ארבעה מזבחות נחלה אחת • די לפחדים הגיע הזמן לנחול את מקום המקדש | הרב אליהו ובר

This week we read about the altars that Abraham our father built. Our Sages say that Abraham our father built four altars. One at the site of Shechem, at Elon Moreh, there he built an altar. A second between Beth El and Ai, once again he built an altar. He continued southward, and finally, after parting from Lot near Hebron, he built another altar. That is in this week's portion; God willing, in next week's portion we will read about the fourth altar on Mount Moriah, there for the binding of Isaac. We have four altars that Abraham our father builds. What is the principle behind building an altar? Later in the Pentateuch, we will see that Jacob our father sets up a pillar, and he also builds an altar. When do you build a pillar? When do you build an altar? I heard a beautiful definition for this. Uh, um...Perhaps I'll add a little to it, but I can't claim it as my own since I heard it from several people, so let's stop there. So the definition is: An altar is built in a permanent place; an altar is construction. A pillar is a thing, it is a stone, you can move it from place to place. When Jacob our father, before he leaves for Haran, he sets up only a pillar—why would he build an altar? He is leaving here now. But Abraham our father, when he arrives in the land, he wants to show that he is permanent. The first thing he does is build an altar in Shechem, truly for generations. That became the site of the altar where the blessings and curses were performed. Afterward, he moves on between Beth El and Ai. Once again, he wants to show his point of permanence, and he builds another altar . And in Hebron, where he settled permanently, he built an altar. The fourth altar he builds is where, later on, it truly became the permanent location of the altar. We are talking and discussing the laws of the altar. Is it possible to make an altar that we prepare somewhere else? Just arrive here with a jeep, place the altar, and quickly, quickly, quickly offer the morning daily sacrifice, or perform a offering like, like what was done with the two loaves or the stories about the water libation—like that, enter, do something, and then leave. Regarding the issue of kashrut, the matter of whether it is kosher or not? It is hard to say it is kosher. A stone altar must be built in a cast or something like that, I won't get into it now, it is truly a complex topic. But we want something else. We certainly want, if there is no choice, we will do something kosher. Yes, it is said—it is a subject for discussion, if really such an altar that you build in one place and cast, does it need to be attached to the ground? Should it be stuck, attached to the ground? Attached to the ground as an essential requirement? Not essential? A subject for discussion. Yes, I say, it is a subject for discussion in the study hall. Thank God, we need a study hall to discuss this. Yes, yes, unfortunately there are not enough study halls today that even talk about this question. There are those already discussing it, but we want something else. An altar means we are permanent in the place. When the people of Israel came in the days of Ezra, they had a fear of all the peoples of the lands around them. What do they do? There is fear of all the lands. I would suggest mandatory conscription, uh, weapons, All sorts of wars. Fences, a big wall, we don't build; an altar because they are afraid of the peoples of the lands, there is all kinds of fear, there is one solution called building an altar. What is the altar? An altar is a point, we are permanent here, we are now sacrificing here to Hashem. This is how it’s done: Abraham our father arrives in the land, wants to show he is permanent, he places an altar. After that, when he separates from Lot, he wants to show that's it, I separated from Lot, now I am permanent without Lot, he builds another altar here. There is an order. What do you do to show you are here? You are here, so you build an altar. It’s been almost 80 years since the state was established and nearly 60 years since we conquered this place. But we haven’t declared that we are permanent here. We need to declare that we are permanent here. There is, next week, I don’t know if you've heard yet, something called elections. Yes, so many parties, so many people, all sorts of people want to be chosen. But you want to be permanent, you want to be permanent in your choice. Choose the place that Hashem chose. Talk about an altar. They say there are, there are parties that do talk about an altar. I don’t want to do election propaganda here, so I won’t talk about anyone, but in principle the form is: we want to be permanent in the land, the Land of Israel. That is our subject. The Holy One, blessed be He, chose the Land of Israel, He says, you want to be permanent. There is a place that I chose. There is inside, there is Mount Moriah, there is the place that was chosen. Yes. "For the Lord has chosen Zion, He has desired it for His habitation." This is what the elections are about. Yes. "For the Lord has chosen Zion, He has desired it for His habitation," and He says build me an altar and that's it, I want that. This permanence of building an altar is the thing that should stand before us when we see Abraham our father, what he does , he establishes a place for himself and places an altar there, so we today are already, a week has passed since the beginning of the month when King Solomon built the Temple, a week has passed and we haven't started an altar, it doesn't make sense. Today is still Marheshvan.