Parshat Re'eh  29 Av 5761, 18 August 2001

By Shlomo Riskin

"But the place which the Lord your G-d shall choose from among all of your tribes to place His Name there, for His dwelling place, shall you seek and shall you come there. And you shall bring there your whole burnt offerings and your sacrifices..." (Deuteronomy 12:5,6).

Efrat, Israel - Apparently the Torah is here speaking of our Holy City of Jerusalem, because it appears in the context of Israel's entry into the Promised Land and the necessity to destroy the altars of idolatry before establishing our Temple to G-d. But why is the City Jerusalem not mentioned? The Bible has already identified Malki-Zedek as the King of Salem (Jeru-Salem the City of Peace) as far back as the period of Abraham (Genesis 14:18), and Mount Moriah had been designated as the place from whence the Almighty "would be seen" right after the Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22:14). Moreover, the Bible has no hesitation in precise identifications of places; witness the specific geographic description of Mount Gerizim and Mount Eyval (Deuteronomy 11:29,30). So why the reluctance to so much as name Jerusalem in this particular context of the Bible?

Maimonides deals with this question in his great philosophic masterpiece, Guide for the Perplexed (part 3, chapter 45). He establishes the principle that Divine Service in the Temple was mainly directed against idolatry; because Mount Moriah was the highest mountain in the region, it was specifically chosen by G-d for the Holy Temple in order to attest to the superiority of G-d over all other idols! And this Divine intent had previously been revealed to Abraham, as we have seen. If so, why does Moses here seem to hide the precise identity of the City of G-d?

Maimonides offers three reasons. First of all, he felt that publication of the unique City would only incite the other nations to make war against Israel in order to acquire Jerusalem for themselves. Secondly, the other nations might even attempt to destroy the City - if only in order that the Israelites not acquire it. And finally, Moses feared lest all the tribes would fight over it, each desirous of having Jerusalem within its own borders! These first two reasons are very much in evidence today, with the PLO having claimed Jerusalem for itself as its Holy City - even though its never mentioned in the Koran - and destroying archeological remnants from the Temple Mount in order to discredit our historic claim! I believe that in addition to Maimonides prophetic insights, there is even a further significance behind Moses' reluctance to reveal the precise name of the city. In the ancient world, every nation-state had its own god - whom the citizens believed lived within the boundaries of that nation - state. Yes, Jerusalem was to be the City which would house the Holy Temple of G-d - but G-d would not exclusively dwell neither within the Temple nor within the City; G-d was the Lord of the entire universe, who - as King Solomon, master builder of the first Temple said so well - could not be encompassed even by the heaven of the heavens, by the entire cosmos, so certainly not by a single structure or even a single City. After all, it was Moses who had previously ordained the construction of the prototype of the Holy Temple, the desert Sanctuary, and he then declared in G-d's name: "And they shall make for Me a Sanctuary, and I shall dwell in their midst (Exodus 25:8)" - not in its midst but rather in their midst, in the hearts, minds and souls of the Israelites but not within the walls of the Sanctuary, but not confined to one building or to one City or to one Country!

One of the most difficult messages Moses had to convey to his people was that the Almighty G-d is not corporeal, is not limited by physical dimensions. Yes, Maimonides sets down in his Mishneh Torah that the sanctity of Jerusalem is the sanctity of the Divine Presence (Shekhinah), and just as the Divine Presence is eternal and can never be destroyed, so the sanctity of Jerusalem is eternal and can never by made obsolete (Laws of the Chosen Temple, Chapter 6, Law 14). But Maimonides never means to say that G-d physically dwells in Jerusalem, heaven forfend. The great Sage's point is the exact opposite: the Divine Presence can never be physically destroyed because the Divine Presence is not a physical entity, is not in any way subject to creation or destruction.

This is the higher meaning of our Biblical passage, which highlights not G-d's being but rather G-d's Name. There is one place in the world, teaches Moses, where G-d has consistently been recognized as the Author of the world and the Purveyor of Ethical monotheism for all of humanity; one's name is not one's physical being, but one's name is the medium by which one is recognized and called upon. Malki-Zedek, ancient King of Jerusalem and identified with Shem the son of Noah, recognized G-d on High as the Power who enabled Abraham to emerge victorious in his battle against the four despotic Kings and thereby rescue Lot from captivity; Abraham himself recognized G-d as the ultimate arbiter over life and death, the one to Whom we must commit ourselves and our future, when he brought his beloved son Isaac to the akedah on Mount Moriah (Jerusalem). G-d's name is on Jerusalem; it is the city in which the G-d of ethical monotheism is to be recognized and served!

And finally, the place Jerusalem is not specifically mentioned because this recognition of G-d as the Guardian of justice and compassion, lovingkindness and truth is necessary not only for the people of Jerusalem, not only for all the tribes of Israel, but rather for the entire world. When G-d initially elected Abraham, the Almighty charges him and his descendants with a universal mission: "through you all the families of earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:3). The prophet Isaiah speaks of our vision of the end of the days, when the Holy Temple will rise from the top of the mountains, and all nations will rush to it to learn from our ways: "From Zion shall come forth Torah and the word of G-d from Jerusalem... so that nation shall not lift up sword against nation and humanity will not learn war anymore." (Isaiah 2)

Tragically we are now locked in a struggle for Jerusalem against a people who insist on their exclusive ownership - and are ready to pervert history, destroy archeological remains and resort to terrorism against innocent civilians in order to achieve their evil designs. How qualitatively different is our vision: May the G-d who cannot be confined to any physical place reveal His teaching of peace and security from Jerusalem His City to every human being throughout the world.

Shabbat Shalom.

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