The Vessels of the Beis Hamikdash in the Service of Hashem | Studying the Laws of Beis HaBechirah in Light of Chassidus

00:00 The Midrash says that Hakadosh Boruch Hu told the prophet Yechezkel, “Describe this House to the Children of Israel.” That is a verse in Yechezkel, chapter 43. Yechezkel was among the last prophets, when the Jewish people were in Babylon, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu told him that He wanted to teach him the dimensions of the House, the Beis Hamikdash, so that he could teach them to the Jewish people: its measurements, its details, its chambers, its sanctuary, and every detail of its vessels. The Midrash says that Yechezkel asked Hakadosh Boruch Hu: What is the benefit? We are in exile. The Jewish people are in the Babylonian exile; we have no Beis Hamikdash, and we cannot build it yet. So what is the benefit of their learning its plans, its details, and its dimensions? Hakadosh Boruch Hu told him: Just because the Beis Hamikdash has been destroyed and offerings cannot be brought, should the building of My House cease? Just because there is no Beis Hamikdash now, should it be set aside? Let them study it and engage with it, and I will consider it as though they are building the Beis Hamikdash. Here we see something remarkable. Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells the prophet Yechezkel to teach the Jewish people the dimensions of the Beis Hamikdash even at a time when they are mourning its destruction and do not yet have the ability to rebuild it. But He tells him that by studying the building, it is considered as though they are building the Beis Hamikdash. From this we learn something remarkable and very important: During these days of the Three Weeks, especially days associated with destruction and mourning, there are, of course, all the laws in the Shulchan Aruch governing how we must conduct ourselves and observe mourning. But at the same time, we have the ability, the opportunity, and the privilege to engage in building the Beis Hamikdash. When we study the laws of the Beis Hamikdash, we build it through that study. As the Rebbe

02:12 explained many times, the novel point we learn from this Midrash is not merely that studying the laws of building the Beis Hamikdash is important and enables us to prepare for its construction. Rather, the Midrash is telling us that our study of these laws today is itself part of the building. In other words, when Hakadosh Boruch Hu commanded, “They shall make Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell among them,” there is the mitzvah in its most straightforward form: to build the Beis Hamikdash, to build the Mishkan. But it can also be built through study. In other words, there are two ways to fulfill the mitzvah: through action and through speech. When we speak about and study the laws of the Beis Habechirah, the laws of the Beis Hamikdash, we are actually fulfilling the mitzvah of building the Beis Hamikdash. In the words of the Midrash, we are “engaging in its construction.” We are actually engaged in building the Beis Hamikdash. And that is one of the remarkable things about these days: instead of spending our time thinking about the destruction and about what we lack, we can engage in building the Beis Hamikdash and study its construction. That is the best preparation for us to truly merit seeing the Beis Hamikdash built soon—may it be built speedily in our days, and may we merit seeing the third Beis Hamikdash built and complete. Today we will study the vessels and structure of the Beis Hamikdash, but we will study them as they are expressed in a person’s life, in a Jew’s service of Hashem. After all, the verse says, “They shall make Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell among them.” As is well known, the Alshich Hakadosh, the Shelah Hakadosh, and other great Jewish sages cite a Midrash that asks: Why does it say “I will dwell among them,” in the plural? It should have said “I will dwell in it.” “They shall make Me a sanctuary” is singular, so “I will dwell in it” should also be singular. Why does it say “among them,” in the plural?

