Q&A: The Attitude Toward the Temple in Our Time
The Attitude Toward the Temple in Our Time
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I read your remarks about the attitude toward the Temple in our time, and I would like to respond to some of them. I would be glad to hear your opinion on this.
A. Regarding the halakhic issue, the commandment involved—you try to rely on the words of Rashi and Tosafot that the Temple will descend already built from heaven, but it is clear that this is not a halakhic statement that the commandment to build the Temple has been canceled; rather, it is an aggadic statement.
The statements about a Temple from heaven are just a possible way to answer a question that arises from the words of the Talmud. It is saying that there is a miraculous possibility that this is how things will happen, and that possibility resolves the Talmudic statement. But clearly (as I understand it), this is not a ruling that we are to wait passively until that miracle happens, for we do not rely on miracles, and every commandment in the Torah is a commandment upon us—not a commandment upon the Holy One, blessed be He.
Rashi himself writes that the words of the prophet Ezekiel were written so that we would know how to build the Temple.
In other words: the statement that the Temple will descend from heaven is one possible answer to the question of how the building of the Temple will actually take place. The Jewish law remains as always—the obligation rests upon the Jewish people.
I think these points are simple and sensible, and it seems to me that if not for the difficulty of understanding this commandment nowadays, even you would not have imagined that there is room to set aside a commandment because of this puzzling aggadic statement.
No?
B. Even if we somehow “manage” with the halakhic issue, it is still impossible to ignore the fact that a significant part of our Judaism is a longing for the Temple and for the restoration of the service. Even if we find an exemption from actually building the Temple, still on an essential level, being a Jew includes wanting the House to be rebuilt. After all, all of our prayers are full of requests for the restoration of the service to the inner sanctum of His House, and that there we will go up and bow down. This teaches us that we are supposed to want this and anticipate it.
Would you say that one can ignore this and treat prayer as a text that we must say without any real intention, just in order to fulfill our obligation?
C. You refer to the words of Maimonides in Guide of the Perplexed, that the sacrifices were given in a world of idol worship, because that was the only way to serve God that people recognized. Based on this, you want to say that nowadays, when sacrificial worship is far removed from our world, apparently we can manage without it.
You also speak about the fact that you are not looking for a religious experience, and that from your perspective this is a primitive feeling.
First of all, Maimonides himself writes that the Messiah will restore the sacrificial service, so despite his explanation in Guide of the Perplexed, it can still be understood that this remains a commandment even in the future. (I know there are those who distinguish between the Maimonides of Guide of the Perplexed and the Maimonides of the Mishneh Torah. I do not know your opinion on that matter, but in any case—)
I think perhaps the subject can be understood like this (maybe this is also Maimonides’ intention, and maybe not): human beings have a need for spiritual experiences. This is a very basic need in the soul, and the Torah channels that psychological need in a healthy direction, toward the Temple, just as it channels us with regard to every need and tendency we have—food, sexuality, and so on. The need for spiritual experiences and for a place of holiness is a basic need, and that is what motivated the ancient idol worshipers.
Has this psychological need—which, as you say, is indeed something primordial, something fundamental and basic, much as one could say about the need for food and sexuality—disappeared from the world? Not at all. Just look at what happens among the Jewish people when there is no Temple: grave cults in Meron and Uman, and more and more. (By contrast, in order to enter the Temple one must be purified from corpse-impurity; that is, the Temple is the opposite of this, and it distances a person from grave worship.)
It may be that you do not feel such a need, but for most people, or at least for a large portion of humanity, this need and attraction exist. So one could say that even in our generation there is a need for the Temple.
I would be glad to hear your opinion on these points,
Best regards,
Answer
Hello. It would have been worthwhile to specify which of my remarks you are referring to. I cannot discuss this without knowing what your comments are about. I have written various things, some of them many years ago. I cannot discuss it without a reference.
A. I do not recall saying that in my view one should wait for the Temple to descend from heaven. Nor do I think that is what will happen. It can, however, be a basis for passivity regarding the Temple. I do not remember in what context those things were said or exactly what was said, and if you can quote it and cite the source, that would help the discussion.
B. Again, I do not know what you are referring to. What one wants and does not want is a personal matter. We need to see the specific things I wrote that you are referring to.
