A Short Tribute

Because of our transgressions we were exiled from that holy place, for such was the will of the Holy One, blessed be He. Nevertheless, because of our love of country, or better put, because of the thought that it was our country, we return to her, for Jacob loves her earth. We return to her, though not as we wished, for we see the land desolate and the Temple destroyed. With great concern, we see the words of Jeremiah's lament come to be: "On Mount Zion, which lies desolate; jackals prowl over it…" For amid all this adversity, the comforting words of our Sages remain (and the nations confirm this with the admiration in which they hold this place) and its sanctity has not changed, as Tractate Megillah reads on the verse "And I will bring desolation to your sanctuaries – their sanctity remains even when they are desolate". Our sages note (the reversed order of the words) that desolation precedes the sanctuary and say that even after the Temple's destruction the Holy One, blessed be He, refers to its sanctity as before. The Western Wall is what remains of the Temple, and our Sages say that its sanctity has not departed, and it is there that we customarily hold our prayers. However, dear honorable people, if we lack the Temple, we can each seek it within ourselves, through charity and benevolence, and each of us can make the effort to carry an appropriate part of the load. These are the best temples, and the sacrifices that we can offer on the altar of our hearts are those of determination to study our Torah.