Last year our very unusual Purim fell on Erev Shabbat Tetzaveh and we read this haftara, although in most years this week’s parsha is followed by Parshat Zachor. This year we read the haftara again because Purim has been postponed by one month. As unusual as it is to read this haftara at all, it is much rarer to read it two years in a row.
The conjunction of the celebration of Purim and the dedication of the Mishkan and the Beit HaMikdash in most years turns our thoughts towards Nissan and the awakening season of redemption. But this year all of that will be delayed by a second Adar. In the times when months were still set by testimony before the Sanhedrin, we’d most commonly experience these delays when the roads were too muddy, slowing the trip to Yerushalayim for the Korban Pesach. Our roads are fairly muddy and we’ve seen a bit of rain recently. G-d willing, given another month of Adar to get the roads ready, we will all ascend to bring our Pesach sacrifice in the third Beit HaMikdash in Yerushalayim this year. That is the topic of our haftara.
When the navi Yechezel is given a vision of the third Beit HaMikdash, he is commanded to teach its measurements and dimensions to the people of Israel. As we discussed last year, the people to whom he delivers this prophecy have yet to build the second Beit HaMikdash, so it’s a bit incongruous to be speaking of a third. This year we will examine more closely the language of the command, which also begs a number of questions.
Hashem doesn’t only command Yechezkel to describe what he has seen, but He establishes an agenda which at first glance is difficult to reconcile with the substance of the prophecy. Hashem tells Yechezkel that having received the dimensions of the Beit HaMikdash, Israel will abandon their iniquities. (Yechezkel 43:10). If the navi transmits everything faithfully in all of its detail then they will “guard [the plan of] its structure… and build all of the details” (Ibid. 11).
The Radak relates to this text in a prosaic but inspiring manner. He explains that Israel has brought about the destruction of the first Beit HaMikdash through their wantonness and iniquity. They must realize that in order to build the next one (or the one after that), they will have to turn away from their wicked ways. But the vision that has been vouchsafed to Yechezkel is also a promise that they will someday achieve this and the House will be built.
Furthermore, according to Radak, there is a reference to Techiyat HaMeitim, the resurrection of the righteous to precede the final return of the service in the Beit HaMikdash. Hashem tells the navi that they will keep all of His laws and they will build it. They – literally, the same people who are listening to Yechezkel in the Babylonian exile – will return to life at the end of time and build the third Beit HaMikdash.
The Malbim adds a beautiful spiritual aspect to this teaching. He explains that all of the dimensions and components of the third Beit HaMikdash are representative of higher spiritual truths, and that the physical architecture signifies the structure of the righteous person – body and spirit. The people of Israel are to learn from the secrets embedded in the plans of the structure of the Beit HaMikdash how to construct the edifice of their own souls. The righteous person who studies the vision of Yechezkel, says the Malbim, will build a pure and holy house for the Divine Presence within him or her. In this way will the people of Israel give up their iniquities, return to the faithful service of Hashem, and ultimately merit the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash on top of the mountain chosen by Hashem for His Presence to dwell.
