UBIQUITOUS

It will be obvious to see the Beis HaMikdash. It will be a tailormade vision, fitting each person perfectly. * Progress becomes organic, one’s very nature.

By Rabbi Boruch Merkur

The Rambam writes that in a certain year, “prophecy will return to the Jewish people.”[1] “There is no doubt that the resurgence of prophecy is the stage preceding Moshiach (as it says, “your sons and daughters will prophecy”[2]).[3]

*

On Shabbos Chazon, “every single Jew is shown from afar the Mikdash, the Holy Temple, of the Future Era”[4]), as illustrated by the allegory of a father who gives his son a garment, a beautiful article of clothing, representing the Beis HaMikdash. (“A father has a precious son, for whom he made an elegant garment, etc.” Curiously, the analogy of a garment alludes to the Beis HaMikdash, a building).

Here, clothing signifies how the Mikdash is experienced in a more relevant, engaged way (makif ha’karov), being close to the person (closer than makif ha’rachok, which is symbolized by a building, a house, for a shelter is more removed from the person himself than clothing, which fits the body closely), as in the tailormade, custom-fitting garments of the Kohanim (in the Beis HaMikdash)

In this sense, awareness of the true savior of the Jewish people is more inspired on this day, Shabbos Chazon.[5]

*

In this allegory, the Beis HaMikdash takes the form of a garment, which is made to fit the one who wears it. Our relationship to Hashem is not limited to the overall shelter a house provides from a distance, but tailormade as Hashem’s “garment,” whose every detail embodies its Divine construction.

Thus, the Beis HaMikdash imparts the power* for the avoda that a Jew, each Jew, must express – that his or her connection to Hashem should not only be a general commitment, but an individualized dynamic that fits like a garment, in every detail.

*( FN 63: See Shaar HaEmuna, where it says that in order to achieve the vision and perception of Divine power within the world - as it will be in the Future Era, when “all creations will know, etc.” - it is specifically by true ardor in robustly cleansing the natural inclination, all one’s materialistic drives. Every coarse desire must be transformed from one extreme to the other.)

This approach engages all one’s faculties. One’s entire mind is focused on understanding Divinity, “l’daas daas Bor’am - to be mindful of knowledge of the Creator.”[6] The emotion of love - its definition and quality - is love of G-d (and likewise with all the other drives, middos). As a result, there is no possibility for any feeling other than as it is directed to Hashem.[7]

Then, taking the direct path becomes natural,** speeding up and eliciting the experience of the Beis HaMikdash.

**FN 65: See at length Likkutei Sichos Vol. 17,[8] where it interprets “all flesh will see” to mean that beholding the “glory of G-d” in the Future Era will be ubiquitous. Divine revelation will be obvious to all, for it will emerge from one’s personality and from the nature of his or her body.

The paradigm for this pervasive awareness of Divinity is vision, the way the human eye presently sees physical things …

In this way, progress becomes organic, one’s very nature. The nature and quality of all of one’s individual attributes is devotion to Hashem, which is not the case when one merely subdues and compels the heart to love G-d.

NOTES:

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[1] Igeres Teiman

[2] Yoel 3:1

[3] Seifer HaSichos 5751, pg. 788

[4] as in the well-known teaching of the Chassid Reb Hillel of Paritch, in the name of the Berditchever Rebbe.

[5] Seifer HaSichos 5751, pg. 723. Fascinatingly, the Rebbe alludes to a third step. That is, not just a house, not just clothing, but something more internalized to the person: the enjoyment of and pleasure in eating and drinking. See Likkutei Torah, Zos HaBracha 98d ff.

[6] Rambam’s Laws of Kings, end.

[7] Likkutei Sichos Vol. 29, pg. 25

[8] pg. 93, end ff., where it is discussed.