Seek Out the Welfare of Jerusalem

Our Sages explain that we are required to constantly “Seek out the welfare of Jerusalem,” to concern ourselves with the Beis HaMikdash is destroyed, studying its structure is considered by G-d as equivalent to actually building it.

This volume contains essays adapted from the works of the Lubavitcher Rebbe which analyze the Rambam’s conception of the design of the Beis HaMikdash as recorded in Hilchos Beis HaBechirah.

From a Talmudic point of view, it reveals a breadth and depth of Torah knowledge that has rarely been communicated in the English language. And from a spiritual viewpoint, it points to parallels within the structure and service of the Beis HaMikdash that can be applied in our strivings for spiritual growth.

Although the study of the Beis HaMikdash is relevant at all times, there is a particularly pertinence to its study in the present time. For we are on the threshold of the Redemption and indeed in the process of crossing that threshold. Thus we should study the laws of the Beis HaMikdash with the anticipation of a Bar-Mitzvah learning the laws of tefillin. And we are promised that this study will in itself hasten the coming of the time when we will actually apply these laws.