Achdus Rebuilds The Mikdash
בפסוק לא תעשון כן לה' אלקיכם פרש"י להקריב בכל מקום ד"א אזהרה לנותץ אבן כו' שלא יגרמו עונות להחריב בהמ"ק כו'
On the verse "You shall not do so to Hashem your God" (Devarim 12:4), Rashi explains it as a prohibition against offering korbanos in any place one wishes; and as an alternative explanation, it is a warning to one who would tear out a stone, that Bnei Yisrael should not allow sins to bring about the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash.
Rashi gives two readings of the verse: one forbids offering korbanos wherever one pleases, the other warns against acts of sin that lead to the Beis HaMikdash's ruin. The Sfas Emes will show these are really one idea.
וכל הפי' א' הם כי ע"י בהמ"ק היו בנ"י בשורש האחדות
Yet all of these explanations are truly one matter, for through the Beis HaMikdash Bnei Yisrael stood in the root of achdus, the source of their oneness.
Both readings point to the same truth: the Beis HaMikdash was the wellspring from which the unity of Bnei Yisrael flowed.
כי כן צריכין בנ"י להיות כ"ג אחד בהמ"ק א'
For so must Bnei Yisrael be: just as there is one Kohen Gadol, so there is one Beis HaMikdash, all of them bound together as one.
Just as Klal Yisrael has a single Kohen Gadol and a single Beis HaMikdash, they themselves are meant to be unified as one.
ולכך ע"י שעברו והקריבו בבמות
Therefore, when they transgressed and offered korbanos on private altars, the bamos,
When the people sinned by bringing korbanos on scattered private altars instead of the one central place,
נתפרד האחדות ונהרס החיבור ונחרב בהמ"ק
the achdus came apart, the bond connecting them was broken, and the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed.
they fractured that unity, severed the bond that held them together, and so the Beis HaMikdash fell.
וכמו כן ע"י שנאת חנם נתפרד האחדות של הנפשות ונחרב הבית
In the very same way, through sinas chinam, baseless hatred, the achdus of the neshamos was sundered, and the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed.
The same fracture happened through baseless hatred: it tore apart the unity of the neshamos and brought the Beis HaMikdash down.
והכל ענין א'
And it is all one and the same matter.
Offering on bamos and sinas chinam are not two separate causes of destruction but the same underlying breakdown of achdus.
כי זה בכלל לשכנו תדרשו ע"י התכללות באחדות
For this is included in the words "to His dwelling place shall you seek" (Devarim 12:5) — that one reaches it through being absorbed and bound together in achdus.
Seeking Hashem's dwelling place means seeking it specifically by joining oneself into the unity of Klal Yisrael.
כיון שע"י שנאת חנם נחרב
Since it was through sinas chinam that the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed,
Just as baseless hatred was the very thing that destroyed the Beis HaMikdash,
כ"ש שע"י אהבת ישראל יהי' נבנה בעזה"י
all the more so, through ahavas Yisrael, love of one's fellow Jew, will it be rebuilt with the help of Hashem.
the natural reverse is true: ahavas Yisrael is the force that will rebuild it.
ושבת מוכן לזה
And Shabbos is prepared and suited for this purpose.
Shabbos is the time especially fit to draw down and restore this unity.
כמ"ש מו"ז ז"ל דכתי' כי לא באתם ע"ע אל המנוחה כו' הנחלה וש"ק יום מנוחה ונחלה כו'
As my grandfather, of blessed memory, said: it is written "for you have not yet come to the place of rest and to the inheritance" (Devarim 12:9) — for the holy Shabbos is the day of menuchah, of rest, and nachalah, of inheritance.
The Chiddushei HaRim brings the verse about menuchah and nachalah and applies it to Shabbos, which embodies both rest and inheritance — the very qualities of the goal Klal Yisrael had not yet reached.
וביאור הדברים כי בהמ"ק וא"י הביא אחדות לבנ"י ולכן מקודם שלא הי' להם זה האחדות
And the explanation of the matter is that the Beis HaMikdash and Eretz Yisrael brought achdus to Bnei Yisrael; therefore, beforehand, when they did not yet possess this achdus,
Eretz Yisrael and the Beis HaMikdash were what first gave Bnei Yisrael their achdus; before they had it,
הבמות מותרין
the bamos, the private altars, were permitted.
private altars were permitted, since the unifying center was not yet in place.
ובש"ק מתעורר האחדות:
And on the holy Shabbos this achdus is awakened and aroused.
Shabbos reawakens that same achdus each week.
Summary: The Sfas Emes unifies Rashi's two explanations of "You shall not do so to Hashem your God" by showing that both the prohibition of offering korbanos on private bamos and the warning against sins that destroy the Beis HaMikdash point to a single truth: the Beis HaMikdash was the root of the achdus of Bnei Yisrael, who are meant to be one nation around one central place and one Kohen Gadol. When they scattered their service onto private altars, they fractured that unity — and in the same way sinas chinam tore apart the oneness of the neshamos and brought the Beis HaMikdash down, for both are really one breakdown of achdus. It follows that just as baseless hatred destroyed it, ahavas Yisrael will rebuild it with the help of Hashem. Shabbos, the day of both menuchah and nachalah, is uniquely suited to this, for it reawakens each week the very achdus that Eretz Yisrael and the Beis HaMikdash were meant to bring to Bnei Yisrael.