"Hear, O Israel: HaShem is our G-d; HaShem is One"(Deuteronomy 6:4) Av 12, 5784/August 16, 2024 Moshe Rabbenu - Moses our teacher - in his final words to the children of Israel which make up the entire book of Deuteronomy, makes frequent and rapid shifts from present to past to future. At one moment he is recalling an incident that took place forty years prior, and in another moment he is focused on Israel's challenges in the near and distant future. And all the while he is addressing the generation that is standing before him and insisting that they too stood at Mount Sinai forty years ago and witnessed HaShem's unprecedented revelation and received with their own hearts the Torah that G-d presented to them, and at the same time is warning them against turning from G-d and rebuking them for transgressions that will plague Israel many generations henceforth. For Moshe past, present and future are all the same. And so it is for us, as well. Yes, we were all at Mount Sinai and we did see with our own eyes G-d's presence enveloping the mountain, and we did directly receive Torah and affirm our eternal commitment to fulfilling its every word, saying, "All that HaShem spoke we will do and we will hear," (Exodus 24:7) And yes, it is incumbent upon us today to conquer and settle the land of Israel and create a Torah based society of justice and compassion and truthfulness. And yes, we too must beware the many pitfalls that Moshe envisioned for us. Moshe was not just speaking to the Israelites congregated before him but to the entire congregation of Israel throughout all her generations. For Moshe, past and future are embedded in the present. We the people of Israel bear both the burdens and beauties of our past, as well as the vision and glory of our future. And all this boils down to an ever urgent responsibility for all that transpires in our day, in our time. We are either backsliding or moving forward. There is no standing still. In this week's parashah, Va’etchanan, Moshe, immediately after recapping the receiving of the Ten Commandments and all that transpired on that day, and HaShem's pleasure with Israel's commitment to keep His commandments, a commitment that will ensure them "that it will be good for you, and so that you may increase exceedingly, just as HaShem, the G-d of your fathers, spoke to you, a land flowing with milk and honey," (Deuteronomy 6:3) bestows upon Israel the following words which will formulate the core tenet of Israel's faith and the core expressions of Israel's unshakeable commitment to live lives embodying that faith: "Hear, O Israel: HaShem is our G-d; HaShem is One." "And you shall love HaShem, your G-d, with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your means. And these words, which I command you this day, shall be upon your heart. And you shall teach them to your sons and speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk on the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for ornaments between your eyes. And you shall inscribe them upon the doorposts of your house and upon your gates." (ibid 6:4-9) Known as the Shema, from the first word, meaning "Hear!" these six phrases are the most oft spoken words of every committed Jew. Just as taught above, they are spoken upon opening one's eyes in the morning and upon closing one's eyes at night. They are recited at home and in synagogues and on the road. They are taught diligently to our children, even before our children learn to speak. They are bound upon our arms and affixed as ornaments between our eyes when we don tefillin each morning, whose leather boxes contain these words, and they are inscribed upon our doorposts and gates in the mezuzot which we affix to our doorways, containing inside them parchment with the Shema written upon it. The Shema is often the last words one will speak when at death's door. The Shema is our declaration that there is but One G-d, and that One G-d is HaShem, Who created the world, brought Israel out of bondage and liberated Israel with the Torah covenant. We express our love for HaShem with all our hearts and all our souls and all our means by filling out lives with G-d's presence, and living every aspect of our lives in accordance with His will as outlined in His Torah. What may appear to an outsider looking in as a form of burdensome servitude is just the opposite. Keeping HaShem's words, keeping Him alive in our lives and living our lives as the Shema teaches us to, is freedom, plain and simple. When we