Parsha Massei: Did We Destroy the Beit Hamikdash or Did it Destroy Us?

וְעָ֥שׂוּ לִ֖י מִקְדָּ֑שׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּ֖י בְּתוֹכָֽם׃
And the shall make for me a sanctuary and I will dwell among them

Shemot/Exodus 25:8

 וְלֹ֧א תְטַמֵּ֣א אֶת־הָאָ֗רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֤ר אַתֶּם֙ יֹשְׁבִ֣ים בָּ֔הּ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אֲנִ֖י שֹׁכֵ֣ן בְּתוֹכָ֑הּ כִּ֚י אֲנִ֣י יְהֹוָ֔ה שֹׁכֵ֕ן בְּת֖וֹךְ בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ {פ}

And you shall not defile the land where you reside, in which I dwell, for I am the Lord Who dwells among the children of Israel.

Bamidbar/Numbers35:34

The Torah is not enamoured about the idea of royalty. It grudgingly allows for the designation of a king should that become the will of the People.  The other thing which the Torah sems to show no interest in at all is the idea of a Beit Mikdash.  We are given no indication that the beautifully and meticulously designed Mishkan/Tabernacle was ever meant to be supplanted by a permanent edifice. Indeed we are told:

וְעָ֥שׂוּ לִ֖י מִקְדָּ֑שׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּ֖י בְּתוֹכָֽם ׃
And they shall make for me a sanctuary and I will dwell among them
Shemot/Exodus 25:8

The verse does not tell us ושכנתי בתוכו  that God will “dwell in it”, but that He will “dwell among them”. The word “them” can refer only to the Bnei Israel, the idea being that once in the Land of Israel, the Mishkan would travel from tribe to tribe, sojourning for a period in each location.

By doing so, every tribe in Israel would feel equally significant. Every Israelite would have a regular opportunity for his devotions and sacrifices. No one tribe would be singled out for a monopoly on serving as God’s host.  There would then be no envy among the tribes. Moreover, this would justify the status of the Levites who would be property-less in Israel as their purpose is to travel with the Mishkan and be responsible for its assembly, disassembly and physical maintenance.

This is made manifest and reinforced in Parshat Massei:

וְלֹ֧א תְטַמֵּ֣א אֶת־הָאָ֗רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֤ר אַתֶּם֙ יֹשְׁבִ֣ים בָּ֔הּ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אֲנִ֖י שֹׁכֵ֣ן בְּתוֹכָ֑הּ כִּ֚י אֲנִ֣י יְהֹוָ֔ה שֹׁכֵ֕ן בְּת֖וֹךְ בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ 
And you shall not defile the land where you reside, in which I dwell, for I am the Lord Who dwells among the children of Israel.
Bamidbar/Numbers35:3

Indeed, the entire Land is pure and is kept pure  only because God lives amidst the Bnei Israel.

Lehavdil, we can make a comparison to a circus which is constantly moving from one location to another, thereby generating enormous anticipation for its annual arrival. The circus would be accompanied by a permanent crew of workers whose specialty it is to erect, disassemble and maintain the elaborate tent to which the regional crowd would flock when the circus is in town. These workers have no permanent home.  Their home is wherever the big top is pitched.

One can readily imagine the tremendous joy and celebration that the arrival of the Mishkan would generate within a tribe like Zevulun, or Naftali or Gad when it would be its turn to host the Mishkan.

Likewise, one can readily understand how bored and cynical the locals would become if the circus were permanently located in their midst. As well,  how indifferent would the those who live far away for whom the circus is an abstraction rather than an attraction.

It would likely be no different if the Mikdash/Sanctuary were to have a fixed location. Nothing good could come of that and, indeed, nothing did.

It is no coincidence that the idea of building a Beit Mikdash was spawned by kings – the very kings the Torah cautioned us against.  For such an edifice would be the very opposite of the Mishkan which was at once both magnificent and modest. A Beit Mikdash would not be there to glorify God but to glorify the monarch who built it. Its very existence would surely alienate the other tribes, inevitably resulting in the sundering of Israel (the majority) from Judah.

That the ten lost tribes of Israel were seduced by idolatry is understandable. They needed the divine in their midst, and local gods filled that need. Deprived of  וְשָׁכַנְתִּ֖י בְּתוֹכָֽם  they turned to gods who, ostensibly were right there amidst them.

What’s more, their alienation was reinforced by the existence of a physically distant and self-aggrandizing king who built a glorified prison for God, thereby monopolizing every aspect of ritual worship and spiritual devotion. There was nothing in it for the people, and very little in it for God.

And it should come as n surprise that at some point the kohanim would question why they were playing second fiddle to the king. Hence the usurping of the the crown by the Hashmonaim. And we know how that ended up.  This could never have happened were there no king to begin with and no temple with which to glorify his dynasty.

An itinerant Mishkan would have manifested and reinforced the sense of spiritual significance of every Israelite – the very opposite of what a Beit Mikdash would achieve.  And it should come as no surprise, that the Beit Mikdash, both first and second, would become hornets’ nests of intrigue and corruption.

It is hardly surprising that major temples and churches of every religion replicate the same awful pattern They become hotbeds of intrigue, power plays, corruption and even murder. It makes no difference if it is a great synagogue in Jerusalem, a Roman basilica in the Vatican, or a grand temple in India.  Same story everywhere.

As we approach Tisha B’av we would do well to focus on this. That perhaps we should not be mourning the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash, but rather mourning how the Beit Hamikdash destroyed us.

And while we’re at it, we should also mourn what theKotel has become – a virtual Beit Mikdash with all the intrigue, corruption and power plays that plagued the original edifice.  The Wall was a much holier place when it was mere a remnant, scar tissue, devoid of formal trappings, minus a chief rabbi of its own,  not decorated and manicured to make any longing for something genuine utterly impossible.

And if we pray for anything at all, it should be for the Divine manifestation and Divine modesty of a Mishkan  – working its way through a kingless commonwealth of Jews, and teaching us follow its example.  Israel would be a very different country. Tel Aviv would be a very different place. And so would Jerusalem. וְעָ֥שׂוּ לִ֖י מִקְדָּ֑שׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּ֖י בְּתוֹכָֽם