Summary
Yeshivat Har Etzion
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This shiur is dedicated in memory of Dr. William Major z"l.
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Lecture #28: Summary
Rav Yitzchak Levi
It is difficult to summarize in a single shiur a series of studies covering a variety of
topics in the history of
I.
As was already
mentioned in the introduction to this series, our fundamental assumption is
that the various places in Eretz Yisrael have a unique and meaningful spiritual
character. The events that take place in a particular place, the location's
tribal affiliation, and the like, all express the unique essence of the place
and shape its identity. This applies to each and every place in Eretz Yisrael, and
all the more so to
First of this, there is an allusion to this in the very name of the city Jerusalem Yerushalayim which ends with the suffix "ayim," which denotes a pair. Chazal have interpreted the name by combining together Avraham's two encounters with the city.
1) Avraham's encounter with Malki-Tzedek, King of Shalem, and the King of Sodom, the essence of which was: a) choosing a connection with the righteousness of Malki-Tzedek and rejecting a connection with the ingratitude of the King of Sodom; 2) the desire of these kings to crown Avraham as their own king following his victory over the four kings. It was in this context that we discussed at length the inner connection between justice and the monarchy with respect to a king of flesh and blood and with respect to God.
2) The revelation on Mount Moriah in the wake of the Avraham's absolute devotion, through which: a) God's choosing of the place becomes manifest, and therefore Avraham names it, "The Lord will appear" (Bereishit 25:14) a designation that alludes to "the place that the Lord will choose"; b) the future site of the Mikdash is established "As it is said to this day, In the mount the Lord will appear" (ibid.). In this revelation, we find important elements of the future Mikdash (Divine selection of the place, the construction of an altar, Divine revelation, fear, the offering of a sacrifice, absolute devotion, and other things).
The Torah's
concealment of the place and the 400 year wait for its revelation - from the
time of the conquest of the land until the days of David - continue this
principle of connecting the kingdom of man with the
This principle
also stands behind the selection of David in
Chazal gave this symbolic expression when they
described the border between Binyamin and Yehuda on
The first thing
that David did in his capital city, Jerusalem, following his victory over the
Philistines was to bring up the aron, which
had rested for twenty years in Kiryat Ye'arim, to the City of David (instead of bringing it to
its natural place at the great bama in Giv'on). Thus, David established the principle that his kingdom
was founded upon the connection between earthly kingdom and the
The order established by the Torah (according to Sanhedrin 20b) for the fulfillment of the communal commandments cast upon Israel as they entered the land the crowning of a king, the destruction of Amalek, and the construction of the Mikdash clarifies the relationship between earthly kingdom, its establishment and its rest, and the construction of the Mikdash.
Natan's prophecy to David (II Shemuel
7) which makes the construction of the Bet ha-Mikdash
conditional upon an established monarchy (II Shemuel
7; I Divrei Ha-yamim
17) and explains by way of this condition David's being refused permission to
build the Mikdash, greatly sharpens the
necessary connection between a permanent monarchy and the Mikdash.
The transition from transience to permanence with respect to the resting of
God's Shekhina, is conditioned on the transition from transience to
permanence with respect to worldly monarchy. Since the monarchy is the
governmental tool through which God's kingdom becomes revealed in the world,
and in order that God's kingdom should indeed be expressed in a royal manner
over all of
On the other hand, despite his being refused permission to take part in the actual construction of the Mikdash, David was rewarded for having requested it a royal dynasty established for all time (II Shemuel 7:13-15; I Divrei Ha-yamim 17:12-14). The oath that David took when he wanted to build a house for God entirely parallels the oath that God took promising David a fixed monarchy (Tehillim 132). In the end, the site of the Mikdash was revealed when David was ready to offer not only his life, but also the lives of all of his father's house, that is to say, in this connection David stood not as an individual, but as the founder of a royal dynasty (II Shemuel 7:17; I Divrei Ha-yamim 21:17). Seeking out the place of God's kingdom here on earth and its revelation are connected then also in these contexts to an established earthly kingdom.
Another important characteristic of the revelation of the location of the Mikdash is the actions that preceded it. The census and the plague that followed in its wake as also the problems that arose already earlier, bringing the aron up to Jerusalem and the manner in which that was done, on the one hand, and leaving the aron in Jerusalem during the rebellion of Avshalom, contrary to the personal and utilitarian interest of David, on the other hand all these allowed a true and penetrating clarification of the boundaries, authorities and objectives of the earthly kingdom, in relation to the kingdom of God.
