Finding the Mikdash

In the weeks leading up to every event on the Jewish calendar I always try to spend time reading a work that will help me find some connection to that event. I find that getting my head into thinking about it for a few weeks helps me be in the right mind-frame when the holiday arrives. For most of the scared dates on the Jewish calendar I have already found a work that helps me connect. It may have evolved over the decades, but I always know where to turn to find something personally meaningful about each holiday.
The challenge has always been the Three Weeks and associated Fast Days. Gaining an appreciation of what the Mikdash meant for Klal Yisroel and what we have lost without it has always been a challenge for me. I have studied many works and the only one that has helped me connect are the Piyutim we say on Yom Kippur after reciting the Avodah. This year that has changed.
Many of you know that I have avidly learned, and taught the Seforim of Hachalban. His Seforim were all ghost-written by HaRav Reuven Sasson of Yeshivat Ramat HaGolan. Over the past few years Rav Sasson has continued to publish under the name Talilei Chaim works of his own. The most recent one, called Mikdash Melech, is on the significance of the Bais Hamikdash and ends with the meaning of the Three Weeks.   The blurb on the cover say that it discusses the secret of the Mikdash and its light. If the first few chapters are any sign, this is must reading for anyone who wants to understand how to relate to and connect to a loss that occurred 2,000 years ago.