YOELI: Hey Yos! It’s good to see you! How was your trip to America?
YOSSI: It was great! But I’m so happy to be back home! How was your trip up north to your Bubbe and Zeide?
YOELI: Thank You Hashem, it was amazing! We saw ruins in Caesaria from the times of the second Beis Hamikdash!
YOSSI: Wow, that’s so cool. You know Yoeli, I’ve been wondering. We always ask Hashem to rebuild Yerushalayim. But look around. So many buildings, beautiful buildings! Shuls, supermarkets, Batei Medrash… it looks built to me!
YOELI: Wow Yos. That’s a great question.
ZAIDE: What seems to be the problem boys?
YOELI: Oh Zaide! I didn’t see you! Yossi just asked, why do we ask Hashem to rebuild Yerushalayim if there are already so many buildings?
ZAIDE: Ah, boys. You see, Yerushalayim is not like any other place in the world. The Shechinah rested here. When the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, the Shechinah left everywhere but the Kosel. When we had a Beis Hamidash, the Shechinah’s light was so strong that people from all nations respected and revered the Beis Hamikdash. Ki beisi beis tefilla lichol ha’amim.
YOSSI: Hey! I know what song!
ZAIDE: Yes. Back then, because we had our Beis Hamikdash, Hashem’s light was shining so strongly. It was impossible to deny the Torah – even the nations had to admit Hashem is in charge. But nowadays, when the Shechinah does not rest in the Beis Hamikdash, we see how much the nations “respect us”. We are very away from where we need to be. Although things look “built”, in reality, until the Shechinah is no longer in golus, Yerushalayim is considered broken.
YOELI: Wow.
ZAIDE: There is a great mashal that we can use to explain. A man once bought a new car. He was very proud of it. It was a very large car with lots of windows, and from his seat he could literally see the tops of everyone else’s cars. He was having a ton of fun looking down at traffic! One night he pulls into the shul parking lot, and meets up with his friend. “You know,” his friend says, “you’re not very bright, are you?” Wow. Not what he was expecting to hear. “Why? What do you mean? You don’t like my new car?” His friend shakes his head. “I DON’T like your new car. Because it’s not a car! It’s a plane!” The man looked at his “car” parked in 5 parking spots in the lot, and for the first time noticed the wings on either side… he’d been driving a plane!“
YOSSI: That’s hilarious! But what does that have to do with us?
YOELI: I think I understand. This guy thought he had it so good. Biggest car on the road, but yet, stuck in traffic. But he was driving a plane! He could have been flying in the sky! So too, we look around and say, “What’s wrong? Yerushalayim is doing great! Which it is! But we are sorely missing what it really could be.”
ZAIDE: Yes, exactly! We need to thank Hashem for everything we have. And at the same time, yearn for when we will fly again. Yearn for the day the Shechinah will rest again in Yerushalyim, and the world will be so different.
YOSSI: What else will be different?
ZAIDE: Chazal tell us that when the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, we obviously lost all the nissim that would happen on a daily basis in the Beis Hamkidash, and the closeness with Hashem that could only happen when the Shechinah rests in the Beis Hamikdash. But we also lost the ability to sing certain songs, make certain types of glass and so much else! We have so much to thank Hashem for, but we are missing so much – it was – and will be – a completely different world! Chazal say Yerushalayim was the center of the world – millions of people would walk its streets every day. We had Neviim who could tell us exactly what to do, even the fruits tasted different!
YOSSI: Wow. I really feel like crying.
YOELI: Same here Yos.
ZAIDE: Yes boys, it’s been a long time. But with every sincere tefillah to rebuild the Beis Hamikdash we get that much closer. We will be home, for real, very soon iy’H!
YOSSI: Amen! We’ll see everyone very soon!
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 46 Tisha B’av Edition.