Rests Between His Shoulders (II)
Jerusalem in the Bible
Yeshivat Har Etzion
Shiur
#17: The Inheritance of Binyamin Portion of the Shekhina (Part
II)
By Rav
Yitzchak Levi
In the last
part of the previous shiur we noted the significance of the relatively
low-lying position of the Temple.
In this shiur we shall complete our discussion concerning the
height of the Temple.
A. The Temple
rectification for the Tower of Bavel
The Tower of
Bavel, as far as we can ascertain, seems to have been the most ancient
manifestation of idolatry [1], and one of the most prominent idolatrous elements
represented by it is the issue of height "With a tower, reaching to the
heavens" (Bereishit 11:4).
We shall try to show that in many senses, the Temple represents a
rectification of the sin of the Tower of Bavel.
The initiative
to build the tower is described thus:
"They said: Let
us build ourselves A CITY, WITH A TOWER REACHING TO THE HEAVENS, AND WE SHALL
MAKE OURSELVES A NAME, lest we be scattered over the face of the entire earth"
(Ibid.).
The
parasha illustrates the unity that prevailed among the builders of the
tower:
"All of the
land shared a single language and the same words" (Ibid.
1).
"God said:
Behold, the people are one, with a single language for all" (Ibid.
6).
The result of
God's descent to see the city and the tower was that the builders were scattered
over all the earth, such that their construction ceased
[2].
The
commentators are divided as to the sin of this generation, which is not made
explicit in the text. However, it
would seem that the message of the story is presented clearly in a Midrash of
Rabbi Elazar in the name of Rabbi Shimon (Bereishit Rabba
38,7):
"'And it was,
as they traveled from the east (mi-kedem)' they distanced themselves
from the Ancient One (Kadmono) of the world. They said: We cannot live either with
Him or with His Divinity."
Instead of
gratitude, which would be a continuation of the example set by Noach when he
built an altar to God, this generation (known as the "generation of schism")
builds a city, and inside it a tower reaching to heaven, with the intention of
making a name for themselves: "Thereby they revealed their view that they no
longer relied upon God, Who had saved their forefathers and themselves from
death and destruction; now they would rely only on their own power and strength
they took literally the advice of the serpent, 'You shall be like gods, knowing
good and evil' (Bereishit 3:5), and thereby came to resemble the 'mighty
men of old, men of renown' (Ibid. 6:4), whose actions brought destruction
and desolation to the world" [2].
As stated, the
plans of the builders of the tower emphasized height: "Let us build for
ourselves a city with a tower reaching to the heavens." As we discussed at length in the
previous shiur, the construction of a city and a tower reaching to heaven
is typical of idolaters, who aspire, by means of this height, to attain the
place of the gods and to rule the world, based on the idea that physical height
expresses superiority and strength.
It was for this
purpose that people gathered together in a single city and began to build a
tower that would reach the heavens.
God's response was to mix up their "single language" and to scatter them
over the entire earth. When the
purpose of the unity amongst the entire human gathering is rebellion against
God, and the same purpose maintains their "single language," the ultimate
response is to abort the rebellion by mixing up their language and scattering
the people.
Our principal
hypothesis is that the rectification of the sin of that generation is a
situation in which there is a city of Jerusalem with the Temple in its midst,
both dedicated to having God's Name upon them (Devarim 12:5,11): to be a resting place for God's Name in
the world, to which all the nations may flow (see below), and thereby recognize
God's Kingship. This would bring
future rectification for all the elements of the sin:
* The Temple is
a tower, but it does not reach to the heavens; it is not the tallest of
buildings
* It is not
MAN, with his arrogance and self-confidence, that stands at the center of the
Temple, but rather THE DWELLING OF GOD'S NAME.
* The unity of
the human collective in the Temple aims towards self-nullification before the
supreme reality of God's Kingship; thus, it leads not to divisiveness and
scattering, but rather to peace (see below).
The fullest and
most complete description of this rectification is perhaps to be found in
Yishayahu's vision of the End of Days:
"It shall be at
the end of days, that the mountain of God's House shall be established at the
head of the mountains, and it shall be raised above the hills, and all the
nations shall flow to it. Many
nations will go and say, Let us go and ascend to the mountain of God, to the
House of the God of Yaakov, that He may teach us of His ways and we will walk in
His paths. For Torah shall come
forth from Zion, and the word of God from Jerusalem.
