parshat shekalim – exodus 30
Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on Clubhouse. By tradition, the holiday of Passover is preceded by five specially named Shabbatot. The first is called Shekalim and we discuss the meaning of this shabbat in light of both Rabbinic and New Testament texts and in the process join our forebears in preparing for the Spring awakening. Join us for Shekels Count.
Sefaria Source Sheet: www.sefaria.org/sheets/549744
Summary:
The speakers engaged in a detailed exploration of the meaning and significance of Shabbat Shekalim in Jewish tradition, particularly in the lead-up to Passover. They analyzed the biblical texts related to the half shekel and its role in counting the Israelite men and the temple service. The discussion also touched on the evolving traditions surrounding the shekel, including its association with B’dikat Chumetz and the tension between commerce and spiritual practices.
The speakers also discussed the symbolic significance of the half shekel and its connection to the broader concept of giving and redemption. They drew parallels between the New Testament and Jewish history, emphasizing the relevance of the shekel in contemporary language and culture. Overall, the discussion provided a comprehensive understanding of the importance of Shabbat Shekalim in Jewish tradition and its relevance in preparing for the upcoming holiday of Passover.
Transcript:
Welcome to Madlik. My name is Geoffrey Stern and at Madlik we light a spark or shed some light on a Jewish Text or Tradition. Along with Rabbi Adam Mintz we host Madlik Disruptive Torah on clubhouse every Thursday and share it as the Madlik podcast on your favorite platform. This shabbat is Shabbat Shekalim, the first of five specially named Shabbatot that precede Passover. Today we’ll discuss the meaning of this shabbat in light of both Rabbinic and New Testament texts and in the process join our forebears in preparing for the Spring awakening. Join us for Shekels Count.
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0:41 – Geoffrey Stern: Well, welcome Rabbi, another week of Madlik Disruptive Torah, and unlike normal, where we do a parsha in the annual reading of the Torah, we are going to diverge a little bit and talk about the first of the five Shabbatot that precede Passover, Shabbat HaShkalim. I mean, I think this Shabbat in your synagogue, you not only have Shabbat HaShkalim, you have, Machar HaChodesh? Is it Rosh Chodesh, or the day before Rosh Chodesh?
1:27 – Adam Mintz: It’s the day before Rosh Chodesh.
1:30 – GS: And it’s not that rare, and it’s also Adar Sheni. It’s a year where we have not only a leap year, I believe, in the secular calendar, but also in the lunar calendar. It’s a lot going on, and it gives us, I think, license to go off-road a little bit and to look at what is the meaning of Shabbat Shekalim. We’re going to start, as we usually do with a Torah text, but we’re going to look at it slightly differently because we’re going to look at it through the lens of what about this text and this tradition made it the first of the five Shabbatot that literally take us to this amazing holiday.
2:15 – GS: You could call it the New Year Festival. You could call it the Spring Festival. You can call it the Festival of Liberation. But it’s Passover, I know it’s you and my favorite holiday, so. Are you ready?
2:31 – AM: Oh Boy, I’m ready! Let’s go.
2:33 – GS: OK. So in Exodus 30:11-16, and we’ve already probably covered this parasha in a previous time, it talks about this shekel. It says, God spoke to Moses saying, when you take a census, tisa et rosh, literally count heads, of the Israelite men, according to their army enrollment, says my translation, l’piku dehem, and pikuda in modern-day Hebrew is a military term [pakid פקיד – overseer, officer]. Each shall pay God a ransom for himself. Kofer nafsho. If you hear the word kippur and kapara and yom kippur there, it works. It is a redemption/atonement for the soul on being enrolled that no plague may come upon them through their being enrolled.
3:32 – GS: This is what everyone who is entered in the record shall pay, a half shekel by the sanctuary way, twelve geras to the shekel, and it goes on and it says, from the age of twenty up shall give God’s offering, the rich shall not pay more, the poor shall not pay less than half a shekel when giving God’s offering as expiation for your persons, kesef ha-kipurim. You shall take the expiation money from the Israelites and assign it to the service of the temple. Al avadat ohel moed. It shall serve the Israelites as a reminder for God as expiation for your person.” So usually, the rabbi will get up when this is read and talk about, we’re running an appeal this week.
4:25 – GS: Everybody’s got to give. We want to Count everybody in, and that’s typically the lesson of the shekel, the half shekel. It’s not how much you give, but you gotta be counted, you gotta be a part. There is nothing in here that links it to Passover, or that would seem to imply that this would be the beginning of the countdown to Passover. Am I right?
