An On- Again Off- Again Relationship That We Can Do Something About

Transcription

1 An On- Again Off- Again Relationship That We Can Do Something About R. Yaakov Bieler Parshiot VaYakhel- Pekudei/Chazak/HaChodesh 5770 With the conclusion of Sefer Shemot at the end of Parashat Pekudei, it could be said that a cycle of alienation followed by reconciliation has been completed. The end of Shemot describes the Return of the Divine Presence to the world inhabited by human beings: Shemot 40:34-8 And the Cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the Glory of God Filled the Tabernacle. And Moshe could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the Cloud had Dwelled upon it and the Glory of God Filled the Tabernacle. And with the Rising of the Cloud from upon the Tabernacle the Children of Israel would journey on all their journeys. And if the Cloud did not Rise, they did not journey until the day of Its Rising. Because the Cloud of God was upon the Tabernacle during the day and Fire would be at night before the eyes of the entire House of Israel in all of their journeys. A Rabbinic source posits that rather than this event constituting the first time that God s Glory Resided among people in this world, it should be viewed as the Divine Presence s Return to its original habitat: Beraishit Rabba 19:7 (BaMidbar Rabba 13:19) The Essence of the Divine Presence was (located) among the lower ones (mankind.) When Adam sinned, 1 It relocated to the First Firmament. When Kayin sinned, 2 It relocated to the Second Firmament. (When) the generation of Enosh (sinned 3 It relocated) to the Third Firmament. The generation of the Flood, 4 to the Fourth Firmament. The generation of the Dispersion, 5 to the Fifth Firmament. The Sodomites, 6 to the Sixth Firmament. Egypt during the days of Avraham, 7 to the Seventh Firmament. 1 Beraishit 3. 2 Ibid Ibid. 4:26. 4 Ibid Ibid Ibid. 13:13. 7 Ibid. 12:10 ff.

2 And corresponding to them stood seven Righteous individuals. And these are: Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Levi, 8 Kehat, 9 Amram 10 and Moshe. 11 Avraham stood and lowered It to the Sixth. Yitzchak stood and lowered It from the Sixth to the Fifth. Yaakov stood and lowered It from the Fifth to the Fourth. Levi stood and lowered It from the Fourth to the Third. Kehat stood and lowered It from the Third to the Second. Amram stood and lowered it from the Second to the First. Moshe stood and lowered It from above to below. 8 Although the meaning that Leah attributes to Levi s name is particularly meaningful in a spiritual sense, (Ibid. 29:34) my husband will accompany me, ostensibly a reference to Yaakov, but also suggesting God Accompanying the Jewish people by virtue of the service rendered by the Kohanim and Levi im descended from Levi, during Levi s lifetime, it appears that he is explicitly associated with Shimon with regard to the raid on Shechem following the rape of Dina (Ibid. 34:25-6) and assumed to be responsible for the initial plot to murder Yosef (Ibid. 37:19) as indicated in Yaakov s deathbed words to these two brothers (Ibid. 49:5-7). While it could be assumed that the distinguished record of his descendents Moshe and Aharon come from the tribe of Levi (Shemot 6:14 ff.), the tribe of Levi participates neither in the sin of the Golden Calf (e.g., Ibid. 32:26) or the Spies (BaMidbar 13:4-16 mentions representatives of every tribe except Levi), they are Chosen as the Priests and Levites in charge of the Tabernacle service (e.g., Shemot 28:1) in effect replacing the Firstborn who were originally intended to perform these services (BaMidbar 3:12-3), and Pinchas stemming the Ba al Pe or insurrection embodied in Kosbi and Zimri s public sinning (Ibid. 25:6-9) it is interesting to note that there is nothing in the verses discussing Levi himself to indicate particular personal righteousness (as opposed to the zealousness) of his descendents. Is it Levi s zealousness to protect his family s honor with respect to the debacle that befell his sister his claim to fame? But then shouldn t Shimon be equally praiseworthy, and his name is not mentioned on the list of the righteous. Is the Midrash s assumption retroactive, i.e., that if his descendants turned out so exemplary, the apple does not fall far from the tree? A similar understanding could be applied to Kehat (see Shemot 6:16, 18; BaMidbar 3:19; 4:2), about whom we also do not hear anything in particular, aside from his claim to fame as being the grandfather of Moshe. 9 See the end of the previous footnote. 10 Although Amram was Moshe s father, the biblical text clearly states that Moshe, once discovered in the reeds by Pharoah s daughter, was raised in the royal palace, as opposed to his parents home. While there are Rabbinic sources that suggest that Amram secretly educated Moshe during this time and that the voice that Moshe originally heard emanating from the burning bush was that of his father, the biblical text could be read that there was no contact between father and son once Moshe was placed in the Nile in the basket of reeds. There are Rabbinic texts that assume that Amram was the leader of his generation, that he initially divorced Yocheved which in turn inspired all Jewish men to do the same in order that the Egyptians not be able to continue murdering newborn males, and that it was only due to Miriam s predictions that if her parents would remarry, their next child would turn out to be the savior of the Jewish people, but this is all part of the Tora SheB Al Peh rather than Tora SheB Ktav tradition. Perhaps, again, as in the case of Kehat, Amram is listed as one of the Righteous responsible for restoring the Shechina in our world due to his reverse Yichus, i.e., who descended from him, rather than who he was descended from. 11 Only Moshe literally brings the Shechina down via the construction of the Tabernacle and its being filled by the Divine Presence, as described literally at the end of Shemot. The Midrash assumes that the Shechina s Reentry was gradual over the course of many generations and Moshe alone would not have been able to achieve such a feat.