And He shall
judge among the nations and decide among many peoples. They shall beat their swords into
plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against
nation, nor shall they learn war any more
The day of the
Lord of Hosts shall be upon everyone who is proud and haughty, and upon everyone
who is exalted that he shall be brought low, and upon all the tall, exalted
cedars of Lebanon and upon all the oaks of the Bashan, and upon all the tall
mountains and upon all the exalted hills, and upon every tall tower and upon
every fortified wall and upon all the ships of Tarshish and upon all delightful
craftsmanship. The loftiness of man
shall be brought down, and the haughtiness of man shall be made low, and God
alone shall be exalted on that day, and the idols shall be utterly
abolished. They shall go into the
holes of rocks and into caves of the earth for fear of God and for the glory of
His majesty, when He arises to shake the earth. On that day man shall cast his idols of
silver and his idols of gold, which he had made for him to worship, to the moles
and to the bats. To go into the
clefts of rocks and into the crevices of boulders for fear of God and for the
glory of His majesty when He arises to shake the earth. Cease from man, who has breath in him,
for what is he worth?" (Yishayahu 2:2-4; 12-21).
In this
prophecy, Yishayahu describes a rectification of all aspects of the sin of the
generation that built the Tower:
In the End of
Days, the mountain of God's House will be at the head of the mountains and will
be raised above the hills not only in the spiritual sense - universal
recognition of its importance - but also in the physical sense. It will be the
tallest place, such that there will be no disparity between its spiritual
significance and its physical appearance (we shall elaborate on this point at
the end of the shiur).
All of the
nations will flow to it in order that "He will teach us of His ways and we shall
walk in His paths for Torah will emerge from Zion and God's word from
Jerusalem."
God's judgment
of the nations will bring peace. The recognition by the world of God's Kingship,
and self-nullification before Him, will bring about equality between all people
and a renewed unity not in the service of self-glorification; on the contrary,
it will flow from human recognition of the Holy One as the source of all
powers.
Further on, the
prophet describes the situation in which "God alone shall be exalted," and all
tall peaks trees, tall mountains, towers, walls, ships of Tarshish will be
brought low and humbled, physically, before God's
Kingship.
This, then, is
the full rectification for the sin of the generation that build the Tower of
Bavel. People will no longer set as their target their own height, but rather
God's word, which will be at the top of mountains, and the purpose of human
assembly and unity will no longer be self-deification, but rather recognition by
the whole world of God's Kingship.
In Jerusalem,
which is called "city" (see Ketuvot 101b: "Any mention of 'city' refers
to Jerusalem"), a Temple is built, reaching spiritually (but not physically) to
the heavens. Instead of scattering people all over the earth, it becomes a
"Talpi'ot" a "tel she-kol piot (hill to which all mouths) are turned"
(Berakhot 30a). It is in
this city that God chooses to make His Name dwell, and He also makes a name for
David, in the form of an eternal dynasty that will eventually build the Temple
and serve God.
The Beit Yaakov
[4], in his commentary on Parashat Noach, draws a comparison between
these two textual units:
"Rabbi Shimon
began: "The Temple, in the course of building, was made of whole stones as they
were brought there" (I Melakhim 6).
This introduction hints at the building of the Tower, which was a replica
of the Temple in Jerusalem. Since
God began, at that time, to bring together the development of the family of
Avraham which represented the very beginning of the construction of the
Temple, which itself is the pinnacle of sanctity, as explained in the
Zohar (Bamidbar 117a), therefore there arose a corresponding
desire among the nations to build a Tower, which would resemble the Temple in
its external appearance. The whole
point of the Temple was the matter of unification of the nation of Israel, and
it was built upon the Foundation Stone, from which all the earth was created;
this was the place where the connection was tangibly clear in the
world.
The Tower built
by that generation was made from the waste gathered from the negative, as it
were, of the sanctity of the Temple; they sought to create a city and a Tower in
the form of David's Citadel and the city of Jerusalem, as taught in the
Zohar on Noach (74b).
The Temple and
the Tower of Bavel would seem to share the same purpose: to serve as the center
for gathering, a place where all the scattered masses could come together as a
single person, as described in Tehllim 122 "Jerusalem rebuilt is like a
city that is all joined together" - with each person seeking the good and the
welfare of the collective, rather than his own personal interests. But the generation of the Tower of Bavel
was, at its root, the opposite. The
unity that pervaded the Temple came from the "world of togetherness" to the
extent that even inanimate objects played a role in it: every stone lodged in
its place and joined onto its neighbor, as it is written, "The Temple, in the
course of building, was made of whole stones as they were brought there" (I
Melakhim 6). The Tower, on
the other hand, arose from the "world of division." Admittedly, the intention behind the
construction of the Tower was a response to what that generation had witnessed:
the destruction of the generation of the Flood. That generation had been wiped out
because they had not known how to take care of the welfare of society, they had
not felt connected to one another such that they would not oppose and accuse
each other. Rather, each individual
had cared only about himself, seeking only to realize his own personal desires,
to spread and enlarge his borders even within the bounds of others. Thus the "earth was filled with
violence," and in the wake of their fate the new generation that arose from
Noach and his sons took note of the root of their failure and tried to correct
this deficiency by gathering together in the land of Shin'ar, where the victims
of the Flood were scattered, "she-sham nin'aru mitei
mabul."
