Spiritual and
Ethical Issues in the Historical Books of Tanach;
SPIRITUAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES IN THE BEREISHIT STORIES These four books ostensibly are merely the history of Israel from the entry into the Promised Land until the destruction of the Temple and the temporary loss of independent statehood. In fact they are actually, in a specifically Jewish sense, the most deeply religious and spiritual books of the Bible. One does not have to be specifically Jewish to see or feel the religion and spirituality in the revelations of the prophetic writings or in the words of the Tehillim. They speak to all people, as evidenced by the fact that the Bible is still the world's bestseller and there are millions of non-Jews who regularly recite the Psalms. However, it is specifically and intrinsically Jewish to understand that G-d is revealed in the prosaic material, in the political, social and military events in the lives of ordinary men and women, kings and leaders that are described in the Nevim Rishonim. Here are described the ideology and religious thoughts in Judaism, while in Chronicles we have the purely historical. "To Sacrifice Your Son" [2] "On the 3rd day Avraham saw the place from afar" (22:4); HaMakom, The designated place. Makom, this is one of the Names of G-d [symbolic of His Omnipresence]. Avraham saw a cloud of Glory signifying the Divine Presence" (Pirkei Rabbi Eliezer). "This Cloud of Glory was not meant as a guide as to which mountain Avraham was to go but rather as a sign of Avraham's reward for his devotion and love of Hashem. In the same way, the Clouds of Glory were not meant to guide the Children of Israel in the desert, since Hashem Himself led them; rather they were the sign of G-d's reward for the faith that Israel showed by going into an unknown and uncharted land merely in accordance with His Command" (Shem Mi Shmuel). "The place known to him (Ramban); he saw that it was the place of the sacrifice" (Abarbanel). However we explain this verse, to Chazal its historic connection to sanctity and worship is quite clear. "HaKadosh Baruch Hu pointed out with a finger to Avraham the place of the Mizbei'ach there. Hashem said: "On this spot Adam used to sacrifice, here Kayin and Hevel brought their offerings, and here No'ach and his sons sacrificed" (Pirkei Rabbi Eliezer 31). Here lived Malki-tzedek, [Shem ben No'ach (N'darim 32b)] who was king of Salem, and the priest of G-d, the Most High (B'reishit 14:18), in the days of Avraham's war with the 4 kings. "Hashem called it Yerushalayim in deference to the name YIR'EH which Avraham named it after the Akeida, and SHALEM which Shem had called it" (B'reishit Rabba 56:16-22). "He was a "melech" over a place known for its "tzedek" [Ibn Ezra]; as it was a place that does not tolerate any form of injustice or a lack of holiness (Radak); because he ruled over the place of the future Bet HaMikdash that was known even then to be a sacred site (Ramban). That specific place reflects the Akeida not only because of its historical connections but because it was destined to be the realization of Avraham's prophetic words after the Akeida: "Hashem Yireh as it is said this day, 'on the Mount of G-d Hashem is seen". This was the place that Yaakov Avinu acknowledged as being none other than the House of G-d and the Gate to Heaven, when he received there the vision of the Ladder (B'reishit 28:18). Here "Shlomo HaMelech built a House for G-d at Yerushalayim, on Har HaMoriah (Divrei HaYamim bet 3:1); at the threshing field of Arona (Shmuel bet 24:18)" (Ibn Ezra). Chazal taught: "It is named Moriah since from there teaching - hora'ah goes out to the whole world" (Ta'anit 17a); the seat of the Sanhedrin was in the Lishkat HaGazit of the Temple on Har HaMoriah (Rashi, there), and "From Zion goes forth Torah and the Word of G-d from Yerushalayim (Yeshayahu 20:3). "Har HaMoriah, the Land in which they will worship G-d [as Onkelos translates], with Moriah derived from Morah - Fear" (Ramban). When Shlomo HaMelech prayed at Chanukat HaBayit, he first said: "And You Hashem will hearken to the prayers of Your servant and Your people Israel that they will pray to this place" (Melachim Alef 8:36). But as that Place is not meant only for the People of Israel, he continued: "And the nations that are not of Your people shall come from a far land… and You shall hear all the prayers in order that all the nations shall know and fear Your name" (8:41). This resonates in our prayers on every fast day and during the 10 days of T'shuva: "For My House shall be called a House of prayer for all the nations" (Yeshayahu 56:7). "In the desert, the Mishkan was constructed out of materials from the plant and animal worlds; in Shilo they erected walls of the inanimate world - of stone, using as the roof the animal and plant materials from the Mishkan while Shlomo HaMelech built the Bet HaMikdash entirely from stone. Israel in the desert had the spiritual strength and ability to sanctify only the worlds of plant and animal kingdoms. Their entry and settlement in the Holy Land gave them the additional power to partially sanctify even the inanimate world. With Kingship the People gained the spirituality and holiness that enabled them to sanctify even the inanimate world, so Shlomo HaMelech was able to build entirely of stone" (Shem Mi Shmuel). That the Akeida was in that special place does not mean that it was the center and innermost point of the Land-Nation to serve only as a place of altars and Temples, for pilgrimages and the rituals of priests. Rather that whole Land was intended as the physical body within which that Nation would perfect all the acts of life subject to the guidance and law of Hashem; the spiritual, the communal and national, the political and social, war and economics. Therefore Har HaMamoriah was to be the core of that life. The inspiration for its development was to be the integrated Torah that would go forth from Zion and Yerushalayim. This is the 110th installment in Dr. Tamari’s series on “Tanach and its messages for our times” [The
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