© 2020 All rights reserved
Beit Midrash Zichron Moshe
The vision of the Jewish presence in all of Jerusalem is being realized. This is particularly true in Ma’ale HaZeitim, located on Har
Hazeytim overlooking Har Habayit.
This area, surrounding the Old City and opposite Har HaBayit is awakening to Jewish life.
The Gemara, (Sanhedrin 102.) teaches us of the great reward granted for building one city in Israel. How much greater is the
reward for building Jerusalem, as Rav Kook z”l said, each house there is equal to an entire city in Israel .
It is well known that Jewish life grows and thrives when it is attached to a spiritual center; a place for prayer and study. With this
in mind, we initiated the establishment of a unique Beit Midrash, “Zichron Moshe”.
Situated opposite the Temple Mount, it is most fitting that the Torah
subjects under study center on the keynote motif of our prayers: the Beit HaMikdash and its Service.
Over one hundred years ago, when the renewal of Jewish settlement in Eretz Yisrael was just beginning, The great Sage, the
Chofetz Chaim zt”l, called for a parallel renewal in study pertaining to the Beit HaMikdash.
Today, in Ma’ale HaZeitim, this call is being answered. Our Beit Midrash has attracted a number of outstanding Torah scholars who are studying these topics. As part of their research they have
already published a number of articles and booklets pertaining to the Temple and its Service, thereby renewing the dialogue on such matters for a broad public of Torah scholars.
Kollel Zichron Moshe is located in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ma’aleh HaZeitim, across from Har Habayit upon which the Beit HaMikdash stood.
With the encouragement of our generation’s Gedolim, the Kollel set as its goal to realize the vision of the Chafetz Chaim zt”l of producing Torah scholars thoroughly versed in the laws of Tractate Kodshim and able to teach these laws to the Kohanim. This is in preparation for the
rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash speedily, in our times.
The members of Kollel Zichron Moshe are Rabbis and full time Torah scholars (avrechim) who were carefully selected based on their many years of intensive Torah study, several of
whom have completed requirements for Dayanut. They are outstanding in their learning and
maintain a high level of Torah knowledge. In the Kollel they are presently studying the complex subject of the Korbanot and all its aspects. These scholars are summarizing those portions of Kodshim which they have completed in a publication, NAYOT BaRAMAH.
Quoting from a letter of the Chafetz Chaim we learn:
“There are indeed many individuals who are not able to learn or teach Torah but have been blessed by Hashem with wealth. They are the ones in a position to support Torah scholars to
learn and then teach the Temple service to the Kohanim. Certainly it is a great mitzvah for
them to maintain such scholars to study these subjects with the Kohanim”
[This was the reality in the time of the second Temple] As we find in the Talmud
Yerushalmi, chapter 4 of Shkalim, at the beginning of the period of the second Temple, Israelite Torah scholars received wages from the Temple treasury, from the half shekel donations, to study the laws of Shechita, Kabala and Zerika (integral parts of the Temple service) with the
Kohanim. This took place in their time when the half shekel was collected. In our time however there is no Temple and no half shekel. It is therefore only proper that the wealthy population provide the Israelite Torah scholars with the means to study the laws of the Temple service.
What great merit will accrue to them for having increased the study of Torah in Israel. Even more so, due to their efforts, they themselves will merit a part in the service that the
Kohanim will perform later on. For it is they who made it possible, during the course of studying these laws, for the Kohanim to become expert and worthy of serving in the Beis
HaMikdash
In order that our constant prayers for the building of the Temple be accompanied by sincere and practical preparations, we invite your participation in providing the means for the intellectual and spiritual opportunity to study Kodshim.
