We are taught that on the 7th day of the Hebrew month of MarCheshvan the Jews in Israel begin "to pray for rain; fifteen days after the festival of Sukkot." In the time of the Beit HaMikdash, even the pilgrim who had the greatest distance to travel back home from Jerusalem (after spending Sukkot there), had already returned home by this date and he wouldn't be inconvenienced by the rain that was now being prayed for.
Thus, till now, the spiritual high enjoyed by the Jewish people during their pilgrimage still continued. But, starting with 7th of MarCheshvan, all the Jews were already home and thus in a state of spiritual descent relative to their lofty state while in Jerusalem.
A Jew must continuously rise from level to level in holiness. Therefore, the Jewish people's spirituality after returning home from Jerusalem possessed a quality superior even to that of their lofty state during their pilgrimage.
Most Jews during those times were involved in agricultural matters. He was able to perform the agricultural commandments relating to Israel as well as drawing down holiness within all his physical affairs. This is something he was incapable of doing while he was in Jerusalem and at the Beit HaMikdash.
G-d desired to have a dwelling place in this physical world. We accomplish this by drawing down G-d's sanctity and permeating the mundane with holiness--taking physical objects and performing mitzvot with them.
While in Jerusalem, the person is mostly occupied with sacred matters. Thus, it is specifically on the 7th ofMarCheshvan, when the Jew returns to his home, that he begins to express the quality and merit of a personal spiritual service that involves elevating this material world, transforming the physical objects themselves, so that they become the actual dwelling for G-d transforming this world into a dwelling place for G-d.
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