Building the Temple of Our Body For Our Soul

Happy first day of the Jewish month of Av. Unfortunately, it’s not considered such a happy month because many tragedies happened to the Jewish people in the month of Av including the destruction of the First and Second Temples (the Western Wall in Jerusalem is the wall that surrounded them). When the Temples existed people came from far and wide to visit because the ‘Schechina’, G-d’s presence and the feminine aspect of G-d, rested on these holy structures.

The ‘Schechina,’ G-d’s presence is also referred to as “G-d’s nest,” a place of dwelling. I like to look at our bodies as a dwelling place for our soul, similar to a nest which contains something precious. So in taking the metaphor further, how can we ‘rebuild’ the Temple in our own lives? By taking care of our bodies, including making peace between the physical aspect of our body and the spiritual aspect of what dwells within it – our soul. This also includes processing our emotional energies and dissolving the untrue beliefs and thoughts of the mind, resulting in transforming our ego into light. We need compassion towards our humanness to do this so the theme for this month is Compassion.

1st day of the Jewish month of Av – the month of Compassion