It was for this
reason that the Tower was built in a valley, rather than atop a mountain to
show that they wanted to draw permanence for their endeavor by virtue of the
power of sanctity, which they believed that they could control. The Temple, symbolizing the acceptance
of the yoke of God's Kingship, is built at the (spiritually) highest point:
Eretz Yisrael is higher than all other lands, Jerusalem is higher than
anywhere else in Eretz Yisrael, and the Temple Mount is higher than all
of Jerusalem. This hints at the
fact that in that place all of Israel will nullify their will before the will of
God. The Tower, in contrast, was
built in the land of Shin'ar, which is the lowest (spiritually) of all lands,
and in a valley; this hints that they sought and worshipped their own power;
i.e., to conquer, as it were, the power of sanctity, to subdue it and subjugate
it so that they could use it in a way fundamentally opposite to its source in
sanctity. The Tower of Bavel
initiated by Nimrod, and the graven image created by Nevukhadnetzar, and the
cities built by the Pharaohs, all stem from the same idea. All of these leaders
sought to draw power from sanctity and subjugate it by force, since they did not
want to subjugate themselves to sanctity.
In essence,
what the Beit Yaakov is saying is that the sin of the generation of schism is
the reciprocal image of the building of the Temple. The Tower was built at the same time as
the earliest consolidation of sanctity of the house of Avraham, and it was built
from the waste of the reverse side of the sanctity of the Temple. The great difference between them is
that the Temple aspired to total inclusion and unity, including even the
inanimate world, with the aim being to connect all of reality with its Creator,
while the builders of the Tower gathered together for a purpose fundamentally
opposed to the idea of sanctity, because they did not want to subject themselves
to God.
B. Revelation at Sinai rectification for
the Tower of Bavel
In his book
"Li-Netivot Yisrael," Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook presents the revelation at
Sinai as the opposite of the Tower of Bavel:
"The standing
at this mountain, worked its own effect on its unique level: "When Israel stood
at Mount Sinai, their pollution left them" (Shabbat 146a). Just as "the air of the tower [of Bavel]
brings forgetfulness" (Sanhedrin 109a), because of the attempt to "make a
name," in contrast to the great Name of the living God, King of the world, so
standing at that place appointed from on high by God for the purposes of
giving the Torah halted the human folly and lifted the constraints of its
pollution, and established the psychological basis for the initial penetration
of exalted closeness to God, Who gives life to all of us today. The essence of this level is expressed
in a negation of foreignness, a statement of Israelite identity as opposed to
the nations of the world, and the principle of constant, internal Divine
remembrance, as opposed to the nations, who are "the forgotten ones of God"
(Tehillim 9:18). And "had He
brought us close before Mount Sinai and not given us the Torah, this would have
been sufficient" (Haggada of Pesach).
There is significance to the very act of standing in-and-of-itself,
creating the characteristic that prepared their ears to hear the Voice that was
revealed from within the "light clouds (arpelei tohar)." You have dug open my ears," "the ear that
heard at Mount Sinai" the command of the Divine Freedom. (Li-Netivot
Yisrael, part I, p. 139).
As opposed to
the confused thinking of those people, who sought to make themselves a name, as
they spread over the whole earth, in their journey from "kedem" "from
the Ancient One (kadmono) of the world," as though not motivated by the
heavenly infusion of blessing that is Divine, infinite, eternal, illuminating
the world and all who dwell in it and sustaining them, but rather by
constructing from the bottom upwards their earthly tower, limited and
constrained; in contrast to the severance from heaven and from their supreme and
faithful Source, in contrast to this came the standing at Mount Sinai, born of
the (physically) lowly stance of "those borne on wings of eagles," the
remembrance of the covenant forged with the ancient ones, called "adam"
in the full sense of the image and form, this is parallel to the revelation in
"light clouds" that aims directly at the Illumination of the Source of Life and
Fortress of Salvation. As opposed
to the dullness of the atmosphere of that forgetful tower, that causes the Great
Name and the Exalted Remembrance to be forgotten, blurs the clarity of man's
true impression, and therefore the nations who had forgotten God were dispersed
the purity of the atmosphere and the cleansing of the spiritual filth of the
standing at the mountain, with its fragrant delicacies and magnificent jewels,
develops the viewing of the sounds and the hearing of the things, illuminates
the Inspiration of the Great Name, which is called upon his chosen people; and
fixes through it (the standing), and the there characteristic aspect of cleaving
to the Divine Life, the power of remembering all His wondrous deeds and
uniqueness of His being. (Ibid. 156-157).
