Inasmuch as we have a pretty long time for this discussion, therefore, I think we should break it up into a few 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'd be able to take it. But the truth is there are a few parts here. First of all, there is the halachic parts 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 looks 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 or would be 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 על פי חסידות, according to חסידות, 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 הלכות 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 בכלל 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 הלכות, then we will have the kabbalistic or חסידות 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 mourning 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'Tammuz and it finishes off on Tisha b'Av. Shivah Asar b'Tammuz we have to fast, and on Tisha b'Av we fast. The reason we start on Shivah Asar b'Tammuz is because that's when they actually broke through the wall of Jerusalem. It started really earlier, Asarah b'Tevet, but it was not that year, years, three years before, I believe it's three, I don't remember exactly. Asarah b'Tevet, that's when they surrounded, they besieged Jerusalem, 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 Jerusalem, then we wouldn't have a Shivah Asar b'Tammuz, we wouldn't have a Tisha b'Av, a חורבן בית המקדש. So it started then, and that's why Asarah b'Tevet is very, very strict. As the halacha 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 out on Friday, and normally when a fast day is on Friday we don't fast on Friday, but Asarah b'Tevet we do. But the Avudraham says even more, that if it would come on Shabbos, we'd have to fast on Shabbos because the pasuk says בעצם היום הזה, in the essence of the day, they besieged Jerusalem, and that expression בעצם היום הזה is said by Yom Kippur. Because בעצם היום הזה, יא, און דארטן the pasuk says that you 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 come out on Shabbos we fast, Asarah b'Tevet, we would also have to fast. Tisha b'Av would come out on Shabbos, it wouldn't fast. As we do, it does come out on Shabbos many times, and we don't fast, but Asarah b'Teves 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 Shivah Asar b'Tammuz and finished off on Tisha B'Av. Three weeks is a cheshbon of 21 days. The נביא ירמיהו was hinted by Hashem that this will take three weeks, 21 days, because in one of the נבואות, 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 Pinchas, sometimes it's פרשת Matos, but it's the haftarah after, the first Shabbos after Shivah Asar b'Tammuz. 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 השם said to him that this is a hint that this, the צרה, 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 Shivah Asar b'Tammuz, finished off on Tisha B'Av. Now during that period, from Shivah Asar b'Tammuz it starts the three weeks, which is one level, and that's how we got really into this. Four days, depends what day of the week Tisha B'Av is, but whatever it is, from after שבת חזון, which is the Shabbos before Tisha B'Av, till Tisha B'Av is called the week, שבוע, or שבת שחל בו תשעה באב, the week that Tisha B'Av comes out. That is even stricter than the previous days of the nine days. Within that itself, from ז' Av, from the seventh day of Av, is even stricter. This year happens to be that both are together. The week of Tisha B'Av starts today, and today is the seventh day of Av, but even if it wouldn't be that way, ז' Av would be another level, because that is the day when the גוים actually entered into the בית המקדש. They surrounded it, they surrounded it on Asarah b'Teves, then they broke through the wall on Shivah Asar b'Tammuz, but they entered into the בית המקדש on ז' Av. And what they did there we could imagine. They had all kinds of parties there, and they brought עבודה זרה and everything, but they did not put it on fire till Tishah B'Av, the ninth day of Av. And even that, they put it on fire towards the evening of Tishah B'Av. The reason we fast on Tishah B'Av because it started on Tishah B'Av, but still, as we all know, that even the day after Tishah 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, to wash clothes, 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 tenth day of Av. Today is the seventh day of Av, so today we start the almost the last period, almost, because the worst period is on Tishah B'Av itself, or erev, really the truth is Erev Tishah B'Av is even worse than from ז' Av, and Tishah 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 this בית המקדש, you have probably read the flyer, I think I had one with me. Well, anyway, I brought it with me, I don't remember where it is, whatever it is makes, is not so important, flyer, that flyer, and you notice I quote there from the מדרש, I don't know if you could see if it says here from where it is, but anyway, this is taken from Midrash Tanchuma. And this מדרש is the 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 תנחומא it says that Hashem spoke to Yechezkel. Yechezkel was a נביא, 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. 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 מדרש says that Yechezkel, this מדרש I 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 Beit HaMikdash, and you want me to come to the Jews and teach them the laws of the Beit HaMikdash, when we're still in galut? 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 נביא who will be then, and he will teach it to\" 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 galut, the Jews are in galut, the building of the Beit HaMikdash should be בטל? דבנין ביתי יבטל, we shouldn't build the Beit HaMikdash because you are in galut? No, he says. You should continue learning the Beit HaMikdash, the laws of the Beit HaMikdash, and by learning the laws of the Beit 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 Beit HaMikdash, it's actually as if we are building the Beit HaMikdash. And it's not just the peshat, 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, is to remind us of the way things were done at the time of the Beit 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 Beit HaMikdash. So it would seem that when we learn about the Beit HaMikdash, it reminds us of the Beit HaMikdash and it's a good zecher. But that's not what Hashem said, the way it's said in the Midrash. Hashem said that when you learn the laws of the Beit HaMikdash, it's as if you're actually building the Beit HaMikdash. Which means, as we will learn soon, there is actually a mitzvah to build the Beit HaMikdash. One of the 613 commandments is to build the Beit 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 בשוגג, unintentionally, in order for Hashem to forgive him, he had to bring a קרבן חטאת, a special sacrifice. And that was only in the time of the Beit HaMikdash. Nowadays, if a person does an עבירה בשוגג, 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 kapparah, 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's 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 טבילה, 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 גיור, all the laws of conversion are learned out from the Jews when they converted. All the Jews by Matan Torah, and as the Sages 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 מתן תורה Hashem told them all to go to the mikveh. They had to have circumcision because when they left מצרים, which was the beginning of מתן תורה, they went through circumcision. Then, there was korbanot that they brought before מתן תורה. So a convert, the Rambam פסקנט, and that's the דין, that a Rambam and the, 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 משיח will come, all the converts will have to bring korbanot, that is true. But it doesn't mean that till משיח comes, until the Beit Hamikdash is built, there's anything missing in the The level of being a Jew of these converts. They're Jews 100% 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 Ovadia HaGer. There was a great חכם in the time of the Rambam, Rabbeinu Ovadia HaGer. And this Rabbeinu Ovadia wrote a letter to the Rambam saying to him that he feels very bad whenever he remembers that he is a ger, 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, 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? As other Jews, they have their yichus to Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov. You,\" he says, \"have יחוס למי שאמר והיה העולם, to Hashem who created the world.\" So there is even more in the ger. And this the Rambam wrote to Rabbeinu Ovadia HaGer in his time when there was no korban. So this Rabbeinu Ovadia 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, then you study it, then 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 Beit Hamikdash, whether it be the laws, the הלכה of it, or we're studying about the inner meaning of the Beit Hamikdash, but 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 connect continue to the second stage?\" That doesn't mean that the first stage is not there. That 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 100% ger. So we fulfill the mitzvah of building the בית המקדש. Now, 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 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 want 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 halachah, 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 2,000 years, we'd all run! Here we have an opportunity without running to Yerushalayim, sitting here and building the בית המקדש. 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 time we say, \"Oh, the Beit HaMikdash is destroyed, let's start building it.