truly hear and take in and absorb into the very marrow of our existence that "HaShem is our G-d, HaShem is One," we are liberating ourselves from every other form of oppression that threatens to enslave us. HaShem's Oneness is our ticket to freedom. And this is the key to understanding Moshe's conflation of past, present and future. The ineffable name that we refer to as HaShem, (literally, the Name), that by which G-d first revealed Himself to Moshe at the burning bush, is itself a conflation of the Hebrew word which forms past, present and future. When we live our lives in G-d's time, present, past and future, do indeed, merge into an ever present now - a now that both contains the past, all the way to creation, and also contains the future, unknown, but ours to fashion. A tremendous responsibility? Absolutely! A life of unfettered inner freedom? Absolutely! "Hear, O Israel: HaShem is our G-d; HaShem is One." |
The Temple Institute: Building the Holy Temple! The three weeks of mourning which stretch from the fast of the 17th of Tammuz to the fast of the 9th of Av may be a time for some people to look backward and dream about the Holy Temple that was. Not so for the people that make up the Temple Institute. The Temple Institute is forever looking forward and working tirelessly to educate Israel and the world about the importance of the Holy Temple in our future, while always training and preparing in every way possible for the rebuilding of the Holy Temple and the renewal of the Divine service, soon, and in our days! |
Tune in to this week's Temple Talk, as Yitzchak Reuven talks about the 9th of Äv & the Holy Temple - yesterday, today & tomorrow, about mourning what was & working for the future, and Va'etchanan's message of One G-d, one people, one love! So much is happening at once! People are sitting in the ground chanting lamentations about the lost Holy Temple and at the same time people are ascending the Temple Mount in joy and song, with their hearts focused on the Holy Temple waiting to be rebuilt. Israel's enemies are poised to attack and Israel's allies are - far and few and fleeing. But as we learn in parashat Va'etchanan, "Not because you are more numerous than any people did HaShem delight in you and choose you, for you are the least of all the peoples. But because of HaShem's love for you, and because He keeps the oath He swore to your forefather..." |
Help To Build The Holy Temple In Our Time! Donate Generously To Help The Sacred Work Of The Temple Institute! Every contribution helps to rebuild the Holy Temple in our Time! |
Accomplishments! Who gets credit and who gets to feel good? Life is not a level playing field, nor are our respective accomplishments. But one rule holds true for all accomplishments: they originate with G-d. Va'etchanan (Deuteronomy 3:23 - 7:11)
Parashat Va'etchanan is read on Shabbat:
Av 13, 5784/August 17, 2024 |
Haftarah For Shabbat Nechamu, Parashat Va'etchanan Following the three Shabbat Haftarah readings throughout the three weeks leading up to Tish'a b'Av, in which prophecies of rebuke were read, beginning this Shabbat we read seven consecutive haftarah readings expressing comfort and redemption. The seven Shabbatot lead up to Rosh HaShana.
This Shabbat is referred to as Shabbat Nechamu, after the first words of the haftarah, which means consolation. Isaiah Chapter 40:1-26, "Console, console My people," says your G-d..." |
This Week, Parashat Va'etchanan: Flashback - The 10 Commandments! In this week's parashah, Va'etchanan, (Deuteronomy 3:32 - 7:11), Moshe, continuing his farewell address to Israel, recalls the day that Israel received the Torah at Mount Sinai. Repeating the Ten Commandments, Moshe emphasizes that every generation and every individual must see themselves as having been present at Sinai when the Torah was given: "And Moshe called all Israel and said to them, "Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances which I speak in your ears this day, and learn them, and observe them to do them..." |
A Day In The Holy Temple: An Abundance Of Caution On a simple level of interpretation, there was another cause for waiting until the entire eastern sky was lit, until Hebron. It once transpired that the kohanim in the Holy Temple actually did make a mistake in determining the day's commencement - and the daily offering was offered too early, unintentionally violating the Biblical requirement. The Mishna in Yoma 2:2 relates that upon that occasion, it was a cloudy day, towards the end of the month (in the Hebrew calendar, lunar months are observed... |
