Many people are bothered by the principle that in any generation in which the Bet HaMikdash is not rebuilt, it is as if it was destroyed in their days. They think that’s a big jump. Maybe we aren’t on the level that the Bet HaMikdash should be built , but who’s to say it should be destroyed ? In other words, for example, I might not like you enough to buy you a gold watch, but that doesn’t mean that if I already gave you a gold watch, I would take it away. Maybe we are somewhere in the middle. Giving a gold watch to someone means that I have to spend money, and go through efforts…. I might not be ready to do all that, but taking something away from someone is a whole different story. That takes much more effort. The Bet HaLevi is bothered by this: How can we see, by the fact that the Bet HaMikdash has not been rebuilt, that in truth, it would be destroyed if it were here? He says that with human beings, in truth, there is a difference between giving and taking away. For human beings, it requires more effort to take away than it does to not give. So, going back to the gold watch metaphor, not giving you a gold watch is not the same thing as giving you a gold watch and then taking it away. Maybe I don’t want give you one, but if I have already given you one, I would just leave it. That is the way human beings work. Taking some thing away is a much bigger statement for a human being. It’s a bigger hassle, and it takes more effort. But when it comes to God, it is a whole different story. The Nefesh HaChaim and many other sefarim explain an important principle about this: a Creator is different than a craftsman . A craftsman can make a table and leave the scene. He could even die and the table will still stand, because the craftsman only formed the table, he did not create it. On the other hand, Creation means making some thing from nothing , which we call Yesh M’Ayin (ex nihilo in latin) . To make some thing from nothing, you can’t leave the scene, because you constantly have to will the existence of this item. It does not have its own independence. If Hashem would, so to say, leave the scene of creation (which is impossible) there wouldn’t be anything here. He constantly needs to pump existence into creation. Therefore, for God to take something away, and for God to not give something, is exactly the same. For example, it takes a lot of effort to get rid of a house, whether by collapsing or destroying it. But it doesn’t really take that much effort for God. The house is standing, because God is pumping energy into the house, and in order for the house to cease to exist, God does not have to take it away, it would only require His not giving (which is the same as giving the house to begin with). We can use one of my favorite mashals to explain this: There is an amusement park item called a moonwalk, or a bounce house; It’s a fabric contraption that fills up with air, and kids bounce around in it. Imagine if you had to use a hand-crank generator to power it. As long you crank the generator, the air pumps into the moonwalk so the kids can jump on it. To get the moonwalk to stop would be the same as keeping it going. All you would have to do is stop turning and it would stop working and collapse. It doesn’t take extra energy to stop it. If anything, it takes more energy to keep the moonwalk going than to have the moonwalk disappear, because you have to keep pumping energy into it. That is why, says the Bet HaLevi, there is no difference to God in making the Bet HaMikdash or taking it away. If He hasn’t given it to us, that means that if we did have it, He would have taken it away. It’s exactly the same. There is no more effort on God’s part to make something exist or take it away. Taking it away just means not giving. When God takes something away, it means that He’s just not giving it anymore. There is no such thing as us having anything. It is always God pumping energy into it. The heart is pumping because Hashem makes it keep pumping. There is no difference between stopping and keeping it going. There is nothing that is inherently there. This is a deep concept, which the Bet HaLevi applies to explain the fundamental that the Bet HaMikdash being destroyed is the equivalent of it not being built. Have a wonderful day.