3 However, God s Closeness to the Jewish people via His Presence in first the Tabernacle and then the Temple was not permanent, with the Talmud describing God gradually and seemingly wistfully withdrawing from the relationship yet again as a result of the increased sinning of the people leading in turn to the eventual destruction of the Temple. Rosh HaShana 31a (Soncino translation) R. Yehuda bar Idi said in the name of R. Yochanan: The Divine Presence Left Israel in ten stages The Divine Presence left Israel by ten stages it went from 1) the Ark- cover to the Cherub, 2) from the Cherub to the threshold (of the Holy of Holies), 3) from the threshold to the court, 4) and from the court to the altar, 5) and from the altar to the roof, 6) and from the roof to the wall, 7) and from the wall to the town, 8) and from the town to the mountain, 9) and from the mountain to the wilderness, 10) and from the wilderness It Ascended and Abode in Its Own Place And while the Second Temple was built upon the return of the Jews from their Babylonian exile, one of the features of the original Temple that was apparently not restored was the direct evidence of the Divine Presence, leading to the conclusion that It Remained during that time and beyond in its Own Place : Yoma 21b Said R. Shmuel bar Inya: What is meant by (Chagai 1:8) VaEchabed (and I will be Honored) and I will be Glorified. (Although the word is spelled ) the traditional reading is (as if it were written) הואכבד 12 (with an additional ); why is the omitted in the biblical text? To indicate that in five things 13 the First Temple differed from the Second: 1) the Ark with respect to the cover and the Cherubs, 14 2) the fire, 15 3) the Divine Presence, ) the Holy Spirit, 18 and 5) the Urim VeTumim An example of the tension between Ktiv (the manner in which a word is traditionally written) and the Kri (the manner in which that same word is traditionally read/pronounced.) For a series of such words, see Sanhedrin 4a- b. 13 The numerical value of the letter is five. 14 On Yoma 21a the Cherubs in the First Temple were understood to stand miraculously since the spread of their wings was twenty cubits (I Melachim 6:23-7) and the whole room was no more than twenty cubits (Ibid ). This led the Rabbis to conclude that the body of the Cherubs, which should have added additional width, was included miraculously within the Kodesh HaKodashim. See also Bava Batra 99a. 15 According to Yoma 21b, the fire on the altar looked like a lion in the First Temple, and like a dog in the Second. 16 A reference to the Cloud which is mentioned as Filling the First Temple (I Melachim 8:10-11), but not the Second. 17 Although the standard liturgical text for the closingin of the third of the four blessing comprising the Grace after Meals is: Baruch Ata HaShem Boneh BeRachamav Yerushalayim. Amen (Blessed are You God, Who Builds in His Mercy Jerusalem. Amen), this blessing is referenced in the Talmud e.g., Berachot 16a; 46a; 48b as Boneh Yerushalayim. This is the basis of the Vilna Gaon s practice, followed by R. Soloveitchik, ZaTzaL, to omit BeRachamav when they recited Birchat HaMazon. On the one hand, I heard one explanation that maintained

