Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem

"Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem"
(Psalm 122:2)
Tishrei 24, 5769/October 23, 2008

The twenty two days of the holiday season of the month of Tishrei, which includes Rosh HaShana, Yom Kippur, the seven day festival of Sukkot and Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah, are days of high spiritual energy. We emerge from Simchat Torah at once exhausted from the spiritual exertion, and at the same time sensing our spiritual batteries charged as we face the coming year.

Our new beginning "coincides" with our return to the book of Genesis, whose first verses we read on Simchat Torah and whose first chapters we read on this upcoming Shabbat, Shabbat B'reishith: The Sabbath of Beginning. Nothing brings forth so vividly and compellingly the challenges that lay before us as we enter a new year, as the Genesis description of Adam HaRishon - the first man, his fall, at it were, after eating from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and the new and less exalted reality in which he found himself.

The story of Adam HaRishon is, of course, the story of us all. Not only are we all his descendants, but, our sages teach, each and every one of our souls was contained in the soul of Adam. When he erred we were all effected. But the significance of this is not that we are tainted or cursed, G-d forbid, but that we were all created directly by the hand of G-d and imbued with a pure soul. And having been an integral part of the fateful "miscue" of Adam we are empowered, no doubt, to play our part in the final rectification and redemption of mankind.

This twin challenge of rectification and redemption is both worthy of us and we are worthy of it. May G-d grant us the strength and courage to rise up the the tests that await us.
The events of the just concluded festival of Sukkot have inspired us with evidence of a spiritual sea change that is sweeping across the land of Israel. The loud and clear response of the thousands of visionary souls among the children of Israel, "the men, the women, and the children, and your stranger in your cities," precisely as prescribed by Moses, (Deuteronomy 31:12), to journey to Jerusalem and to assemble together as one, (hakhel), on the site of G-d's Holy Temple, (and later within the walls of Jerusalem's ancient city), and even the hesitant but positive response of the police who flanked us as we read from Torah with our feet firmly planted on the Temple Mount, fill us with confidence that the upcoming year will be one of great spiritual strides for the nation of Israel and for all the nations which place their trust in the G-d of Israel.

As a spontaneous expression of our gratitude and excitement, at the conclusion of the holiday season we gathered together in the Temple Institute's video studio and taped an informal discussion between Rabbi Chaim Richman and Temple Institute Director Yehudah Glick about the Hakhel events which the Temple Institute conducted during the first of the intermediary days of Sukkot, and the unprecedented response of the people of Israel who arrived from the four corners of the land by the hundreds and thousands to participate in the biblically commanded Hakhel ceremony and to ascend in reverence to the Temple Mount, where Torah verses were recited aloud to mark the Hakhel.

The Rabbi and Yehudah describe the spiritual awakening they were witness to and the growing reconnection of the Jewish nation with the Temple Mount, the holiest place on earth.
Click here to view.

Today also features the new Light to the Nations teaching by Rabbi Chaim Richman, entitled, "Topography of the Temple Mount, Part I: Maimonides' Laws of the Chosen House, chapter six: The Rambam describes the topographical requirements of the very contour of the Temple Mount." Click here to view.

Two new weekly Torah teachings are also available online this week. Parashat V'Zot Habracha which draws the five books of the Torah to a close, and parashat B'reishith which begins the yearly reading of Torah all over again:

"And this is the blessing with which Moses, the man of G-d, blessed the children of Israel [just] before his death." (Deuteronomy 33:1) Moses remains entirely dedicated to the children of Israel up to the moment of his death, even as he knows that these will be his last words and that he will not join his people in entering into the land of Israel. Click here to view Rabbi Richman's short teaching on parashat V'Zot Habracha (Deuteronomy 33-34).

Adam HaRishon - the first man contained within his soul the souls of all his progeny until the end of time. His "downfall" which occurred when he ate from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge became our opportunity to serve G-d even through our "evil urge." Click here to view Rabbi Richman's short teaching on parashat B'reishith (Genesis 1:1-6:8).

This coming Tuesday, October 28th, Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven will return with Temple Talk. The opening Torah readings of B'reishith and Noach, the upcoming month of MarCheshvan, the events of Sukkot, and their hope and plans and visions for the new year of 5769 will all be part of the discussion.

Blessings from the holy city of Jerusalem,
Yitzchak Reuven
THE TEMPLE INSTITUTE
PO Box 31876
Jerusalem, Israel 97500
www.templeinstitute.org