04:33 The great Jewish sages explain in the name of the Midrash that “I will dwell among them” means within each and every Jew: every Jew has a Beis Hamikdash within them, as is taught in the name of the Baal Shem Tov and the great teachers of Chassidus. As they said, when Hakadosh Boruch Hu said, “They shall make Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell among them,” a spiritual Beis Hamikdash was built at that moment in the heart of every Jew. Every Jew is, in fact, a personal Beis Hamikdash. The Beis Hamikdash is in a Jew’s heart. Indeed, our entire being is a Beis Hamikdash. We see this in an explicit verse as well: the prophet Yirmiyahu, whom they call the prophet of the destruction, refers to the Jewish people in chapter 7 of Yirmiyahu as “the Sanctuary of Hashem they are, the Sanctuary of Hashem they are, the Sanctuary of Hashem they are.” He repeats the same words three times. He is speaking about the Jewish people and calls them “the Sanctuary of Hashem.” That means the Jewish people themselves are a Beis Hamikdash. The Alter Rebbe explains why he said it three times: to emphasize that every Jew has, as explained in Tanya, three garments—thought, speech, and action. We use these to engage with everything; everything a person does falls into these three categories. There are mitzvos fulfilled through thought, mitzvos fulfilled through speech, and mitzvos fulfilled with the limbs, through action. So thought, speech, and action are “the Sanctuary of Hashem they are, the Sanctuary of Hashem they are, the Sanctuary of Hashem they are.” Through the holy and pure actions, words, and thoughts a Jew does, speaks, and thinks, that Jew actually becomes a Beis Hamikdash. And therefore, everything the Torah tells us in the parshiyos about the Beis Hamikdash and the Mishkan, and likewise what is said about the Beis Hamikdash in the Prophets, in Melachim, and in Yechezkel—

06:43 the same applies to what we learn in Mishnah, Tractate Middos, and in the laws of the Beis Habechirah. Everything we learn about the dimensions of the Beis Hamikdash, its vessels, and all its details—every last detail is reflected in a person’s life. That is what we will discuss today: how do we make ourselves into a Beis Hamikdash, and what do all the details of the Beis Hamikdash and the Mishkan, and the vessels of the Mishkan, represent in a person’s everyday life? If we look at the structure of the Mishkan—and, in general, of the Beis Hamikdash as well, though of course there are differences, important differences—we see three sections. The Mishkan was built in three main sections. There was the courtyard of the Mishkan, called “the courtyard” in the Torah, corresponding to the azarah in the Beis Hamikdash. What was principally in the Mishkan’s courtyard? The basin and its stand—the basin where they washed their hands and feet to prepare for the service in the Beis Hamikdash, for the service in the Mishkan—and the altar. Which altar? The copper altar. The copper altar was filled with earth and covered with copper on the outside. That is how it was in the Mishkan, at least, and offerings were brought on it. That was the courtyard. Then you went further inside. The second section was called the heichal. What was inside the heichal? In the Mishkan it was called the Kodesh. There were essentially three vessels there. As you entered, in the middle, was the incense altar, the golden altar. Further in, to the right of a person entering, was the table, and to the left was the menorah. If we look from the direction of the Holy of Holies, it is the other way around: the menorah was on the right and the table on the left. As the Gemara says, the menorah was in the south and the table in the north. These were the three vessels placed in the Kodesh, in the heichal. The menorah was where the kohen would light the seven lamps, the seven lamps of the House,

09:18 of the house, the menorah. The table held the showbread, and the altar, as we said, was where they burned the incense each day. Going further inside, the third section was the Holy of Holies. That was where the Ark was. Inside it were the Tablets and the broken Tablets, with the Torah scroll beside the Ark. Above it was the cover, and on the cover were the cherubim. That was essentially the whole structure of the Mishkan. The Beis Hamikdash had more details, but broadly speaking, its structure was more or less the same. What does all this represent in a person’s life? Why these three divisions, in this order, with these particular vessels? What do they represent in a person’s life? There is a very interesting set of notes that the Rebbe wrote at the time, nearly ninety years ago. These are notes the Rebbe wrote in his holy handwriting, recording Torah teachings he had delivered. In those years, before the Second World War, the Rebbe was still living in France. He would jot down, very briefly and concisely, things he had said in shuls, study halls, or other places where he had been asked to speak. As is well known, the Rebbe kept a low profile then. He concealed his true greatness in Torah and holiness. Even so, his Torah shone through, and we have been privileged to receive it. The Rebbe left many pages of notes from that period, containing profoundly deep Torah teachings. Among them is a fascinating and wonderful set of notes explaining the Beis Hamikdash and its vessels—or the Mishkan and its vessels. What do they mean in a Jew’s life? Looking at this can show us how a Jew leaves the public domain and enters the domain of holiness, moving from the mundane to the sacred. The Beis Hamikdash, as we said earlier, represents a Jew’s work to transform