\" So here today, on the seventh day of Av, we're starting to build the Beit HaMikdash. We're doing part of building the Beit 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 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 need there's a special mitzvah Pesach to speak about יציאת מצרים? And the answer is very simple. Pesach, one of the, there are many answers on this question, but one of the answers is on Pesach, the mitzvah is to elaborate. And by the Rambam it seems like that, he says you have to talk about the nisim 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 by everything. Matan Torah, every day Hashem gives us the Torah, there's no question about that. The best proof is that in the berachah that we say, we say, \"ברוך אתה ה׳ 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 esek, as we say, we make from Shavuot? Shavuot is זמן מתן תורתנו, שבועות is the day of Matan Torah. And we say every year on Shavuot, Hashem again gives us the Torah, because everything that happened the first time happens again every year, like the Arizal says, \"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 Matan Torah. So what do we mean by that when every day really we have Matan Torah? The answer is there is 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 main, especially the Nine Days, especially the last few days before Tishah 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 study 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 Yerushalayim 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 ה׳, 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, it's 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 ה׳ קל עולם. which is really like baruch Hashem, and everything is in fine and order, so you quote 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's 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 an a a rule in the beginning. The Rambam has an introduction to his whole sefer, not only Hilchot Beit Habechirah, to all the laws he writes. So in his introduction he writes that you should know that the reason, that 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 מפרשים always look into this and try to figure out how these words are also 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 Beit Habechirah, the Rambam quotes a pasuk. And the and the pasuk is שאלו שלום ירושלים ישליו אוהביך. Which means ask for the peace of Yerushalayim and your beloved should have shavah, should have peace, etc. It's a very nice pasuk, fits to the Beit Habechirah because he's starting to talk about ירושלים, 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 ירושלים, investigate, look into what happened in Yerushalayim, it's an obligation. The pasuk holds it's 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 מכאן 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 because then all it would mean is that you have to remember. The Rambam quotes the 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 מקדש. Sometimes when it says מקדש it means Yerushalayim, sometimes opposite, but it definitely means the Beit Hamikdash also. So the Rambam is telling us that before you start learning Beit 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 building of building the Beit Hamikdash. And now

we will get more to the point of what the Rambam actually says in the laws of Beis Habechirah. He starts off the laws of the Beis Hamikdash by saying that there is a mitzat 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 עליה לרגל, of Yom Tov, which is Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot, there was a mitzvah for every Jew to go up to Yerushalayim, to the Beis Hamikdash. 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 Hashem spoke to Moshe to make the Mishkan in the desert yet, he said to him ועשו לי מקדש, make for me a mikdash. And the Rambam uses, at least here, this pasuk as the source that we have to build a Beis Hamikdash. 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'll 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 Beis Hamikdash. And then the Rambam goes through the details of a little history about the Beis Hamikdash. Now, as I said before, there is no history in the Rambam, so obviously this history is also important for laws of the Beis 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 מקדש.\" 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, it 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, מתהלך באהל, that I 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 ראש חודש ניסן 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 that it 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 could 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, and 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 משכן 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 משכן, 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 משכן. After that, they built a structure in a city called Shiloh, and in Shiloh the משכן 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 משכן. In the משכן 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 משכן in Shiloh. 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 משכן in Shiloh. 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 ארון, took away the holy ark, so then the משכן in Shiloh 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 Shiloh. In Nov it stood for 20 years, and in Givon it stood for 37 years. All together was 57 years. Then came the משכן the בית המקדש on Har Hamoriah on the הר הבית in Yerushalayim in the proper place. And then there were two בתי מקדש as we know. The first one stood for 410 years, the second one stood for 420 years. There's the famous famous remez, the famous hint for that is that the פסוק 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 this בית המקדש 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. It's 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 בית המקדש. 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 an 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, the tallit katan that you wear must have an amah. Some people are not aware of that, but it must be an amah, an amah this way and an amah this way, each side, excluding the neck. So, from the end of the neck till the bottom of the tallit katan has to be an amah, and it 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. And that's why many people are makpid to have 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, the 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 Beit HaMikdash went. This is just the his- the history. After the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, about 1900 and 20 years ago, how much it is already, something like that. So, the third Beit HaMikdash is going to be a בית המקדש נצחי. That's going to be an eternal Beit HaMikdash. It'll never be destroyed, it will stay forever. Why we don't build it right now? What? Why we don't build it right now? There are certain I maybe we'll get into that. There are certain conditions, laws, when you could build and when you can't. We don't have the power, we don't have the 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 you have to have a navi. A prophet has to come and say that the time has come to build it, but we don't have a navi. Plus, we have to have the we have to know exactly where the מזבח is. The מזבח, see the Beit HaMikdash itself has a place, but if you go off a few inches here, a few inches there, it doesn't matter. The מזבח, which here is, right? No, missing here. The מזבח, which is where the place of the korbanot, has to have an exact place, and we don't know where that is. Even in the time of the second Beit HaMikdash, as the Rambam says, we'll see later on, that they had to have Oh, this is the מזבח. Oh, okay. So flat, כדי שלא יראה ערותך עליו. That the מזבח, the navi, a navi had to testify where the place of the מזבח is. It says that ג׳ נביאים עלו עמהם מן הגולה. Three prophets came when they built the second Beit HaMikdash, and each one had to tell us tell them a different din because they didn't know. One of the three, it was Chagai, Zechariah, Malachi, and one of the three said that this is the place of the מזבח, and you cannot change it. That has to be, and we don't know where that is. Plus there are a lot more things, that we don't know the exact place of the Beit HaMikdash either, we don't we're all tamei, and we don't know who's kohanim, so many things that don't allow us to build the Beit HaMikdash now. So the best that we could do now in fulfilling the mitzvah of building the Beit HaMikdash is what we're doing now, is studying about the laws of the Beit HaMikdash, the structure of the Beit HaMikdash. What is the purpose of the Beit HaMikdash? And again, not as I'm going to go in a little later, if there's still time, into more spiritual explanation of what the purpose of the Beit HaMikdash is, but I'm 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 Beit HaMikdash? 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, you 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 could 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 says 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 קודש הקדשים, 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 the 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 vessel, 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 Beit Hamikdash. But the Ramban says no, they are not included in building the Beit Hamikdash. 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, let's give an example, in making the 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 mizbeach 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 Beit Hamikdash. Now the reasoning, these two reasons of the Rambam and the the this argument, the two sides, of 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 Beit Hamikdash 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 had 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 כלים that allow you to do the service, there is no purpose in the building. And 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 בית המקדש, you still have accomplished what the בית המקדש is for. You didn't do what you're supposed to, because you have to do the service, but you still have accomplished the mitzvah of building the בית המקדש 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 בית המקדש. So therefore, according to the Ramban, the building of the מזבח or the making of the מנורה is not included in making the the house, in making the בית המקדש. 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 halacha here which is also a history, but nevertheless it's part of halacha, that during these periods that we said before that you had the Mishkan and then you had the the Shilo and you had Nov and Givon and then you had the בית המקדש, 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 and Givon or in the times in between. The time of Shilo, when the Mishkan stood in Shilo, it was not permissible to bring korbanot privately. After the בית המקדש 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 בית המקדש now, we can't bring our own korbanot, because the the דין of a במה stopped right then when the בית המקדש was built. Unless, with one exception, if a navi 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 ה' הוא האלקים, Hashem 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 a 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 hora'at sha'ah, 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 who can still bring korbanot to Hashem even now on a במה? 