Are we ready to rebuild the Beit HaMikdash? |
Sponsored by Sharona Halickman- Celebrating
17 years of Aliya! In Parshat Shoftim (Dvarim 17:14-15) we learn about
the mitzvah of appointing a king: When you arrive in the Land that HaShem, your God is
giving you and inherit it and live in it and you say, “Let me appoint over me a
king like all the nations around me.” Appoint are you to appoint over yourself
a king whom HaShem, your God will choose. From among your brothers are you to
appoint over yourself a king; you may not place over yourself a foreigner who
is not your brother.” In the Talmud, Sanhedrin 20b, the Braita discusses
whether or not the nation of Israel is required to appoint a king over itself: Rabbi Yehuda would say: The Nation of Israel was
commanded to perform three mitzvot upon their entrance into the Land of Israel:
To appoint upon themselves a king, to eradicate the offspring of Amalek and to
build the Beit HaBechira (the chosen house/ the Beit HaMikdash). Rabbi Yosie says: But I do not know which of these
three mitzvot are to be performed first. When following the narrative of
Israel’s initial war with Amalek, the Torah states (Shmot 17:16) “Because God
has sworn by his throne that God will have war with Amalek from generation to
generation” I would say that since the verse mentions God’s throne, which
represents the Jewish king, and only then war with Amalek, the mitzvah to
appoint a king must be performed first. The Braita then determines the proper place for the second
and third mitzvot: I still don’t know if the commandment to build the
Beit HaBechira must be performed before or after the mitzvah to eradicate the
offspring of Amalek. When the verse that describes the conditions that will
prevail when Israel is to build the Temple states (Dvarim 12:10-11): “And when
he gives you respite from all your enemies…and it shall come to pass that the
place which your God shall choose…” I would say that since the verse first
mentions the elimination of Israel’s enemies, including Amalek and only then
the building of the Temple, the mitzvah to eradicate the offspring of Amalek
must be performed before the mitzvah to build the Temple. From here we see that we are still far off from
building the Beit HaMikdah. Although we have a government in the Modern State
of Israel, we don’t have a king. As far as obliterating Amalek, today we don’t know
which nation is which so there would be no way for us to fulfill this
commandment as Rabbi Yehoshua taught (Brachot 28a): Sancheriv, King of Ashur
long ago came up and confused all the nations (exiled the nations he conquered
and resettled them in different lands) as it says in Yishayahu 10:13: “I have
removed the boundaries of peoples and have plundered their treasures, I have
brought down dwellers in strongholds.” Radbaz comments on the Rambam’s Mishneh Torah,
Hilchot Melachim 5:5 that the fulfillment of the command to obliterate Amalek
is deferred until the Messianic era. Since we have not appointed a king and the Mashiach
is not here yet, at this stage, we are still not ready to move on to the third
category, the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash. |