The Mikdash Movement Book Review

Coloring my childhood memories is a distinctive red-brick building, a landmark that signaled the end of traffic-heavy car rides to Crown Heights. An epicenter of activity, its rush of warmth was a visceral embrace of the history it held. Growing up on shlichus in the hills of New Jersey, a visit to 770 was something I always looked forward to.  

In imparting a Chassidishe chinuch, we give a lot of attention to stories of the Rebbe, the sichos and maamorim, but perhaps a little less is given to the location where it all took place. In the kuntres titled Bais Rabbeinu Shebibavel, the Rebbe talks openly and abundantly about his own space—where he would spend hours and days directing all of Klal Yisroel. Delving into hundreds of sources, going through thousands of years, the Rebbe uncovers the deep significance of the place we know as 770, our Bais Rabbeinu. 

In high school, my printed copy of this kuntres became a canvas of yellow highlighter and pencil scribbles. Words and ideas resonated with me, grabbing my attention. More than just a distinctive red-brick building, 770 became linked with the past, present, and future as the place that plays a central role in preparing for the Geulah.

When the Moshiach Office of Merkos 302 approached me to write a book for children based on that extraordinary kuntres, my apartment was just a few feet away from 770. I was eager to share these lessons and stories, but the cursor on my laptop challenged me: how could I ensure that these transformative ideas would be understood by the younger generation?

I began a journey through time and space, viewing it all through the eyes of a child. Desert sands swept across the empty screen, transporting me to the first stirrings of Hashem’s home on earth: the Mishkan. Sun-beaten paths filled with hundreds of Yidden streaming toward the Bais Hamikdash left footprints on my desk. 

The brightness wanes, and thrust into Golus, I uncover the common thread woven throughout thousands of generations: the Bais Rabbeinu. Here is the reflection of the holiness of Hashem’s home, and another, and another… throughout history, each Mikdash Me’at keeps the Yidden working to bring the Shechinah back in a most revealed way. 

Words, images, and life continued to overflow the pages as my husband and I moved cross-country to establish a new Chabad House. While writing this book, I was filled with a yearning for the days gone by and those yet to come. But most of all, I felt a sense of appreciation for what we are so lucky to have now—770, our Bais Rabbeinu.

Though geographically farther, I know that its mission has finally reached my corner of the globe. In the daily grind of life, every encounter becomes an opportunity for one more mitzvah, filling up my Mikdash Me’at and helping to build countless others. And it is uplifting to know that, simultaneously, the book that contains it all will be read in Bais Chabad’s everywhere—those a plane ride, a car ride or a walk away from our Mikdash in Golus.

With that, the final destination of this long journey feels closer than ever. Any day now, every Mikdash Me’at will connect side by side with the Bais Hamikdash, with the Bais Rabbeinu at the forefront of it all. 

Mrs. Mushka Begun is the co-director of Chabad of Tierrasanta in S. Diego, California. Alongside her shlichus, she works as a freelance writer and can be reached at Mushka@JewishTierrasanta.com.