Hypermikdash
THE SECOND TEMPLE
The Torah tells us that as the Second Temple was
dedicated, the joyous noises of the happy Jews were drowned out by the
grief-stricken cries of those older people who remembered the glory of
the Solomon's Temple. There was not a lot of money in Jerusalem in
those years, and worse still, there were not a lot of Jews; most had decided
to stay behind in the strong Torah-communities of the exile
rather than face the dangers and discomfort of settling the Holy Land.
As if that wasn't enough, the local political
climate at the birth of the second commonwealth was far from stable.
Kussim (Samaritans), struggling for
the favor of the Persian king, fought physical and political battles against
the fragile Jewish community. The community itself was small and
at times badly weakened by ignorance of Torah's commandments and even intermarriage
(Nechemiya 9, 2).
The result of all the turmoil was a Temple
that - while grand - couldn't compare to its predecessor. How could it
be otherwise? The builders literally had to go about their work with
sword in one hand (Nechemiya 4,15) and tools in the other.
This second Temple lacked the ark (it had
been buried decades before the previous destruction to protect it from
the hands of the enemy); the high priest had no breastplate from which
to consult G-d's advice (either the stones were missing or, according to
another opinion, were there, but did not light up in response to questions);
there were fewer open miracles with which to see the Divine presence and
the materials and architecture of the building itself were disappointing.
But it was better than exile.
The fact was, that the whole period of the
second empire was anyway a kind of half-exile. The sages, led by
the 120 members of the Anshei Knesses Hagedola (Men of the Great Assembly),
actually used the years of the Second Commonwealth as a preparation for
the longer exile they knew would come. It was this body which, among
other things, instituted much of the siddur prayerbook that we have today.
These were declining years for the Jewish
people. Just over the horizon lay a seemingly endless exile. The
future was bleak and the world's various powers (The Persians, Greeks and
Romans) would not leave the little land and its people to enjoy its present
either.
But for the existence of our great leaders,
the likes of Shimon Hatzadik, Shemaya
and Avtalion, Hillel and Shamai and Rabbi Akiva, our people would long
before have been swallowed up by the sands of time. It was only the
Torah - the Torah of those leaders - that acted as a beacon in the dark
night to define us as a nation and show us the path to follow.