Yesterday, At The Conclusion Of Tish'a b'Av Yesterday evening as the Tish'a b'Av 25 hour fast drew to a close, thousands of fasting Jews who had gathered for prayer at the Western Wall at the foot of the Temple Mount, broke out in song. A powerful act of national unity and love and faith in HaShem. |
Jerusalm Drainage Channel Finds: Video
A complete glass vial, grape pips, two-thousand-year-old eggshells – and also complete ceramic lamps still with soot in them – all these were uncovered in a new excavation in the drainage channel running under Second Temple period Jerusalem’s main street. The excavation, managed by the Israel Antiquities Authority with funding from the City of David, reveals Jerusalem’s changing urban pulse in the last decades before the Temple’s destruction in 70 CE. |
The Continuing Destruction Of The Holy Temple On The 10th Of Av The Romans set fire to the Temple Sanctuary on the 9th of Av, and the conflagration continued to burn and devastate the Sanctuary and the Holy of Holies all throughout the 10th of Av. For this reason, some of the customs of mourning that have been followed throughout the three weeks are still in effect on the 10th of Av. |
A Day In The Holy Temple: Invoking The Merit Of The Patriarchs Like some consecrated and rarefied code whose inner meaning is known to but a chosen few, the exchange continues between the watchman, at his elevated station, and those below in the courtyard. The feelings of anticipation swell within the priestly circle, as these men whose lives are sanctified to G-d wait for the first possible moment for the honor of fulfilling His will. |
After 2,000 Years: New Finds From The Drainage Channel In Jerusalem New finds from the 2000-year-old drainage channel in Jerusalem tells the city’s story in the days of the Second Temple from its prosperity until its decay and destruction. A complete glass vial, grape pips, two-thousand-year-old eggshells, and complete ceramic lamps still with soot in them were uncovered in a new excavation in the drainage channel running under Second Temple period Jerusalem’s main street. |
The 9th Of Av: A Time To Mourn?... A Time To Build! The Holy Temple: Its Destruction and Subsequent Attempts to Rebuild It, 70 CE - Today - The history of the Jewish experience since the Holy Temple was destroyed nearly 2000 years ago at the hands of foreign invaders, is known as the exile. Exiled from their land and from their spiritual center - the Holy Temple - the Jewish nation has been marking time, waiting to leap, as it were, back into history, to take back its own destiny, and above all, to rebuild the Holy Temple - the house of G-d. The Jewish nation has seen to it that the Holy Temple was never forgotten throughout the darkest moments of her exile, and that her sons and daughters would one day renew the Divine service on Mount Moriah, and rebuild the Holy Temple. |
Tish'a B’Av: Thousands Of Jews Sing & Pray On The Temple Mount! More than 2,250 Jews ascended the Temple Mount this morning, Tish'a bAv, where they prayed and sang, raised the flag of Israel and sang Hatikva, the national anthem of Israel, and prostrated themselves on the ground, fulfilling a Torah commandment! The numbers and the freedom of worship are unprecedented, despite the time restriction placed on Jews for ascending the Mount. We uploaded 10 videos from the Temple Mount! |
Mashiach, We Are Ready - משיח, אנחנו מוכנים OU Israel has produced a beautiful video with an emotional call for Moshiach and the building of the Holy Temple! The Temple Institute was proud to contribute footage of our model of the Ark of the Covenant and paintings of the red heifer, the Yom Kippur scapegoat and other images of the Holy Temple. |
The Temple Was Our Beating Heart – We Should Mourn Its Loss Some believe the Temple belongs to our past – but that is a mistake, as Tuesday’s fast of Tishah b’Av reminds us. By Rabbi Sam Millunchick. Like kidnap victims who defend their captors, many modern Jews have become comfortable in exile, resisting the very redemption their ancestors yearned for in a kind of religious Stockholm syndrome. The destruction of our Temple has always been viewed by our faith as an open wound in our national body. To cope with this, the sages of old created practices, formalised prayer most prominent among them, as a way of coping with the loss of national sovereignty and identity, a way of persisting in exile in lieu of a Temple and sacrifices |