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 for his name, the goyim are allowed to do it. Not only in the Beit Hamikdash, now even goyim are allowed to make a במה. 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 שחט the korban outside of the Beit Hamikdash is a לאו. 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 a Beit Hamikdash. What is the main structure of the Beit Hamikdash? 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 Beit Hamikdash, we mean this whole thing. This whole thing was called the Beit Hamikdash. Now, to in this Beit Hamikdash, 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 Beit Hamikdash 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 קודש 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 they have to have an area which was called an אולם. 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 it looking from the top, an aerial view from an airplane. So this is a building, and this is the אולם that's sticking out, as we see here in the in the picture. Everyone could see, right? In this picture. This is the Beit Hamikdash, right? So if you see, this is the area, the front of it. Here is 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 the מפרשים 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 he widens. He's his front is wider and gets small, I'm sorry, I meant that. He's is wider and gets smaller. So that's why they learn, and according to the חשבונות, it says that how big the אולם was, it 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 to 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 look from the outside, it was all the same, but inside it was narrower 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 peshat 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 picture 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 היכל because they all really made up one thing as the היכל. The reason the Rambam says we know that we have to have these compartments is because the general structure of the Beit Hamikdash follows the general structure of the משכן. Now in the משכן, we know they had, Hashem told them to make the קדש הקדשים and the קדש. But there is one problem. In the משכן, 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 משכן did represented 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 as 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 שעולים בו למזבח. The מזבח had to have a ramp, as we see in this here, it 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 ממש like a building in itself. In this area, it took up a big space, and it was, and it was ten אמות high. Ten אמות, imagine! Ten 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 faucet 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 walk, the מנורה was south, then the, which is the left from the person who 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 Menorah, and then the שלחן, and then you have, the the the Menorah, 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 Beit HaMikdash 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 Menorah, 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 הלכות בית הבחירה, the laws of the building of the Beit HaMikdash. There is a separate part in the Rambam called הלכות כלי המקדש, that's a separate הלכות, the laws of the כלים of the Beit HaMikdash. So why in the world does the Rambam mention here that you have to make this כלי and this כלי and that כלי, to make a שלחן and a Menorah? That belongs in הלכות כלי המקדש. 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. 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 Beit HaMikdash. If you don't have the ארון, even according to the Rambam, then you're missing in the building. And the the proof for that is that later on in the fourth פרק, 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 Menorah looks 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, 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 like I said, the Rambam was so exact, and 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? First of all, maybe he did. Probably he did. But I'll tell you even more. The Karti u'Felti, one of the Acharonim, writes that there are so many things, the commentaries on the Rambam that explain words of the Rambam, that is 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 b'ruach hakodesh, the spirit of Hashem was within him. So, every possible detail, 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 it seems that way and the mefarshim say it, this is it. So, we see 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 halachot 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 בית המקדש itself. What about the second בית המקדש? 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 בית המקדש, according to the Rambam? The second בית המקדש, I'll explain the question, the ark, the second בית המקדש did not have the ark. The Gemara says that חמשה דברים, five things that were in the first בית המקדש 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. They call 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 an 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, the name wasn't familiar, but quote quoting from the Rambam and from the Mishnayot and from everything, exactly where the בית המקדש stood, and where the קדש הקדשים was, it seems like where they claim that stone, this אבן שתיה, is is removed pretty far away. It doesn't So according to that the opinion, it is not that stone. But that that's not important here. There was a stone that stood in the in the קדש הקדשים. That's called the 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's asked by many people, Rashi said in Chumash and other times, and the Gemara says, Eretz Yisrael or ירושלים גבוה מכל ארצות, ארץ ישראל is the highest part in the world, which is not so. Eretz Yisrael and Yerushalayim is not the highest level, the 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, whatever, then 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. Well, 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 בית המקדש, on top of this stone, stood the ארון. Now, in the second בית המקדש, 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 get a stick, they'll put it into the Mishkan, and the one that will start blossoming, that will prove that that שבט, that person is chosen. And it says Aharon's stick started blossoming with almonds. And that stick Hashem said put it back. And it was in the קדש הקדשים with the ארון. Then they had other things, the fire, and the Urim v'Tumim, other things. They're all these five things were missing in the second בית המקדש. That's why it says in the pasuk, \"ואכבדה,\" Hashem says, \"I will have the kavod.\" Concerning the second בית המקדש, 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 בית המקדש, now how did the second how was the second בית המקדש, according to the Rambam this opinion, a בית המקדש? 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 west 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, Hashem told Moshe, \"Take a little bit of it, put it in that jar, keep it forever.\" That stood in front of the ארון. ומטה אהרן, the stick of Aharon. 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 הארון, 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 שלמה built. שנאמר, and he quotes the pasuk by Yoshiyahu, says, ויאמר ללוים המבינים לכל ישראל הקדושים לה׳: ״תנו, he said to the Leviyim, \"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 in your shoulder, there's no ארון, עתה עבדו את ה׳ אלקיכם, now go serve Hashem. And he says the רמב״ם, ונגנז עמו מטה אהרן וצנצנת המן ושמן המשחה, and all the other things were hidden together with the ארון when he hid it. Now, as we heard earlier before, there was 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 pask, does he accept the view that it was hidden? And many questions this time, I'll give another question. We know that the structure of the Beit Hamikdash was all given by Hashem. There's a pasuk it says, \"הכל מיד ה׳ עלי השכיל.\" We know that the pasuk says, \"הכל מיד ה׳ עלי השכיל,\" everything came from Hashem. Here the Rambam says that since Shlomo HaMelech knew that the Beit Hamikdash would 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 Beit Hamikdash 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 pshat is like this. Because as we said the Rambam holds that in order to have a Beit Hamikdash, part of the building is the ארון, the Rambam is bothered by this question. So how was the second Beit Hamikdash a Beit Hamikdash when they had no ארון? That's why the Rambam says that when the Beit Hamikdash was built in the beginning, it was built with a tunnel under the קדש הקדשים where you should put the ארון. So mimeila the ארון is always in its right place. So even in the second Beit Hamikdash, the ארון 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. Cuz 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. 