11:44 his own reality into holiness. In other words, the whole idea of the Beis Hamikdash is that a person, so to speak, detaches himself, rises above his surroundings, and leaves the public domain—the mundane, the street, the ways of the street—and enters the sacred. This work actually takes place every day in a Jew’s life. When a Jew gets up in the morning, he begins his service of Hashem. His service is, in a sense, a departure from the mundane, from materialistic life. He rises and, gradually, step by step, ascends and draws closer to holiness. If we look closely, we can see how, in making this entrance, a Jew enters the Mishkan, enters the Beis Hamikdash, and, vessel by vessel and detail by detail, builds his own personal Beis Hamikdash. He goes deeper and deeper each time, until he reaches the most wondrous and exalted place: the Holy of Holies, the Ark. So let’s go step by step. How does a Jew begin his day? Modeh Ani, washing his hands. Let’s start with Modeh Ani. Modeh Ani is a declaration of faith. A Jew begins his day by declaring, “I thank You”—I am a Jew. That declaration is the first thing that sets him apart. It creates the boundary, the partition between outside and inside. I am a Jew, and as a Jew, I believe in Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That in itself sets me apart from all the nations of the world. The Rebbe says that when a Jew begins his service with this faith, he has not yet done anything; he has merely declared and expressed his faith. Modeh Ani is, in effect, the pillars and walls of the courtyard. The Torah says that the Mishkan’s courtyard was made of linen—twined linen—and was enclosed by a linen fence. What does linen represent? Flax grows stalk by stalk. As the Gemara says, it grows stalk by stalk: each seed, each kernel, grows on its own. It is not like a tree with many branches. Each stalk of flax grows by itself, which is why it is called bad, a single stalk. What does that represent? Solitude. “A people that dwells alone.” A Jew is distinct; he stands apart, “a people that dwells alone.” He does not blend in with all the nations of the world. He is a unique Jew, connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, Who is One and unique. That uniqueness is the core of the faith a Jew declares when he says Modeh Ani: “I thank You, living and enduring King, for You have returned my soul to me with compassion; great is Your faithfulness.” This is a Jew’s declaration of faith. Once a Jew has said Modeh Ani, he washes his hands. Washing the hands represents washing ourselves of the dirt, of materialism and the coarseness of the street. The kohanim would come to the basin and wash their hands and feet. That washing represents removing the dirt. It tells us that the dirt is not an essential part of a person. The very fact that you can wash it off with water means that the person himself is clean. The dirt, the sweat—all these things have merely stuck to him. With water, just a little water and a rinse, you can remove them. That is what a Jew needs to know as he begins his service of Hashem: wash yourself, wash off the dirt. Know that a person’s attachment to materialistic, physical life is not who he really is. It is something additional that has stuck to him. Washing yourself means removing the dirt, cleaning it away, and understanding that it is not me. Then I can begin my service of Hashem. In daily life,

14:12 as we said, this is washing the hands. Within the soul, it is the idea of “Pour out your heart like water before Hashem.” The pouring of water is the teshuvah a Jew does, pouring out his heart like water and asking Hakadosh Boruch Hu to help him cleanse away his dirt through that teshuvah. Then he is ready for the next stage: the altar. What does the altar represent in serving Hashem? The altar is the place of offerings. An offering involves taking an animal and bringing it onto the altar. Primarily, the fat and blood were offered on the altar, not the whole animal. What does that represent in a Jew’s life? The second stage of serving Hashem concerns the animal within each of us. As the Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya, everyone has two souls: a G-dly soul and an animal soul. The G-dly soul is “truly a part of G-d above.” But we also have an animal soul that wants to live an animal’s life. That soul is present in each of us, with self-centeredness—the “I”—at its core. It draws a person toward all the desires and pleasures of this world. So here we must do the work of offerings: slaughter the animal. What does slaughtering mean? It means taking away the vitality, the fire, the intense attachment and particular energy a person has for the desires of this world. A person does need to live in this world. He needs to eat, drink, and go about his life. But the energy he puts into it—the heat and enthusiasm—that must be taken away. The blood, the enthusiasm, must be placed on the altar; the fat and the pleasure must be placed on the altar. That means that everything involving intensity, enthusiasm, and pleasure must be given to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What remains—a Jew needs to maintain a healthy body, needs to eat and drink, and needs to

