Tu B’Av & The 3rd Beis HaMikdash [#14108]

August 2, 2021

Question:

1) In the shiur which the Rav gave about Tu B’Av, the Rav explained several novel insights. Tu B’Av is a “light of the future” which reveals a glimmer of the future revelation that there was never truly a destruction of the Beis HaMikdash – because the third Beis HaMikdash, which is the true and eternal Beis HaMikdash, had been in Heaven all along during all this time; and also the light of Tu B’Av reveals “retroactively” that Tisha B’Av was really a festival all along.
The

Question:

is: While it’s true that the third Beis HaMikdash was never destroyed, there certainly was a destruction that took place to the first and second Beis HaMikdash. So what does it mean that there will be a revelation that there had never been a destruction of the Beis HaMikdash?

Answer:

It is written about the future that we will say, “Then, we were like dreamers” (Tehillim 131:2). We will be shown that whatever we saw in this exile was entirely from a lower world, a lower perception, when compared to the higher world and higher perception that we will be in the future, which will make this lower world into a fantasy when compared to that higher world. Compare this to a person who gets older and matures, who views a child as living in a fantasy world. But for the time being, as long as you remain on the lower world and you have its perspective, it is reality for you. That is the secret of Creation – the fact that there are levels of worlds within Creation, and a lower world has a lower perception and is considered a fantasy when we have the view from the world that is above it.

Question:

2) Is the third Beis HaMikdash an entirely new structure independent from the first and second Beis HaMikdash? Or is it the inner dimension of the first and second Beis HaMikdash, which will be revealed in the future and which is currently in Heaven and it will be fully revealed when it descends onto our world?

Answer:

The [Heavenly] Beis HaMikdash is the root, while the first and second Beis HaMikdash were its branches.

Question:

3) Also, since Tu B’Av is the glimmer of light from the future revealing how there never was a destruction, why then do we cry and mourn every year over the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash if really there was never a destruction? While it’s truth that this is a revelation which will only be in the future, the Rav has explained that this light is shining already now, so why do we ignore that light?

Answer:

In the Gemara, the view of Rebbi Shimon is that “retroactively” only means “from now and onward it is retroactive”, as opposed to “retroactively” in the simple sense. In the the world we are in now, there is destruction and that is the actual reality, practically speaking and in the halachic sense. But when compared to the revelation of the future, all of This World is a fantasy.

Question:

4) Is Tu B’Av connected with the concept of getting up after Chatzos on Tisha B’Av where we console ourselves, where amidst the day of destruction we reveal a light, the light of consolation (nechamah), and is that consolation essentially the inner light that there never was a destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, and we reveal that light precisely amidst that dark day?

Answer:

Yes! Yes! But it is only a spark of the light, not the absolute level of the light.

Question:

5) The sefer Bnei Yissocher states the third Beis HaMikdash will be built in the month Cheshvan, but the Pesikta states that it will be rebuilt a few days after Tisha B’Av. Is there a disagreement here in Chazal about when the 3rd Beis HaMikdash will be rebuilt?

Answer:

Av is when it will begin to be built, and Cheshvan is when it will be finished. It will begin to be built in Av, which implies beginning (an av/father precedes his child, and Av is an acronym for Aleph Beis, the beginning two letters), also referring to the level of the human being, thus the 3rd Beis HaMikdash will begin to be built in Av. It will finish being built in Cheshvan, which contains the letters of the word “Nachash” (Serpent), which will be the revelation of the concept of “Serpent” on the side of holiness – just as the Serpent was cursed with having to slither by the “heels”, which is the endpoint, so will the “Serpent” on the side of holiness by the endpoint that will reveal holiness.

Question:

6) In the Kinnos, we cry over the ten holy martyrs who were killed al kiddush Hashem by the Romans, but astoundingly there is a novel interpretation from Rabbeinu Bechaye (parshas Mikeitz 44:17) who says that a miracle happened for them and their bodies were switched with goyim who were killed instead of them – and in addition they didn’t even suffer any pain. HaGaon R’ Y.M. Morgenstern shlit”a explained that even though one of the sages screamed the entire night, it was not because of any physical pain, but because he was in pain over the chilul Hashem that the generation thought that the sages were being killed and disgraced. And sefer Arvei Nachal (parshas Masei) says that he has a tradition that anyone killed al kiddush Hashem doesn’t feel any pain. But according to Rabbeinu Bechayeh the sages were not killed nor did they suffer any physical pain. According to his novel interpretation, why then do we need to cry over them during Kinnos if really they weren’t killed because their bodies were miraculously switched for goyim instead of them?

Answer:

There is the mode of nature, and in nature there was a decree of death on them, thus we cry over the destruction that was unleashed on them in the form of the harsh decree on them. Those sages rose from there through a miracle. But the decree remained in nature, and it wasn’t annulled. So the crying over them is not about the results of the decree, if they would be sentenced to die or not – rather the crying was about the very decree itself, the destruction that had descended onto the world and which was dominating then, regardless of what the results of it would be.