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 ארון into the קדש הקדשים. Yoshiyahu Hamelech, when he told them to hide it, it says the same expression: put the ארון to that place. The pasuk should have said take away the ארון. Doesn't say take away the ארון, it says put the ארון. It was another form of putting the ארון in the קודש הקדשים. So the second בית המקדש also had the ארון, the only difference is you couldn't see it. But that doesn't take away. It had the שני לוחות, sure, because the same ארון, there was never another ארון made. It had the שני לוחות. So the second בית המקדש did have it. Okay, written 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 is מינוי מלך, מחיית עמלק, and בנין בית המקדש. So it had to go through these. First of all, there had to be a king appointed. Without a king you can't have a בית המקדש. You have to have and you have to destroy Amalek, and then build. And that all took all these years. So you know what happened: Shaul was the first king. Now, you can ask a question: why didn't Hashem appoint a king before? Well, you can ask a lot of things, but that's 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 בית המקדש was not built by David. Hashem said why, and that is an interesting thing, because דם רב שפכת, because you you spilled a lot of blood. The blood he spilled was rightfully spilled. He didn't do it against the halacha, chas veshalom, but still, to build a בית המקדש, you can't be a person that spilled blood, and your son Shlomo, that he is going to be a person of peace, שלום יהיה בימיו, he will build the בית המקדש. But nevertheless, the gates were built by David, and interesting, if David would have built the בית המקדש, 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 the בית it also wouldn't have been destroyed, and the same thing by David. Now since it wasn't built by David, it was done by Shlomo, it was destroyed. But that's why it took so long. It took so many years until each step took place. And the other question is the question today that the בית המקדש will be a דבר בגשמיות, the third בית המקדש. We all hope it'll be בגשמיות. It will be an actual house that It sounds funny, but with all the modern improvisations, whether it's electric or whatever, will these things be allowed to be introduced in the בית המקדש? I have no idea. No, I mean I don't know. Air conditioning. I really don't know. But you're asking a good question, but I doubt anybody could know. You want to touch up on that point? Okay. Oh, we're talking about the third בית המקדש: who built it? Now the Midrash says, and Rashi and Tosafos bring it down in Sukkah, that the third בית המקדש יבוא מן השמים. It says it's ready in Shamayim, in heaven, it's going to come down from Shamayim. On the other hand, the Rambam paskens not like that. The Rambam at the end of Hilchos Melachim, when he talks about Mashiach, and the last two פרקים are even referred to in some places as Hilchos 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 of all will be a king, a melech, a person who is going to be a big talmid chacham who will learn a lot of תורה, תורה שבכתב, תורה שבעל פה, 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 מלחמות השם. 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 will be built by מן השמים, in a different place in Yerushalmi it says it will be built by people. In the Zohar we have two different opinions. There are so many different quotes of how whether 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 will be built by by Hashem, which means come מן השמים. Now, bichlal 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 you 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 in שמים, 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, etc. Then there's another explanation. Other explanation is that the Rambam here says is as follows. 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 at 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 that it'll 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. 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, it'll be different, some additions, whatever it'll 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. And those parts that were captured by goyim, will be returned? Not necessarily, you can make another menorah. The ארון you can't make another ארון, you have to have the ארון. But the menorah you can 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. Let's get a little bit You could tovel it, okay. Yeah, at one point, by time of Chanukah, they didn't use the regular, they said the menorah was tamei. הגם טומאה הותרה בציבור, so they but then they could have used the oil also. There's a famous kushya why did they need a miracle when they could have used the טמאה׳דיגע oil because טומאה הותרה בציבור. Pnei Yehoshua's kushya, but As I said before, a lot of time, but I see the time is flying, it's already 11:30, so I think

let's now 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? It won't fall, I mean like this, to be able to see. Okay. Sir, will you please keep that as a seat? Will you keep that as a seat? You want to show it here, sir? Okay, thank you. This is, this part here is called, 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 courtyard. Now the עזרה had three compartments. One is called עזרת נשים. In a veiber shul, a woman'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's the place where the women sit, or the women's, that's their place. In the בית המקדש it's not like that. עזרת נשים doesn't mean it'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 and when it was crowded, so specially at time of שמחת בית השואבה, when they had all the dancing and singing during Sukkos and they had it here, the men stood in here. The women, what they, where they stood was that out of the walls were sticking out גזוזטראות, 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 and men and women were downstairs, but the Chachamim saw that's not such a good idea. I mean we don't need explanation 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. There was no built stairs, so they could put stairs there, or ladders there, not a problem. Yeah, you could figure, they'll 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 woman, as far as the women were allowed to go. Then, afterwards, there's another compartment which was called the עזרת ישראל, a much narrower, this is a very Where is the 15 steps that is between? Supposed to be 15 steps. Look inside here. Oh, there, yeah, I see. Okay, very good. They would go, going through the door here, then there was a place called עזרת ישראל where ישראלים, אידן were allowed to go who were not כהנים. Then you had an area further which was called עזרת כהנים where the כהנים were allowed to go. And this all was all before this building, not only before this building, before the מזבח. Now, I heard people ask and that's a 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 כהנים were allowed to go when the מזבח was further? Who brought the the קרבנות on the מזבח? The כהנים. So, what do we mean that the this was till here was עזרת כהנים? The כהנים were allowed to enter the by the מזבח only when they had to do the עבודה, when they had to שחט the קרבן, slaughter the קרבן, or when they had to put the meat or the fat, the אימורים on the מזבח. But otherwise, they were not allowed to go there. How far were they allowed to go if they weren't doing the עבודה? 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 'R' and saying really yeah, that's the right that 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. It's only when you lein the Torah we try and מדייק. Anyway, so there was no wall, but there were signs showing that up till here is the עזרת ישראל, and up till here is the 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, I'm not going into detail what what they were used for, cause 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 this, the knives, a place to keep 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 had 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 stuck out, because everything was elevated. Here, this picture is off, here again, after the עזרת כהנים, this is the place where the מזבח stood. Now in this here you don't have the מזבח, but this was really where the מזבח and the מזבח had the ramp facing this way. There's a ramp, there's another. Yeah, this yeah, here you have the ramp, and here you have the The other one does have the מזבח. Anyway, you couldn't see it, because I can't pick it up. And this מזבח, like I said before, was a very big structure and they would go on the מזבח with the ramp. They would שחט the קרבן under, and they would go up to the מזבח to bring the קרבנות there, to to do all the different עבודות. And certain קרבנות had to, like all the קרבנות, they had to spray the blood in certain ways. Now the מזבח itself was made up of a few compartments, and the Rambam in Hilchos Beis Habechirah goes through the halachos of the mizbeach. This mizbeach, see, look at it this way. Okay. This is the mizbeach. The mizbeach had it was, as we said, 10 amos high, but it wasn't straight 10 amos like this. It had like this. 10 amos, usually an amah is six six tefachim. It's a measurement, six tefachim. How much is a tefach? Well, if you figure out an amah is is a foot and a half Six tefachim. Sometimes an amah is referred to is is, it's called five tefachim. By the mizbeach, when we say it was 10 amos high, eight of the 10 amos were made of six tefachim, and two were of five tefachim. So really, it wasn't it wasn't 60 tefachim high, but it was 58 tefachim 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 tefach, one amah, five tefachim, then it went in, and it went up again, and that was called the the סובב, 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, no place here, but it's called it was the מקום רגלי הכהנים. The Kohanim would go up the ramp and come up here, they would walk this way on top of the mizbeach. This was called the 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 shecht the korban, see this was this is מזרח, מערב. Then this is דרום, this is צפון. It stood like this. When you enter this way, it stood like this. You have to shecht shecht the korban on the צפון side. Here it shows the other the other way. Here it shows that the ramp facing the north. Correctly, no? Like I'm saying. No, no. This is מזרח. מערב, צפון, דרום. צפון, דרום, right? Right, right. Oh, yeah, you said the wrong word, but that's not what I meant. No, no, no. And the din by a korban is that you have to shecht the קרבנות on צפון side. So, they would 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 top, the front of the building was the first compartment was the אולם. So, there was an area called בין המזבח ולאולם, between מזבח You could see אולם. אולם is a hallway. That's all what it means. But it was a compartment called the אולם. Next to it, you had the rings. You could see here, there are rings here, a picture of rings that they had that when they would שחט an animal, the animal's head would be in the rings, or the feet, and that's how they would שחט. Next to it was the table where they would actually cut up the meat. It was, you'd walk in there, it looked like a butcher shop: slaughtering בהמות, 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, in front of this אולם, by the מזבח here, they had the כיור. Where the כהנים כהנים would wash their hands and feet. And also the Rambam says that the כיור was like a כלי that 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 No, you had to wash both together. Yeah. You put water on your feet. It's contortion. I don't know exact I don't know exactly. Then you here I see different gates. Now, as I mentioned before, there is a difference in 