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The Inner TempleOverviewDuring the Babylonian exile, between the destruction of the First Temple and the building of the Second, the prophet Ezekiel had a vision: he saw the holy Temple in all its grandeur, awaiting to be revealed on earth - awaiting Jewish repentance...God then bade him to tell the Jewish people: You are the Temple!... (Ezekiel 43:10; Malbim ad. loc.). Similarly, a well-known and oft-quoted Midrash comments on the verse: "...And I shall dwell among them" - "within the heart of each and every one of them" (see Alshikh and Shelah on Terumah; Zohar 2:146a and Gra edition of Tikkuney Zohar 106c; Gra, ad. loc.) According to some opinions, this was said before the sin of the Golden Calf. At this time, the Jewish people had no need for a physical temple because of the awesome spiritual levels they had reached at Mount Sinai (Siftei Kohen on Terumah). Only after the sin, when they fell spiritually, did they need a physical Sanctuary to bring down God's presence to dwell within the hearts of each of them. Thus in the days of the First Temple, God rebuked the Jewish people via His prophet: "I have no need for all your sacrifices! I am disgusted with the fat of your offerings! I have no desire for their slaughterblood. And when you come before Me to be in My Presence - who asked of you such a thing? - you are only trampling My Temple courtyard. Bring no more of your ritualized burnt-offerings; their incense is detestable to Me" (Isaiah 1:11-13). In essence, God's message in the mouth of the prophet was that the Jewish people had objectified the Temple, reducing it to something external to themselves. Its service no longer mirrored their inner world, but had become an institutionalized ritual. To understand the function of the physical Temple, we must first understand what it means to be God's Temple. * * * God created the world in order to reveal Himself so that His creatures would become aware of Him (Zohar 2:42a). However, the most breathtaking view, the most spectacular sight, the most profound revelation of God, will not evoke any awareness of Him if there is no human being there to observe it. So God-consciousness and the revelation of God are really two sides of the same coin. A better metaphor would be a mirror. If there is nothing for the mirror to reflect, there will be no image in the mirror. If there is no mirror or human eye to pick up the object, the object will not be seen. The light of the sun does not light up the night because there is nothing out there to receive it. There must be a surface such as the moon, the earth's atmosphere - to reflect it. And the Light of God's Presence will not be revealed if there is no human consciousness to 2 receive it. And each one mirrors the other. You only see God "out there" if you experience Him "in here," because what you see merely mirrors your consciousness. At the same time, God does reveal Himself in limited ways, just enough to slightly influence our judgment. From this perspective, our consciousness mirrors God's revelation. There is, then, a reciprocal relation between God and us. And so, not only can God evoke certain reactions in us, but vice versa as well. This is how God created the world. God, by revealing a "part" of Himself, so to speak, creates in us God-consciousness; we, by becoming more conscious of God, create a more powerful Divine Presence. Thus, we can now understand why our God-consciousness is the Divine Presence (Gra, Yahel Ohr, I:30b). But that is not all. There is yet another dimension to this two-sided oneness of Divine Presence/God-consciousness: The more a person walks with God, the more God walks with him. In other words, the more you are conscious of God's Providence, the more His Providence guides you. Or simply, the more you are conscious of God, the more He is "conscious" of you. So now we can understand why God's consciousness of us also is the Divine Presence (Heikhal HaBrakhah, Genesis 35d). But this can manifest itself in different ways. When Abraham proclaimed God and declared His Presence, it was as the ultimate - but distant - Overseer. In this manifestation of God-consciousness, God is conscious of us and we of Him, but we cannot relate directly to Him, because we are only aware of a "Him." However, when Moses proclaimed God and revealed the Presence in the Sanctuary, it was the presence of One Who is ultimately accessible - God is conscious of us and we of Him in a direct, intimate relation. Now God could be for us a "You" (Gra, Shir HaShirim 7:1). Let us draw a parallel from human affairs. The difference between "Him" and "You" is the difference between an I-It and an I-Thou relationship. In the former, one may be conscious of the other, but their minds and hearts have not met - they are not relating to each other as "you." But when hearts are met and we become "I and you," there is a fusing of consciousness. Similarly, our consciousness of God as an Intimate You and His consciousness of us as His creations lets us intimately experience a certain oneness with Him, because our consciousness only manifests His inversely. ...So at a very deep level of spiritual experience, God's awareness and our awareness become one. The eye through which we see God when we visit His Temple is the same eye, albeit inverted, through which God sees us: "Abraham named the place, `[the place where] God sees'; now it is called `the mountain where God is seen'" (Genesis 22:14; Gra, Shir HaShirim 7:1). "Just as we come to be seen by God, we come as well to see Him" (Chagigah 2a). The righteous see with the eyes of God, and God "sees" through the eyes of the righteous (Rabbi Nachman's Wisdom #257; Sefer Baal Shem Tov, Ekev #35). But it is clear from the Zohar that the Purpose of Creation, its culmination and perfection, is human awareness of God - not mere revelation. God has no need to "show off," to make an appearance. He does so to grant us His closeness. The awareness that we mortal creatures can be so close to the Infinite God is more than enough for eternal bliss and, in fact, is the greatest "reward." * * * So where should we look to nurture God-consciousness? Where should we search for this bliss? We must search in the place where God is most seen, in the place which most engenders awareness. We must search for the Light of God-consciousness, for the place where it most shines. This place is the Temple. This is the point where the Light of revelation enters the world and is transformed into its mirror image, God-consciousness. But more so, it shines through the lives of the tzaddikim, through the hearts of saintly people (Likutey Halakhot, Netilat Yadayim 6:31). This means that they, by making their lives exemplary of God's ways, reveal to us the Divine Will and make us aware of God's Presence. Their love for mankind is a reflection of God's love, and their lives manifest His ways of compassion. So they, by cleaving to God in thought, in deed and in action, are the dwelling place for the Divine Presence, and in essence, they are the Temple (Nachmanides, Devarim 11:22; cf. Nefesh HaChaim I:4n). And even more than God's Presence was felt in the Temple, it can be seen in the hearts and lives of tzaddikim (Shaarei Orah, ch. 5, p. 49). And thus, even without the physical Sanctuary, the sanctuary exists - within us. God dwells within man when man dwells within God - when man walks with God, talks with God, acts with God and just is with God with all his consciousness. Only when "They shall make Me for a Temple," does God say, "I shall dwell among them" (Exodus 25:8).
Furthermore - the very Light of God-consciousness that shines
through the physical Temple is focused there by the tzaddik's God-awareness
(Likutey Moharan II, 67; Likutey Halakhot, Yom
Tov 5:10). We can only see God in the stones of the Temple
or in its animal-sacrifice service through the lessons of the tzaddik,
in his words and actions, which teach us what it all means. So only
Moses, the archetypal tzaddik, could erect the physical Temple, the
desert Sanctuary (Zohar II, 238b) But where does one find this inner Temple? Is there a specific path or "floor plan" to build it? First of all, you may not find it in your "holiest places," the areas of your life which you feel are "all right." These 4 may be nothing more than mirages which delude you into feeling "all right." They are not the best sites on which to build your Temple because they may not be grounded in reality. Better to look for your weak spots, the areas in which you fall short, the areas in which you must surrender to God. Look for your negative tendencies - among them, beneath them, you will find God. These are the places in which God is disguised, "places" where it is no honor to be. If you can accept that these places are yours, yet grow beyond them, you will find that God is hidden within. When King David sought the site of the Temple, he did not find it on the highest mountain. He found it on a lower one, beneath an angel of negative forces (2 Samuel 24:16, 18). And at Mount Sinai, God was revealed behind a thick cloud of furnace-like smoke (Exodus 18:9, 16, 18). There, at Mount Sinai, the temporary Temple, Moses had to enter the cloud (ibid., v.17; Likutey Moharan I, 115). And when God called to him from the desert Sanctuary, He called to him through a cloud (Exodus 33:9; Nachmanides, ad. loc.). These are the "clouds" of darkness and uncertainty, the clouds that fog our lives. Get past these clouds and find in them your Temple, and bring God's Light into your world. So you can see that this inner