Harvesting Torah

In every generation there is a small group of people to whom Hashem reveals the unique light of Torah which is necessary for that generation to fulfill its destiny. They harvest the fruit of Torah for their time by developing and disseminating new paradigms of understanding which speak to the souls of their contemporaries and infuse them with life. Others spend their time weeding out the evil in their generation, but harvesting the field is a much higher level. The others are merely fighting against what is wrong, but those who harvest the produce awaken a higher good, עשה דוחה לא תעשה.
Every season it is important to harvest the fruit that has grown in order to enable the tree to renew its energy to produce a new crop in the following year. If the fruits are not harvested they will stunt the growth of the fruits of the coming year. In the same manner, those who harvest the fruit of the generation, who tap into the unique teachings of Torah for a particular time, are not only shining a powerful beacon of light for their contemporaries, but they are clearing the path for new lights to shine for future times. We need to act as midwives to deliver the unique paradigms for our times so that we enable the gestation of new and deeper lights. This is the epitome of working with God.

Paraphrased from בראשית  322

Missing the Bais HaMikdosh

I happened to come across a piece from the Chalban today that is most appropriate for the day following Tisha B'Av. In his Sefer on Tefila (prayer) he discusses Tikkun Chatzos, a prayer service traditionally reciteג only by a few individuals who awakeמ at midnight to cry over the destruction of the Bais HaMikdosh (Temple) and the exile of the Schechina.
He points out that in our times there are more people seeking the Bais HaMikdosh as the ultimate redemption comes steadily closer. It is still in the pre-daylight stages when only a few have awoken while most are slumbering in their beds. Those who have woken up are few in comparison to the large numbers of Jews, including Torah observant Jews, and

are not enough to seek the Mikdosh and the complete redemption with full force. They are not enough to demand of heaven and earth for the sake of Zion and Yerushalaim, to fulfill the verse of "It is Zion which has no seekers," from which we understand that there should be seekers of Zion. But the bottom line is that those who seek are increasing in number.
In previous generations, during the Exile, it was the giants of the world who awoke at midnight to cry over the Destruction and to pray for the complete redemption. They felt intensely the state in which things would be in their proper order. Even though it was distant from their everyday life, as they were oppressed and denigrated in exile, these holy people felt the true glory of the Jewish Nation, the glory of the Schechina, of Yerushalaim and the Torah. They felt intense pain over the lack of each of these.
Even though there were many open difficulties, decrees prohibiting Torah study, economic privation, pogroms, these holy people did not just effort to ease the strains on the Jewish people, but they also felt the absence of the land, monarchy, Schechina and prophecy. The absence of offerings,the songs of the Leviim and the burning of incense.
תפלה קמ"ב