Welcome back to another episode of NachDaily.

[May this segment be a merit for the aliyas neshamos of Raizel bas Moshe, Avraham Aharon ben Yisroel Yitzchok, and Refael ben Yehoshua Falek.]

Baruch Hashem today we finish Sefer Ezra with the 10th chapter and there’s no better time to do it. As Chazal say, whoever hasn’t built the Beis Hamikdash in his days, it’s as if he destroyed it.

Certainly, Ezra did build the Beis Hamikdash! He took personal responsibility in guiding and the leading the Jews back to Eretz Yisrael. As we mentioned in the previous class, had the Jews returned en masse we would have gone even beyond the Beis Hamikdash to the redemptive processes of Mashiach, Techiyas Hameisim and Olam Habah.

The potential for Mashiach to come and rebuild the Beis Hamikdash exists at every moment. We wait for the day for him to reveal himself and usher in a new world era.

One last point before we begin. As mentioned in the introduction, Ezra and Nechemia are one sefer, and were split up with the advent of the printing press in later years. Although we are technically finishing Ezra and moving on to Nechemia, it’s really just a continuation.

Ezra was publicly praying, fasting and mourning about the rampant intermarriages which had taken place. A large crowd of men, women and children had gathered around him at the Beis Hamikdash. Ezra’s plan had worked, and they were crying and brought to teshuvah.

Immediately people began to speak up: “We sinned! Now let us try to get rid of intermarriage with gentile women!” They admitted their wrongdoing and wanted to move forward.

Ezra arose in front of the Holy Temple and issued a proclamation for all the Jews who returned from exile to come to the Beis Hamikdash within 3 days’ time. If they did not show up, their property would be confiscated.

Three days later all the Jews from Yehudah and Binyamin came to Yerushalayim, trembling. They gathered in the square in front of the Beis Hamikdash and Ezra admonished them, saying that they had sinned by marrying non-Jewish women and needed to separate from them.

The people understood that he was correct, but it was not easy to accomplish this quickly. There were many people involved and it was the rainy season, which made things harder.

The people devised a plan. They asked Ezra for each town to be judged individually, judging each family who intermarried one at a time. This way the process would be smoother.

Ezra agreed. It took 3 months until all the non-Jews were weeded out.

Sefer Ezra ends with listing the families and men who intermarried. In all, 113 men intermarried, 17 Kohanim and 96 Leviim and Yisraelim.

This raised the level of Kedusha of Am Yisrael at that time.

Rav Schwab notes that this process undoubtedly caused animosity amongst the non-Jewish neighbors, which sets the stage for Sefer Nechemia.

Mazel tov to everyone for finishing.

May we merit returning to Eretz Yisrael with the rebuilding of the 3rd Beis Hamikdash, when we’ll be able to see the Divine ideal manifest in this world and the rectification of all mankind.

Thank you for listening and have a wonderful day.