"'Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, with its top in heaven, and let us make us a name.'"
(Genesis 11:4)
Mar Cheshvan 7, 5768/October 18, 2007
The flood waters have subsided, and Noach, his three sons, and their wives all emerge from the ark. A new dawn awaits mankind. Noach's first response is to build an altar and make an offering to G-d. G-d responds positively. Man and G-d are back on track. Yet within generations things again have gone awry: Man's ego has once again gotten the best of him.
The generation of the flood had neither time nor a place for G-d, and did all in their power to simply boot Him from this world. The generation of the Tower of Bavel (Babylon), also known as the generation of the dispersion, had a better idea: 'Rather than make a place on this earth for G-d, let's make a place for us in heaven. In other words, we don't want a G-dless world, we want G-d very much. Only we want to be G-d!'
To achieve this end, they formed together a single society, with a single language, and a single ethos. Their morality was a morality of convenience and expedience. Their commandments were man-made commandments, produced for the gratification of the moment and disposable. They were not eternal truths revealed to an entire nation. There was no covenant agreed to by Giver and receiver. Their law was the law of the elite, take it or leave it. It's intended purpose was not for the good of the individual, or the family, or even the community. Its purpose was to promote the "plan." The "plan," of course, was the tower, whose top was to pierce the heavens, and conquer forever the exalted heights from which the rulers could look down at all they had accomplished. Therefore, our sages teach us, if a brick were to fall from the construction site and plummet earthward, work would be stopped and mourning would begin. That is how important the material was. However, if a worker slipped and plunged to his death, the surviving workers worked on. That's how utterly unimportant human life was.
Sound familiar? We live in a world today in which the technology of communication is so advanced that we all, in effect, speak the same language. And once again today, there are those self-proclaimed Nimrods who are using this common tongue to impose upon the rest of us their politically correct morality, for the sole purpose of "building the tower," supplanting G-d in the world, and replacing His law with theirs. Today the tower is called "the peace process." The bricks in this process consist of destroying the remnants of the Holy Temple and wresting the Temple Mount from G-d by handing it over to bloodthirsty terrorists; of uprooting hundreds of thousands of G-d fearing Jews from their homes in biblical Judea and Samaria, and handing the land of the patriarchs over to bloodthirsty terrorists; and of terrorizing the Jews in the remaining land of Israel into spiritual and physical defeat and exile. And for what purpose? So that someone, anyone, can sit at the top looking down. Someone, anyone, but G-d.
What can be done? The situation seems to have spun out of control. It's overwhelming. The Torah reading of Noach concludes with the birth and early history of Avraham avinu - our patriarch Abraham. As we will learn in this coming Shabbat Torah reading of Lech L'cha, Avraham, the young idol-smasher, with some clear thinking and intrepid action, was able to extricate himself from the politically correct prison into which he was born, and create a new society in which G-d, and not man, is the sole source of truth and morality. This very same Torah based society is taking deep root today in the land of Israel and cannot be shaken by all the Nimrods the world over. Their towers will fall, and we will still be standing.
Join Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven on this week's Temple Talk, as they discuss the world: from the flood to the dedication of the Third Holy Temple in this month of Mar Cheshvan, the growing struggle for the Temple Mount, and the anniversary this Thursday, (Cheshvan 6/October 18) of Maimonides personal ascent to the Temple Mount, "The great and holy house."
Click here to learn about the Rambam's (Maimonides) historic ascent to the Temple Mount, and read his own words describing his gratitude to have been able to perform this mitzvah.
In commemoration of the Rambam's ascent, a large contingent of Jews ascended the Mount today (Cheshvan 6), and made history as the priestly blessing was performed openly on the Temple Mount for the first time in 2000 years. To view photographs, click here.
Watch Rabbi Chaim Richman's fifteen minute special video teaching on the month of Mar Cheshvan: The connection between the Great Flood in the days of Noah and the future dedication of the Third Holy Temple. Click here.
This week on the Universal Torah Network: Rabbi Chaim Richman's video teaching, Light to the Nations: "Temple Studies 38: The Foundation Stone: Concluding chapter 4 of Maimonides Laws of the Chosen House, in which the fascinating history and details of the even hashtiya - the foundation stone - are delineated." Click here to view.
With blessings from Jerusalem,
Yitzchak Reuven
THE TEMPLE INSTITUTE
PO Box 31876
Jerusalem, Israel 97500
www.templeinstitute.org
And this eternal life
That they believe on Thee the only true G-d
And Jesus Christ whom He has sent.
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