Musar su Aggeo 1:8

These three פרשיות are always read in the three weeks of mourning culminating in the fast of the Ninth of Av; their content is most appropriate at that time. The reason we have lost the Temple and have been sent into exile is because we were guilty of violating those Torah's laws designed to perfect our soul, body and financial dealings. Our sages have said that during the period of the first Temple Israel sinned by worshiping idols and by engaging in sexual licentiousness and murder (Jerusalem Talmud Yuma 1,1). Ever since the destruction of the first Temple, the damage done by committing these sins has not been repaired, not even when the second Temple was built. This is why five important manifestations of G–d's Presence [proof of a high spiritual level of the Jewish people], were missing during all the years that the second Temple functioned. Our sages found this alluded to in the defective spelling of the word (ה)ואכבד in Chagai 1,8: עלו ההר והביאו עצים ובנו בית, וארצה בו ואכבד אמר השם. "Go up to the mountain, get timber and rebuild the House; then I will look on it with favor and I will be glorified-thus said the Lord." The missing letter ה was the prophet's way of telling Israel that the second Temple would be inferior to the first in five respects (Yuma 21b). The sin of worshiping idols is essentially one of the soul; the very thought that there are other deities beside the Lord G–d is prohibited. Sexual licentiousness and perversion, is, of course, a sin committed by the body. There is no other sin that involves as many of one's limbs and organs simultaneously as engaging in sexual intercourse. Murder also involves all parts of the body; all the organs and limbs of the victim are rendered useless. Jerusalem had been guilty of that sin also, since the hands of the Jerusalemites are described as "filled with blood" (Isaiah 1,15). That same generation had also been guilty of unfair dealings in monetary matters, as described by Isaiah 1,23: "Your rulers are rogues and cronies of thieves; all of them greedy for bribes." The making of vows, or the failure to honor them, also involves one's soul. The immediate cause of Nebuchadnezzar's attack on Jerusalem was King's Zedekiah having broken his solemn oath to the king of Babylonia not to rebel against his rule (Kings II 25,1). This is why the elders of Zion are reported as having put dust on their heads and having lowered their heads to the ground (Lamentations 2,10). Eichah Rabbah 2,14 relates that the members of the Jewish Supreme Court at the time of King Zedekiah were executed as punishment for violation of their נדרים, vows. According to the Midrash the oath of loyalty had been taken on the golden altar, i.e. in the Sanctuary.

There are five בתי אבות, family-sources, which have to be viewed as "above" the concept of land distribution. They are the three patriarchs, to whom the land was promised, but who never took possession of it even though they pined for it and were buried in it. Then there is Joseph, who is described as the direct continuation of Jacob in Genesis 37,2: אלה תולדות יעקב, יוסף. [there was no other reason for the Torah to tell us this fact which we all knew. Ed.] Joseph expressed an ardent desire to be buried in the land of Israel, and made his brothers swear an oath that they would take his bones with them at the time of the redemption from Egypt (Genesis 50,24). There is also Levi, whose descendants did not share in the land, for the Torah describes G–d Himself as their inheritance (Deut. 18,1). We must realize that these five people (or groups of people) were on a spiritual level where they did not need their share of land on earth in order to have their share of the land of Israel in the Celestial Domain. That region is the root of the terrestrial ארץ ישראל. The letter ה in the words במקום ה-זה, alludes to these five categories of people who spiritually outranked the other twelve, i.e. 12 =זה. There is also a special significance in the number five when we consider the five manifestations of G–d's Presence that were missing during the time of the second Temple. This means that there was a residual presence of חרב, i.e. חורבן, destruction, during the entire period of the second Temple. Our sages expressed this in terms of the missing letter ה, in the word ואכבד in Chagai 1,8, where the word should have been the same as in Exodus 14,4, ואכבדה בפרעה (cf. Rashi on that verse in חגי). In the future (third Temple) these five manifestations of G–d's שכינה will be restored. Not only will they be restored, but such a future will herald new spiritual heights when the original light that permeated the universe immediately after the Creation will also be restored. It is the time described in Isaiah 25,9 as: זה ה' קוינו לו, "This is the Lord whom we have hoped for." At that time the promise in Leviticus 26,12: והתהלכתי בתוככם, "I will be walking among you," will also be fulfilled.