It is exceedingly difficult to consider the issue of the absence of the Mikdash from an experiential perspective, as we lack a tradition, passed down from one generation to the next, regarding the nature of the service there in all of its details. Our grandparents cannot tell us what they felt when the crimson strip of wool turned white on Yom Kippur or when they brought the bikkurim (first fruits) to the Mikdash between Shavuot and Sukkot. There is no one living to describe what it was like to lay hands on the head of a sin-offering and confess one's sin prior to the animal's slaughter. All that we can do is attempt to understand the Mikdash service from the written sources that are available to us.