Temple is not exclusive to tzaddikim - on the contrary, every single Jewish person is obligated to "build" one (Shelah, Masekhet Taanit; Taamei HaMitzvot, Recanti #36; Kedushat Levi, Terumah; Ahavat Yisrael, Terumah). Each of our "Temples" is like a singular brick in the collective Temple that the tzaddik builds. If you find God within and make your life Godly, and if you can see God throughout Creation, you have built a real, holy Temple. God may have concentrated His Presence within the walls of the physical Temple, but when your heart is with God - when He is in your heart - you can experience His Presence beyond all limits of time and space (Likutey Moharan II, 56). When Moses beseeched God to enter the Land of Israel, it was out of a desire to pray at the Temple site. But God answered him, "Ascend to the peak of the mountain" - rise to the peak of your spiritual potential. Rise up to the inner place from which you will see that all the holiness of the Temple is already within you (Ohr HaGanuz LaTzaddikim, VaEtchanan). * * * Now we can return to our original question: Why was it necessary to have a material Temple with all its physical rituals and service? This can be answered on several levels. On the simple level, the physical Temple was meant as a place for physical seclusion from earthly distractions, a special place where one could meditate quietly and be with God (Rabbi Abraham Maimonides, Sefer HaMaspik). But still, why a specific Temple - is it not sufficient to seclude ourselves anywhere? Are 5 we not taught, "I shall dwell `betokham,' betokh mem, within the mem - the letter which is a closed circle and secludes that which is within it - to teach us that God is wherever we seclude ourselves with Him?" (Megaleh Amukot, Terumah) To answer this, let us return to the above quoted Zohar: God created the world to reveal Himself so that His creatures would become aware of Him. God, the Infinite One, can reveal Undifferentiated Oneness only through the finite and physical many. Specifically in our world of "infinite" divisions is the underlying unity so evident. Specifically in a life of endless minutia does a single life goal become so important - a single life goal which entails finding God in everything. We can live like a recluse for all of our lives and meditate on the Oneness of God as much as we wish, but if we cannot see God in ourselves and in our mundane world, we have not really found God at all. And our forefather Yaakov said, "Truly, God is in this place, but I did not know" (Genesis 28:16): I was so taken up with contemplating God, that I did not know - I was not aware of the Godliness present or lacking in myself (Chabad teaching). The idea is that we must find God, be aware of God, in this mundane physical world. That is actually the purpose of the creation. And the Holy Temple enabled us to do this, as the following Midrash tells us: "Rabbi Shimon ben Zoma says that the verse `Shema Yisrael' is the most universal truth of the Torah. Rabbi Shimon ben Nanas claims `Love your neighbor as yourself' is the most universal truth of the Torah. But Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi argues that `The one sheep shall you offer in the morning' is the most universal truth of the Torah" (Introduction to Eyn Yaakov, p.vi). We can understand why the Shema Yisrael, which proclaims the Oneness of God, should be the most universal verse. We can also understand why the verse "Love your neighbor" should be considered the most universal verse. But how could the verse of the daily Temple offering be considered the most universal verse? The explanation touches deeply upon the very nature of Creation. God reveals Himself by revealing His Infinite Oneness. The entire cosmos is one great symphony, one seamless existence, one great tribute to the Creator's infinite powers. This great oneness, though, is expressed through a myriad of different faces. Our work, our side of the Revelation/awareness equation, is to see this great Oneness through the mask of the many. We can do this by closing our eyes to the many and proclaiming our faith in the One with the Shema. We can do it by closing our eyes to the differences between us and loving the common spark of God present in all man. But, most of all, we can do it by opening our eyes to actually see how all life is One - that the animal offered on the Temple Altar is actually just part of us, and 6 that the sparks of that offering rise up to God, returning to become part of the One (Zimrat HaAretz, Sichot #40). Furthermore, the physical acts of the animal-sacrifice "concretize" God's Presence as no amount of meditation can. In other words, all spiritual perceptions must be put into action; otherwise, they fizzle to nought. Abraham, knowing this, begged God to grant him a physical