The three weeks between the Seventeenth of Tammuz and Tishah B’Av are a time of mourning, marking the period from the breaching of Yerushalayim’s walls to the churban Beis HaMikdash. We must pause to reflect: What is the essence of this mourning? How does it resonate in our lives today? And what is the avodah these days demand of us?
The mourning for the churban Beis HaMikdash is not merely a commemoration and remembrance of a historical event. It is a mourning for a reality of churban that unfolds daily, year after year. As long as the Redeemer has not arrived to usher in the geulah, the galus deepens, and the churban grows ever more profound. As the Yerushalmi (Yoma 1a) states: “כל דור שאינו נבנה בימיו מעלין עליו כאילו הוא החריבו—Any generation in whose days the Beis HaMikdash is not rebuilt is considered as if they destroyed it.”
The Beis HaMikdash was the makom (place) chosen by the Borei Olam to rest His Shechinah, this is the way it became a makom imbued with kedushah. As the Torah declares (Devarim 17:8): “And you shall arise and go up to the place that Hashem will choose.” The first thing that was destroyed and laid waste was the makom of the Shechinah in our world. To grasp the depth of this loss, we must first understand what a makom truly is.
The essence of a makom is its unique, clearly defined designation for a specific purpose. For example, a royal palace is the place of the king; when a person is in the palace, they are in the presence of royalty—even if the king is not physically there at that moment. Simply by entering the makom of royalty, one encounters the king. This is also why respect should be shown to a father’s chair, as it is his makom kevuah; the father is considered present there, even if he is not sitting in it at that moment.
In the Beis HaMikdash, the Borei Olam designated a makom kevuah for kedushah, a source from which holiness could flow. Kedushah requires such a makom to exist; without it, chalilah, it dissipates, burning away, leaving us unable to connect to holiness without a dedicated space. Our anguish stems from this absence—there is no fixed, designated makom for the Borei in our world, and kedushah is absent from our world.
This great distance is starkly evident in how we perceive the makom HaMikdash, particularly in our relationship to the Kosel HaMa’aravi. Too often, we view it as a historical site, its surroundings reduced to a tourist attraction, rachmana litzlan. We may feel drawn to view nearby places like the floor of the Azarah or Har HaBayis, treating them as poignant archaeological relics, while the main thing is missing from the picture.
Even the ease with which we can come and daven at the remnant of our Beis HaMikdash today, in contrast to the extensive preparation that was required when it stood in its glory, dims our perception of the makom of the Shechinah. In the time of the Mikdash, ascending to this makom demanded much avodah — days of spiritual preparation and purification to approach the Borei Olam’s sanctuary.
Although the primary makom was destroyed due to our sins, each individual can still become a makom kevuah for the Shechinah, as taught in Nefesh HaChaim (1:4). And indeed, in earlier generations, such a makom kevuah was a profound reality. The Rambam, in Moreh Nevuchim (3:52), explains that man’s intellect can serve as a makom for the Shechinah. Yet, due to our sins, we lack even this. Still, we can strive to create a makom kevuah for kedushah within ourselves, at least to some degree.
This is the avodah of these days: to designate a makom kevuah for kedushah in our lives. Only by
creating such permanence can we begin to comprehend the void left by its absence. During these weeks, we must ask ourselves with urgency: Where is Hashem found in our lives? We must carve out a dedicated space for kedushah within ourselves to connect, even faintly, to the avodah of these days.
We can cultivate this by pausing briefly before reciting Shema, designating that moment as a makom kevuah where Hashem enters our lives, His Presence filling our entire being. Similarly, before Shemoneh Esrei, when saying “תהילות לקל עליון,” we can envision that now we are coming to our fixed meeting with the Melech. Through these acts, we begin to create a makom kevuah for the Borei Yisborach in our lives.