The first chapter of Sefer Yeshayahu, which we read as the haftara on the Shabbat before Tisha B'Av, includes a famous series of verses in which God declares His disinterest in the people's sacrificial offerings: "Why do I need your abundant offerings… I am satiated with burnt-offerings of rams and the fat of sheep; and I do not desire the blood of bulls, lambs and goats!" (Yeshayahu 1:11).  Several verses later (1:14), God declares His aversion for "your new months and festivals," claiming that He looks upon them as "a burden" (torach) which He can no longer bear.

            The Maggid of Dubnow, in his Kokhav Mi-Yaakov, explains that the Almighty's displeasure with the people's festival observance stems from the fact that they had become "your new months and festivals" – the people treated these occasions as "theirs."  God commanded the observance of Shabbat and Yom Tov to afford us the opportunity to focus on our spiritual growth to a greater extent than the rigors and pressures of the workweek allow.  But the Almighty here observes that Benei Yisrael approached these occasions as "your festivals," as occasions for gluttonous indulgence and frivolous merrymaking.  The cessation from work was used not for the purpose of Torah study and greater concentration on the people's relationship with God, but rather for personal gratification.  In essence, the people had taken what belonged to God and kept it for themselves; Shabbat and festivals became a time not to enhance their service of the Almighty, but rather to enhance the service of their own selves.

            This misdirected attitude towards Shabbat and festivals likely explains the people's attitude towards the sacrifices, as well.  God speaks here of the nation's preoccupation with the Temple rituals while their hands were "filled with blood" (1:15) and they deal in counterfeit money and diluted wine (1:22).  It seems that the sacrifices, too, became a means of serving themselves, rather than serving God.  In the words of Rav Shimshon Refael Hirsch, the Temple rituals were seen not as a means of enhancing one's observance, but rather as a substitute for observance.  People offered sacrifices in order to soothe their guilty consciences and afford themselves an artificial feeling of religiosity.  The sacrificial order allowed them to feel religiously devoted without actually being religiously devoted.  What Yeshayahu here describes is the hijacking of the Templerituals, transforming them from an expression of submission and devotion into a source of artificial comfort and emotional satisfaction.

            Later, the prophet describes how enemies have plundered the Judean kingdom and burnt its cities to the point where Jerusalem has been left as a "hut in a vineyard" and as a "sleeping hut in a cucumber field" (1:8).  Rav Hirsch suggested that the image of a "sleeping hut" provides a particularly poignant analogy demonstrating Benei Yisrael's attitude towards the Beit Ha-mikdash.  A meluna ("sleeping hut") was a small, makeshift hut erected in a field where the workers would go when they needed rest or to find refuge from the elements.  Sadly, Rav Hirsch comments, this is precisely how Benei Yisrael began to approach religion: as only a place to seek refuge, to find comfort when no other means of comfort are available.  Rather than committing themselves fully and unconditionally to the service of God, they instead used His laws to serve themselves, as a source of solace during times of distress.

            Understandably, then, God declares, "And when you outstretch your hands – I shall ignore you; even when you pray abundantly, I do not listen" (1:15).  If the people use religion only for their own needs, if their "devotion" to God is but a thinly-veiled manifestation of their devotion to themselves, then it will not help them.  When the Mikdash is used as a place to serve oneself rather than a place to serve God, then its entire purpose is lost – and, ultimately, so is the Mikdash itself.

Courtesy of Yeshivat Har Etzion - www.etzion.org.il