The Temple Shown to Abraham Built, Ruined, and Rebuilt

Another interpretation: this teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, showed him the Temple built, and destroyed, and built again. "The LORD will see" - behold, built. "As it is said this day, on the mountain" - behold, destroyed, as you say, "Concerning Mount Zion, which is desolate" (Lamentations 5:18). "The LORD shall be seen" - behold, built and perfected in the time to come, as you say, "For the LORD has built Zion, He has appeared in His glory" (Psalms 102:17). "And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham and said, By Myself I have sworn" (Genesis 22:15-16). What need was there for this oath? He said to Him: "Swear to me that You will test me no more, neither me nor Isaac my son." This is like a king who was married to a noblewoman. She bore him a first son and he divorced her, then took her back, and she bore a second son and he divorced her, until she bore a tenth son; and they all came in and said to him, "Swear that you will not divorce our mother any more from now on." So too, once Abraham our father had been tested with the tenth trial, he said to Him: "Swear to me that You will test me no more from now on." "Because you have done this thing" - this is the tenth trial, and you say, this thing? Rather, the last trial is weighed against them all, for had he not accepted it upon himself, he would have lost all that he had done from the start. "For blessing I will bless you" - a blessing for the father, a blessing for the son. "And multiplying I will multiply" - abundance for the father and abundance for the son. "And your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies" - this is Tarmod [Palmyra]. Happy is he who sees the downfall of Tarmod, which was a partner in both destructions. Rabbi Yudan and Rabbi Huna: one of them said, in the first destruction it raised up eight thousand archers, and in the second forty thousand archers; and the other said, in the first destruction it raised up four thousand archers, and in the second two thousand archers. "And Abraham returned to his young men" (Genesis 22:19). And where was Isaac? He sent him to Shem to learn Torah from him. This is like a woman who grew rich from her spindle; she said: since I grew rich from this spindle, it shall never leave my hand. Rabbi Yose bar Hanina said: he sent him by night, on account of the evil eye, that it not have power over him. For from the moment Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah came up from the fiery furnace, no further mention is made of where they went. Rabbi Eliezer says: they died by spittle, for the nations of the world would spit at them and say, "You have a God like this, and you worship idols?" Rabbi Yose bar Hanina said: they died by the evil eye. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: they changed their place and went to Yehoshua ben Yehotzadak to learn Torah, as it is written, "Hear now, O Yehoshua the High Priest, you and your fellows who sit before you, for they are men of a sign" (Zechariah 3:8). It was for this purpose that they went down into the fiery furnace, that a sign might be wrought through them.