4:57 – AM: That is correct. That’s only rabbinic, that idea that this half shekel was given in the month before Nisan as a preparation for Passover. It’s like, when do you do the annual synagogue appeal? So, in the Temple, they did the annual synagogue appeal the month before Passover.
5:23 – GS: Great! So, we’re going to quote a few other biblical, scriptural references, and then we’re going to look at it through, as I said in the intro, through the eyes of the rabbis, and even through what the New Testament adds to our lens. So, in II Kings 12:5-6 it says, V’yoma Yo’ash said to the priests, all the money, current money, brought into the house of God as sacred donations, the money equivalent of persons, kesef nifashot erakot, now it talks about the value of each person. Or any other money that someone may be minded to bring to the house of the God, so this includes, let’s say, if you made an oath or if you had a birth or whatever the reason.
6:12 – GS: Let the priests receive it, each from his benefactor. They, in turn, shall make repairs on the house wherever damage may be found. Et bedek habayit lekol ashe yimtza shom bedek. So now already we’re starting to see the idea is, I would say, evolving and is also increasing. Because originally when you read it, it was a way of counting people, counting who is of age for the military. And then anything to do with the temple service, I think the natural reflex would be for payment, for sacrifices and other things.
6:58 – GS: But now we get this wonderful term, Bedek Habayet, and I, because I have Passover on my mind, Rabbi, I’m starting to think B’dikat Chumetz, are the two words connected at all?
7:11 – AM:
That’s a trick question. That’s a good question. I don’t know the answer. That’s a good question. I don’t know.
Note:
ᴵ
-
- to mend, repair.
- (— Qal)
- he mended, repaired (a hapax legomenon in the Bible, occurring Chron. II 34:10).
[Aram. בּֽדַק (= he split), Arab. bataka (= to detach, cut off), Ethiop. bataka (of the s.m.), Tigre batka (= to tear, to cut off), Akka. batāqu (= to cut off, to divide), Aram. בִּדֽקָא (= breaking into, breach, defect), Syr. בְּדָקָא (= mending, repair), Ugar. bdqt (= clefts in the clouds). See בתק.]Derivatives: בֶּדֶק ᴵ, מִבְדּוֹק.
Source: מקור: Klein Dictionary
Creator: יוצר: Ezra Klein
בדק ᴵᴵ
-
- to examine, inspect.
- (— Qal)
- he explored, examined.
Brown, Driver Briggs
7:20 – GS: What I see in it is repairs to the house is this sense of fixing things. Getting ready, preparing things, making them better, and I don’t know whether it connects to B’dikat Tahametz where we’re looking to find that which is old and leavened and getting rid of the stale. Anyway, let’s go to Nehemiah. In Nehemiah 10:32-34, it says the people of the land, Ame haaretz, who bring their wares and all sorts of foodstuffs for sale on the Sabbath day, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or a holy day.
8:02 – GS: So, he already is starting to talk about those Jews who are not keeping the ancient laws and are kind of bringing it down and bringing it into lemchor et nokerch mehem b’Shabbat. Mekach u’memchar, a kind of commerce on the Shabbat. And it continues and says, we will forego the Produce of the seventh year, so it talks about the Shemitah. And then he goes, we have laid upon ourselves obligations to charge ourselves one third of a shekel yearly for the service of the house of our God. And then he talks about what it’s for, the rows of bread, regular meals, sins offering to atone for Israel, and for all the work in the house of our God.
8:53 – GS: So this is kind of interesting. Here it doesn’t talk about a half shekel, it talks about a third shekel*, just goes to show how traditions evolve and get changed, but it does bring it into a context of there’s places where you shouldn’t be doing commerce, where you should refrain from the mercantile, and then here is mercantile where you give to holy causes. I think we’re starting to see that kind of tension between the misuse of money and the way that our businesses can impact our spiritual lives, and then how that third of a shekel or half of a shekel can be used for good.
- Possibly related to 3 Pilgrim festivals; a 1/3 on each festival gs
9:45 – GS: That’s what I’m starting to see. I’m starting to see more ingredients in our soup, so to speak.
9:50 – AM: I love it, I like that, I think that’s great, yeah, good, let’s go with that.
9:55 – GS: So if we start looking at Rashi, which as usual is really a lens into rabbinic tradition, he talks about, first of all, the interesting thing is there is definitely a focus, not on the monetary value of the coin, but on the fact that there is this shape of a coin. Over the last few weeks, we’ve had so many instances of the menorah coming down from heaven, of God showing Moses what the menorah looked like, and here too, Rashi says, he, God, showed him Moses a kind of fiery coin, the weight of which was half a shekel, and said to him, like this shall they give.