4 The ongoing sequence of closeness, distance and a return to closeness between God and the Jewish people was embodied, according to one view in Rabbinic thought, in a miracle involving the Cherubs atop the Ark in the Holy of Holies: Bava Batra 99a How did they (the Cherubs) stand? R. Yochanan and R. Eleazar (disputed the answer to this question, but we do not which assumed which point of view.) One says, they faced each other, and the other says, their faces were inward (away from each other, towards the walls of the room.) But according to him who said that they faced each other, is it not written, (II Divrei HaYamim 3:13) And their faces were inward? This is not a difficulty. The former was at a time when the Jewish people obeyed the Will of HaShem; the latter was at a time when the Jewish people did not obey the Will of HaShem The concept that the Cherubs atop the Ark could rotate requires asserting that this was a miracle, in the sense that the Kaporet, i.e., the cover of the Ark as well as the two Cherubs atop it were fabricated out of a single piece of gold. Consequently, with respect to the typical rules of the physical universe, these two statues should have continued to assume the stance given to them when they were first formed. Furthermore, one commentator notes that if in fact the Cherubs had the capacity to turn away from one another, and one represented God while the other represented the Jewish people, then proportional to the degree that the Jewish people looked away in the sense that they did not carry out the Divine Will in terms of Tora and Mitzvot, God would look away an equal distance in the opposite direction, resulting in a degree of alienation between God and Israel that would be proportionally double the degree to which the people chose to turn away. R. Chaim Volozhin in his work Nefesh HaChayim understands the concept of Mida KeNeged Mida (one is treated in kind with respect to what he himself does) applied to alternate alienations and reconciliations between HaShem and His People as poetically represented by David in Tehillim 121:5: God will Protect you; God is your shadow at your right hand. While the simple meaning of the metaphor is that God is always close to you, available to you and accompanying you wherever you go, there is also the connotation that just as one s shadow that since God had Promised to Rebuild Jerusalem, it is no longer a matter of Divine Compassion but rather Divine Justice, or Din. Those who insist on retaining BeRaChamav explain that while the rebuilding has been promised, the time frame is not specified, and an earlier rather than later fulfillment of such a promise could be the result of special mercy. An alternative explanation would posit that it would be a reflection of Divine Compassion if the Third Temple featured the five elements that were missing in the Second Temple, among them the restoration of tangible evidence of the Divine Presence. 18 According to Yoma 9b, since prophecy ceased after the careers of Chagai, Zacharia and Malachi, all contemporaries of Ezra and members of the Men of the Great Assembly, Divine Inspiration which was the means by which the prophets prophecized was no longer present in the Second Temple. 19 The breastplate of the High Priest was arrayed with twelve stones, each representing one of the Tribes of the Jewish people (see Shemot 28:17-21). While the High Priest certainly wore the Choshen during the Second Temple, it no longer could be used as an instrument to Divine God s Will as had been the case up to and including the First Temple period. See my essay at

5 appears to mimic one s own actions, God will do the same. Another form of the same sentiment appears in II Shmuel 22:27 With the pure, You will Show Yourself pure, and with the perverse, You will Show Yourself subtle. 20 However, even if the opportunity to restore the Shechina to its rightful place on a communal and national basis, i.e., the building of Bayit Shlishi on the Temple Mount, is not presently available to us this being considered a period of Hester Panim (God s Hiding His Face, Making His Immanence difficult to recognize and experience), there are a number of Rabbinic statements that suggest that holy places, groups of individuals and even single individuals can bring down the Divine Presence to Dwell in such a place or amongst people engaged in specific activities at least for finite periods of time. Berachot 6a Rabin bar Ada says in the name of R. Yitzchak: How do we know that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, is to be found in the synagogue? For it is said, (Tehillim 82:1) God Stands in the congregation of God. And how do we know that when ten people pray together the Divine Presence is with them? For it is said, God Stands in the congregation of God. And how do we know that if three are sitting as a court of judges the Divine Presence is with them? (Ibid.) And in the midst of the judges He Judges. And how do we know that if two are sitting and studying Tora together, the Divine Presence is with them? For it is written (Malachi 3:16) Then they that feared HaShem spoke with one another. And HaShem Paid attention and Heard, and a Book of Remembrance was written before Him, for them that feared HaShem and thought about His Name And how do we know that even if one person sits and studies Tora the Divine Presence is with him? For it is said, (Shemot 20:21) In every place where I Cause My Name to be mentioned, I will Come to you and Bless you It is not surprising that the synagogue be designated as the post- Temple context of the Shechina in light of the following Rabbinic assumption based upon a prophetic verse: Megilla 29a 20 According to Megilla 13b, Yaakov attempts to justify to Rachel his intention of misleading Lavan and marrying her, despite Leah s not yet being married by resorting to this verse in Shmuel and implying that he would be following God s Lead, another case of imitateo dei. Of course the flaw in the argument is that while in certain regards we are commanded to walk in God s Ways as in Sota 14a there are aspects of God s Actions that are not to be emulated by man, e.g., God is described as (Tehillim 94a) a vengeful God and yet man is enjoined from taking revenge in VaYikra 19:18. Particularly when it comes to violence and meting out punishments, or for that matter, less than straightforward behavior, man is not trusted to carry such actions out precisely and appropriately, but rather has the tendency to get carried away.