The prophets saw
an eternal connection between David and
Shelomo gave physical expression to this connection when he built his royal house with all its components above the city, at the foot of the house of God and in close proximity to it. The building of the royal house with all its details the time of the construction, its form, design and location are described by the prophet as the building of one set of two buildings: the house of God and the house of the king. And as we shall explain in detail next year, the dedication of the house of God at the end of the twenty years of joint construction of the house of God and the house of the king was meant to express this fundamental idea: "Then Shelomo sat on the throne of the Lord as king instead of David his father" (I Divrei Ha-yamim 29:23).
In the end,
however, it was precisely with respect to this point that Shelomo
failed. Out of maximal desire to totally connect his kingdom to the
According to Rav
Kook's suggestion that the name
Thus far we have
surveyed how the essence of
The first course
is the course of the Fathers: the natural course that leads from the northern
gate of Eretz Yisrael,
i.e., Shekhem, to the sanctuary of the Fathers in
Bet-El. This course is connected in its essence to the
The second
course is the course of the Sons: the chosen course that leads from the city of
permanence and kingdom,
It is
interesting that one of Rav Charlap's suggestions (Mei Marom, Ma'ayanei Ha-yeshu'a,
p. 279) regarding the relationship between the names of
II.
THe selection of the city and the Mikdash
Two selections: the selection of the city and the selection of the
place of the Mikdash
As
a direct continuation of what we said above, we argued that the process of the
selection of the city and the Mikdash divided
into two: human selection and Divine selection. The human selection involved
the selection of the city of
Human Selection
We
emphasized that David's selection of the city did not stem from his knowing the
place of the Mikdash (or the place of the Akeida), nor was it accompanied by some revelation or
connection of any sort to a prophet or a prophecy, or even a question posed to
the Urim ve-Tumim.
It was entirely a free-will-human-royal act coming from below, and in this lies its value and merit. Behind this
choice stood considerations of state: the desire to solidify the tribes into a
single nation. It was for this reason that immediately after having been
crowned king over all of
The next stage the transition from the city to the Mikdash also starts from below: "But to the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes (Devarim 12:5) seek it through a prophet. You might say that you should wait until a prophet tells you. Therefore the verse states: 'There shall you seek Him, at His dwelling, and there shall you come' (ibid.) seek and find and afterwards the prophet will tell you" (Sifrei Devarim 62). And indeed, David sought God's place in a most diligent manner: the bringing up of the aron; the request to build God's house and the longings to locate its place despite the negative answer; the readiness to give up his life following the census and the plague; acquisition of the place with the money of all the tribes; designation of the spoils of war for the construction of the Mikdash; preparation of the plans, materials, craftsmen, and watches of kohanim and Levites. All these preparations (and according to Chazal, other things as well digging the foundations, sanctifying the lower floor, and others) were made by David.
The revelation of the location of the Mikdash in actual fact, in the aftermath of the census, the plague, and David's readiness to forfeit his life (his own life and that of his family's dynasty), was the first step which led to the construction itself, to the Divine selection of the city and the Mikdash. In order to start the construction itself, however, several things were necessary: a permanent monarchy, solidification of the nation, arousal to build (for this reason, David goaded Shelomo, his officers, and the entire people to speed up the preparations and construct the Mikdash, as a lesson learned from the plague, which afflicted the people, according to the Midrash and the Ramban, because they were not stirred up to build the Mikdash), rest from the enemies, and a situation of peace.
