Some stuff I wrote elsewhere that's worth pasting here, imo.

In the comments to this post on Tisha B'Av, I made a few comments, which are copied and pasted below. Please check original post's comments for full context. Thank you.

• 11 s(b.) Aug 11, 2008 at 1:35 pm

  –what were the 3 causes of the destruction of the first bayit?–
  please clue me in.

  I don’t want the Beit HaMikdash back. I think contemporary Beit HaMikdash is like bilvavi (the song). Build an altar in your heart and sacrifice your soul on it (by doing better, being nicer, increased middot, etc.). I do not agree with longing for the days (which none of us remember, and longing for the past is deconstructive, I’m not doing it). I do not long for moshiach, for the beit hamikdash, for next year in Jerusalem. I find moshiach in the divine spark inside me. The third Beit HM is in my heart and I am the only animal sacrifice in it. If I want next year in Jerusalem, I’ll buy a plane ticket. Tikkun olam begins with people taking action, not waiting for a guy in a talis on a donkey sauntering into town to blow shofar. The time is always now to do more and better to heal this world.

• 12 Left Brooklyn and never looked back // Aug 11, 2008 at 2:08 pm

  s(b.) the three reasons stated in the gemarah are:

  1. idol worship
  2. adultry
  3. murder

• 13 s(b.) // Aug 11, 2008 at 2:09 pm

  thanks.

• 14 suitepotato // Aug 11, 2008 at 5:56 pm

  s(b.): “I don’t want the Beit HaMikdash back. I think contemporary Beit HaMikdash is like bilvavi (the song). Build an altar in your heart and sacrifice your soul on it (by doing better, being nicer, increased middot, etc.). I do not agree with longing for the days (which none of us remember, and longing for the past is deconstructive, I’m not doing it). I do not long for moshiach, for the beit hamikdash, for next year in Jerusalem. I find moshiach in the divine spark inside me. The third Beit HM is in my heart and I am the only animal sacrifice in it. If I want next year in Jerusalem, I’ll buy a plane ticket. Tikkun olam begins with people taking action, not waiting for a guy in a talis on a donkey sauntering into town to blow shofar. The time is always now to do more and better to heal this world.”

  Be careful. The last person who dared to voice the idea of transcendent messiahship, that we are each are own savior, had it rewritten before his blood was dry into a superstitious simplistic idea that he was in fact the one and more to the point only messiah and that G-d doesn’t want to know you unless you genuflect to that concept.

  I agree with you by the way. You capture the idea of psychological rebirth from one assumed worldview to a carefully chosen one, the idea of being one’s own salvation, and that we are inherently powerful, not powerless.

  Bravo s(b.). Bravo.

• 15 s(b.) // Aug 11, 2008 at 6:27 pm

  I’m no Jesus. I’m just believe that there’s a divine spark in all of us. And if Moshiach is part of Hashem, and we’re part of Hashem, then part of Moshiach’s part of the part of Hashem that’s part of us, too. Can I say part a little more? lol

  Inherently not powerless would be a good way to describe it. I think existence is cooperative. What was said in the two last names comments about the couple being equal with Hashem at the wheel, I can dig it.

  I think what’s up in my world is a cooperative effort between me and Hashem. Like, God looks out for me, but I still have to look both ways before I cross the street. Work together.

  I am far from the only person to have ever thought of this. There is stuff from diverse ends of the Judaic spectrum to support this notion. If anyone does not know how to do a web search and want me to support this, let me know, and I’ll throw something up on my blog later tonight. I have to try and catch a class now.

• 18 s(b.) // Aug 11, 2008 at 11:19 pm

  the same way marriage is a triangle with Hashem and spouse, I think relating to the world is a triangle with Hashem and humanity. In the middle invisible part, moshiach is found, if you want to find it there. If Judaism is Box of Rain, Moshiach is Eyes of the World.