The Redemptive Secret of the Temple Windows - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

so in this week's Torah portion we encounter the central topic to the Jewish mission in the world which is the mishan right the Tabernacle here's a picture of of the Tabernacle sort of a cross-section of it we'll learn about it later in in the fellowship the verse that broaches this holy subject is in the very beginning of the portion just eight verses in um where Hashem instructs the nation through Moshe and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell within them right so the Torah goes into detail on the construction of the mishan of the Tabernacle and what is the tab what is essentially the Tabernacle it's a microcosm of the temple itself without oversimplifying it it's basically the portable Temple it's the portable Temple which the nation uses through their journey through the desert until they enter the land when they can finally build a permanent structure of the beta mikdash right of the Holy Temple so the reason that the introduction of the idea of the temple is so Central which so pivotal so absolutely fundamental and foundational to the story of the Jewish people as our mission in the world is because it's this idea that transitions us from being an insular people who are on our very own exclusive Journey with Hashem to being a nation entrusted with a mission of being a light of Holiness and godliness to the entire world it's the whole difference between light and darkness good and bad it's the difference between up and down it changes us from being like this to being like that and it's this very concept of the temple which imbus US with that mission now there are many facets to the very construct of the temple to its design which convey the central mission of the temple and if it was my fellowship I think I would make it all about going into each and every one of those things but none of the none of the design can be more summarized by the mission of the temple itself than the dimensions of the windows of the sanctuary itself you see in a normal house in a private dwelling the openings for the windows are on on the outside right they were narrower than the openings on the inside were right it's like on the outside like this and on the inside so so you know on the outside they would be narrow slits opened up to a wide window on the inside and the reason for this is so the light could be channeled from the outside to maximally illuminate the inside which is precisely the conventional mission of a window to bring in light from the outside of the house to the inside of the house which particularly during the vast majority of pre-electric History was very important you want a house with lightting you want as much light inside as possible you want to bring in light from the outside and bring it into the inside but not so with the temple the windows of the temple were 20 cubits high and consisted of long narrow openings in the wall but as opposed to those long narrow openings being on the outside of the room like every other building would have the Holy Temple was totally unique it was was not like any other building in the world the narrow slits were on the inside of the room which expanded to the outside which went out to the outside windows were were very wide than the temple right because the temple was not meant to be receiving light but giving light the mission of the temple the mission of the temple Windows was to shine the Divine Godly light from within the temple outwards the mission of the temple was to illuminate the world with the knowledge of God as the prophet Isaiah says like water covers the sea the temple was not built to receive light from the world but to give it and so too same thing with the nation of Israel the nation of Israel we are the windows of the temple the Divine Light does not Shine from from within us meaning that we're not the source of that light but we are the vessels through which that light shines it shines through us and I really really believe the only thing which is really holding up the Redemption is for the nation of Israel to awaken from National coma and realize who we are to remember the mission for which we were created to realize that we are not meant to be a nation like all the other nations but we are uniquely entrusted with the mission of blessing the world of shining a light upon the world of taking responsibility for the nations of the world that is the essence of the process that we're seeing playing out before our eyes right now