How absence stayed present

Three times a day the Amidah asks for Jerusalem to be rebuilt and for the service to return to the House.

The seventeenth of Tammuz and the ninth of Av mark the breaching of the walls and the burning of both Houses. Zechariah foresees these fasts turning into days of joy.

Psalm 137 is recited under the canopy and a glass is broken. The Talmud tells of a sage who broke a glass to temper his son's wedding; later custom tied the act to mourning Jerusalem.

Traditional practice leaves a small square of a home unfinished, opposite the entrance, in memory of Jerusalem.

Synagogues are built facing Jerusalem, and the Talmud reads Ezekiel's 'small sanctuary' as the houses of prayer and study in exile.

On the ninth of Av, laments (kinot) are chanted. On Yom Kippur, the Avodah poem retells the High Priest's service line by line.

The Seder ends with these words, and so does Yom Kippur in many communities. They express the hope of return broadly, not only the rebuilding of the Temple.

After the destruction, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai ordained that the lulav be taken all seven days everywhere, 'in memory of the Temple'. The willow of Hoshana Rabbah recalls the willows set around the altar.

Many recite the passages about the offerings each morning. The Talmud teaches that one who studies the law of an offering is considered as if he had brought it.

The Mishnah records the Temple's measurements and service in detail, and Rambam codifies them as law for when they can be kept again. This site is built on those texts.

The Menorah became the emblem of Jewish memory, carved in stone by Rome on the Arch of Titus and set in mosaics and manuscripts ever since.

The Talmud teaches that since the destruction the gates of prayer are locked, yet the gates of tears are not.