[Avodah] Why Do We Mourn Over the Destruction of the FIRST Temple?

[Cantor Wolberg]

It is easy for us to understand why we mourn the destruction of the  
Second Temple - after all, our lives today and the lives of the Jewish  
people over the last 2,000 years have been directly (and negatively)  
impacted by that horrible event. But why do we still mourn the  
destruction of the First Temple - an event which has seemingly been  
rectified? Did we not rebuild the Temple? Was not the second Beit  
HaMikdash's beauty and joy so tremendous that the Gemara declares them  
second to none (Succah 51a and 51b). What need, therefore, is there to  
still mourn the first Beit HaMikdash? How does it affect our lives  
today, what loss are we still crying over?

What We Lost with the Destruction of Bayit Rishon

The Rambam (based, in part, on the Gemara in Yoma 52b) in Hilchot Beit  
HaBachira (Chapter 4, Halacha 1) describes some of the more  
significant objects that the first Beit HaMikdash contained:
There was a stone in the western section of the Kodesh Kedoshim upon  
which the Aron (Holy Ark) was placed. Before it was the jar of Manna  
and the staff of Aharon.

At the time that Shlomo built the Temple (knowing that the Temple was  
destined to be destroyed) he built a deep and winding tomb below to  
[eventually] hide the Aron. And King Yoshiyahu commanded to hide it  
[the Aron] in the place that Shlomo built - as the [pasuk] states:  
"And he said to the Leviim...'place the Aron HaKadosh in the house  
which Shlomo the son of David, King of Israel, built...'" (Divrei  
HaYamim II 35: 3 - see also the commentaries of the the Radak and the  
Ralbag there) And he [King Yoshiyahu] hid the staff of Aharon and the  
jar of Man and the anointing oil with it [the Aron].
Shlomo HaMelekh knew that we could never truly reproduce the heart and  
soul of the First Temple (namely, the Aron and its surrounding  
vessels). As such, he took pains to protect the holy vessels which we  
were so fortunate at one time to possess. And while Shlomo HaMelekh's  
plan succeeded - the vessels were spared the destruction that befell  
the First Temple (see the Ralbag to Divrei HaYamim II 35:3), the  
success was not immediately apparent, as the Rambam notes in the same  
halacha:
And none of these [objects] returned with [the rebuilding of] the  
Second Temple. Even the Urim and Tumim of the Second Temple did not  
provide answers vis-a-vis Ruach HaKadosh nor did they ask questions of  
it - as the [pasuk] states: "...until a Kohein is established [who can  
ask] of the Urim and Tumim" (Ezra 2: 63 - see also the commentary of  
the Malbim there). They only made them [the Urim and Tumim] in order  
to complete the eight garments of the Kohen Gadol - so that he  
wouldn't lack any garments.
Evidently the destruction of the Temple is not something that we could  
easily reverse and that is why the rebuilding of the Temple was  
incomplete. We were able to rebuild the structure of the Temple, but  
central vessels of the Temple remained hidden away. And they will  
continue to remain hidden until the building of the third Temple - the  
Temple which, God Himself will one day "rebuild" (see Rashi Succah  
41a, beginning with the words "Iy Nami"; Pasikta Rabati, ed. Ish  
Shalom chapter 28; and the Raavan Rosh Hashana 30a).

Excerpted from an article by Rabbi Chaim Brovender
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