16:28 As we said, this is washing the hands. In the soul, it is the idea of “Pour out your heart like water before Hashem.” The pouring of water represents the teshuvah a Jew does, pouring out his heart like water and asking Hakadosh Boruch Hu to help him wash away his own dirt through that teshuvah. Then he is ready for the next stage: the altar. What does the altar represent in serving Hashem? The altar is where offerings were brought. Bringing an offering means taking an animal and offering it on the altar. Generally, it was the fat and the blood that were offered on the altar, not the whole animal. What does this represent in a Jew’s life? The second stage of serving Hashem concerns the animal within each of us. As the Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya, each person has two souls: a G-dly soul and an animal soul. The G-dly soul is truly a part of G-d above. But we also have an animal soul that wants to live an animal’s life. That soul is present in each of us, with the ego—the “I”—at its center, and it draws a person toward all the desires and pleasures of this world. So here we have to do the work of bringing offerings: to slaughter the animal. What does it mean to slaughter it? It means taking the vitality out of it, taking out the flame, taking out all that attachment, the particular energy a person has for the desires of this world. A person does need to live in this world. He needs to eat and drink and go about his life. But the energy he puts into it—the fervor, the heat, the enthusiasm—that has to be taken out. The blood, the enthusiasm, must be cast onto the altar; the fat and the pleasure must be placed on the altar. That means that everything connected with fervor, enthusiasm, and pleasure must be given to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. What should remain—a Jew needs to keep his body healthy; he needs to eat and he needs to drink and he needs

18:41 To conduct ourselves within the ways of the world, but without the excitement, without the warmth, without the pleasure. The warmth and the pleasure—we place those on the altar and give them to holiness. So the service of the altar is really the work a Jew does in the struggle with the animal soul: offering it as a sacrifice to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is the stage of the altar. So, again, the basin is for washing away the dirt that clings to us from the street. The altar is the slaughter, the work, and the offering of our animal soul. We bring it to a point where we slaughter the vitality of our animal nature, our material nature, and offer the flame, the warmth, the blood, and the fat upon the altar for the service of holiness. Then a Jew is ready to move to the next stage, the holy chamber. Here begins a Jew’s work within holiness itself. After we have offered our animal soul, we enter the holy chamber of the Sanctuary. As we said, the chamber contained three sacred vessels. The incense altar stood in the center, with the menorah on one side, to the right of the Beis Hamikdash, and the table to the north. What do these three vessels represent? The incense altar represents prayer. “Let my prayer be set before You as incense,” says the verse. Prayer is, so to speak, incense. When a Jew prays, he offers incense to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The word ketores, incense, is related to a word meaning “bond.” In Aramaic, it signifies connection. Prayer is, in essence, connection. Prayer is the time when a Jew connects himself with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The fragrance of the incense, “a pleasing aroma to Hashem,” means that prayer brings great pleasure Above. And that is why the altar stood precisely in the middle, in the center, directly facing the Holy of Holies. In prayer, a Jew stands, so to speak, before the Holy of Holies, before Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He offers incense—he binds and connects himself, the divine soul within him, the actual part of G-d Above—and forms an inner connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is

21:11 the meaning of prayer. The prayer a Jew says every day is the moment of connection. It is the moment of incense, when a Jew becomes an offering to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and offers himself as incense to Him. So the altar is the stage in serving Hashem where we offer the animal soul. The incense is the offering of the divine soul: a Jew kindles the fire, the fervor, within his divine soul and connects it to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Then we come to the menorah and the table. What do the menorah and the table represent in a Jew’s service? The menorah represents Torah study, because the menorah gives light. And of the Torah it is said, “A mitzvah is a lamp, and Torah is light.” So the menorah represents the whole subject of Torah study. Torah is light; the menorah gives light. And that is also why the menorah, as we said, had seven lamps: three on one side, three on the other, and the central lamp in the middle. There were six lamps, as the Torah says in Chumash, together with the central lamp, “the face of the menorah.” Chassidus explains what this represents. The six lamps represent the six orders of the Mishnah. The Oral Torah is composed of six orders of the Mishnah—that is the number six. The central lamp, “the face of the menorah,” represents the Written Torah. So when it says that the lamps should shine “toward the face of the menorah,” it means that the six orders of the Mishnah, the Oral Torah, must face the holiness of the Written Torah and its light. In the Written Torah, the divine light shines more openly. When a Jew studies the Oral Torah, he must always keep it connected with the Written Torah. That is what the menorah represents: Torah study. The table represents livelihood. The table is the place

