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Thursday

י"ח אדר ב’ התשפ"ד

Thursday
י"ח אדר ב’ התשפ"ד

חיפוש בארכיון

Mitzvah 254) The commandment to have awe for the Temple

Parshas Kedoshim

“And you shall fear my temple!” (Vayikra 19:30)

It is a positive commandment to fear the temple. This means to say that one should fix in our souls as a place of fear and awe, so that our hearts will be softened when we come there to bring offerings or to pray, as it says “And you shall fear my temple!”. Chazal explained how one applies this as being the rule that one should not enter the Temple Mount with one’s stick, shoe, coat, dusty feet, or money tied in his sheet. One should also not use it as a shortcut, by entering on one side and exiting by an opposite exit. It is of course obvious that one must not spit there.

Chazal said that one should not be scared of the Temple itself, but of the One who commanded us to build, which is of course Hashem Yisbarach.

Amongst the laws of this commandment are that even a pure person must not enter the Temple Mount unless it is for a Mitzvah. Also, that one who has completed his service inside and wants to exit, must walk backwards, slowly. The above is also true for the members of that days set of priests and the Levites who served on that day when they exit the Temple.

This commandment applies to men and women. Even though nowadays (due to our many sins) we have no temple we are still obligated to fear it, as it says “My Sabbaths you shall keep and my Temple you shall fear”, which teaches us that in the same way that keeping Shabbos is a permanent obligation, so too is the obligation to fear the Temple.