When, in musaf for Shabbat Rosh Chodesh, we recall the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash, the text indicates not just that our forefathers were responsible for sinning that caused the destruction, or at least one of them, but that we, distinct from them, caused it. The text in my siddur reads "וּלְפִי שֶׁחָטָאנוּ לְפָנֶיךָ אֲנַחְנוּ וַאֲבותֵינוּ חָרְבָה עִירֵנוּ וְשָׁמֵם בֵּית מִקְדָּשֵׁנוּ". (In the musaf for yom tov, it seems that we as a collective whole were responsible for the exile)
Is this saying that our current sins are continually destroying the temple (and if so, isn't our use of liturgy which insists that we continually sin making it impossible to conceive of a rebuilding)? Or is this saying that, in the same way that all Jewish souls were at Sinai, somehow, all souls were there to be complicit in the destruction?
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