Rav Tzvi Yehuda
sees the standing at Mount Sinai as the rectification of the sin of the
generation of schism. The desire of
the builders of the tower to make themselves a name is a diversion from and
replacement of the making of a Name for God. Bnei Yisrael standing at the foot
of the mountain, in contrast, brought about (along with the removal of the
pollution of idolatry from them) the negation of foreignness. It is also interesting to note the
contrasts between the stance of Bnei Yisrael "at the foot of the
mountain" (Shemot 19:17) receiving the Torah and the climbing of the
builders of the Tower to the heavens; also, between the air of the Tower that
brings forgetfulness and the pure air of Sinai, which facilitated "seeing the
sounds" [5].
We shall see,
further on, that some of the prophets describe a future situation in which the
mountain of God's House and the Temple will be in a very high place. The significance of this change is that,
in the time to come, there will be no disparity between the physical and
spiritual reality. The place that
is physically highest will also be the most significant spiritually, and vice
versa. In this future reality the
duality of the world will be erased, and Divine unity will be revealed. Obviously, reality does not limit God in
any way, but the actual situation of having the mountain of God's House at the
head of the mountains will be the actualization of the prophecy, "God alone
shall be exalted on that day" (Yishayahu 2:17).
C. In the future, the mountains will be
flattened, but Mount Zion will stand tall [6]
The vision of
the "end of days" describes the mountain of God's House standing tall at the
head of the mountains (Yishayahu 2:2; Mikha 4:1) in contrast to
the collapse of the other mountains, as described in several sources in
Tanakh, e.g. "For behold, God shall emerge from His place and descend and
tread upon the high places of the earth.
And the mountains shall melt under Him, and the valleys shall be split
like wax before the fire, like water poured down a slope" (Mikha 1:3-4);
"He stands and shakes the earth, He sees and causes the nations to tremble, and
the everlasting mountains are shattered, the eternal hills bow, His ways are as
of old" (Chavakuk 3:6); "He shall cause them to skip like a calf, Levanon
and Siryon like a young ox" (Tehillim 29:6); "The mountains skipped like
rams, the hills like young sheep" (Ibid. 114:4); "He Who moves mountains without
them knowing, Who overturns them in His anger" (Iyov 9:5); see also
Tehillim 46. The fall of the
mountains symbolizes the breaking of idolatry: God tackles the pagan worship of
the gods of the nations.
Mount Zion, in
contrast, will remain upright, and its exaltedness as described in the
prophecy in Yishayahu 2 therefore arises from the lowering of the
other, pagan mountains by God, Who dwells on Zion. Similar descriptions of the stable,
upright position of God's mountain appear elsewhere, too: "A song of ascents:
Those who trust in God are like Mount Zion, which will not be removed; it shall
remain forever" (Tehillim 125:1).
Since God's
mountain will not be toppled, Jerusalem which sits atop it will likewise
remain, unlike the other cities that are built on mountains. Thus, we read in the Book of
Yoel: "You shall know that I am the Lord your God, Who dwells in Zion, My
holy mountain; and Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall no longer pass
through it
Egypt shall be desolate, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness
but Yehuda shall remain forever, and Jerusalem for all generations"
(Yoel 4:17-20), and in the Book of Zekharya: "On that day God
shall defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem' (Zekharya 12:8); "People shall
dwell in it and it shall no longer be utter destruction; and Jerusalem shall
dwell secure" (Ibid. 14:11).
In summary: the
description of the future reality points to a clear contrast between the
mountains, which will be flattened as part of the Divine war against idolatry,
and Mount Zion, which shall remain upright and shall not be removed. This contrast expresses the eternity of
the place of God's service, and the temporariness of the places of
idolatry.
D. In the future, the Temple will rest in a
high place
From the words
of the prophets a clear picture arises of the future Temple dwelling in a high
place, as part of the central place that it will occupy as the earthly home of
the Divine Presence, with its greatness and power. Thus, for example, we find at the
beginning of the description of the Temple in Yechezkel: "In the visions
of God He brought me to Eretz Yisrael, and set me down upon a very high
mountain, and upon it something like the form of a city from the south"
(Yechezkel 40:2).