Temple, because "otherwise, You have granted me nothing" (Shemot Rabbah 15:8). Indeed, God Himself "desires a dwelling place below" where His Presence will be "concrete" (Tanchuma, Bechukotai 3). And so concrete was God's Presence in the Temple that It could be sensed with the physical senses. So evident was His Presence in the First Temple that no blessing needed to be recited on food to proclaim Him, because He was anyway so evident (Torah Ohr, Chabad 6a). The very air of the Temple was so purified by this Presence that the Tetragramatton could be pronounced (Maggid Devarav l'Yaakov #189). And the very ground of the Temple was so sanctified by this Presence that the priests walked barefoot upon it to help them attain Divine Inspiration (Shaarei Orah ch. 1; Yaarot Devash). The service of the Temple is not arbitrary, just meant to symbolize spiritual truths. The Temple's physical structure and service are a map for the spiritual journey. The physical Temple and the physical body are symmetrical parallels (Shelah; Malbim; Siftei Kohen on Terumah), and since the human body manifests the human soul, the Temple parallels the soul as well. Thus, the forms of the Temple and the dynamics of its service are perfect mirrors of the human soul and are indeed meant to be used as focal points for meditation (Bachye, Exodus 25:9; Malbim, Ezekiel 43:10). The spiritual journey we all must make is really a "restructuring" of the soul - build your inner life based on the structure and service of the Temple and you have made a Temple of your own soul. So there is a dynamic interrelation between the physical and the spiritual Temples, each one reinforcing the other. When human awareness of God reached a certain crucial level, the physical Temple appeared. When that awareness of God disappeared from our lives, so did the physical Temple. This brought about an even greater veiling of God-consciousness. The destruction of the Temple thus mirrors with precision the destruction of human awareness of God. When we mourn for the Temple, we should really be mourning for ourselves, for our own lost inner Temples (Likutey Halakhot, Tzitzit 3:2, 5:6) or, as a chassidic master once put it, "How can you pray for the Temple's rebuilding when you yourself continuously destroy it? Many are those who cry over the material Temple when they should really cry over their own inner ones instead" (Ohr HaMeir, Terumah pp.230, 233). * * * But there is another level to understanding the need for a physical Temple. Think of the relationship between the mind and the brain as 7 the relationship of thought waves to a receiver. The common saying that "the air is full" of a certain feeling or a certain way of thinking is not just a manner of speech; it is very literal. The air around us is indeed always full of thought waves, just as it is always full of electromagnetic ones (Likutey Moharan I, 17:5). These thought waves are part of what we might call God's "cosmic mind," and each of us tunes in to the wavelength of his choice according to his capabilities. The individual human brain picks up these thought waves and brings them to our consciousness. Thus, a physical organ, the brain, acts as the manifesting agent of the more spiritual entity we call "thought." This, then, is the function of the Temple. It acts as the "cosmic brain," picking up nuances of God-revelation that flow from God into the world. It is the point where the Light of Revelation is transmitted to the world and transformed into its mirror image, God-consciousness (Likutey Halakhot, Cheilev v'Dam 4:10). It is the place where God was most revealed through the open miracles that took place there daily (ibid., Netilat Yadayim 6:31). It was also the place where God revealed His Will, because the expression of will is a revelation of self. So the Word of God, in the form of the Torah, was conveyed to Moses through the Temple, the desert Sanctuary, and the Torah Tablets were placed at its center. Hence, the Sanctuary, and later the Temple, were thus a "continuation" of the Mount Sinai revelation (Zohar 3:20a; Nachmanides, Terumah). On an individual level, this role is filled by the tefillin. They act as the receptors and transmitters of holy thought to the individual mind. This is why the Zohar states that, "they shall make for Me a Temple" is a reference to the tefillin (1:129a; Tikkuney Zohar #21, p.53a; cf. Likutey Halakhot, Tefillin 3). They act as the two cherubim through which God conveyed His Word to Moses in the desert Sanctuary (Shelah, Terumah). (Think about that the next time you put on tefillin....) But the question arises, then, Why do we need a common Temple if each individual has his own "radar system"? We can explain this with an analogy. Each operator in a communications system can receive messages only on