23:31 of the bread; from there comes sustenance for the whole week, for everything a Jew needs. It represents a Jew’s work in the world. After a Jew has finished praying and had his Torah study session, he goes out into the street to earn a living. So there must be a table: his livelihood must be holy, just as the table stood within the holy chamber. The table also represents bringing holiness into one’s work. It means that in his life, in his ordinary work, a Jew must make something holy of it. So we are actually following the order of the day. A Jew—as we said, and I’ll review it in summary—gets up in the morning, and the first thing is Modeh Ani. That is the enclosure of the Mishkan’s courtyard. Then he washes his hands; that is the basin. He washes away the dirt of the street, and then he offers his animal soul: the altar. Next comes the incense altar, the service of prayer, connecting his divine soul with its source, with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Then comes Torah study after prayer: the menorah. And then comes the table, which is livelihood. A Jew goes out into the street and makes his livelihood, his bread, into bread for Hakadosh Boruch Hu; he makes that holy too. Even material things—“All your deeds should be for the sake of Heaven.” Then comes the Holy of Holies. What does the Holy of Holies represent? The ultimate bond and connection between a Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The Holy of Holies is where the Tablets were kept. Their letters were engraved all the way through. The letters of the Ten Commandments were engraved into the stone. What does this represent? As Chassidus explains, the Holy of Holies and the Ark represent the deepest level of the soul, the yechidah. Within the soul there is the divine soul, but there is also its innermost essence, the yechidah, which is bound to Hakadosh Boruch Hu as one—“the yechidah with the One.”

25:46 That is why the symbol is engraved letters. When letters are engraved in stone, the letters and the stone are truly one thing. This is the place where a Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu—as the Zohar puts it, “The Torah and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are all one”—become one. That place is the Holy of Holies, the deepest connection in serving Hashem. This happens through Torah study, and especially through studying the inner dimension of Torah. When a Jew studies the inner dimension of Torah, which has now been revealed in the teachings of Chassidus, in the depths of the Torah’s inner dimension he feels his connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu in a way that is not two separate things. The Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are “all one”; they truly become one. This is expressed by the Tablets within the Ark, within the Holy of Holies. That is the ultimate connection. And that is why the cherubim stood above the Ark. What do the cherubim represent? They represent Hakadosh Boruch Hu and the Jewish people, their deepest union. The cherubim had the faces of a man and a woman, and their connection represents the connection between Hakadosh Boruch Hu and the Jewish people. The ultimate purpose of all a Jew’s service is to reach that deepest connection between Hakadosh Boruch Hu and the Jewish people, represented by the cherubim atop the Ark. So the entire journey, from the entrance to the Mishkan or the Beis Hamikdash until reaching the Holy of Holies, is really a Jew’s journey through life in this world. The building of the Mishkan in our personal lives represents how a Jew leaves the street and its atmosphere, leaves ordinary life, and builds and makes himself into a Beis Hamikdash. He builds holiness; he builds his personal Beis Hamikdash. He proceeds stage by stage, step by step, until he reaches the ultimate union—the union represented by the Holy of Holies, the Ark, and the cherubim above it—where the deepest

27:53 and most inward connection between a Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu is reached. And as we build our spiritual Beis Hamikdash, we pray and ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu that we merit to see the building of the Third Beis Hamikdash in the literal sense. Through every Jew’s efforts to study the Beis Hamikdash—its construction and the lessons it teaches us in serving Hashem, what we can learn from our personal Beis Hamikdash—may we merit, speedily in our days, to see the building of the Third Beis Hamikdash. We will see all its details and every fine detail, and we will also understand what each detail represents and teaches, and how it expresses the divine light down here in this world. May we merit the building of the Beis Hamikdash speedily in our days, and “grant us our portion in Your Torah.”