יבנה המקדש!
There are many times during the prayers when we pray for the rebuilding of the holy temple. It's my very humble opinion that it might already have happened.
The temple was the home of the Shechina, the aspect of God that is most present in the world. When the temple was destroyed, the Shechina went into exile with us. And, presumably, when we came back to Israel, she came back with us.
As I've written in an earlier post, I experience the Shechina as the energy created between two people. When I came to Jerusalem, I felt the power of this city. So many Jews here, so much energy created when they study, pray, and live together.
Maybe the Shechina has already made her home here and we didn't notice? We have built Jerusalem for a third time as a Jewish city. We live in a world where Judaism is decentralized and can never be recentralized again without destroying what was created over the past 2000 years.
So maybe we have already built the third temple, though not as it once was in all it's splendor and glory. We have built it through so many small synagogues and minyanim. Together, they shelter the Shechina.
So maybe we should not be reciting "may we be blessed to merit the re-building of the temple". but instead we should be saying: "we give thanks that we have merited to live during the time of the third Jerusalem." בנינו בית המקדש Amen.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
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2 comments:
That is a really lovely thought. I often wonder if we freed the Shekhinah when the temple fell and allowed her to infuse the world.
The traditional view is that the Shechina was God's gift to the Jewish people. It's what made us special, so to speak. I have lots of problems with the arrogance that usually follows that statement: the shechina allows us to reach spiritual heights which are not possible to non-Jews.
Instead, I read it as saying that the shechina is our path. Interaction with the Shechina allows us to connect to the higher sephirot, so is essential to any Jew.
I make no comparison to other religions, because, notably, I'm not one of them so don't truly understand their spirituality. I just know that this is where Jews go. Other religions have their own paths which may lead them to call God by a different name. But there's only one God, so we're all getting to the same place in the end.
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