here, when you had the four like corners sticking out, and around it right in here, There's no place here, but it's called it was the מקום רגלי הכהנים. The כהנים would go up the ramp and come up here, they would walk this way on top of the mizbe'ach. This was called תפוח. See, it looks like an apple here. It was called a תפוח, that's where they would have the fire and that, and the ashes would go over here. When you שחט the קרבנות, see this was this is מזרח, מערב. Then this is דרום, this is צפון. Stood like this. If you enter this way, stood like this, you have to שחט שחט the קרבן on the צפון side. Here it shows the other the other way. Here it shows that the ramp is facing the north. Correctly, no? Like I'm saying. North is here. No. This is מזרח. מערב, צפון, דרום. צפון, דרום, right, right, right, yeah. Oh yeah, I said the wrong words, but that's not what I meant. No, no, no. The ramp was on that side. Because the ramp is towards the south. And the דין by a קרבן is that you have to שחט the קרבנות on the צפון side. So you'd שחט the קרבנות here or any place here, and further than here, which was standing here, was the place called בין המזבח ולאולם. This is the building, the stop, the front of the building was the, the first compartment was the אולם. So there was an area called בין המזבח לאולם, between מזבח, you could see, אולם. אולם is a hallway, that's what, what it means. But it was a compartment called the אולם. Next to it you had different, the rings. And you can see here there are rings here, a picture of rings that they had, that would, they'd שחט an animal, the animal's head would be in the rings, or the feet, and that's how they'd שחט. Next to it was the tables where they would actually cut up the, it was you'd walk in there it looked like a, like a butcher shop. It's slaughtering בהמות, and blood and and What? Hard to see, it's very small. The מזבח stood over here, next to it were the, were the rings, next to it were the, were the tables. In front of the מזבח, before in front of this אולם by the מזבח here they had the כיור, where the where the כהנים would wash their hands and feet. And also the Rambam says that the כיור was like a כלי that it had twelve faucets, so that twelve כהנים should be able to wash their hands at the same time. And they had to wash their hands and feet at the same time, which was one of the hardest jobs. How'd you do that? How'd you do that? I don't know. Really. Here, here you had, you know, they had to do both together. Yeah. Contortions, I don't know, I don't know exactly. Then you, here I see different gates. Now as I mentioned before, there is a difference of an opinion between the Rambam and all other commentaries concerning the structure of this. Now let's go a little bit into those details. I said the Rambam learns that this is, the, the Rashi and other מפרשים learn that this is what it looks like. The אולם was wider, stuck out of the building. This is the building. Now we know that on the sides it says in the Mishnah, all this is taken from Mishnah, I mean who knows what the building looked like, the Mishnah gives us the blueprint. On the sides, over here, on these three sides of this building, they had what were called the תאים. A תא is a, a locker, or a Now there, it says how much תאים they had, how many compartments they had. According to the Rambam, what it means is this went flat. Inside, the אולם took up this space. These two compartments took up were narrower, and here there were, there were compartments like hallways, long hallways you could go. Each hallway the Rambam called a special, a תא. And that's how it was. If you look in this I have another book. Oh, I brought a book along which has bigger pictures and that has according to the Rambam. Here, I'll tell ya. Excuse me. Where is it? This is it. This, this structure here is this. See the difference? Here and the bottom and the outside in the front it sticks out and then it's narrower. In this picture, this is it, this is the outer wall. This wall would be this line. These are, this is the gate going in here. No, no. Sorry, this is the thing, I didn't say it right. This is the thing, now this, the אולם is this, and the end, not like over here where the אולם stuck out of the building, but here it was all straight. Now the difference is in like this, these two compartments were this, and the אולם was this way, and then it continued this way. And here you have the different lines and each compartment is called a תא. While according to Rashi, and according to the other commentaries, according to other commentaries, the תאים were not compartments here. They were little lockers on the side coming out of here that were separate lockers, and it comes out not, not these compartments. And that's why according to that opinion this Beit Hamikdash looked like this, while according to the Rambam it looked that way. Now let's see what else is important here to, should know just