לקוטי שיחות חלק כ״ד - כי תצא א

On the verse, “When you build a new house, you shall make a maakeh for your roof,” the Sifrei states: “House — this includes the Heichal.”

The explanation is as follows:

Although synagogues are exempt from a maakeh because they do not have individual owners — they belong to everyone, including people from another city, with regard to the concept of a dwelling, which is the primary factor in the mitzvah of maakeh, since everyone is able to dwell in a synagogue — nevertheless, the Heichal is considered the domain of everyone, because everyone contributed money toward the construction of the Beis HaMikdash.

And although one does not sleep in the Heichal, there is a mitzvah to eat the meat of kodshei kodashim in the Heichal, and, at least after the fact, a place used for eating is considered a dwelling, as we see in the laws of sukkah.

The explanation according to the inner dimension of Torah is as follows:

“Your roof” represents elevation and self-exaltation, and one must limit pride by means of a “maakeh,” because “the one who falls will fall from it” — pride is the root of every spiritual downfall.

This is why the Heichal requires a maakeh: even pride that comes from holiness requires a safeguard.

Now, the primary purpose of a maakeh is to prevent another person from falling. The meaning of this in avodah is that when one wishes to influence another person, if he is proud, his words will not be “words that come from the heart,” and therefore they will not have an effect on the other person.

And if a person says that he does not wish to involve himself with another person because he has pride, then concerning this comes the command, “When you build a new house” — whose meaning is to build a dwelling for the Holy One, blessed be He.

This is similar to the story of the Mitteler Rebbe, who said: “You may become an onion, but you should review Chassidus.”

This is why synagogues and batei midrash — whose concept is a person’s avodah with himself — are exempt from a maakeh. In that state, the person is separate from the world, and therefore the concern of “the one who falls will fall from it” does not apply to him.

By contrast, the Heichal — since the concept of the Beis HaMikdash is the avodah of birurim, refining the physicality of the world, through the service of the korbanos, and the windows of the Beis HaMikdash were “broad on the outside and narrow on the inside” — therefore requires a maakeh.