his own wavelength, but can receive and transmit messages to the other operators via the main switchboard to which they are all connected. Each individual has direct access only to his personal message, but when all are connected at the source, there is a synergistic effect. The collective human effort to receive and transmit reveals things unavailable to the individual - the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The Temple was the place where all Jewish people gathered at three specific times during the year to experience God collectively and to make that experience part of their daily lives. Even today, we face Jerusalem when praying in order to bind our minds and hearts together (Gra, Shir HaShirim 1:17; Heikhal HaBrakhah, Otzar Chaim, Terumah, 213c). Any individual, by focusing his mind on this "cosmic brain" - by meditating on the Temple - can tune in to thought waves and have deeper insights that would otherwise be beyond his grasp (Aleph-Bet Book, Daat B:10). In addition, by attaching yourself to a tzaddik - a collective soul, a cosmic mind - you can also reach spiritual levels otherwise unattainable on your own. Meditation on the Temple is a practice that might be used for prayer as well. Meditate on the Temple's structure and visualize being there. When you feel that you are "there," you pray (Shevet Mussar, ch. 29; Noam Elimelekh, Genesis). Or you could recite the Torah portions in Exodus which discuss the Sanctuary building, with the intent of evoking a Temple "presence" around you. You would then pray in this "place" (Reb Mendel of Riminov, Yalkut Menachem, p.241). * * * The ultimate union of God with the world will be revealed with the building of the Third Temple. This Temple will be a physical reality beyond all present manifestations of the physical, because it will embody and express both the physical and the spiritual as one. But each of us will be able to see the beauty of this Temple only to the degree that he has become sensitive to spiritual experiences while in this world (Taharat HaKodesh, Shemirat HaEynayim). There is no straightforward path or plan to build this Temple - each person must find his own way. Nor is the road to building this Temple straight or smooth. There will be many pitfalls, setbacks and detours as you walk along this road. The daily sacrificial service itself alludes to this winding path: there were services done in the outer courtyard and those done in the inner sanctum. But the priests did not finish all the outer services before entering the sanctum to complete the services therein. Rather, they had to go back and forth between the two places. This indicates how up and down our own path will be (Likutey Halakhot, Chalukat Shutfin 5:6). Therefore, this book is not meant to present a clear path - that would be impossible. Rather, Part One is meant to be a collection of insights and inspirations relating to the "Inner Temple." Part Two is an English rendition of Lesson #67 in Likutey Moharan II, with commentary, notes and further insights. This lesson revolves around the spiritual dynamics which build or destroy both the Inner and Outer Temples. And Part Three is a rendition of Reb Noson's prayer on this lesson (from Likutey Tefilot II, #33). Some may prefer to first study Part Two before approaching the more personally engaging Part One. Do what works best for you. The text in Part One is arranged according to the Temple's layout, starting from the outside and working its way in. This is for convenience and is not meant to imply a "correct" order. The astute reader will see that many pieces overlap, but this is so even in the real 9 Temple. The world is a hologram, each part containing the whole (Oheiv Yisrael, Shekalim). Each stone of the Temple contains the whole thing - but the real whole is greater than its parts. Each stone of the Temple is a separate soul - a soul that is one of us. All together we make the Temple whole, yet each one retains his uniqueness. It takes a great tzaddik, a Moses-Mashiach, to put all the parts together. May God grant each of us the wisdom, the courage and the humility to build his own inner Temple and to have a part in the collective one. Amen. * * * I take this opportunity to express gratitude to God for all that He has done for me - including giving me the ability to produce this book. I am also grateful to my wife, Gitta, for all she has done for me, and to my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Louis Starrett, my mother-in-law, Mrs. Judith Freed, and to my late father-in-law, Mr. Israel Freed, for all they have done for me. My deep appreciation also to Chaim Kramer for giving me this project and having faith in me - and the patience - to see it through to the end. I also thank my friend Ozer Bergman for editing this book. |