Scriptural Sources of the World to Come (4)

Ascent to Heaven

In light of our previous analysis, perhaps we may suggest another level of interpretation.  Sometimes an interpretation is far from literal, yet this very reading is suggested by the Torah itself.  We find the concept of the ascent to heaven in a number of places.  It clearly underlies the entire incident of the Tower of Babel.  Why the ascent to heaven?  Perhaps because its goal is to achieve immortality.  With the path to the Garden of Eden closed, the ascent to heaven is an attempt to break through.  Scriptural history is full of the tension surrounding the concept of human ascent to heaven.  Chanoch merited this ascent.  He did not die; God took him, and like Elijah after him, he lives on in heaven.  The builders of the Tower of Babel tried to make this ascent on their own.  Our Sages interpreted the text in Genesis to mean actual ascent, and even if the literal meaning of the text is different, the conclusions remain the same.  The text makes use of a satiric play on the world Babel.  The original meaning of the word, "gateway of God," is transformed into a negative term, "The place where God confused (lit: balal) all the languages."  Both this original meaning of the word babel and the description of Jacob's ladder of angels as reaching to the heavens, point to this attempt to ascend to the heavens, as mentioned in the books of the prophets.  Jacob's ladder serves as the biblical antithesis of the Tower of Babel.  As opposed to the Tower, its head truly does reach the heavens (Genesis 28:12), and Jacob indeed proclaims that this spot is "the gate of heaven."

     What is the meaning of Jacob's dream?  Before he leaves the Land of Israel, Jacob has a dream informing him that the Land is holy.  Although the vision took place in Bethel, it pronounces the holiness of the entire Land and the Land of Israel is described as the House of God.  And what is the house of God if not the Garden of Eden, the place where God walks, as it were, "the Land which God observes from the beginning of the year to its end?"

     The Scriptures themselves suggest a somewhat "midrashic" interpretation of the Garden of Eden, identifying it as the Land of Israel.  However, this identification is not spelled out directly, but rather through an intermediary stage: the Mountain of God.  From the high mountain of Eden flowed a river that watered the Garden (Yechezkal 25:14-15).  In the End of Days, as well, a river will flow from the Mountain of God (Zachariah 14:8).  As Abravanel - among the early commentators - and Kassuto - among the later ones - demonstrated, the Torah describes the Garden of Eden as existing in our world.  Our reality is, however, drastically different, for we live in the world after the sin. Does the Mountain of God not exist in this world after the sin?  It does.  It is the House of God, the Gateway to the heavens, the Mountain that God Himself chose.  It is the place to which God took Abraham from Aram Naharayim, and the holiness of which was proclaimed at the binding of Isaac, on that same "Mountain that God shall choose."

     Jacob sees the holiness of the Land in his dream; the Land emerges as the House of God.  The heavens belong to God and the Earth to man, yet there are still the proverbial "four cubits" on this earth that belong to God: the Gateway to heaven which God chooses.  For a brief period, Mount Sinai served as the mountain of God, as it possessed several of the characteristics of the Garden of Eden.  Regarding both, ascending and touching are forbidden.  Just as the path to the Garden Of Eden - which is the way up to the Mountain of God - is closed, so too does the verse state regarding Mount Sinai, "and the people shall not attempt to go up, lest God burst out among them" (Exodus 19:24).  However, Mount Sinai was a temporary Mountain of God. The Land of Israel and specifically the home of the Shekhina - the Mountain of God in Jerusalem, were chosen permanently, while the Tabernacle was a kind of traveling version of Mount Sinai which accompanied the Jews until their arrival in The Land of Israel.

     Do these concepts appear in the Scriptures?  Yes.  The book of Psalms retained these two principles.  It speaks of the Temple as the Mountain of God, as God's holy sanctuary in heaven: "God is in his holy sanctuary, God's throne is in the heavens" (Psalms 11:4 and 2:4).  Presumably, this gateway can be used in the opposite direction as well: "Who will go up to the Mountain of God, and who will rise in his place of holiness?"  (Psalms 24:3).  What is the Mountain of God and his holy place?  The Psalms which ask, "Who is the man who desires life" (Psalms 34:13) and especially "who will dwell in Your tents and who will live on Your holy mountain?"  (Psalms 15:2), speak about traits that a person must posses to succeed in judgement: "Who will stand before You?" (Psalms 76:8).  Regarding the man who fears God it is written, "his soul will rest in goodness" (25:12).  Although the verses may refer to an ascent to the physical mountain, they undoubtedly involve as well an ascent to the real Mountain of God.  This is immortality.

     From this discussion, we may conclude that the Temple and the Tabernacle also contain something of the image and symbolism of the Garden of Eden.  Although this conclusion requires further research, of particular interest to us here, is the fact that the gems in the Garden of Eden (18:28) appear on the breastplate of the High Priest.  Even if this should be purely coincidental, the Temple was the place of life and ritual purity, and ritual purity means the triumph over ritual impurity, which represents death.  Another interesting parallel is that both in the Temple and the Garden of Eden the cherubim protect the treasure.  In the Garden of Eden they protect the Tree of Life, while in the Tabernacle they protect the stone tablets, the Torah itself.  According to this parallel, the Torah is indeed the Tree of Life.

Translated by Gila Weinberg