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 of this is taken from Mishnayos. I mean, who knows what the building looks like? In Mishnayos, he has 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 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 were narrower. And here, there were there were compartments, like hallways, long hallways you could go. Each hallway the Rambam calls 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 show you. Excuse me. Where is it? Little thing little thing little thing with the red cover. This is it. This this structure here is this. See the difference? Here, on the on 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, uh uh I excuse sorry. This is this thing. Let me say it right. This is a thing. Now, this, the אולם is this, and the end, it's 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 the Beis Hamikdash looked like this, while according to the רמב״ם, it looked that way. Now, let's see what else is important here to you should know just as as major the different gates, and the din was that they had to guard. One of the things that the Rambam says is a mitzvah of שמירת המקדש. They had to watch the Beit Hamikdash. And the Rambam says that it is kavod for the Beit Hamikdash to have guards. It is not the reason they had guards in the Beit Hamikdash was not because they were afraid they would steal something, who would steal? But, as kavod. And there were different areas where had different guards. In some places were Kohanim. The guards had to stand by twenty-four places. Three of the twenty-four were Kohanim, and the rest of them were the Levi'im. But they all stood guards to show the kavod for the Beit Hamikdash. Rambam says, אינו דומה פלטין שיש עליו שומרין לפלטין שאין עליו שומרין. It's not the same if you have a פלטין, means a palace that has guards or not guards. If you do have guards, then it's a much greater kavod. They only stood in nighttime. And the reason was, so there are many different opinions that the idea of the guards is not to have a היסח הדעת, according to some opinions, of the Beit Hamikdash. היסח הדעת means that you shouldn't take your mind away. There should always be someone thinking about the Beit Hamikdash. Just like there is a דין תפילין, when you wear tefillin, you're not allowed to have any היסח הדעת, your mind's not supposed to go away. When the Kohen Gadol used to wear the tzitz, he had to think about it always, never have היסח הדעת. So too by the Beit Hamikdash, there was never היסח הדעת. But during the day, when the avodah was being done, there was no היסח הדעת. At night, when everyone was away and people were sleeping, and there was no avodah being done, at least not always, sometimes did they have 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 peirush, explanation of what the Beit Hamikdash means. What is the Mishkan? What is the Beit 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 Beit 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 Beit HaMikdash. And the Beit 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 the smartest person in the world asked the question, and there is no answer. But it's a fact. Shlomo HaMelech, we don't need any place smarter than that, ויחכם שלמה מכל האדם, he was the smartest person. Shlomo HaMelech, when he built the Beit HaMikdash, he said, השמים ושמי השמים לא יכלכלוך, אף 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's a fact. It's a תמיה קיימת, it's a question that is asked, and it's not really a question that 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 כול 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 person's feelings, which is more spiritual. The truth is, our spirituality is so close or so far to Hashem as far as a piece of wood. So just as we could 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 would be found 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, Oyfn a taave fregt men nisht keyn kashya. What does it mean, Oyfn a taave? On a desire, you cannot question. And it's not just an expression, what he means to say is that there is no explanation, it's beyond explanation why Hashem will come, this is not fulfilled 100%. Nevertheless, in the Mishkan, Hashem said ושכנתי בתוכם, I will dwell in the Mishkan, so He was there. In the Beit HaMikdash, Hashem dwelt. But since we see that there was a Mishkan, and then there was the first Beit HaMikdash, and then there was a second Beit HaMikdash, obviously, these three are stages in how much Hashem came down into this world and dwelt in this world. And everything goes in stages, and finally, the last stage will be the third Beit HaMikdash, and then it will be 100%. Now let's a little bit understand, what do we mean when we say there were stages in how much Hashem came down so to speak in this world? And what are the stages? The first, and the second, and the third, and then we will have the fourth stage. Now to be first general, the difference between the Mishkan and the Beit HaMikdash, we find like this: there are a few differences. The Mishkan was made mainly of צומח and חי. You know the world is divided into four categories: דומם, צומח, חי, and מדבר. The unmovable objects, then you have the plant life, then you have the animal life, and then you have the human being, the מדבר, the speaker, the one that has the ability to speak. Out of these four, the Mishkan was made mainly of צומח and חי. The walls were made of wood, the roof was made of skins, which is also צומח and חי, skins of animals. It was not made of דומם. It was not made of unmovable objects. They did have gold and silver, but that was only to decorate the Beit HaMikdash, but it wasn't part of the actual structure. The only thing was the יסוד, the the foundation, which was the אדנים, the only ones, but they were not part of the they were just to hold it up. But the building, the walls and the roof, which is the building, was not made of of דומם. While the Beit HaMikdash was mainly built of stone, which is דומם. So what is the pshat? It says and and there's another difference: The floor of the Mishkan was not holy, and the floor of the Beit HaMikdash is holy. When I say not holy, I didn't mean that when the when the Mishkan stood, the floor wasn't holy, the floor definitely had a קדושה. The proof is, we all know the דין of a סוטה, that when a woman who doesn't listen to her husband and they take her in and they would give her to drink from the מים המאררים, the water, it says that you have to take מעפר קרקע המשכן, you have to take the sand from the floor of the Mishkan. So obviously there was something special on the floor of the Mishkan. But still, when the Mishkan moved, there was no קדושה left in that place. There is no דין that we are not allowed to go to the desert where the Jews travelled, and had we would we find out that this and this place the Mishkan stood, that you are not allowed to stand in that place, even though the because the Mishkan isn't there. In the Beit HaMikdash the דין is we are not allowed to go on the הר הבית, on the place that the Beit HaMikdash stood now either. The קדושה is still there. So we see that the קדושה in the Beit HaMikdash is a stronger קדושה than the קדושה, the holiness that's in the that was in the Mishkan. And we also see that the קדושה of the Mishkan only went as far as being made of דומם and צומח, but not of of צומח and חי, but not of not of the lowest level, of the unmovable objects. The peshat is because the Beit HaMikdash was a second step, a further step in how far the kedushah, which what is kedushah? Ruchniyut, spirituality, Hashem! How far the kedushah of Hashem penetrated into the world. The difference is whether it came מלמעלה למטה, now since this is the spiritual explanation, the kabbalistic explai- I'm going to use terms of chasidut and Kabbalah, that in the בית המ- in the Mishkan the kedushah came מלמעלה למטה, while in the Beit HaMikdash it came מלמטה למעלה. When kedushah comes from above, מלמעלה למטה means from above down, and causes a certain effe- has a certain effect on a certain place, since it didn't come from within the bottom, from within the place itself, but it came just because there was a revelation from above, that revelation is a very strong revelation, came from above. But nevertheless, that revelation doesn't remain. It only is there as long as the revelation is there. When it leaves, the place remains secular as before, because it didn't have any effect on the place. And that is a fact. We see by Matan Torah. What do we need need more than the revelation by Matan Torah when Hashem gave the Torah? The greatest revelation that ever existed in history! What does it say? Hashem says that they should surround the mountain, no one should go on top of the mountain. Why? Because the mountain is holy. כי השם ירד עליו באש, Hashem came on the mountain. And anybody who would go on the mountain would have to get killed. That's how strict this was. Nevertheless, the pasuk says, במשוך היובל, when you will hear the shofar blow, המה יעלו בהר, they're allowed to go up the top of the mountain. So when the Shechinah left, it says when the shofar will blow, סימן נסתלקה שכינה, that's a siman that the Shechinah is left. When the Shechinah left, Har Sinai is not holy. We are allowed to go on top of Har Sinai today. We still don't know exactly which mountain it is, there's a question of one of of two mountains, but on both you are allowed to go on. Ah, the Shechinah was there, the kedushah was there. But the Shechinah left, and there is no more kedushah. In the Beit HaMikdash, when we say the Shechinah was there when the Beit HaMikdash stood, and still the Shechinah never left, means that now you are not allowed to go, the holiness is there. What is the difference? Because by Har Sinai, it wasn't that the mountain was a keli, so to speak, a vessel to receive the kedushah. The kedushah didn't come from the mountain itself, from from the mountain meaning as part of this world, from the world itself. It came מלמעלה למטה, a giluy from above down. So the As long as the revelation is there it lasts, and then it goes away. And the same was with the Mishkan. Hashem said us, build a Mishkan, it came from Hashem, and therefore when the Mishkan stood, the place was holy. When the Mishkan was taken away, the place wasn't holy. And more than that, even when the revelation came, since the revelation only came from above, it only penetrated to a certain point. So, since the Mishkan, we say the Mishkan was made only of צומח and חי, it wasn't