NO STONE LEFT BEHIND

Translated by Boruch Merkur

Not just those who pray in the shuls and those who learn Torah in the battei midrashos will be taken to Eretz Yisroel when Moshiach gathers the exiles to the Holy Land, not just the Torah and Mitzvos done there and the Torah scrolls housed therein will go, but also the very stones of the buildings of the shuls and battei midrashos, as well as the wood and the earth – all of it will be taken to Eretz Yisroel, to the place of the Holy Temple on Mount Moria. * How much more is this true of 770.

The Gemara states in Meseches Megilla (29a): “In the Future Era the shuls and battei midrashos (the synagogues and study halls)” – “the miniature sanctuary in the Diaspora” – “will be reestablished in Eretz Yisroel, the Holy Land,” transported to the site of the Holy Temple on Mount Moria.

That is, it is not just those who pray in the shuls and those who learn Torah in the battei midrashos who will be taken to Eretz Yisroel [when Moshiach gathers the exiles to the Holy Land], nor will it be just the Torah and Mitzvos done there and the Torah scrolls housed therein that will go, but also the very stones of the buildings of the shuls and battei midrashos, as well as the wood and the earth – all of it will be taken to Eretz Yisroel, to the place of the Holy Temple on Mount Moria.

The davening of a Jew in shul and his Torah study in a beis midrash (“reading and expounding Torah in them,” as the Gemara puts it) has an impact on the physical space around him. Throughout the entire duration of the exile, Jews draw down holiness into even the buildings themselves – the stones, wood, and earth. This holiness remains within the structure and its components and materials in a permanent manner, established forever, until all of it is relocated in Eretz Yisroel and [more particularly] on the Temple Mount in Yerushalayim.

Indeed, this is something truly profound. That is, notwithstanding the fact that we are in exile – in fact, an exile within exile, for in addition to the exile of the descent of the soul into the body, we are also in exile in the simple sense – nevertheless, through the prayer and Torah study of Jews in the shuls and battei midrash, permanent sanctity is drawn down within the physical structures themselves. This holiness remains in place, within the buildings and their materials, until it is all transported to Eretz Yisroel, to Yerushalayim on the Temple Mount. In effect, the structure goes from one extreme to another – from an exile within an exile to the ultimate height of holiness! […]

If all this is said of shuls and battei midrashos in general, how much more does it apply to the shul and beis midrash of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe, the place where he served G-d with his Torah and Mitzvos and led his flock for a decade. Certainly not only those who daven and learn Torah in this shul and beis midrash will be taken to Eretz Yisroel but also the physical stone structure itself, the wood and the earth, together with the Ezras Nashim (the women’s section), as well as everything found there, etc. – everything will be taken together to Eretz Yisroel, to the Temple Mount in Yerushalayim.

(From the address of Shabbos Parshas D’varim, Shabbos Chazon 5742, bilti muga)