No, this is not just a catchy title to grab your attention and make sure you read my article. It was a question asked to me by a sincere and curious teenager, who truthfully wanted to know. A short while later, the idea was bolstered by another inquiry, this time by an adult with a little bit more of a practical approach: will there be an app to schedule times to bring korbanos? After all, what better way to reduce waiting time in the Beis Hamikdash then by waiting at the local marketplace until I get a notification that my turn is coming up? The answer, of course, is no. But the reason is something we need to understand, both with our minds and our hearts.
During my second year of Social Work school, my professor asked the class a seemingly basic and easy question- What is a home? As the basic and easy answers began to pour forward, our professor begged us to start thinking more deeply, to truly understand. I cannot recall per se the exact answer that was given that day, but I do know what I walked away from that conversation understanding.
A home serves many functions. On a most basic of levels, it provides for a family’s physical needs; a roof overhead to protect from the elements, walls for privacy, and food and facilities to help sustain. If we think a little deeper, as my professor urged us to many years ago, we can see that a home also forms the base from which one steps out into the world. No matter where one goes and what one goes on to accomplish, it is the home that served as the source. Our homes become a part of us, inspiring us to grow or in negative situations, r’l, pushing us to overcome.
And yet there is an even deeper level to our homes- it is the place where a family becomes a family. Sometimes the simplest of answers contain the most profound depth. There is so much going on outside in the world. People and places, things and events. A person going out into the world can so easily get lost. Who am I? Am I important at all? Am I connected to anyone? Being around hundreds and sometimes even thousands of people, can be a very lonely experience. But then we go home and the loneliness fades. It is in our homes that we feel the powerful and deep connections to others. It is within our homes that we know we matter to those around us. Because at the core of what a home is, is a place where we connect to those around us in the most profound of ways. There are no distractions and nothing pulling us apart. Within the walls of our homes there is nothing more important than each other and it is within those walls that we can strengthen those bonds and internalize those feeling. Our homes provide us with a shield from the outside world, so that we can focus on each other and build our relationship.
And so it is with the Beis Hamikdash. Our Beis Hamikdash served as the center for every aspect of Jewish life. It was through the Beis Hamikdash that all bracha and hashpaa from Hashem filtered into the world. It was our source of sustenance as well as our source of protection. The Sanhedrin (The High Court) even presided in the Beis Hamikdash, showing once more that it is only through those precious and holy stones that we can glean the wisdom needed to guide a nation.
However, as the Sifrei Machshava explain, perhaps the most important function of the Beis Hamikdash is that it was the place in which Hashem was able to express His deep love for us and be able to connect to the entire Klal Yisroel. It was quite literally our Bayis, our home, with Hashem. It was where a Jew could come from a distance, both physically and emotionally, and reconnect with Avinu Shebashamayim. It was where the most powerful bonds between us and Hashem are forged. Not having a Beis Hamikdash, not having a Bayis, means that no matter how much we feel Hashem in our lives today, there will be something missing in our relationship with Him.
Centuries ago, the moment one closed the door to their home, they closed out the world from entering. The family came together and with no distractions or interferences they placed their attention and affection on each other. A home was a warm and vibrant place where everyone felt connected and felt they belonged. Then came the printing press and news publications, providing the slightest of distractions, but nothing that truly interfered with the family’s ability to bond. It was followed a few hundred years later by the radio, and slightly more was the family dynamics in the home challenged. Shortly thereafter, the Television was invented, and the home would never be the same. Mental health experts have plotted the direct correlation between the propagation of TV and the rise of emotional stressors. Not even so much because of the message and content of TV shows and movies. But more importantly, because of the distraction. Families no longer ate together and talked about their day, but instead they ate and watched the game. Children no longer imagined far off galaxies hidden under their beds, but instead watched those galaxies on the screen without sharing a word between them. Parents, faced with an ever-busier world and growing list of chores, began to fall back and even come to rely on the “electronic babysitter”. By the time the internet and wifi came around, the strength of the home was too weak to withstand the flood of interruptions.
Our homes must be the place our children feel they turn to for connection. Within the four walls, a spouse must know unequivocally that he or she is the priority of the other’s life. We cannot allow the outside world to distract us from hearing about our child’s day or a struggle our spouse is going through. It is not simply about the preventing of sharing information, but rather, on the most important of levels, it is the breaking down of the very place where we need to establish the love and connection that only a family can provide.
There will not be wifi in the Beis Hamikdash. The Beis Hamikdash will be the place that every Jew can once again experience the closeness to Hashem, the Bayis in which our connection to Him is strengthened and solidified. With such powerful potential for bonding, there cannot be any distractions that we invite in.
B’ezras Hashem, we should be zoche soon to stand in a long line in the Beis Hamikdash to bring our korban because the app was never developed. I’m pretty sure spending more time in one’s home is an opportunity not to be missed.