made at the lowest level, that represents that the kedushah didn't penetrate so low. That's why it only went as far as דומם and צומח and חי. The Beit HaMikdash was already a time later, with the next preparation, a time of the Beit HaMikdash as we say there the kedushah came already as a result of the avodah of the people. After many years and many עבודות that the people did, and they bought the place, so Hashem said that means that the מטה, down here, doesn't mean that the floor did anything, but down here, people of this world, the מטה which is here, they already brought kedushah mi-lematah le-ma'alah. They brought the kedushah down from their own avodah. Now when the kedushah comes down from from down here, and it pulls it down מלמטה למעלה, the avodah from מטה, so then that means that the object where the kedushah comes is penetrated with the with the kedushah. The place that the way it was before, the first level, it doesn't penetrate. Because it and at home there's nothing, it has no kedushah, but if it penetrates because it is worked upon, it is pulled מלמטה, then it stays there. And that's why by the Beit HaMikdash, both things happened: the kedushah penetrated even into the lower object of the world, even דומם, the unmovable objects also were holy. The Beit HaMikdash was made of stone. Plus, the kedushah stayed there, and it never left. And this is the the the second step in what we say דירה בתחתונים and how much kedushah, Godliness, is in this world, how far it went, and in which way it stayed. But this is only the first Beit HaMikdash. Obviously there must be a second step in the second Beit HaMikdash.

We find an interesting thing between the first and second Beit HaMikdash which will show that there is a next step. We said that the second Beit HaMikdash was a lower level than the first. The second one, there were five things missing in the second one, and it said the kedushah of the second Beis Hamikdash was a lower level than the kedushah of the first. On the other hand, the second Beis Hamikdash stood longer. As we quoted before, גדול יהיה כבוד הבית הזה האחרון מן הראשון, this בית will be greater than the first, it means in time it stood years longer, and it also was a bigger building. Even though the kedushah was lower, but the building and the time, it was stronger. Another thing we find, that when the time of the first Beis Hamikdash, we said that the kedushah remained even after the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed. But we know that not only was the Beis Hamikdash holy, but as a result of that, at the same time, the whole of Eretz Yisrael was holy. The Beis Hamikdash is the holiest of all, but Eretz Yisrael was holy. When the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, the kedushah of Eretz Yisrael left. The Rambam paskent that קדושה ראשונה קידשה לשעתה ולא קידשה לעתיד לבוא. That when the Eretz Yisrael was holy, it was only holy for the time when it lasted, but then left. But after, when they made it holy a second time, when they built the second Beis Hamikdash, after the destruction of the second Beis Hamikdash, the kedushah still stayed in Eretz Yisrael. So on one hand, the kedushah of the second is lower, on the other hand we see something more: it lasted longer the Beis Hamikdash, the building was bigger, and the kedushah that it brought into the whole of Eretz Yisrael lasted longer. What is the pshat? So it says in chassidus and kabbalah that this is a next stage in the kedushah. The difference between the first Beis Hamikdash and second Beis Hamikdash, even though we said the Beis Hamikdash was already a level that the kedushah came מלמטה למעלה, but just in short, the difference is just to use an example: you have a רב and a תלמיד, a teacher and a student, and the teacher teaches his student all kinds of ideas. So we have really three levels, three possible levels. One level is that the student listens to the teacher, and whatever his teacher says to him, that's all he got, that's all he has, that's what he takes. So, as long as that Torah that he remembers what the teacher told him, it'll be there. If he doesn't, there's nothing left, cuz he on his own doesn't reach anything. He just receives what was given to him. Then we have a student who, after he receives what was given to him, he himself develops his own idea. But there also you have like two levels. You have a student who develops it and constantly it's all based on what was given to him. And you have another level that not only that, he becomes his own. Now he is able on his own to reach ideas without even consciously being connected to what was given to him from the teacher. And the same is, using this as an example, concerning the kedushah that came from Hashem. You have a level of kedushah that came down, that is just מלמעלה. מלמעלה, it came, it was like this the teacher who teaches and that's it. As long as As long as it's there, it's there, and when it goes away, it goes away. Then you have the concept of it causing that the student on his own is also starting to develop. That means that the kedushah caused that the the world down here that was the receiver of the kedushah, the world down here also is is absorbed with the kedushah on its own. But there itself you have these two levels. It's a possibility of the world being absorbed, just being absorbed on its own, but constantly based on what was given from above, or he starts developing his own ideas. Which means the kedushah is that you, on your own, without even consciously having been pushed from above, is able to have kedushah. Now what do we mean we have our own kedushah? The truth is everything comes from Hashem, but the world, in essence, is a place that was created by Hashem, has Elokus, has godliness in it. Now what it means is that the world, on its own, without being pushed from above, is able to realize its own kedushah. That's the the the furthest step. Now on one hand, if we analyze these different levels, the third level would be lower than the other because you could we start comparing the level of the student developing his own ideas completely on his own and compare that to the idea he developed as constantly he felt the idea of his teacher, but definitely the one that based on his teacher is much stronger because after all this is his teacher and that's his own, the other one is lower. On the other hand, in which one will we say that it penetrated the student more? Where do you have more of the student? In the the third level because there it's completely developed by himself. And the same here here also, the Mishkan was a גילוי מלמעלה, a revelation from above, and that's all it lasted. The Beis Hamikdash was already when it was developed from below. But the first Beis Hamikdash still was developed from below what was given from above, and the second Beis Hamikdash was developed from below as below. And we start to see the different things: the first Beis Hamikdash was built by tzadikim, and the second Beis Hamikdash was built by baalei teshuvah. That's proof, the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, why was it destroyed? מפני חטאינו גלינו מארצנו, because we sinned, we were chased out from our land. So they were עוברי עבירה. When we got the second Beis Hamikdash, obviously they did teshuvah. If they wouldn't do teshuvah, there would be no second Beis Hamikdash. So the second Beis Hamikdash came from baalei teshuvah. The first Beis Hamikdash came from tzadikim. The people at the time of Shlomo Hamelech were all great tzadikim. What is the peshat? A difference between a tzadik and a baal teshuvah is as follows: a tzadik is somebody who takes everything that's given to him, all the thing that was set from above by Hashem, he does it. He does it on his own, sure, he does it not just given from above and then he doesn't know what he's doing, he does it on his own, but all he does is is he takes the things that are given and he utilizes it. A baal teshuvah doesn't do that. A baal teshuvah doesn't feel this revelation that's given from above that he should be able to utilize it because what's a baal teshuvah? A person who was far away and he becomes close. Now if he's far away before he does teshuvah, he is no has no ability, no vessel of feeling these different revelations from above. So what makes him do teshuvah? From within. For some reason he himself is developed himself that he realizes the truth, that he himself is has a neshamah and he's part of Hashem. So the difference between a tzadik and a baal teshuvah is that a tzadik is taking the revelation from above and working with that, and a baal teshuvah as it says in the Zohar doesn't take it from above. Everything is the koach, the power, the strength is given from above, but generally speaking it's something that comes from below, from within himself. So the first Beis Hamikdash, even though it was not like the Mishkan that the revelation just came from above, but nevertheless it's the revelation that came from above utilized by the people, similar to a tzaddik. So it is from below, מלמטה למעלה, as I said in the beginning, the Mishkan was מלמעלה למטה, from above down, while the Beit Hamikdash was מלמטה למעלה, but still the first Beit Hamikdash was just taking the מלמטה למעלה developing what's given, while the second Beit Hamikdash was completely like people of our like baal teshuvah, like a baal teshuvah would act. Interesting thing we see the difference between the Mishkan and the Beit Hamikdash, that the Beit Hamikdash was built by David and Shlomo. David started it and Shlomo continued it. And it says that the expression says that it was built in the time of קיימא סיהרא באשלמותא, time when the moon is at its full. Why? Because the fifteenth day, fourteenth fifteenth day of the month, that's where the moon is full. Till then it's small and gets bigger, and after that it starts getting smaller, but fourteenth fifteenth is when about those days the moon is full. David and Shlomo were the fourteenth and fifteenth generation, so it was the fourteenth and fifteenth generation that the Beit Hamikdash was built, קיימא סיהרא באשלמותא, like the moon is full. Why do we compare it to the moon? Everything is exact and this is It says in Torah, must be a meaning to it. Because in chassidut and Kabbalah, the sun and the moon, the sun is always referred to as the mashpia, the giver, the moon is always the mekabel, the taker. That's why Hashem is compared to the sun. There is a pasuk, it says in