Tonight: Tish'a B'av, The Fast Of The 9th Of Av This evening, as night falls, the fast of the 9th of Av, (Tish'a bAv), begins. Tish'a bAv is a twenty five hour fast, first mentioned by the prophet Zechariah. It originally was observed to commemorate the destruction of the first Holy Temple at the hands of the Babylonians. Following the destruction of the second Temple by the Romans, which also took place on the 9th of Av, the fast also commemorates the destruction of the second Temple. |
Learning The Laws Of The Red Heifer The photograph shows members of the Temple Institute, including a kohen, studying and rehearsing the laws of the red heifer. Many unscrupulous news sources have been reporting all sorts of fantastical rumors about secret "practice runs" of the ashes of the red heifer ceremony. Perhaps photos like this one are cited as "evidence." |
Mikdash Monday - The Churban (destruction) and rebuilding of the Holy Temple (Part 3) “Thus says Hashem; Let your hands be strong, you that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, who spoke on the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid, saying that the temple might be built.” (Zechariya 8:9) |
A Day In The Holy Temple: Determining The Exact Time For The Daily Offering To Begin
The overseer now declares to the kohanim: "Let one go up to a high place in the Temple, to see whether the time has arrived to offer the morning offering!" For Scripture specifies (Lev. 19:6) "In the day that you offer it... " - and the sages' tradition interprets this to mean that the butchering of the offerings may not be done at night. |
The Truth About The Red Cows In Israel
Hamas cited the Texan red heifers as rationale for Oct. 7 massacre. By Kassy Akiva. Ancient Shiloh, Israel—Twenty miles north of Jerusalem, five Texas Red Angus cows chew on grass, oblivious to the fact that their mere presence in Israel was cited by Hamas as a reason for its massacre of Israeli civilians on October 7. The terror organization’s spokesperson says the cows were a justification for the attack, stating that bringing them to Israel was “an aggression” based on a “detestable religious myth.” |
Shavua Tov From The Temple Mount! Just two days before the fast of the 9th of Av, commemorating the destruction of the first and second Holy Temple, and hundreds and hundreds of Jews are ascending the Temple Mount, where they are praying for Israel's total victory over her enemies, the return of all the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, and a great victory over Hezbollah and Iran to the north, who are both preparing for an imminent attack on Israel. May this Tish'a bAv be a day of victory and deliverance, and "joy and happiness” in the words of the prophet Zechariah (8:19). Shavua tov - let's have a good week! |
Build a House for HaShem! "Be strong and have courage! Build a House for HaShem!" In this scene from a film soon to become an integral part of the Temple Institute's Jerusalem based Visitors Center experience, the prophet Samuel charges King David with the task of building the Holy Temple! |
The Glory of this Last House Shall be Greater than the First! "The Glory of this Last House Shall be Greater than the First!" In this scene from a film soon to become an integral part of the Temple Institute's Jerusalem based Visitors Center experience, Zerubavel from the house of David and Kohen Gadol (High Priest) Yehoshua consult with the prophet Haggai who instructs them to waste no time in rebuilding the Holy Temple! |
Red Heifers Arrive In Israel! On Thursday, September 15, 2022, 5 PM, 5 perfect, unblemished red heifers arrived in Israel from the USA. A modest ceremony was held at the unloading bay of the cargo terminal at Ben Gurion airport, where the new arrivals were greeted and speeches were made by the incredible people who have put their hearts and souls and means into making this historic/prophetic day become a reality. |
Biblical Red Heifer Could Bring Million Visitors To Samaria The Ancient Shiloh heritage site will soon host a Red Heifer research center. Hundreds of visitors flocked to Shiloh in Samaria’s Binyamin region on Thursday to welcome a biblically pure red heifer. The 22-month-old cow, which was brought to Israel from the United States, found a new home at the Ancient Shiloh heritage site, where the biblical Tabernacle once stood. |
Blessings from the holy city of Jerusalem!
Yitzchak Reuven
The Temple Institute |
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