On This Day the 9th of Av we Commemorate the Destruction of both Temples and the various tragedies of the Jewish Diaspora.“Anyone privileged to see Jerusalem in its destruction will merit to see it restored” (The Letter of Nachmanides to his Son)
A Shomera in Wadi Jinan near road 443 (Watch this space, I am going to upload a better picture of a Shomera that I saw)
This week is part for the 9 days of mourning leading up to the 9th of Av which commemorates the destruction of both Temples and the various tradgedies of the Diaspora. There is a tradition to read on the Sabbath before the 9th of Av from the first prophecy of Isaiah. In his prophecy he predicts the downfall of Judah and anthropomorphises her and explains how she is abandoned like a special type of building described as a ‘booth’ (a sucah) or some kind of lodging place (a melunah). Both are types of ‘Shomera’ which is a concept which has existed since ancient times and is used in arab agriculture.
A Shomera is used as a watchman’s booth in harvest time. During the harvest the harvester lives in a little hut next to his field until he has finished his harvesting and no longer has any more produce to protect.
A few weeks ago I was hiking in the beautiful hills of Sataf, which is an old abandoned village just West of Jerusalem. There is a wonderful trail that I can recommend called the ‘trail of the Shomerot’. Where you follow a trail of such booths up the hillside. It was just after midday and incredibly hot, my companions and I were forced to seek refuge inside an ancient Shomera. It certainly is not luxury accommodation, its a dank crampt little stone hut that you hide in from the scolding midday sun.
The image here is stark, the ‘daughter of Zion’ is fleeing from the Sun; the harsh judgement that has been meted out to her and her only protection is a dank hut on a mountainside. Yet she does have some protection even though it is rickety and unsafe. The Shomera is a symbol of both the oppressive situation of the Jewish people and their ability to ‘cling on’ and survive in the oppressive heat of history. It is not the ideal situation but it is survival.
(These words of Torah are dedicated to the speedy recovery of Zlata bat Sima, please include her in your prayers)
“And you will have the corner of the Negev, the Wilderness of Zin by way of Edom, and this will be the border of the Negev to the edge of the Salt Sea to the East. The border shall go around from th South to the Scorpions Ascent and cross over towards Zin and it shall come out at Kadesh Barnea and it will go out at Hatzar Adar and Atzmona. And the border from Atzmona will go to the river of Egypt and it will go out West. This shall be the Northern border: from the Great Sea and this shall be the Sea (Western) border. This shall be the Northern border, from the Great Sea it shall turn to Mount Hor, it will come to Hamat and will go out to Zared …” (Numbers / Bamidbar 34: 2- 10)This is an abridge version of the border of Israel as described in the book of Bamidbar (Numbers). It is one of the divine descriptions of the Land of Israel (another is from Ezekiel, also shown on the map).
Although there are many descriptions of Israel’s size and shape in the Bible they all focus on the idea that the size and shape is dictated by God. In a post – modern world this seems to be a very backward concept. We live ina world that despises divinely bequeathed privilege.
The earlier verse says :
Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (11th century commentator) wrote:
” Being a land wherein many commandments form its culture and do not form part of the culture of the rest of the world necessitated the delineation of its borders, meaning to say ‘this is the land and inside it are its commandments”.
The bizzare term ‘fell’ coupled with the extensive description of the land indicates that it is land where specific duties form its culture.
The inheritance here was not merely an inheritance of physicality but an inheritance of a moral purpose bound in the physical ‘clothing’ of land.
This week’s reading of the Prophets (Hafarah) is from the Book of Jeremiah. It is part of a series of Haftarot leading up to the ninth of Av, the day commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples and subsequent Diaspora of the Jews. In it God speaks to him telling him that “From the North Shall spout forth Evil”.
Historically Jerusalem was invaded from the North. In the period of history before, when Isaiah was prophesying, Sennacharib, the King of Assyria invaded (unsuccessfully) from the North. During Jeremiah’s time Nebuchadnezzar conquered from the North, as did the Romans and when the Crusaders invaded Israel they came from Lebanon and Syria. In recent history, in 1948, the Jordanians shelled the City from the North and East. Though, counter to our rule, the Israeli paratroopers, in 1967, entered the Lions Gate in the North to conquer the Old City. Seemingly most conquests Jerusalem come from the North.
In tactical terms we can say that conquests typically come from the North because that is where the highest ground is; from the Mount of Olives and Mount Scopus. However there is a more spiritual reason to do with the meaning of the word North. In Hebrew North is:
As we learnt in the Torah Portion of Balak, words in Hebrew have ‘root’ letters which tell us about their meaning. We can make a number of words from the root letters of Zafon:
A Zofe in Hebrew is a scout.
Lizpot is to forsee
Mazpen is a compass
Mazpun is a conscience
The word North is to do with looking forward, forseeing and looking with an agenda in mind.
