"Because You Did Not Go Up Together, You Did Not Merit a House of Fire"

"For thus said Hashem, Master of Legions: Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land. And I will shake all the nations, and the treasures of all the nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, said Hashem, Master of Legions. Mine is the silver, and Mine is the gold, says Hashem, Master of Legions. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former, says Hashem, Master of Legions; and in this place I will grant peace, says Hashem, Master of Legions." (Chaggai, Chapter 2). All of this refers to the building of the Holy Temple that will be built in 5777.

"Thus said Hashem, Master of Legions: Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, says Hashem" (Chaggai 1). Bring boards, bring cardboard; there were no stones then, there was no gold, there was no silver. "And I will be glorified" (v'ekavdah) — the letter 'hei' is missing; therefore, five things were missing in the building of the Second Temple because the people of Israel did not ascend; only 40,000 ascended instead of millions. As Reish Lakish said to Rava bar bar Chana: Because you did not ascend together, you did not merit a House of Fire. For the moment that everyone ascends to the Land of Israel, at that very moment, a House of Fire will descend.

Everyone thinks only of their own house; no one thinks of Hashem. The people of Israel are being persecuted; a new intifada has begun; they fired at a bus at Ammunition Hill. 80 years have passed and there are still intifadas and killings. Now it is 5777, the year of the Geulah — 777 — all the words of the prophet refer to 5777; this is something that happens once in a thousand years. Every single Jew is a golden menorah; he was in the Holy of Holies.

Whoever was by the true tzaddik on Rosh Hashanah was sealed for life, but what is it worth if there will be a holocaust and the whole world will be destroyed? If they throw an atom bomb, just as Obama signed an agreement with Ahmadinejad, the world has gone mad. Just as Princeton University wanted to give the Nobel Peace Prize to Hitler, may his name be erased, and Einstein, who worked there, objected, so they fired him.