Divine Selection
In
the wake of the plague and David's readiness to surrender his life, the prophet
Gad pointed out the place where an altar was to be erected. In this manner
God's choice of the place is clarified and revealed to David. This is a
prophetic act based on the word of God. Here it is not David who chooses the
place he merely reveals God's choice. This is a fundamental point, which
arises also in relation to the revelation of the place of the Akeida ("And offer him there for a burnt
offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell you of" [Bereishit 22:2]) and during the period of the Second
Temple ("Three prophets came up with them from the Exile
and one
testified to them about the place of the altar" [Zevachim
62a]). This is also repeatedly emphasized by the Torah in the expression,
"The place that the Lord will choose," found throughout the book of Devarim. This has special significance in Devarim 12, where this principle
distinguishes between the people of
In
order that the Divine selection should be complete, it was necessary that the
establishment of the monarchy and the Mikdash
be complete. And indeed, only after the dedication of the house of the king and
the house of God is the Divine selection of the city and the Mikdash within it complete. Only in the days of Shelomo, owing to the permanence of the royal dynasty and
the construction of the city, the house of God and the house of the king
surrounded by a single wall only then is the Divine selection of the city
that surrounds the Mikdash possible, with the
spiritual significance of the selection of a mundane place that encompasses the
place of the Mikdash. This selection of all of
The significance of the selection process
First
of all, it would appear that the significance of God's selection of a city in
which to rest His name is that in order that an entire people should be able to
serve God in perfect manner, there must be a place in their heart, the entire
essence of which is the relationship between their land and God. This is
The selection
process teaches that human acts are what allow for the revelation of the Divine
choice; the revelation of the place and its selection are conditioned on the
strivings, longings and seeking of the people of
III. THe actions of the fathers are a sign for the Sons
The Torah makes
allusions to (but does not explicitly discuss!) the future of
During his journey through
the country, Avraham Avinu
passed through Shekhem, between Bet-El and Ai,
through
Besides the parallels
between the places and the events occurring therein, there are also interesting
parallels between the people and their actions. There are many parallels
between Avraham in his two encounters with
1)
Malki-Tzedek's desire to recognize Avram
as king may perhaps parallel the surrender of the Yevusis
(the nation that is usually mentioned last in the lists of the seven Canaanite
nations) to David in
2) Malki-Tzedek's combination of priesthood and kingship is interesting. Tehillim 110:4 cites God's oath to David: "You shall be a minister (kohen) forever, after the manner of Malki-Tzedek." In this context, the meaning of the term kohen is "authority, as in 'And the sons of David were ministers of state' (II Shemuel 8:18)" (Rashi, ad loc.) The verse means to say as follows:
"You shall be a minister forever" you (the king) will always minister before Me. The psalmist refers here to the king as "minister" (kohen) in order to allude, that like the priest so too the righteous king ministers to God, and his function is like the function of the kohen to raise the horn of Torah and guide the people in the fear of God and the performance of justice.[1] As the Rambam says in Hilkhot Melakhim 4:10: "And in everything his actions must be for the sake of heaven, and his objective and thought must be to raise up the true religion and fill the world with righteousness." (Da'at Mikra, ad loc.)
There also exists a parallel between Avram's pursuit of the four kings and the return of the captives and the spoils of the war, on the one hand, and David's pursuit of the Amalekis while he was living in Tziklag. In addition to the substantive and linguistic parallels between the two accounts, there is also a similarity between the laws established by Avraham and David regarding the division of the spoils:
Although my servants took part in the battle, as it is stated: "He and his servant smote them" (Bereishit 14:15) while Aner and his friends remained with the baggage to guard it, yet they may take their share. From him [= Avraham] David took a lesson, when he said (I Shemuel 30:24): "But as his part is that goes down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarries by the stuff; they shall share alike"; therefore, it goes on to say (ibid. 25): "And this had been so from that day and had been so from former times; therefore he made it a statute and an ordinance. It does not state "and henceforth," for the statute had already been ordained in the days of Avram. (Rashi, Bereishit 14:24, s.v. ha-ne'arim, based on Bereishit Rabba 43, 9)
We have cited these examples in order to illustrate the words of the Ramban mentioned in the introductory lecture, that the actions of the Fathers are prophetic actions, and the places where they went and the actions that they performed have significance.