6 (What is the meaning of Yechezkel 11:16) Therefore say to them: This is what the Lord God Said Since I remotely Scattered you amongst the nations and I Spread you out amongst the lands, and I will Be for you a Mikdash Me at (a mini- Temple) in the lands that you will come there. Said R. Yitzchak: These are the synagogues and houses of study in Babylonia. R. Elazar said: this is the house of Rav in Babylonia. Rava gave the following interpretation: What is the meaning of the verse (Tehillim 90:1) HaShem, You have Been our Ma on (dwelling place)? This refers to the synagogues and houses of study. Abaye said: In the past I would study at home and pray in the synagogue. But when I came across the words of David, (Ibid. 26:8) HaShem, I love the Ma on (dwelling place) of Your House, I began to study also in the synagogue. Whereas R. Yitzchak and even more so R. Elazar, were not prepared to apply the designation of Mikdash Me at to all synagogues and study halls, but rather to only specific ones in specific places, Rava and Abaye appear to be much more generous in their assessment that despite the Temples having been destroyed, there are still physical places which can inspire a sense of coming into close proximity with the Divine. The Gemora then goes on to state that even without the benefit of a particular structure endowed with Kedushat Makom (Holiness of Place), when ten pray together or three judge together or two study together, the Divine Spirit is assumed to be Hovering over those engaged in such activities. One could say that either this is a metaphysical truism, or perhaps that a sense of the presence of the Shechina is the Kavana (intention) that the pray- ers, judges, and students should try to maintain in order that their activities be endowed with ultimate spiritual meaning. 21 It seems to me that the most poignant assertion of the passage in Berachot is that the Shechina accompanies even the lone student who is striving to understand God s Tora, reminiscent of a passage in Bialik s magnificent paean to the Talmid Chacham, The Matmid (the extraordinary student of Tora): A Matmid, in his prison house, A prisoner, self- guarded, self- condemned, Self- sacrificed to the study of the Law Earth and her fullness are concentrated here, A thousand suns blaze in the gloomy corner, Like vehement coals his eyes give answering fire, While love- impassioned, back and forth he sways Day after day, firm stands the sentinel From moon to night, from darkness to darkness. Perhaps the Talmud s assertion of the joining together of the solitary learner with God is also another form of the sentiment expressed by R. Soloveitchik in his iconic essay, The Lonely Man of Faith : See e.g., Shulchan Aruch, Orech Chayim 98:1. 22 Tradition, VII:2, 1965.

7 In my "desolate, howling solitude" I experience a growing awareness that, to paraphrase Plotinus's apothegm about prayer, this service to which I, a lonely and solitary individual, am committed is wanted and gracefully accepted by God in His transcendental loneliness and numinous solitude. Additional Rabbinic sources that suggest that an individual is capable of maintaining a sense of the closeness of the Divine Presence via props and self- consciously attained states of mind, even when he is alone and does not find himself within a physical structure devoted to either prayer or learning, include: Kiddushin 31a R. Huna the son of R. Yehoshua would never walk four cubits (six feet) with his head uncovered. He said: The Shechina is Above my head. Shabbat 30b (After positing that there is a significant difference between joy that arises as the result of performing a Commandment and joy that is the product of silly, thoughtless behavior,) This is to teach you that the Shechina will not Dwell in the midst of melancholy, laziness, frivolity, light- headedness, conversation and small- talk, trivial, inconsequential matters, but rather in the midst of the joy of fulfilling a Commandment Consequently, throughout the Jewish calendar, 23 we certainly bemoan the absence of the Jerusalem Temple, the ultimate manifestation of Holiness of Place where one could easily sense the Closeness of God. But alternative modalities are available to us in terms of group experiences as well as individual activities and states of mind. However, I think that it is particularly difficult, if not near impossible, for an individual to create the requisite sensibility for profound religious experience all by himself. Participating regularly in communal prayer as well as group Tora study not only strengthens the Jewish community, serves as important models for younger generations and adds meaningful structure to one s days, but these participatory acts enable each of us to sense more clearly that we are not alone, that God is always with us. See you at Minyan and at Shiur! 23 Fast days on Asara B Tevet, Shiva Asar B Tamuz, Tisha B Av; the three weeks leading up to Tisha B Av; the references in the Mussaf prayers on Rosh Chodesh, Shabbat and Yom Tov to the absence of the Temple in which we could offer requisite sacrifices; the everyday liturgy for the Amida in which we pray for the restoration of the Temple and the sacrificial service; etc.