Rebuilding The Bet Hamikdash - R. Yaakov Rahimi - TorahAnytime.com

And then the Reshis Chochmah, who's one of the greatest Mekubalin that we had, he says a mashal to this. He says, "Imagine mashal lemelech shenitgarash mimalkhuto. Imagine you have a king that got chased out of his palace. King, wealthy king, has so much power, kavod, and honor, gold, silver, but he got kicked out of his palace. Everyone is chasing him, he's running away. So, where did the king run away? Says the Reshis Chochmah, as a parable, as a mashal, "The king ran away to a certain forest, a certain small village. Now, he's running away, he barely has a shirt on his back and pants, a small backpack. So, he went from a palace, being king, having all the clothes, servants, having the best food, has everything he needs, comfortable, comfort. Now, he's basically homeless with a shirt on his back and pants and a small backpack. He's running away. One very poor villager comes out of his little hut and HE SAYS, 'OH, KING, YOU MUST BE HUNGRY. LET ME GIVE YOU some food.' Says the Reshis Chochmah, "What can a very, very poor guy really afford if he lives in a small village and his house is basically a hut under trees? How much can the king afford?" Says the Reshis Chochmah, "He offers him old, burnt bread, old, old bread, and a small cup of water, whatever he can afford. But the king was so appreciative that he gave him a small cup of water and a burnt piece of bread. And the king told the poor person, 'Even though all you're giving me is bread, burnt bread, and even though you're giving me a cup of water, and this is nothing compared to what I'm used to when I was king, but because I am in galut, because I was KICKED OUT OF MY HOUSE IN THE PALACE and ran around, running away, your water, your burnt piece of bread to me is a very expensive piece of steak with a very expensive cup of wine. Cuz ran away, I ran away from the palace.' Says the Reshis Chochmah, "Yes, the closer we were to the times of the Bet Hamikdash, the more Hashem was by his palace called Jerusalem and the Bet Hamikdash. So yes, mitzvot then meant a lot. You have to do a lot to be considered a mitzvah. You have to do a lot to be considered learning a lot of quality, a lot of quantity, a lot of kedusha, a lot of holiness. But unfortunately, we're close to 2,000 years since the Shekinah was kicked out of the Bet Hamikdash. Unfortunately, it's very sad since the Bet Hamikdash was destroyed. So Hashem, the Shekinah, right now is in exile, in galut. So even though we give Hashem small mitzvot, but those small mitzvot, YOU'RE RIGHT, ARE very small compared to the generations before us. But because right now Hashem is outside of Jerusalem, the Shekinah is out, our small mitzvot to Hashem means everything. It means the world to Hashem. So how are we going to rebuild the Bet Hamikdash? Says the Reshit Chochmah, keep on doing Torah and mitzvot in your generation cuz you can't judge one generation based on another generation.