The Temple is Beyond Religion

By Moshe Feiglin

Illustration courtesy of the Temple Institute

Sometimes I think that if those called "secular" would understand the essence of the Temple, they would run to build it despite the outrage of the "religious." The Temple is the quintessential expression of the direct connection between man and his G-d. Religion only developed when the Holy Temple was taken from us. All the authenticity lacking in ceremonial religion, the aversion that attacks the secular Jew when he sees the 'meaningless' routines, as it were, in the 4 cubits of Jewish law that are all we have left since the Temple was destroyed - all the disconnection between religion and life are a byproduct of the loss of the Temple.

If the seculars would only know that they could really live - not through ceremonies, but really live the entire length and breadth of their personal, national and universal lives, with G-d literally with them - physically and metaphysically - they would run to build the Temple.

And the religious? They would oppose rebuilding the Temple, of course. Not only because they wouldn't manage to determine the Jewish law pertaining to how much, what, when and where exactly; but simply because they have become accustomed to religion. They have become comfortable with the dichotomy between faith and life. They are used to the parallel lanes that will never intersect - except for the rabbinical discourses that always end with "May the Temple be rebuilt" - but not by us, of course.

G-d, however, has His own ways to bring our redemption, the redemption of the entire world, upon us. During the period between Independence Day and Jerusalem Day let us remember that we did not return to the Sinai, Golan or Nahariya because we chose to. In the same vein, the Temple will surely be rebuilt - and it will carry us on its shoulders even though it will be we who will build it.

Shabbat Shalom