Similarly,
there are interesting parallels between the census conducted by David, the
plague and the revelation of the location of the Mikdash,
on the one hand, and the revelation to Yaakov at Bet-El, on the other. This
similarity does not express itself merely in the essence of the events and
their respective details. Yaakov's action left an
impression upon the future Mikdash in the many
times that it is mentioned in connection with the construction of the
In summary, we
have demonstrated how Avraham's two encounters with
Jerusalem his meeting with Malki-Tzedek and the
King of Sodom, and the revelation at the Akeida
- parallel David's conquest of the city and the revelation of the location
of the Mikdash in the wake of the
census and the plague. The significance of these parallels for our purposes is
that the road to Jerusalem the course that passes through the cities of Shekhem, Bet-El and Ai, and Hebron, the conquest of the
city, and the revelation of the location of the Mikdash
on Mount Moriah all these are already alluded to in
the Torah. Avraham paved the way for his descendants
after him and alluded to the future and nature of
IV. the connection between topography and spiritual essence
When we say that a spiritual place has a nature and an essence of its own, we are arguing that essentially, the physical world and the spiritual situation are not cut off from each other, but rather they are connected and give expression one to the other.[2] We have tried to illustrate this principle in several areas of our discussion.
An examination of the
topographical conditions of ancient
We have taken note of
the unique location of the portion of Binyamin "between the
shoulders": between the centers of power in
God's choice of
As for the climate, we
explained that the city's proximity to the desert was meant to demonstrate its
dependency upon rain, and thus its close connection to the word of God;
Jerusalem must be the city of justice, and when that does not happen, it itself
is liable to turn into a desert (Yishayahu
64:9). On the other hand, in the future, the city will be able, owing to the Mikdash therein, to revive the desert and the
The city's distance from
the main road alludes that this city may be reached only at the end. This was
the case with the course of Avraham through Shekhem, Bet-El and Ai, and
During the days of Shelomo two additional points arise in the realm of topography:
1) The bamot devoted to idolatry are located "on the right hand of the Mount of Corruption" (II Melakhim 23:13). Shelomo selects the place both because of its height (as is characteristic of idolatry), and because it faces the direction of the sun the primal and central idolatry in ancient times. These two things constitute an essential contradiction to the Mikdash, which as has been mentioned is situated in a relatively low place and faces west ("the Shekhina is in the west") in opposition to sun worship and as a symbol of the prostration of the entire creation (represented by the shining of the luminaries) westward, in the direction of the Mikdash.
2)
Location of the house of the king and the
In conclusion, let us
briefly note the topographical elements that we made reference to in the course
of our discussion of the cities through which Avraham
passed in his journeys across the land. Shekhem, the
northernmost of these cities and the capital of the descendents of Yosef, is located between
V.
THen and Now
We have argued that the
course taken by the Fathers and the Sons in Eretz
Yisrael until they finally reached
The very late interest in Jerusalem shown by the Zionist movement, many years after the settling of other parts of Eretz Yisrael, parallels the late arrival of Avraham to Jerusalem and the Jewish people's late arrival there in the days of David, some 400 years after the initial conquest of the land.
Reaching the Old City of
Jerusalem in national unity parallels the united efforts of King Malki-Tzedek and the King of Sodom to crown Avram as king, and David's arrival in
And finally, handing
over the
If we are correct, we
find ourselves now, after having returned to the city of
As it is
written: "You shall arise and have mercy upon
However, in addition to the devotion, what is necessary is the unity of the Jewish people and a situation of rest, peace and tranquility that will allow for the construction. For this we must act and pray.
***
It is our intention, with God's help, and beli neder, to continue this lecture series next year. We shall begin with the days of David and Shelomo, and with a detailed discussion of the various issues connected to their rule in Jerusalem; we shall continue with the period of Chizkiyahu; we shall examine the reasons for the destruction of the first and second Mikdash; and we shall conclude with the return to Eretz Yisrael and the construction of the second Mikdash, trying to understand the reasons that the Shekhina did not rest upon it.
"The Lord
shall bless you out of
FOOTNOTES:
[1] As it is stated: "And David executed judgment and justice to all his people" (II Shemuel 8:15).
[2] There are those who dismiss this type of occupation in the connection between topography and spiritual essence, whether because of a fundamental attitude that separates the two realms, or because they see this as homiletic interpretation that does not follow from the plain sense of the verses. In our humble opinion, in Eretz Yisrael in general and in Jerusalem in particular, all of reality is one the material, physical side reveals and gives expression to the spiritual reality and therefore the study of the geographical and topographical elements allow for the revelation of the fullness of reality in all its aspects. This issue is very wide and comprehensive, and we cannot discuss it at great length in this context.
[3] It is not our intention to deal here with the political aspects of the situation, but rather with the spiritual meaning of the events.
(Translated by David Strauss)
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