Not all looking with an intent is negative, without an ability to foresee certain actions and their moral consequences we would not have a conscience. There is a type of prophecy that is always negative, this is the type that is common amongst people with depression. It consists of statements such as:
‘I always make mistake X’
‘I will never succeed
‘This type of thing is always happening to me.’
These over generalisations plague our speech and harm our lives, and become true, not by virtue of an innate truth of these statements, but by the belief of the person stating them.
It was God that told Jeremiah to look North, normally it would have been a really bad idea to make such a negative prophecy. In fact if we look at the text it took two prophecies, one with a almond tree stick and the other more disturbing image of a bubbling cauldron. Surely one warning was enough?
The lesson that we learn by the doubling of the prophecy and the harshness of the imagery is that it was not a normal matter, rather it excels in abnormality. The prophecy is the exception that proves the rule:
that a person should not become the prophet of his own downfall.
Elijah went a days walk in the desert and sat under a Rotem Bush (1 Kings 19:4)
So here’s where the hiking comes in. When I go on a hike the picture above is normally the last thing that I expect to see. What I normally see is a spindly little bush with no leaves.In fact the Rotem bush is well known for having no leaves andcarrying out photosynthesis through its branches.
“And he looked out onto the Yeshimon (wilderness)”
(Bamidbar / Numbers 21:20)
This weeks portion discusses Balaam’s unsuccessful cursing of the Children of Israel at the behest of King Balak. There is a scene where he is looking out onto the wilderness or ‘Yeshimon’ in hebrew.
The Bible mentions 4 types of arid terrain which are many times confused under the same heading ‘desert’, these are:
Midbar
Negev
Arava
Yeshimon
A Midbar, IS NOT a real desert. In hebrew, words have root letters the root letters connected to other words with the same root letters.. The family of root letters ‘d’ ‘b’ ‘r’ are to do with grazing or raising flocks. In a few places; in the book of Micah and Isaiah, the word ‘Dover’is used, meaning to graze cattle. Midbar is an a arid terrain which cannot sustain crops but can sustain flocks for part of the year. The picture above is Wadi Kelt in Midbar Yehuda; the Judean (for want of a better word) desert.
Negev means both South and desert its root letters are associated with being dry, Naguv means dried up. Negev is true desert, the area south of Beer Sheva is all desert.
Arava, means East and also is to do with mixing things. An Eruv is a mixture of things. The Arava area is a valley in the south of the Country which has a subterranean water supply. It is also a ‘mixture’ in terms of being the place where the red mountains of Moab (modern day Jordan) meet the land of Israel.
Yeshimon is just a waste. Its root letters ‘sh’ and ‘m’ appear in the word ‘shamam’ meaning waste. In fact it is used in the first usage of the phrase ‘howling waste’ in Deuteronomy 32:10. In our portion in represents what Balak and Balam wished to find; a wasted nation devoid of hope and purpose, instead they found a great nation and were forced to bless them.
In this week’s portion we have the story of the rebellion of Korach where Korach’s leadership was called into question. The Eternal set a ‘competition’ between all the tribes to proves Aaron’s right to the Priesthood. They were all to take staffs and write their names on them and place them in front of the ‘Tent of Meeting’, all the staffs remained the same except for Aaron’s which sprouted almond blossoms.
The significance of almond blossoms is understood by Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (an 11th century Torah scholar) as being a sign of promptness, he says that ‘ with one who objects to the priesthood, his calamities shall be prompt to come’.
The image of the almond is synonymous with judgement. I carry out the following experiment;
I found a wild almond tree that had produced fruit, it was easy to find as the almond tree is indigenous to Israel and a common site to see when walking in the forests and hills of Israel. I tried to open the fruit, but the nut was so tough it took a good whack with a rock. The effort was not that worth it, you got a tiny fruit, yet the taste was really bizarre. I’m used to the kind of almond that you get in the supermarket, the taste was really strong, really bitter and kind of sweet at the same time.
The message that I take from this is that the almond is a symbol of divine judgement, what is called in Hebrew, Din. Din is strong and powerful, like the taste of the almond and strength of its shell. Yet it is meant for the betterment of humanity, symbolized by the flowers of the almond and its sweetness.
When I used to think of the word ‘Negev’, I would think of it meaning ‘South’ or ‘Desert’. I never used to think of it as being something that one ‘goes up to’. In fact from my vantage point in Jerusalem today, I very much descend in altitude to the Negev.
However if we look at the topographic map pictured above, we can clearly see (as indicated by the orange and red colours signifying altitude) that if I was coming from Paran, which is part of the central valley system (running down the centre of the map in green and blue signifying a lower area) I would certainly be rising in altitude. In fact the whole Negev system, which is the southern part of the map from Beersheva to the Jordan and Arava valley running down the middle, is a highland.
But this phrase is not just talking about a rise in altitude, but also a ride in spirituality. A rise in the spiritual depths of wandering the Desert to the heights of the Holy Land. This phrase was also used by Ben Gurion in his attempts to settle the Negev, he told the people;
‘Go up to this Negev!’
