<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; ">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?<br><br><b>What We Lost with the Destruction of Bayit Rishon</b><br><br></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; ">The Rambam (<b>based, in part, on the Gemara in Yoma 52b</b>) in Hilchot Beit HaBachira (<b>Chapter 4, Halacha 1</b>) describes some of the more significant objects that the first Beit HaMikdash contained:<br><blockquote>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. <br><br>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...'" (<b>Divrei HaYamim II 35: 3 - see also the commentaries of the the Radak and the Ralbag there</b>) And he [King Yoshiyahu] hid the staff of Aharon and the jar of Man and the anointing oil with it [the Aron].</blockquote>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 (<b>see the Ralbag to Divrei HaYamim II 35:3</b>), the success was not immediately apparent, as the Rambam notes in the same halacha: <br><blockquote>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" (<b>Ezra 2: 63 - see also the commentary of the Malbim there</b>). 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.</blockquote>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" (<b>see Rashi Succah 41a, beginning with the words "Iy Nami"; Pasikta Rabati, ed. Ish Shalom chapter 28; and the Raavan Rosh Hashana 30a</b>).</span></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 14px; "><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 14px; ">Excerpted from an article by Rabbi Chaim Brovender</span></font></div></body></html>