Although our official mourning for the destruction of the Bet haMiqdash ends the day after Tish’a BeAb, our rabbis established certain traditions of mourning that are maintained throughout the year, as a permanent reminder that the Bet haMiqdash has not yet been rebuilt.
The Gemara in Baba Batra 60b mentions that when a Jewish family builds a house, it should not cover the walls with ceramics, carpets, or other elaborate coverings. Maimonides codifies this as follows:
משחרב בית המקדש, תיקנו חכמים שהיו באותו הדור, שאין בונין לעולם בניין מסוייד ומכוייר, כבניין המלכים; אלא טח ביתו בטיט, וסד בסיד, ומשייר מקום אמה על אמה כנגד הפתח, בלא סיד.
“When our Bet haMiqdash was destroyed, the rabbis of that generation established that we should not build a building covered as the residences of kings. Rather, when plastering the walls with clay and lime, one should leave a space of one ama by one ama without lime.”
As we see, there are two elements to bear in mind when finishing a house:
-
Not coating the walls of the house with luxurious materials.
-
Leaving a space of the wall unfinished (Peninei Halakha, Ha’am veha-Arets, p. 186, according to Beit Yosef on Shulhan ‘Arukh 560).
Other rabbis, following the opinion of the Tur (Rabbenu Asher ben Yehiel), were more lenient and did not restrict the materials used to coat private Jewish homes. According to this view, all that is required is that, when building a house, one should leave at the entrance, facing the front door, a square of the wall unfinished and unpainted, so that every time we walk into our home, we remember that the house of haShem is still in ruins.
Most contemporary rabbis follow this second opinion.
The size of this uncoated section is approximately 1.5 ft by 1.5 ft (אמה על אמה). This area should be left unplastered and unpainted. Similarly, if one uses wallpaper instead of paint, this segment should be left without wallpaper.
If possible, the unfinished segment should be on the wall opposite the entrance or as close to the front door as possible, so that all who enter the house will see it. Among Ashkenazim, some leave the unfinished square above the main door.
If someone purchases a previously inhabited home, does he need to remove plaster to expose an unfinished section?
It depends. If the previous owner was Jewish, and thus obligated to leave the uncoated square and did not, the new Jewish owner is now responsible for fulfilling this obligation. However, if the previous owner was not Jewish—and therefore not obligated—the new Jewish owner is not required to leave an unfinished section (Shulhan ‘Arukh OH 560:1), although he may choose to do so voluntarily.
In this case, or in other situations where there is technically no obligation (such as a rented home), one may instead hang a picture or decorative piece featuring Yerushalayim, its walls, or the phrase:
אם אשכחך ירושלים
“If I forget thee, O Jerusalem…”
This serves to educate ourselves and our children to remember the Bet haMiqdash.
