The Vision Beyond the Ruins

One of the most remarkable moments in the Talmud (Makot 24) describes Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah, Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Akiva making their way to Jerusalem after the destruction of the Second Temple. As they reached Mount Scopus and saw the devastation before them, they tore their garments in mourning. Then, as they approached the Temple Mount, they witnessed a fox emerging from the site of the Holy of Holies. The others burst into tears. Rabbi Akiva laughed.

His colleagues were astonished. “How can you laugh?” they asked.

Rabbi Akiva replied, “Why do you cry?”

They answered that the holiest place on earth had become a ruin. Rabbi Akiva explained that the prophet Uriah had foretold the Temple’s destruction, while the prophet Zechariah had promised that one day the streets of Jerusalem would again be filled with elderly men and women living in peace. “Until I saw Uriah’s prophecy fulfilled,” Rabbi Akiva said, “I feared Zechariah’s prophecy might never come. Now that the destruction has come to pass, I know the redemption will too.”

There is something extraordinary about seeing hope in the darkest of times.
This Shabbat is known as Shabbat Chazon the “Shabbat of Vision”, named after the opening words of Isaiah’s haunting prophecy, read on the Shabbat before Tishah B’Av. It calls us to reflect on the causes of the Temple’s destruction.

Yet Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev offered a strikingly different understanding of its name. He compared it to a father who lovingly made his son a beautiful suit. The son neglected it and ruined it. A second suit met the same fate. The father then made a third, but instead of giving it to his son, he kept it safe. From time to time, he would show it to him, explaining that when he learned to value such a gift, it would become his. So too, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak teaches, every Jew is granted a vision of the Third Temple on Shabbat Chazon. We may not consciously see it, but our souls do. We glimpse a world of peace, holiness and closeness to G-d, a vision of what can yet be. Shabbat Chazon reminds us that Jewish history is never simply a story of what has been lost. It is also a vision of what can still be built. Even in moments of destruction, we are invited to see beyond the ruins and become partners in bringing that vision to reality.

Sheyibaneh Beit Hamikdash Bimheirah Beyameinu – May we merit to see the final prophecy of a third temple in Jerusalem, rebuilt speedily in our days.

SHABBAT SHALOM