Wondering Where You Been?! - אש תמיד- י"ז בתמוז

Goal: While dealing with a song that talks about the Beit Hamikdash in its state of destruction, we will bring up a few questions: Do we really ‘care’ about Beit Hamikdash? Why should we really care and what does Beit Hamikdash actually mean and represent.

Wondering where you been?!

Goal: While dealing with a song that talks about the Beit Hamikdash in its state of destruction, we will bring up a few questions: Do we really ‘care’ about Beit Hamikdash? Why should we really care and what does Beit Hamikdash actually mean and represent.

Peola:

1) Before playing the Matisyahu song (which some of us might know) we tell the chanichim that the song can be clearly divided into 2 parts. The lyrics of the song will be given out and the song will be played.

After playing the song the chanichim, with some help from the madrich, should find that the first part of the song talks about the destroyed Beit Hamikdash, and from the words ‘Paint the scene’  Matisyahu goes to talk about where the song was written – sitting on a bench in 14^th street in Manhattan! The question should be asked: could you imagine YOURSELF thinking about Beit Hamikdash when sitting on a bench in

תנחומא פר' קדושים

ארץ ישראל יושבת באמצעיתו של עולם, וירושלים באמצע ארץ ישראל, ובית המקדש באמצע ירושלים, וההיכל באמצע בית המקדש, והארון באמצע ההיכל, והאבן שתיה לפני ההיכל, שממנה הושתת העולם

What is the symbolic meaning of Beit Hamikdash being the center of the center of the center of everything? How do u understand that?

בראשית רבה (וילנא) פרשה ג ד"ה ד ר' שמעון

ר' שמעון בן יהוצדק שאל לרבי שמואל בר נחמן א"ל מפני ששמעתי עליך שאתה בעל אגדה מהיכן נבראת האורה... רבי ברכיה בשם ר' יצחק אמר ממקום בית המקדש נבראת האורה, הה"ד (יחזקאל מג) והנה כבוד אלהי ישראל בא מדרך הקדים, ואין כבודו אלא בהמ"ק כמד"א (ירמיה יז) כסא כבוד מרום מראשון מקום מקדשנו וגו'.

 In this source Beit Hamikdash is the place that light was created from: what does light mean in this context and what does it mean that light come from Beit Hamikdash 

You could discuss the meaning of Beit Hamikdash being built in the place where Akeidat Yitzchak took place and think of the meaning of that.

Basof, the goal of the peola is to get people thinking about what Beit Hamikdash means and why we should miss it.   

"Aish Tamid"

The place lays phased like a warrior slayed
Engraved into the space with his sword still raised
Layers of charcoal sprayed through hallways
Praise relays (מעביר מסר) off the walls echoing all ways

Dirt covered earth lays beneath my rib cage
Giving birth to overgrowth invading on to path ways
Burnt out trees cover streets where children once played
Sown seeds decay through sacred stepping stones in disarray
Where the alter used to be placed inter-changed for bloodstains
Sunrays illuminate the smoke filled haze
Trace of incense scents of sacrifice stayed

[Chorus:]
Aish tamid eternally
A fire burns continuously
Wondering where you been
Won't you come on home to me?

Flash back patches of grass growing wild in fact
Cracked walls burnt black like a kingdom sacked
Memories like artifacts attacked yet still intact
Melodies wrapped in glass and shatter with the impact

Air intermingling ringing with the singing
of songs once sung, hung, flung into the rafters
Catastrophe struck the sound stuck
Disaster plastered
The aftermath (תוצאה) a blasted building once standing, like a starved man fasting
the skies expanding clouds passing, dust particles dancing,
in broken bars of light, streaming from a shaft, slashed into the ceiling,
Sshhhh, you could feel the ground breathing.

[Chorus]

Daughter of Zion is lying crying in the mist
Morning light slips in, shifting through the darkness
Like a morning wife reminisce (העלה זיכרונות) having visions of her long gone prince
Memories drip rain drops tip towing emptiness
Intermixed with tears like fears left unfixed
Walls worn thin frozen fortress like dawn waiting for the sunrise of a day that got skipped
Like a life gone wrong wandering wilderness
Lovesick stripped abyss (שאול) empty once luscious

[Chorus]

Paint the scene so you could see, the city's picking up speed
I’m On a bench 14th street, taxi's streaming yellow streaks
Spears piercing through my ears, you could hear the traffic speak
Jack hammers drill smacking through the cracking concrete
Buildings filled with windowsills spilled tangled telephone wires
Signs sparking neon lights flash like wild fire
My insides rise I start to feel paralyzed
Let out a sigh-a melody blew by- like an ancient war cry
the way the sunlight hit the trees it really caught my eye,
glistening' listening' to the breeze dancing' through the leaves,
freeze, the city move's in slow motion like a dream

I'm left empty like the temple turned into a fox den
Bus fumes dripping spitting into city summer sun
Sifting through the ash dimly lit vision listening
To the hiss lifting off a nighttime ocean
Shim, shim, shimmering singing hair on my skin
Glim, glim. Glimmering, whispering where ya been

From amidst the darkness set sail with the softness
Breeze traveling across the seas arisen from with in Mt. Zion
Wind coming in picking up momentum
Cutting crisply through the thickness riding on a rhythm
A rollercoaster sizzling, twisting down the mountain
ripping rocket ship exploding like a fountain
overflowing spilling through the courtyards of Jerusalem
Uncovering debris lifting up the fallen arisen within
to reach the yiddin even in Manhattan
exposed menorah glowing in the shadows of destruction
trailblazing through affliction
brushing off the branches golden
standing strong flames
dancing like a lion roaring rising out of nothing