Transcendent Jerusalem

This Dvar Torah is based largely on a shiur of Rabbi Uri Amos Sherki of Machon Meir,

Place is one of the most limiting factors, yet there is one location on our planet which transcends the constraints and limitations of place: the Land of Israel.

Daniel [11:16,41] refers to the Holy Land as ”eretz haẓvi” (literally “Land of the deer,” translated as “the beautiful Land”). In their homily, our Sages [Babylonian Talmud, Gittin, 57a] understood the word “ẓvi” to refer to the deer, and explain the comparison of the Land to the animal:

just as a the skin of a deer (if removed) does not hold its flesh, so too the Land of Israel, when (the Jews) dwell within her, she is spacious and when they do not dwell within her, she shrinks.

The Land, our Sages teach, has the ability to expand or contract to accommodate its rightful inhabitants. Maharal of Prague comments:

when the skin is removed from the deer and the life force has been removed, the skin can no longer be stretched to cover the animal’s flesh. With no life force, all that is left is the physical, and in such a state, the skin cannot hold the flesh. Similarly, with the Holy Land, while the Jews live in her, she has her vitality, and the Land has the highest level of sanctity. But when the Jews do not live in the Land, the high (spiritual) level (of the Land) departs and the Land shrinks.

       Thus, the unique ability of the Land to expand or contract is a function of its spiritual aspect.

What is true of the Holy Land is true as well of the Holy City (whose sanctity is on a higher level than that of the rest of the Land [Mishna Keilim 1:8]). Our Sages [Ethics of the Fathers 5:5; Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 21a] taught that one of the miracles of Jerusalem was that no one ever complained that there was insufficient space in the city.

What was true of the Holy Land and the Holy city was true as well for the higher level of sanctity of the Temple courtyards, as the Mishna [ibid.] teaches:

They stood crowded but had ample space in which to prostrate themselves.

                The ability to transcend space was equally true of the holiest spot in the world, the Holy of Holies of the Temple:

Rabbi Levi said: this matter is a tradition received from our ancestors: the place of the Ark (of the Covenant, i.e. the Holy of Holies) is not included within the measurements of the Holy of Holies (the Holy of Holies measured twenty cubits by twenty cubits and a  Talmudic source states that there were ten cubits of space on either side of the Ark, thus the Ark fit in the Holy of Holies only through a miracle).                          Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 21a

                Based upon the insight of Maharal, it is clear that as we ascend the levels of sanctity, from the Land to the Holy of Holies, the ultimate level of sanctity on earth, the spiritual aspect which is the source of transcending the limitations of space, becomes even more pronounced.

        We can add that the very name “Yerushalayim” implies this transcendence. In Hebrew, the word-ending “ayim” denotes double (as in einayim = eyes; raglayim = legs, etc). The form of the name Yerushalayim, therefore implies two Jerusalems. Indeed, the 13^th century Biblical commentator, Rabbenu Beḥayye, explains the name to refer to the heavenly and earthly Jerusalems.

Time, as well, is a limiting factor, since we necessarily live in the present, which is nothing more than a fleeting moment. As one of the great medieval Jewish poets wrote (some say the words were written by Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra [1089 – 1164], others [including Rabbi J.B. Soloveichik] are of the opinion that they were written by Yedaya haPnini [1270 – 1340]): 

The past is gone

The future yet to be

The present a mere eye blink

Jerusalem transcends the realm of time as well. Rabbi Akiva, one of our greatest sages commented: "eternity - this is Jerusalem." [Babylonian Talmud Berachot 58a] Rabbi J.B. Soloveichik explained that the definition of eternity is when all of time is present, when past, present and future converge.  Connecting all of time, the Holy City enables us to transcend the limits of time.

                Finally, one’s individuality establishes constraints. Here too, the Holy City offers transcendence. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi [Jerusalem Talmud, Bava Kama 7:6] understands the verse [Psalms 122:3] “Jerusalem, built up is as a united city” to mean that Jerusalem unites Israelites with each other, thus affording at least a measure of transcendence above the limitations of individuality.

                Thus, Jerusalem, Israel’s eternal capital transcends space time and individuality.