תהלים, שמש ומגן השם אלקים. Like the sun and its cover is השם אלקים. So Hashem is like the sun. Who is the receiver? We, the creation as a whole, especially we Jews. Hashem is the mashpia, the giver, we are the taker. The first, the Mishkan, was completely מלמעלה למטה, from above. That was completely mashpia, only the giver had part. He brought the kedushah and that's it. The Beit Hamikdash already, the kedushah of the Beit Hamikdash came already as a result למטה, that the mekabel, we, the receivers, had part. But still, the way it was in the first Beit Hamikdash, it was still the second level, not the third. That the kedushah came and it penetrated into the gashmiyut, but still it wasn't like the third level. The third level was a level which is completely from below. Now therefore, as far as the level of kedushah, if you compare the third to the second, I mean the second to the first, which is the third level, the second Beit haMikdash is the third if you start from the Mishkan, so the second Beit haMikdash was in a lower level of kedushah. Because in the example I'm giving is the same, that when the student figured out things on his own, it's not as great and as strong as the one that was given to him from above, and certainly not as the and also not as the one that he figured out based on what he was given from above. But on the other hand, if you want to ask, where did he put his effort in? Where is he more involved? In the third one, because the third one really is him. And in using it in our case, where would we say is the world, so to speak, more involved? The beriah, the creation, the receiver more involved, in the second or in the third? That's in the third, even though the kedushah is lower. And that answers our question. The first Beit haMikdash was greater than the second, but the second had more of the world. And that's why the second Beit haMikdash was greater than the first in these two things: in time, how long it lasted, and in space, how big it was. Because time and space, that is the world. Creation is made up of time and space. But the first Beit haMikdash was greater as far as the kedushah is concerned. It had the aron in its proper place, it had everything else, there was the fire on the mizbeach came מן השמים, the kedushah was greater. But the kedushah didn't come from the world as much as from the second Beit haMikdash. The second Beit haMikdash had more of the Beit haMikdash in time and in space. The purpose really is, the goal is to reach a third level, a fourth level, and that is to have the level of kedushah as it was in the first Beit haMikdash, and still it should be part of the world, penetrate so deep into the creation that the creation itself, part of the creation should be that level of kedushah. Which really would mean a combination of what was in the first Beit haMikdash and the second Beit haMikdash, the kedushah of the first and the level of the second together. Now that's going to be the level, the fourth level, the level of the third Beit haMikdash. And it says in the פסוק, ושמתי כדכד שמשותיך. Hashem says, your שמש, your sun will be כדכד. What is כדכד? The Gemara says that there are two angels, actually angels of heaven, that argued what is the meaning of this pasuk. One said shoham and one said yashfeh. One said it will be the stone called shoham, it's a kind of precious stone, and one said it will be yashfeh. And the Oibershter said, Hashem said, \"You know what I'll do? I'll do כדין וכדין. I'll do both, like this and like that.\" And that's what כדכד means. Means it's made up of the two words, כדין וכדין, this and that. Now in spiritual sense, what does that mean? That the third Beit haMikdash will be כדין וכדין. It will be like both. It'll have the מעלות of the first, it'll have the מעלות of the second, and together, that will be the structure that will be last forever in time, it will be the biggest in space, and the kedushah will penetrate into the whole world, and it'll come from within us, and it will have the highest kedushah of Hashem. And that's why we see that the coming Shabbos is called Shabbos Nachamu. Why is it called nachamu? Because the haftarah starts with the words נחמו נחמו עמי. Why does the pasuk say twice? נחמו נחמו means comfort, comfort my nation. Why does it say twice? So, one there are many peshatim, one of the peshatim is comfort them for the first בית המקדש and comfort them for the second בית המקדש. But why do we need a comfort for both? We only need a comfort for the second, because after the first we got the second. Now, after the second is destroyed, we have to be comforted for it. It's all like one thing, it's not two separate things. After the first we had to be comforted for that, but we were comforted for that. Now something else happened and we need comfort for that. The answer is no, we need comfort for both because what we want is we want both. because the second בית המקדש was missing the level of the first, and now we're missing the ma'alah of the second, which is the fact that it came from within. What we want is the combination of both. That's why it says נחמו נחמו, נחמו for the first and נחמו for the second, so that we have both. That the kedushah of Hashem, the דירה בתחתונים, the dwelling place for Hashem is down here, which means how much of Hashem will penetrate into this physical world, it should penetrate all the way down, coming from within the world, and what part, what level so to speak, the highest level of kedushah, the highest level of spirituality of אלוקות comes to this world. This is in general, in short, the way Chassidus, Kabbalah explains the levels of the בית המקדש, the stages of the first and second, the Mishkan, the first, the second, and the third, and what it means as far as the דירה בתחתונים, the kedushah that's brought down. And I said I would also discuss a little bit korbanot. But just in short because the time is running out. What is the concept of korbanot? And we know that the purpose, as we said, according to the Rambam at least, the purpose of building the בית המקדש was for korbanot. בית, you should build a house, מוכן להיות מקריב, it's got to be ready to do korbanot. So we see that korbanot is a very important part of the בית המקדש. Plus korbanot בכלל is a very important part of Yiddishkeit. It's said in Pirkei Avot: על שלשה דברים העולם עומד, the world stands on three things: תורה, עבודה, וגמילות חסדים. What is avodah? Avodah means korbanot. Now, korbanot is a mitzvah like all mitzvot. So why is that considered one of the poles that the world stands on? Why doesn't he say the world stands on tefillin, Shabbos, and kashrut, for instance? Because we don't take an individual mitzvah to make that into a pillar. That's an individual mitzvah. If korbanot is one of the three pillars, obviously that's a very major thing. Now we don't have korbanot, so we have תפילה במקום קרבנות, תפילה in the place of korbanot. But really korbanot is the avodah that is a pillar in itself. Why is korbanot a pillar in itself? Obviously korbanot is a very important part. What is the inyan of korbanot? Korbanot is called in in Chumash it's called the bread of Hashem, the food of Hashem. Now Hashem eats food? Why is it called the food of Hashem? Korbanot really represents the whole purpose of the creation of the world and Hashem creating us and Hashem giving us Torah u-mitzvot, it's all in korbanot. What does Hashem want of us doing Torah u-mitzvot, learning Torah and doing mitzvot? It's all based on the same concept of דירה בתחתונים. Hashem wants us Again, why he wants, we have no idea. There's no explanation. But we know what he wants. He wants us to bring holiness into this world, which means, in other words, to elevate this physical world to a higher level. And every time we do a mitzvah, that's what we do. We elevate the world. And that, by doing that, we fulfill the purpose of creation. It's said in the in the Midrash that why did Hashem give us mitzvot? לא ניתנו מצוות אלא לצרף בהם את הבריות, to purify the people. What does that mean? The simple meaning, oh, to make the person have good middot. For instance, it says that מה איכפת ליה שוחט מן הצוואר או שוחט מן העורף, what does Hashem care if he שחט in the neck or he שחט in the, from the throat? Makes no difference. And still he wants us to שחט from the throat, because that's more humane, צער בעלי חיים, this way it hurts less. And that's why he gave us the mitzvah to change our character. That's how you learn פשוט פשט without looking further into it with Kabbalah or Chassidut. But if you look at that, it's very hard to understand. Because can we really say that Hashem created the world, put us here to purify, to give us to change our character, as if the whole purpose of Torah is for the sake of human beings? Is that possible? The world was the Torah was there before the creation of the world, before any human beings were around, before there was any bad nature in human beings that he should have to create, he should have to give us the Torah so we should change our nature. Don't make any people with bad nature and don't have to change it. The reason what the Midrash means that Hashem gave us the Torah and mitzvot to purify us and the world, which means this דירה בתחתונים. He wants This is an essential will, desire of Hashem that we should bring kedushah into this low world. And this low world, which is referred to in Tanya as עולם התחתון שאין תחתון למטה הימנו, the lowest world that there's nothing lower than that. And that's where he gave the Torah and wants us to elevate it. Now, with every mitzvah that we do, this is what happens. But there is one mitzvah that we actually physically see that this is what happens, and that is the mitzvah of קרבנות. When we actually take a physical animal, and we שחט it, and we put it onto the מזבח, the מזבח had a fire that came down מן השמים, from heaven. So, we actually physically burnt an animal, which is part of the physical world, and it became part of the fire which came from Hashem. And even in the second Beit HaMikdash where the fire did not come מן השמים, but at least it was a fire for the sake of Hashem. So when they put down the קרבן there, and it was burned, and the nature of fire is to go up, so this is a mitzvah that physically represents what in essence all mitzvot have to do. And that's why קרבנות is such an important mitzvah. Now, in קרבנות itself, we find, as we mentioned before, there were two מזבחות. The big מזבח stood here, and that was for קרבנות, and