10:41 – GS: So Rashi is focused on zeh yitanu. And the point is, there’s a need Similar to today when we have a firstborn and we have to redeem it from the Kohan, you need, whether it’s a silver coin, a silver dollar, you need some sort of iconic piece of coinage. It’s not the value as much as it is that you need either a shekel or a half shekel, something that stands for something. I would say a standard.
11:18 – AM: Yeah, so that is a very interesting idea. Where did the idea of half shekel come from Why did they choose a half shekel? Why didn’t they just say a shekel? Why didn’t they say the standard would be everybody gives a dollar? Why is it everybody gives 50 cents?
11:38 – GS: So I think the question is twofold. Number one, there’s the shekel. Everything we’re talking about is the shekel, and then it’s a half of that shekel. So, it’s kind of like a kind of a tension, a dynamic between the whole, it’s got to be a shekel, and then you only have to give half of it. And of course, again, getting back to the sermon that the rabbi makes in the fundraiser, you don’t have to give it all, you don’t have to complete the task, but you’ve got to be part of it, you’ve got to give it at least half.
12:10 – GS: But there’s both here, but there’s no question that there’s a focus on this complete coin. Rashi in Rashi on Exodus 30:13:6 … and I’m going to go a little bit of a tangent here because I have a personal story to tell. It says “For a full shekel is four zuz and a zuz was originally five meahs (consequently a shekel was twenty meahs or gerahs); only that they increased it (the zuz) by one sixth and so raised its value to six meahs of silver.” He starts talking about a zuz and since we’re starting to talk about Pesach, we all know, Chagad Gadya, Dizban Abba, Bitrei Zuzei, that we had a goat that my father bought for two zuzim. So I took a graduate course in Talmud at Columbia University from David Weiss-Halivni, one of the great scholars of the Talmud.
12:56 – GS: And it was before Passover, and he turns to us and he goes, what’s the story with the zuz? What does the word zuz mean? So I raised my hand, and I just said, look, maybe it’s because it’s currency, and currency is zaz, it moves [fluctuates]. It moves based on the market. So he said to me, no, that’s not the reason. And he said, the reason it’s called a zuz is it’s a slang for Zeus, just like we now talk about a Franklin as a $50 bill [and the coin must have had the image of Zeus on one side]
13:29 – AM: That’s amazing!
13:31 – GS: So I looked at Wikipedia, and it’s in this Sefaria source sheet, and it says the first etymology it gives for Zuz is it’s a corruption of the Greek Zeus. So it’s the first time I ever saw his explanation. But the second one is, zoos means move or to move. So it’s called zoozim, so it’s constantly moving around [referring to the nature of money that it moves from one person to another]. So I would say, Alu V’elu Divrei Elohim Chayim! But the point is that there was a fixation on using the prominent currency of the day to give to God, and then to take half of it.
14:14 – GS: And I think that is something fascinating about the Shekel story. I mean, even today, in slang, we talk about, you know, “You better start saving your shekels if you want to take a trip like that.” I mean, shekels has lasted. It’s in the nomenclature, it’s in the way people think, and that’s kind of interesting as well. Of course, the currency in Israel today is NIS, New Israeli Shekel. You can look it up. That is the currency today. So we use the shekel even today, and it’s new. So that’s good to know.
14:59 – GS: So I want to go to the New Testament. And I want to do that for a number of reasons, but one of them is you probably have all heard of the story of Jesus going into the temple and throwing over the tables of the money changers. But the truth is, we all know when that happened. It’s mentioned three times in the Gospels, and two of them are in the last moments of his life before Passover. So here in the New Testament is the first time we really get a sense that this shekel situation and changing the shekel and doing what was done had to do with the culmination, the movement, up unto Passover.
15:58 – GS: It was a key, key part of his story. You know, this year, Shai Held from Hadar is coming out with a book, and it’s called Judaism is About Love, Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life. And the premise of the book, I haven’t read it because it’s not out yet, maybe if we’re really lucky we can have him on Madlik. But the point that he makes is that we got divorced from Christianity, and like in any divorce, we gave them certain things, they gave us certain things. And certain things that they took away we wanted to have nothing to do with.
16:34 – GS: And of course love might have been one of them, but I will tell you that I always find in the New Testament there are places where we can find our own history. And here is a situation where I believe, and this is one of the arguments I’m going to make tonight, is that we can a little bit hear an echo of what the shekel had to do with this transition that we all have to make between now and Passover. So, the story is pretty famous. In Matthew 21, it says, then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple.
