The
Construction The Bible tells
us of the construction of this Temple in the Book of Melachim 1.
Interestingly, whereas the Mishkan was built totally by the Jewish
People, and with materials contributed by the Jewish People, the first
person that Shlomo turns to when discussing his great Project is Chiram,
King of Tzor. There is good
reason for this. Chiram is in
possession of rare forests, of majestic cedars of Lebanon, and cypress trees
that are unequalled anywhere in the world.
They would be perfect for construction of a structure that Shlomo
wants to be not only one of the Wonders of the World; he wants it to be
“out of this world,” so to speak, to be a resting place for the Divine
Presence. Shlomo tells
Chiram that David, whom Chiram had loved, had wanted to build a Temple, but
had not been allowed to do so, because of all the wars he’d been involved
in. But now G-d had granted
Shlomo all the ingredients for success: great wisdom, great riches and, most
of all, peace on all sides, that would allow him to apply all his energy to
its construction. They agreed
that Chiram would supply Shlomo with cedar and cypress timber and Shlomo
would supply Chiram with vast amounts of foodstuffs.
And Chiram’s unmatched woodcutters would cut down and ship the
timber to the Land of Israel. Shlomo also
levied a tax on the Jewish People to provide thirty thousand laborers on a
rotating basis, to assist Chiram, seventy thousand to bear burdens and
eighty thousand to do quarry
work. As the
completion of the construction approached, HaShem came to Shlomo and said,
“If you will not forsake My Torah, I will invest My Presence in your
Temple, and I will not abandon the People of Israel.” When all the
work was done, Shlomo had the Ark of the L-rd brought up from “Ir
David,” the City of David, where it had been reposing.
Then, amid a ceremony involving the sacrificing of untold numbers of
sacrifices, Shlomo reminded the People that it was his father, David, whose
idea he had brought into reality. Shlomo blessed
the People, and promised that he would observe the condition that had been
set for the permanency of the Temple; namely, that he and the People would
not forsake the Torah. He prayed to
G-d, “But will G-d in truth dwell on the earth?
Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You, how
much less this house that I have built!…But may Your “eyes” be open
towards this place night and day…to hearken unto the prayer that Your
servant shall offer towards this place…May You hear in Heaven Your
dwelling place, and when You hear, forgive” (Melachim 1, 8:27-30). The
Sins According to
the Talmud (Yoma 4b), the reason for the destruction of the First Temple was
the pernicious and ineradicable performance of the following catalogue of
sins: idol-worship, sexual immorality, and bloodshed. This, despite
the warnings delivered by Prophet after Prophet until we are told in the
Book of Yirmiyahu that the Prophet has been instructed to tell Tzidkiyahu,
the last King of Yehudah, that there will be no escape from Nevuchadnezzar,
King of Babylon, who will burn Yerushalayim with fire. The
Destruction In 586 B.C.E.,
some 420 years after the First Temple was built, the Prophecy of Destruction
was realized. The Prophet who
was an eye-witness to the tragedy describes it in Megilat Eichah, The Scroll
of Lamentations: “How does the
city sit solitary, that was full of people! and further, as
the Prophet speaks of the G-d Who is now, as a last resort, punishing His
wayward children, (Eichah 3:1-4) “I am the man
that has seen affliction “My flesh and
my skin has He worn out; The period of the Second "Beit
HaMikdash," the Holy Temple
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