as a, as a major There were different gates, and the din was that they had to guard. One of the things the Rambam says is the mitzvah of שמירת המקדש, that they have to watch the Beit Hamikdash. The Rambam says that it is kavod for the Beit Hamikdash to have guards. It is not, the reason it has guards for the Beit Hamikdash is not because they were afraid they would steal something, who would steal? But, as kavod, and there were different areas where you had had different guards. In some places they were Kohanim, they, the guards, had to stand by 24 places. Three of the 24 were Kohanim, and all the rest of them were the Leviim, where they all stood guards to show the kadosh-- the kavod for the Beit Hamikdash. And Rambam says אינו דומה פלטין שיש עליו שומרין לפלטין שאין עליו שומרין. It's not the same if you have a פלטין, means a a palace that has guards or not guards. If you do have guards, then it's a much greater kavod. They only stood nighttime. And the reason was, so, too, in many different opinions, that the idea of the guards is not to have a הסח הדעת, according to what some opinions, of the Beit Hamikdash. הסח הדעת means that you shouldn't take your mind away. There should always be someone thinking about the Beit Hamikdash. Just like there's a דין תפילין, when you wear tefillin, you're not allowed to have any הסח הדעת, your mind's not supposed to go away. When the Kohen Gadol used to wear the ציץ, he had to think about it always, never have הסח הדעת. So, too, by the Beit Hamikdash, to never have הסח הדעת. But during the day, when the avodah was being done, there was no hesech hadaat. At night, when everyone was away, and people were sleeping, and there was no avodah being done, at least not always, sometimes if they had things to finish off, they were able to finish it off, but not always, so that's why there's a din of shemirah. Now, let's leave a little time to go a little bit deeper into the, as we said before in the beginning, into more deeper peirush of explanation of what the Beis Hamikdash means. What is the Mishkan? What is the Beis Hamikdash? And just in short, because there are a few things I promised to talk about, the korbanot also, and I promised to talk about the Three Weeks, which everything in itself is a subject in itself, it could take a long time. But just in short, it says in the Midrash that when Hashem said to build the Beis Hamikdash, the purpose was because נתאוה הקדוש ברוך הוא להיות לו יתברך דירה בתחתונים. Hashem desired to have a dwelling place in this physical world, in a low world. That's what the Midrash says. It's an expression that in Kabbalah and Chassidut is used very often, but the Midrash specifically says it concerning the Beis Hamikdash, that the Beis Hamikdash was a dwelling place Hashem wanted to have. בתחתונים means down here. In this low world, Hashem wanted a dwelling place. The truth is, there is a question that is asked, and no, who asked it? The smartest person in the world asked the question, and there is no answer. But there is, it's a fact. Shlomo Hamelech, you don't need anybody smarter than that, ויחכם שלמה מכל האדם, he was the smartest person. Shlomo Hamelech, when he built the Beis Hamikdash, he said, השמים ושמי השמים לא יכלכלוך, ואף כי הבית הזה? The heavens and the heavens of heavens can't hold you, you're beyond all that, so this בית, this house will hold you? It's a question, there's no answer to it. But it is a fact. It's a תמיה קיימת, it's a question that is asked, and it's not really a question that that it warrants an answer, it's an expression of wonder, that's really what it is. That we wonder how is it possible that even though השמים ושמי השמים לא יכלכלוך, all the heavens can't hold you, but הבית הזה, this small, this house, how big is this building? This will hold Hashem? But nevertheless, it's what Hashem wanted. And Hashem said, \"Yes.\" How is it possible? Hashem is כל יכול. Hashem could do anything. So Hashem said, \"Yes, this is the place where I will dwell.\" And in this place, which is made of physical things, we would imagine that if you have a place where Hashem dwells, it's a spiritual place. Hashem dwells in a person's mind, Hashem would dwell in a in in in the in a person's feelings, which is more spiritual. The truth is, our spirituality is so close so close or so far to Hashem as far as as a piece of wood. So just as we can imagine that in our mind, in the spiritual feeling that we have, or in the spiritual world Hashem couldn't dwell, or He could, whatever it is, He could dwell the same way here. Why He chose here, we don't know. That's why the expression is נתאוה הקדוש ברוך הוא, השם had a desire, a ta'avah, and the Alter Rebbe, the Baal HaTanya once said, \"אויף א תאוה פרעגט מען נישט קיין קשיא.\" What does it mean אויף א תאוה? On a desire, you cannot question. And in fact, it's an expression, what he means to say is, that there is no explanation, it's beyond explanation why Hashem