Parshat Re’eh; Deuteronomy 11:26 – 16:17 by Rabbi Denise L. Eger

This week’s parasha opens with a harsh condemnation of idolatry. An oft-repeated message of the Torah is that idol worship or any practice, custom or even idea that can lead a Jew astray from the worship of the God of our covenant is an anathema. We are to resist with all our being. Just as we love God with all of our heart, soul and might we are to abhor idolatry and all of its trappings. Thus the Torah portion, Re’eh opens with the commandment to destroy pagan places of worship once in the sacred land of Eretz Yisrael.

The command in verse 4 of chapter 12—“Do not worship Adonai your God in a like manner,” reminds us that all too often former places of worship (in this case pagan altars) become incorporated into the new religion. In Spain when the Moors reigned, Churches became mosques and later when Catholicism ruled the Iberian Peninsula, synagogues and mosques became churches. But the Torah prohibition is clear. We are not to subsume the pagan altars and rededicate them to the God of the Covenant of Israel. We are only to worship at the central site that “God will choose amidst all your tribes as God’s habitation.”(v.5)

While the centralized location is not revealed here—we now know this will be the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, David’s capital, became not only the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant but became home to the two temples. The first built by David’s son, King Solomon and the second temple built after the return from Babylonia but enlarged greatly by King Herod during the Roman period. Tradition has it that this same spot, was the very spot the Abraham was called by God to nearly sacrifice his son Isaac. And it was upon this rock that the Temples were later built.

Jerusalem is both symbol and reality for the Jewish people. It is a real and vibrant city that bustles today with the ebb and flow of daily life. Buses and cars and pedestrians, residents and visitors mix in a vibrant pulsing urban cityscape. Jerusalem too is symbolic of the longing and desire of the Jew to be close to God. We pray, “Next year in Jerusalem.” Not Paris, London, New York or Haifa—but next year in Jerusalem, we pray, symbolizing our heart’s desire to be in the sacred site of God’s dwelling. Jerusalem is mystical and even perhaps magical in its hold upon you. Jerusalem in the tradition is called the navel of the world. The rabbis recognized the centrality of Jerusalem to many people but especially the Jews. Their worldview was that the world expands only with Jerusalem at its core.

There are some who today make claims about Jerusalem and who would try and erase its Jewish history. There are some who try to suit their political goals by diminishing the Jewish flavor and Jewish nature of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem is and has been the inspiration of the Jewish people and central in our longing to be near God and so it will remain. Even as Israel has left Gaza and parts of the West Bank, lands captured in a defensive war of 1967, a war that was provoked and begun by the Arab nations, we as the Jewish people should remain committed to the location that has been eternally our focus and our dream—Jerusalem.

Posted by Lee at August 29, 2005 09:47 AM