Building the Beit Hamikdash - by learning about it...

One of the 613 mitzvot of the Torah is the commandment to build a Sanctuary and the fulfillment of this commandment is incumbent upon every Jewish man and woman. The desired manner of fulfilling this commandment is to participate in the actual construction of the Beit HaMikdash. Nevertheless, in an era when this is not possible, G‑d has offered us an alternative

G‑d revealed the details of the structure of the Beit HaMikdash of the Era of the Redemp­tion to the prophet Yechezkel, and told him: “Tell the people of Israel of the House (referring to the Beit Hamikdash) and measure the design.”

Our Sages relate that Prophet Yechezkel replied to Him: “Master of the Earth, why are You telling me to go and tell Israel the form of the House? They are now in exile in the land of our ene­mies. Is there anything they can do about it? Let them be until they return from the exile. Then, I will go and inform them.”

G‑d answered: “Should the construction of My House be ignored because My children are in exile?”

G‑d declared: “The study of the Torah’s design of the Beit HaMikdash can be equated to its actual construc­tion. Go, tell them to study the form of the tHaMik­dash. As a reward for their study and their occupation with it, I will consider it as if they actually built the Beit HaMikdash.”

We can infer that through such study, a person fulfills his obligation to build the Beit Hamikdash.

Our study of the laws of the Beit HaMikdash has to be permeated by the awareness that in the very near future, we will actually partici­pate in building the structure about which we are studying.

Moreover, not only is our study of the Beit HaMikdash equivalent to its construction, it serves as a catalyst, hastening the coming of the time when we will fulfill this mitzvah in an actual material way.

May this take place in the immedi­ate future.