School Children and Cities

"This world is only sustained by the breath of school children learning Torah."  BT Shabbat 119b

Because this day and this world is only for the purpose of repentance, it is not as it was before sin entered the world, for then the day and the world were for the purpose only of obedience.  But now, the world is only a prison for correction and the day of the world is the time of the sentence for correction.

However, because the day and the world is for the purpose of repentance, it is governed inside this prison just as if all life were not under the sentence of death.  The world is governed from Above by the same law as it was before sin entered the day and the world. It is governed as if it was for the purpose of pure obedience, so that the need for correction can be measured.

Once the measurement is taken and the repentance that is purposed is accomplished this day and this world will end, having no more purpose, and whosoever and whatsoever remains under the dominion of sin will be destroyed together with the day and come to an end together with the world.  But insofar as the day and the world has been brought under the dominion of repentance it will be created anew, with new fathers and mothers, and the day will be revealed as the eternal Shabbat of G-d.

Anyone, therefore, who correctly sees that the world is managed according to the purpose of obedience, but fails to understand its purpose and seeks to sustain the day forever through the perfection of the governance of the world does not serve the day that they live in.  Such utopian misunderstanding is a hindrance to the purpose of Humanity's repentance toward G-d and therefore is a service to sin.  For the perfection of the governance of the world is to measure the need for correction of the day of this world, its complete and eternal correction from sin.  The purpose of the governance that is sought in the world is not just to produce an obedience in a prison that has a time that will come to an end. 

There is no breath in this world that is without sin except the breath of repentance. This is the breath of school children studying Torah, which is a breath without sin because it brings the measure of need for correction that is in the whole world.

Jerusalem was destroyed when the school children's study of Torah was suspended.  This will prove true for every city in which the Torah study of children is absent. (Shabbat, loc. cit.)

"The first blossoms have appeared in the land, the time of singing is come and the song of the turtledove is heard in our land," Song of Songs 2:12.  The Zohar teaches: "The first blossoms have appeared in the land"—these are the Fathers of Israel, the Fathers of the world.  "The time of singing is come"—when the time comes for cutting off the guilty from the world.  "The song of the turtledove is heard"—this is the sound of a child studying Torah, as it is written, "Torei (wreaths) of gold," (for departing Egypt), and as it is written, "Make two cherubs of gold." By means of the school child's voice the Fathers are revealed in the world to protect it. (Rebbe Nachman, Likutey Moharan 1 #37:4)

Mashiach and the Temple

Had Yehoshua failed because he was not received by his own, and therefore the Temple would have to be destroyed?  No!  It was unto this end that he was sent into the world.  The Temple would be destroyed because it was made to be one in the word of prophecy with his body.  As his body would be raised again, so the Temple would be raised again.

It was necessary that G-d's dwelling place with Adam be destroyed and that the heart of G-d's presence with Adam be broken. For the purchase of sin is death, and in this way, through the destruction of his Temple in Jerusalem, G-d made himself peesonally to suffer with the children of Adam the consequences of sin.