‘And this was the deed of the Menorah beaten out of Gold, from its base to its flowering it was beaten out, just as the Eternal revealed to Moses in a vision’. (Bamidbar / Numbers 8:4)
Why did Moses need to be illustrated the method of building the Menorah or Candelabra in a vision, why could n’t he just have it shown to him?
The making of the Menorah is described earlier in the Bible, it was supposed to be made of pure Gold and beaten out of one piece of metal. This involves two impossibilities:
Firstly if the Menorah was made of pure gold, it would not keep its shape. Most gold is mixed with an impurity so that it will keep its shape, gold is normally fairly soft. This is why we have the karat system, which is a system of grading the impurities in the gold.
Secondly, how could it be beaten out of one piece of gold, this is metallurgically impossible. It can be molded out of one piece, or many pieces could be beaten and then stuck together, but to get one massive lump of gold and beat out an intricate item would be impossible.
This is why Moses required a vision, because the making of the Candelabra or Menorah was a miracle and only the Eternal could show him how to do it. The Menorah in the picture above is the Menorah that belongs to the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, it stands next to the steps to the Western Wall Plaza. To illustrate this point, it was made of a high quality of gold (but not pure gold) and was formed by a chemical / electrical process called electrolysis.
(Leviticus 14:8)
This weeks and last weeks Portion of the Torah focused on the concept of Purity in Jewish Law. Unfortunately in the modern world we don’t have much of an idea of what ‘Purity’ means. Most people will be familiar with Christian concepts of Original Sin, which connects impurity to sexual acts and women. This could n’t be further from what Purity is in Judaism. The verse above uses the phrase; ‘he shall bathe himself’, the Rabbis took this mean bathe in a Mikveh, a ritual bath. On a Tour of ancient sites in Israel one can see many ritual baths, but what is their significance, how do they ‘purify’ a person?
Purity in Judaism
According to the Mishnah, the source of most Impurity is Death. Rabbi Soloveitchik in his work ‘Halachic Man’ explained that the source of impurity in death is the inability to carry out mitzvoth (Commandments), one cannot fulfil one’s purpose which is to serve the Holy One. Our purpose in this world is to connect to the Eternal through the application of Mitzvoth. Here are some examples of states of ‘impurity’:
1. When a woman gives birth she moves from a completely pure status of containing life within her to having that life removed from her. Even though this is not death, we understand that it is in fact the beginning of a life. However it is akin to death because for nine months there were in fact two lives in one body, now that there has been a birth the lady’s body undergoes a ‘change in status’. A life has been removed from her body so to speak. This is why it was explained in last weeks reading that a woman is impure for a certain period of time.
2. The Leprosy described in this weeks reading is a spiritual disease, with no connections to Hanson’s disease (what used to be called leprosy). This disease came about due to certain impure actions, one of which was malicious gossip. Malicious gossip was considered by the Rabbis to be akin to murder, some call it ‘character assassination’. The loss of reputation can be a form of death to many people and certainly impurifies the person who caused it.
Yet impurity itself is not a moral status rather an indicator of a spiritual status.
3. We would not normally say that a person who touches a vole or a lizard is an evil person, yet if a priest were to touch such a creature he would have to immerse himself in a ritual bath. He would do this, not because of an inherent evil in such things but because he came in contact with a forbidden animal, a creature that had no immediate connection with mitzvoth; they cannot be eaten and thus no blessing can be said over them. As there is no way of bringing such an action into divine service it becomes impure and the person must cleanse themselves.
In all the examples of impurity above their is a connection to either death or the inability to carry out a mitzvah, the examples of child birth and leprosy, are examples of contact with things ‘akin to death’ and the forbidden creature is an example of the loss of potential for the carrying out of mitzvoth.
What is a Mikveh ?
A Mikveh is a body of ‘living water’ 40 seahs deep. By a body we don’t just mean any man made ‘ritual bath’ but also oceans and streams. ‘Living water’ connotes water from a natural source. (40 seahs is about 144 eggs worth of water – 14.3 litres).
Living water is a symbol of Torah, of the Eternal’s teaching and of our connection to the divine. It makes sense that when a person changes their spiritual status that this can be rectified by this symbol of the Divine Law. In our time a mikveh is only used for conversion, women during their menstral cycle, for purifying utensils and for men who wish to connect with this symbolism.
This is an example of an ancient Mikveh from Herodion:
Herodion, Herod's Palace South of Jerusalem contains a Mikveh.
A connection with the Divine
The concept of Purity is a method of describing the person’s connection with the divine, it is not necessarily a description of moral sanction. The symbol of the Mikveh, the bath of ‘living water’ is a parable for the divine connection to the Jewish People.
As it says in the last chapter and clause in the Mishnah of Yoma:
‘Rabbi Akiva said: ‘Happy are you Israel, and it is said; ‘God is the Mikveh of Israel’, Just as a mikveh purifies the impure so too The Holy One Blessed Be He purifies Israel.’
