Home Sweet Home

You've been away at camp for the whole summer, or in college out-of-town for a few years. Or maybe you're married with children of your own.Yet, you still reminisce about the home in which you grew up. You remember many of the antics you and your siblings or friends did there. You can point out the exact spot where you laid to rest your pet goldfish, turtle, or bird. You can even detect a faint scent of your family's favorite dinner as you walk through the kitchen.Even if your family doesn't live in the house anymore, "just for old times' sake" you go back, or think of going back, for a visit. "This is where I used to live when I was your age," you tell your child who's sitting in the back seat of the car.
"Home is where the heart is," so the adage goes. "My heart is in the east, though I am in the west," writes Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi, famous Jewish poet, scholar, and philosopher of the twelfth century.
Why was the rabbi pining for the east? In many parts of the world, due east is Jerusalem the holy city and the site of the first and second Holy Temples.
Go to the "Western Wall" in Jerusalem and you'll see where the Jewish heart really is. Known simply as "The Wall," "koisel," or "kotel" (Ashkenazic and Sefardic pronunciations of the Hebrew word for "wall"), Jews from the entire spectrum of life visit it when they come to Israel.
Even if Israel isn't at the top of your list of vacation plans for right now, when you do get to Israel, you will eventually go to the Wall. And more likely than not, you'll stand there with tears in your eyes, maybe even tucking a little note into the cracks and crevices of the ancient stones.
You will be standing there together with Jews who pray three times daily for Moshiach and the rebuilding of the Holy Temple. You will be standing with newly arrived immigrants, Israeli soldiers, chasidim, kibbutzniks and visitors from around the world. You might not even know that this wall is the last remnant of the Second Holy Temple, or for that matter, that there was a first Holy Temple, both of which were burnt to the ground on the Ninth of Av. But you will be there. Because your heart and your soul know that this is your home. And a homecoming is always sweet.
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe said, "Though our bodies were sent into exile, our souls never were." The fire of the Jewish soul is eternal. It burns brighter and stronger than any physical fire that destroyed our Holy Temples. The soul is like a torch that leads the Jew, through the seemingly unending darkness, over the highest mountains and into the lowest valleys, through mazes of twisting roads and streets, until it finds its way home.
During the current three week period of mourning for the destruction of the Holy Temples, go home - to your soul. Find the flame and fan it, together with friends and family. The "welcome mat" of the soul are good deeds, sincere prayer, exploring Jewish knowledge. Come in!