C. The contradictions in Maimonides are well known. I find it hard to believe that I ignored them. Again, I do not know which of my remarks you are referring to, and it would help if you brought a quote and source reference. People’s needs do not interest me at all. Let everyone fulfill his needs however he wants, and each person has different needs. The interpretation you suggested of Maimonides’ words appears in several places in my writings, so again I do not understand what the claim is and what the discussion is about.
Discussion on Answer
Regarding the contradiction between the Guide and the Mishneh Torah—there are quite a few of those, and presumably they stem from the fact that the philosophical idea is A, but the Talmud implies B. The Guide represents the philosophical truth, and Jewish law does not align with it because it thought differently. In practice, we are bound by the Talmud, but as for what to think—whatever one wants.
I’m pretty shocked. For some reason they decided to post a column from my site on Arutz 7 without asking permission and without informing me that they were doing so. In any case, I understand that your remarks refer to that, because it was published now. I honestly did not remember this column, which was written many years ago.
But once the column was posted, I did not understand what you were asking. Everything is explained there.
I did not know that the article published on Arutz 7 was old.
In any case, what I am trying to understand is:
A. You are trying to find an exemption from the commandment of building the Temple, because there are opinions that the Temple will descend from heaven, and to that I argued that these opinions are not a halakhic matter and cannot be relied upon for Jewish law.
B. Aside from Jewish law, a large part of the essence of Judaism is longing for the Temple, so how do we deal with that? One cannot turn the prayers about restoring the service and “there we will go up, appear, and bow down” into empty words to mumble in prayer just to fulfill one’s obligation. Rather, these words necessarily also educate us that this is something to aspire to.
C. You tried to rely on Maimonides’ view that sacrifices are the form of worship for those accustomed to idol worship, and you wanted to argue that this implies that as we progress there will be no need for sacrifices and a Temple.
But in my opinion, we have not progressed. We are still a people drawn to holy places, and if that attraction does not find expression in the way the Torah wants—in the Temple—there is a very strong chance it will find expression in unhealthy ways, among other things in the form of grave worship, which is very common nowadays in Uman and Meron.
So in summary: A. Jewish law obligates building the Temple. B. Aside from dry legal obligation, the prayers also educate us toward longing for it and toward the fact that we ought to build the Temple. C. Even nowadays one can still understand the need to fulfill this commandment, and even in accordance with Maimonides’ words.
I hope the questions are now clear.
Hello.
In the meantime they removed the article from Arutz 7. I was furious about what happened there. But of course it appears on the site, in column 412.
Now to your questions.
A. I was not looking for an exemption based on the above Rashi. I brought it in order to show that he too was not troubled by the commandment of building the Temple. So it really does not matter whether his words are a halakhic ruling or not. It is no worse than an incidental remark. The rule-makers wrote that one can derive Jewish law from aggadah when it appears as an incidental remark, and this is not the place to elaborate.
B. I do not see an obligation to long. Either you long or you do not. We ask the Holy One, blessed be He, to restore the service and build the Temple for us. That itself shows how little this is really on us. We do not ask Him to recite Grace after Meals or keep the Sabbath. That does not mean I am supposed to long for it, and certainly not that I am supposed to act toward it.
C. As in A, I did not rely on Maimonides—and in my view his words there are also not plausible. I brought his words in order to show an option for understanding the relativity of these commandments and their dependence on time. Regarding the impulse toward idol worship, I already wrote to you that I myself wrote this in the past and explained Maimonides’ contradiction that way. I also brought Rabbi Kook’s vision of vegetarianism.
In any case, I wrote there that there is indeed a commandment to build the Temple (and this also does not have to be for the sake of sacrifices. It could be for the indwelling of the Divine Presence). Still, I have an order of priorities regarding what I engage in and focus on, and I explained there that the commandment is a communal one and not incumbent on individuals, etc. I mentioned there that there is also a commandment of the Hebrew slave, and I have no burning urge to restore that to practice either. Circumstances change, and that can lead to commandments becoming less relevant or changing form, and certainly being given lower priority in our actions.
The question refers to this article:
https://www.inn.co.il/news/675599
I’d appreciate it if you could address it in that context