Halakhah su Esodo 15:17

The rebuilding of the Bet ha–Mikdash itself is precluded until the coming of the Messiah.²Cf. R. Abraham Isaac Kook, Mishpat Kohen (Jerusalem, 5697), no. 94. The conclusions expressed in this responsum, dated London, 21 Cheshvan, 5678, were evidently reconsidered in view of the contradictory view expressed subsequently by R. Kook in a letter of approbation to Yaskil Avdi by R. Ovadiah Hadaya (Jerusalem, 5691), vol. I. See also R. Eliezer Waldenberg, Ha-Pardes, Tishri 5728, and R. Mordecai Ha-Kohen, Panim el Panim, 6 Tammuz, 5727 and 21 Cheshvan, 5728. See also below, note 24. Rashi, in his commentary on Sukkah 41a and Rosh ha-Shanah 30a, states that the third Temple will not be a human artifact but shall miraculously appear as a fully built edifice. According to Rashi's opinion, the verse "The sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established" (Exod. 15:17) refers to the future Bet ha-Mikdash.³Rashi’s view is implicit in the naḥem prayer of the minḥah service for the Ninth of Ab: “For Thou, O Lord, didst consume it [the Temple] with fire and through fire wilt Thou in future rebuild it.” The text of this prayer is based upon the Jerusalem Talmud, Berakhot 4:3. Regarding the apparent contradiction between Rashi as here cited and Rashi’s comments on Ezekiel 43:11, see R. Shlomoh Yosef Zevin, “Mikdash he-Atid le-Or ha-Halakhah,” Maḥanayim, no. 119, p. 14, for an ingenious resolution based upon Teshuvot Divrei Ta‘am (Warsaw, 5664). Rambam, despite his view that the Bet ha-Mikdash will be constructed by man, cites the text of the naḥem prayer in his Seder Tefilot appended to Sefer Ahavah of the Mishneh Torah; cf. Rashi, Ketubot 8a. Rambam, on the other hand, enumerates the building of the Bet ha-Mikdash as one of the 613 commandments.⁴Sefer ha-Miẓyot, ‘aseh, no. 20. Sa‘adia Ga’on, too, includes the building of the Bet ha-Mikdash in his list of communal obligations; see Sefer ha-Miẓyot le-Rabbenu Sa‘adya Ga’on, Minyan ha-Parshiyot, no. 51. Since the very nature of a commandment implies a deed to be performed by man rather than an act emanating from God, Rambam obviously maintains that the Bet ha-Mikdash will be the product of human endeavor. However, he states explicitly that this Bet ha-Mikdash will be rebuilt only with the advent of the Messiah himself. Not only will the Temple be built by the Messiah, but this construction will serve as substantiation of the messianic claim. "If he builds the Bet ha-Mikdash on its site and gathers in the dispersed of Israel, he is, in certainty, the Messiah" (Hilkhot Melakhim 11:4).