And so it was in Yerushalayim in the times of the Beis HaMikdash. This had nothing to with the beauty of the place—rather with the atmosphere and the environment that pulsated with holiness and elevation and permeated the heart. When Yidden found themselves there, they were swept along—becoming completely transformed.
Everyone was elevated in in his own way in Yerushalayim. One person ate ma’aser sheni, whose purpose it was to “teach us to fear Hashem, our G-d.”; another person walks with his korban chatas because he wants to cleanse himself of his transgressions; yet another person abandoned all his fields and brought bikkurim for Hashem, while another is preparing to offer a korban todah because he has seen the Ribbono shel Olam clearly! He was in a predicament, he cried out to Hashem, and he was helped. He now comes to fulfill vayizbechu zivchei todah veyisaperu ma’asav berinah, and they will slaughter thanksgiving offerings and relate His works with joyful song (Tehillim 107:22).
The city was one of elevation and exaltedness! A city of purification from sin! A deeply spiritual place, as we say, yafeh nof mesos kol ha’aretz... kiryat melech rav—the fairest of sites, joy of all the earth... of the great king’s city (Tehillim 48:3).