inside here you had the little מזבח, מזבח הזהב, the golden one, מזבח הפנימי, that was for קטורת. Now, among all the קרבנות, the most precious one, so to speak, was the קטורת, the spices that they brought. As we see that on Yom Kippur, when the כהן גדול went into the קדש הקדשים, Holy of Holies, once a year to do the special service of the year, what did he do there? He brought קטורת for Hashem. He brought the קטורת. Well, קטורת was, in קרבנות, represented even more. Now, why is this? How does ketoret represent this concept even more? Because when we say that they brought korbanot, the korbanot were nevertheless kasher animals. So when we say that this represents the fact that we elevate the world, they only elevated the kasher world. Everyone understands that things which are not kasher are definitely on a lower level than things that are kasher. So the korbanot only represented the fact that we elevated the kasher world. What about elevating the non-kasher things? It's created, and if it was created in this world, obviously it was created for a purpose, like ברא, כל מה שברא הקדוש ברוך הוא בעולמו לא ברא דבר אחד לבטלה, whatever Hashem created was not in vain. What was the purpose of everything in the world? Everything, like כל מה שברא הקדוש ברוך הוא בעולמו לא ברא אלא לכבודו, everything is for His honor. Everything has to be utilized for His honor. So even the non-kasher world, how do we how do we elevate it? So the truth is that forget about korbanot for a moment, but our job in elevating the non-kasher world is by rejecting it. It's also a form of elevation. If someone offers you a piece of chazir and you say, \"Sorry, I'm not going to eat it,\" this causes an elevation of that piece of chazir. We can't elevate it in a positive way, it's only through a negative, through not doing it. There is only one exception of elevating even a chazir, or even non-kasher things, it's about teshuvah. We say a person does תשובה, זדונות נעשו לו כזכיות, his aveirot become like mitzvot, especially by food. So if this person ate chazir, for instance, when he was not when before he did teshuvah, and that became part of him, so this person, this human being, part of him is chazir. That's why eating non-kasher food is worse, in one way, than doing all the other aveirot. 'Cause other aveirot are outside of you, while food goes in you. So on one hand, this person is alive now because of chazir. When he does whatever he does now, it's all because of that If he wouldn't eat the food that night that he did, let's say, two days in a row he ate chazir, if he would have not eaten that chazir, he would have died, in simple terms. So now he's alive because of chazir. That's terrible. But on the other hand, now that he serves Hashem and he does the mitzvot, so he utilizes his life, his being, for the sake of Hashem, so that chazir that he ate is elevated. That's the only way to elevate it in a positive way: taking chazir and eating it and then elevating it. You can't do it unless it was done already. Someone could say, \"Okay, I'll go out and eat chazir, so I'll elevate it.\" אחטא ואשוב, אין מספיקין, you can't do it. But if it happened, it's done. But otherwise you can't. In ketoret, they elevated the non-kasher world, too, because one of the ingredients in the ketoret was non-kasher, מור, it was blood of a non-kasher bird, and that was part of the ketoret. So that shows that ketoret represents, even more than the korbanot, the concept of elevating the physical world to a higher level. It shows even more. And that explains an interesting thing. The Rambam says in Moreh Nevuchim, in The Guide for the Perplexed, he explains, he gives reasons for many mitzvot. He gives a reason for קטורת, and he says a reason that many of the commentaries don't accept. His reason is that since they brought a lot of korbanot in the Beit haMikdash, and they slaughtered a lot of meat, animals, burnt a lot of meat, it had a very bad smell. They had to bring the spices that would, like a deodorant for the Beit haMikdash. And many of the commentaries say, how can the Rambam say a thing like that? קטורת, which is one of the most important עבודות, is because of deodorizing the Beit haMikdash? Well, it's said in sefarim that the Rambam, when he did when he wrote this, he had in mind what we're saying now, the kabbalistic explanations, because the Rambam, as it is known by Chassidim, the Rambam learned Kabbalah. No matter what other people say, and it's brought in other sefarim, the Rambam did not learn Kabbalah, nevertheless, we have in tradition from the Baal Shem Tov, which goes on from before, that the Rambam did learn Kabbalah. But in his time it was not time to reveal it yet, so he didn't reveal it, and the Rambam learned the Zohar and learned other and learned Kabbalah. As a matter of fact, There are certain הלכות in the Rambam that there is no source to it, and one of the sources is the Zohar. Some write that this is based on Kabbalah where it says that in פ\"ד, after his 40 years, whatever it is, that the Rambam learned Kabbalah. So this thing that the Rambam says in Moreh Nevuchim, that the ענין of the קטורת is to take away the bad smell, what he means is, that this would explain in Kabbalistic, it means: what is the קטורת? To elevate the world, and even the bad smell of the world which represents the evil of the world. The unkosher world, that's what he means. The קטורת took away the bad smell, so קטורת represented the elevating of the world. And that's why this was so important, because this is the essence of the whole Torah. It's all broken up into different mitzvot, but the essence of it all is one thing: to bring אלוקות into this world. And that's why when we will do it all, when Mashiach will come, what's gonna happen? What's gonna happen when Mashiach will come? You think people think, \"Oh, we'll have a lot of food.\" True, everything will grow on the trees, says in the, it says in the Gemara, silk garments will grow on the trees. You want a baked challah, you walk over to the tree, pull off a challah. Very good. מעדנים כעפר, all the goodies will be so much, like sand. That's what Mashiach, is that what we're waiting for Mashiach? For some better food? Maybe some people are. But I doubt we here are waiting for Mashiach, a better steak? It is, like they once asked somebody, \"Why do you cry about the חורבן בית המקדש?\" \"Well, a lot of bad things happened.\" \"Bad things? For instance, what bad thing happened?\" \"Well, things changed.\" \"What changed?\" \"Well, give an example. Food.\" \"Food? Ha!\" The Gemara says that from when the חורבן בית המקדש was, all the taste of the meat went out. There is no taste, good taste to meat. So he said to him, \"But, you know, the Gemara continues and says all the taste went out of the meat and went into the bones.\" \"So eat the bones! You have the taste! What's the problem?\" \"The bones are very hard.\" \"So you use your teeth.\" \"I don't have no teeth.\" \"Ah, so you're crying why you don't have teeth? That's a different story altogether! So it's not because of the חורבן בית המקדש. You're crying because you don't have teeth.\" That's not what we're waiting for Mashiach, to have good teeth, to be able to eat the bones, or we won't have to use the teeth because the meat will taste good, or because the things will grow on the tree. What we're waiting for Mashiach is because ונגלה כבוד ה', the glory of Hashem will be revealed, and Godliness will be felt in the world. וראו כל בשר יחדו כי פי ה' דיבר, that the flesh will see Hashem. What will bring that? All our Torah and mitzvot that we do. Every time we do a mitzvah, we elevate a little bit more of the world. When all that gets together, the whole world will feel Godliness. Now this is the purpose of the every mitzvah. Korbanot represents this in a very specific way because by korbanot we actually see it, how you take a korban and you elevate it. And this to finish off, this is one of the reasons why it says that the table of a Yid, the table that you eat on is compared to a mizbeach where you bring korbanot. We all know the din that you're not allowed to sit on a table. It doesn't mean a table that you learn Torah on, a table that you eat food on, you're not allowed to sit on. זה השלחן... The pasuk starts off with mizbeach, and finishes off with שלחן. The reason is because really when we eat, it's the same idea. The purpose of our eating is that when we eat l'shem shamayim, with a, with a true intention for the sake of Hashem, we elevate the food. So really when we eat, it's like a korban, it reaches Hashem. Here it's not seen because no one knows what goes on in a person's mind, but by the mizbeach, they actually saw it being elevated to Hashem. And that's why korbanot were one of the most important things. So all I could say and finish off, that der Eibershter zol helfen, now we're talking about the בית המקדש, we're talking about korbanot, we're learning about it, we're actually as I explained in the beginning, we are building the בית המקדש by learning about the בית המקדש. But let me tell you, we could say to Hashem, \"You're right. You gave us now an opportunity also to build, but we don't want to be yotzei with this kind of building, by just speaking and learning about it. We actually want to build the בית המקדש.\" And the only way it'll come is through Torah and mitzvot, but in addition to that, Hashem is waiting to see whether we really want it. We really want Mashiach. And that's what we have to do. We have to show Hashem that we really want. Which means constantly, constantly say to Hashem, \"We're waiting, we can't wait. עד מתי? How long will we wait?\" Actually, we all we do it three times a day, but we don't even think what we're saying. In Shemoneh Esrei, we say, \"את צמח דוד עבדך מהרה תצמיח\". We ask Hashem, bring the the growth or the blossoming of David. \"ותחזינה עינינו בשובך לציון ברחמים\", may our eyes see. We ask Hashem that our eyes see that You You return to Tzion. So we ask, but you know unfortunately we don't even think what we're saying by Shemoneh Esrei. So we have to think what we're saying and not only when we say that, but constantly say to Hashem, \"עד מתי? How long do we have to wait? We waited enough already. Almost 2,000 years. All the tzarot we had already, whatever you want, everything is finished. We're not here, we don't want to be yotzei with learning about the Beit Hamikdash, but we actually want to see the building of the Beit Hamikdash through משיח במהרה בימינו.\"