**Adir Hu,Mighty is He! “May HE build HIS Temple soon; speedily, speedily; in our life time may it be!” In discussing on what day the redemption would take place, the sages conclude that it would be on the fifteenth of Nissan – on Passover. In discussing this matter, Rashi wonders; since the building of the Temple does not take precedence over the observance of the Sabbath or the Holy Days, how can the third Temple be built on the fifteenth of Nissan which is the first day of Passover. He answers that this prohibition only applies to human construction and not the divine construction of the Temple. We read in the Bible, “The sanctuary of the Lord, which YOU shall establish.”¹⁴⁰ Since the Holy One of Blessing will be the one to build the Third Temple this construction project can take place on the festival. That is why we can chant in the words of the poet, “Speedily, speedily in our day…” since the building of the Temple could conceivably begin right at this moment!!” “May HE build HIS Temple,” – we mean this quite literally! Similarly, even though God swore never to let the Jewish people enter His Temple, “Therefore in my indignation did I swear never to let enter my (place of) rest,” we will be able to enter the Temple. This is like the parable of a king who banished his children from his palace and said he would never let them enter this palace. What did the King do? When he forgave his children he knocked down his old palace and built a new one so that they could enter without his having to break the oath that he made. We read, “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, they shall never hold their peace day nor night…who…take no rest, and give Him no rest, until He establishes and makes Jerusalem full of praise in the earth.’”¹⁴¹ And yet we also ask God to rebuild Jerusalem so that the remnant can enter it. Yet if God has set guards upon the walls of Jerusalem this would seem to suggest that it doesn’t have to be rebuilt! This suggests that the temple was not really burned down but was hidden away for future generations so that even God will not have to rebuild it on the festival! But brings us back to our first question: If the temple was not destroyed, how can we enter it since God swore never to let us “enter His place of rest.” Therefore we must ask God to rebuild Jerusalem so that His oath is no longer in effect and then to let those who are exiled enter the city. So we are left with a controversy. If the Temple was burned and destroyed, then we don’t have to worry about God’s oath forbidding us entry into it. But if it is merely hidden away, then we cannot enter it even when He returns it to its place. Now we can understand why we ask God to personally rebuild the Temple (so we will not be excluded from it). That is also why on the festival of Sukkot we add an extra passage to the end of the Grace after Meals in which we ask the All-Merciful “to reestablish His fallen Sukkah of David for us.” The Holy Temple is referred to as the Sukkah of David. We have a further objection to why Israel might not be able to experience the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. Jewish law teaches us that if a man divorces his wife she is not allowed to live in his neighborhood any more. In the case of our exile God has, in a sense, divorced us. If so what use is there in God rebuilding the Temple? As divorcees from God, we would not be allowed to dwell in His neighborhood, so we would not have access to God’s house or even the courtyard outside of His house. Adir Hu, says, “Your house rebuild,” emphasizing the words, baytcha, “Your house.” But since the Shechinah, the divine presence moved from this place, we are no longer forbidden from entering the Temple, and it is no longer a matter of divorce.¹⁴² Finally, why does the author of Adir Hu add the word, bikarov, “soon” to the opening phrase of the song? This word seems to be redundant and unnecessary. This word teaches us an insight based on a discussion of the law regarding a woman who was raped in the Bible and in the Talmud: If a man rapes a virgin maiden, according to the Torah he must marry her and he is forbidden to ever divorce her.¹⁴³15a discusses what happens if he does give her a writ of divorce. What if he then agrees to take her back? Even if he divorces her, he must remarry her and does not incur the punishment of lashings. He has not broken the negative injunction against divorcing this woman when he is no longer able to take her back.¹⁴⁴ Similarly, in a sense, God forced Himself on Israel at Mount Sinai: according to the Midrash, God held the mountain over the heads of the people and threatened them: He said “If you do not accept My Torah I will put this mountain down on you and this place will be your grave!” Therefore God can never completely divorce the Jewish people – He is bound to us by the same penalty as a man who rapes a virgin girl has according to the Torah! However since human life is limited eventually either the man or the woman in this particular marriage referred to above is going to die; if the man divorced his wife he would then be guilty of having divorced her. In the case of God whose life is forever, we might have to wait a very long time since God is not subject to mortality. Therefore we plead with him, “Rebuild Your house soon!” Don’t make us wait a long time to take us back as is Your obligation according to law.¹⁴⁵ The refrain of *Adir hu,*then, answers four reasons why Israel might have doubts about the rebuilding of the Temple: *El b’nay baytcha bikarov:*God, build your-house soon!

1. How can we rebuild the Temple on a festival? We answer, EL*B’nay *****GODwill rebuild the Temple.
2. God took an oath never to allow us to enter His house – so how can we enter the Temple. To this we answer *El **B’NAY, “***God will build the Temple” so that it will be a new Temple for us to enter and not the one about which he took an oath to exclude us.
3. But God divorced us and therefore we can never return to his neighborhood – so what good will it do to rebuild the temple? To this we say BAYTCHA, “your house.” There was no real divorce here; simply a separation in which the Shechinah left God’s House; therefore we are allowed back in.
4. Finally, even if God can never divorce us completely according to Jewish law (as in the case of a man who rapes a virgin); he can leave us alone and forsaken a very long time since His time is timeless. To this we say BIKAROV, “Rebuild Your house SOON.” That is why we ask God not to take to long in reconciling with us – we love Him and want to return to him soon!

footnotes: ¹⁴⁰ Exodus 15:17 ¹⁴¹ Isaiah 62:6-7 ¹⁴² I am not sure I understand Rabbi Ginzburg’s point here. Is it that by leaving the Temple, the Temple is no longer ‘God’s neighborhood?’ Or is it that this was not so much a divorce as a separation, and therefore Israel is not forbidden to enter the rebuilt Temple. ¹⁴³ Deuteronomy 29:22: If a man comes upon a virgin girl who is not engaged and seizes her and lies with her….he shall pay…she shall be his wife…he can never have the right to divorce her. This halachah troubles us – it is as if after being a victim of rape she is now condemned to marry a man she does not love or certainly does not want. However, one must remember that up until modern times, marriage was not a matter of love but family unity and continuity. As ‘damaged property’ the father of the girl would have a hard time finding a match for her once she lost her virginity; therefore Jewish law forced the culprit to remain married to her. The Talmud in Makkot ¹⁴⁴ Thus, if the rapist was a Kohen and he divorced her, he cannot remarry her because he is not allowed to marry a divorced woman, even if she was formally his wife. So in this case the Kohen would receive lashes for having illegally divorced his wife! ¹⁴⁵ Wow! Did God, in a sense, rape of Israel when He forced the Torah upon us at Mount Sinai? Did God break his own law and for that reason can never forsake the Jewish people. Is the estrangement of God from Israel also an infraction? Is Israel is a victim of a forced divorce by God? There is much to think about here implied in this statement….