In the vision
of the end of days, which we discussed above, the prophet Yishayahu (as well as
Mikha 4:1-3) describes the centrality of the Temple for all
nations:
It shall be at
the end of days that the mountain of God's House shall be established at the
head of the mountains, and it shall rise up from among the hills, and all the
nations shall flow to it. And many
peoples shall go and say, "Let us go and ascend to the mountain of God, to the
House of the Lord of Yaakov, that He may teach us of His ways, and that we may
walk in His paths, for Torah shall emerge from Zion and the word of God from
Jerusalem" (Yishayahu 2:2-3).
Many of the
commentators understand the expressions "at the head of the mountains" and
"rising up from the hills" as referring to the spiritual, moral status of the
mountain of God's House, as a central place whose supremacy and importance will
be universally recognized, and to which everyone will ascend for judgment. However, from the latter part of the
same chapter it seems that we should not rule out the interpretation that
focuses on the physical aspect:
For the day for
the Lord of Hosts shall be upon all who are proud and lofty, and upon everyone
who is lifted up, that he may be brought down, and upon all the tall, exalted
cedars of Lebanon, and upon all the oaks of the Bashan, and upon all the tall
mountains, and upon all the exalted hills, and upon every tall tower and every
fortified wall and all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all beautiful
craftsmanship. And the loftiness of
man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of man brought low, and God alone
shall be exalted on that day, and the idols shall be utterly destroyed"
(Yishayahu 2:12-18).
The prophet
clearly connects physical height and spiritual importance, and therefore it
would seem that we should understand the first part of the prophecy in a similar
light. The mountain of God's House will be established in height, at the head of
the mountains, in the physical sense, too.
In light of
this, we should consider the possibility that the splitting of the Mount of
Olives, in Zekharya's vision of the end of days (Zekharya 14:4), will
also cause Mount Moriah to be raised, and from this high place the living waters
will emerge to the "Sea of the East" (the Dead Sea) and to the "Last Sea" (the
Mediterranean) (Ibid. 8) [7].
We shall
conclude this section with the words of the Tosefta in Berakhot (1,15)
which connects the Destruction with lowliness and the return of the Divine
Presence with height:
Similarly, "His
Tabernacle shall be in Shalem, and His dwelling place in Zion" (Tehillim
76:3): why does the text refer to it [Jerusalem] again by its former name? It is
written, "This city has been a provocation of My anger and My fury"
(Yirmiyahu 32:31) perhaps now, too, the city is a source of anger and
fury to God? Therefore we learn, "The mountain that God desired as His dwelling
place' (Tehillim 68:17).
Hence, it is beloved and desired meaning that God has made atonement
for its destruction. How do we know
that the Divine Presence will not return to it until it becomes a mountain? We
learn, "His Tabernacle shall be in Shalem, and His dwelling place in Zion." When it is complete and whole
("shalem"), it is called "mountain," hence the Divine Presence returns to
its midst only when it becomes a mountain, as it is written, "Avraham called the
name of the place Hashem Yir'eh, of which it shall be said this day upon
the mountain God sees" (Bereishit 22:14), and it says "Remember, God, to
the children of Edom the day of Jerusalem" (Tehillim 137:7). When is this? When they uproot its
foundations from it: "Who say, raze it, raze it to its foundations"
(Ibid.).
*
In the next
shiur we shall return to the dwelling of the Divine Presence in the
portion of Biniyamin. We shall examine the proofs for this assertion, and the
significance of the parallel between Beit-El and
Jerusalem.
Notes:
[1] This issue
is discussed at length by Rav E.Samet in his Studies on the Weekly
Portion, Jerusalem 5762, pp. 21-30 [Hebrew].
[2] It is not
our intention here to discuss the substance of the story of the Tower of
Bavel. We mention only a few
aspects that relate this story to the Temple.
[3] From the
summary of the story by Yehuda Keel, Da'at Mikra, p. 292
[Hebrew].
[4] By Rabbi
Mordekhai Yosef of Izbitzche, Warsaw 5650.
[5] There is
considerable room for elaboration as to the relationship between Mount Sinai and
Mount Moriah in the matter under discussion, but we shall not be able to address
this in the framework of the present shiur.
[6] Nachum
Avraham addresses this topic in his article, "The Development of the Motif of
Jerusalem, the Eternal City, in Biblical Literature," Al Ha-Perek 10, 5756, pp.
7-14. The article also brings
together several sources related to our discussion, some of which are quoted
above.
[7] This may be
viewed as a return of the future reality to the primal reality of Creation, for
the Garden of Eden was in a high place, and rivers emerged from it to irrigate
the world.
Translated by
Kaeren Fish
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