17:18 – GS: That would be in Hebrew, mekkah humemcha. And he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, it is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers. And as we shall see, that’s a quote from Jeremiah 7. The blind and the lame, he continued, came to him in the temple, and he cured them. But when the chief priests and scribes saw the amazing things he did and heard the children crying out in the temple and said, Hoshana to the son of David, they became angry, and he got kicked out.
17:54 – GS: In Mark 11, it says, then they came to Jerusalem. Again, he was ole regal [a pilgrim coming up for the Pilgrim festival] . He was doing what every other self-respecting Jew did at that time of year, which was coming up to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple. He overturned the tables of the money changers, and again he says, is it not written, my house shall be called the house of prayer for all the nations, but you have made it into a den of robbers.
18:30 – GS: And finally, in John — and by the way, in the New Testament, whenever they introduce these chapters, if I was giving a sermon on this chapter, the title would be, Jesus Cleanses the Temple. And obviously, we all know that part of the tradition that begins now is spring cleaning. It’s cleaning things. It’s getting rid of things for the holiday. We have the Persian Nowruz. They empty out their house. All of this stuff, Lent, we have all of this cleaning, and as we might see, part of what Jesus was doing in terms of cleaning the Temple of commerce was this kind, I believe, of cleaning.
19:24 – GS: And so in John it says, the Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers to sit at the tables. In this case he made a whip of cords and drove them out, and he said at the end, stop making my father’s house a marketplace. So, as I said, in Isaiah, he’s quoting standard sources. In Isaiah 56, he says, I will bring them to my sacred mount, let them rejoice in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices shall be welcome on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer.
20:05 – GS: For all peoples. In Jeremiah 7:1-11 it says, (4) Don’t put your trust in illusions and say, “The Temple of GOD, the Temple of GOD, the Temple of GOD are these [buildings].” (5) No, if you really mend your ways and your actions; if you execute justice between one party and another; (6) if you do not oppress the stranger, the orphan, and the widow; if you do not shed the blood of the innocent in this place; if you do not follow other gods, to your own hurt— (7) then only will I let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your ancestors for all time. (8) See, you are relying on illusions that are of no avail. (9) Will you steal and murder and commit adultery and swear falsely, and sacrifice to Baal, and follow other gods whom you have not experienced, and then come and stand before Me in this House that bears My name and say, “We are safe”?—[Safe] to do all these abhorrent things! (11) Do you consider this House, which bears My name, to be a den of thieves? As for Me, I have been watching—declares GOD.
20:49 – GS: Now, I have quoted in the Sefaria source sheet a scholar who has dedicated her life to interpreting the New Testament as a Jew, and her name is Amy-Jill Levin. She actually has a version of the New Testament for Jews. [The Jewish Annotated New Testament] It has all of the course references to the Midrash and to whatever. And she has a long case to explain that even a den of thieves, that’s not as though they stole in the place where their den is. They stole outside and then they came to celebrate and to feel righteous about themselves.
21:37 – GS: What Jeremiah and Nehemiah and all of these prophets are talking about is hypocrisy. Is acting one way outside of the temple and then coming into the temple and acting another way. And she makes a case that this whole story has been misinterpreted, especially in the light of medieval Christianity’s I guess, persecution of Jews as moneylenders. This is not talking about moneylending. It’s talking about changing money. People would come as tourists, as pilgrims from all over the empire, and they would come to the holy place to change their money.
22:20 – GS: But what Jesus and the prophets were arguing about is those who were using this to cover up misdeeds, hypocrisy. And I think it’s just fascinating that from, and only from possibly, the New Testament, do we get a heightened sense that this is part of the preparation for Passover. And I just want your rabbi to give me a sense of how you see Shekalim as being part of the preparation for Passover. We have Parshat Parah, we have Zakhor [ HaChodesh and Shabbat HaGadol] , we have different things But it really—we almost have to reclaim what about Shekalim made it as something that prepares one for Passover.
23:15 – AM: So I want to say, Geoffrey, first of all, that your explanation is great. I love the money-changing idea. Obviously, the idea of Jesus turning over the money-changing tables is among the most famous images in world religion. The rabbis explain it like this. Every day in the Temple, there were communal sacrifices given. The daily sacrifice was called the Korban Tamid. On Shabbat and Rosh Chodesh and holidays, there was an additional sacrifice, the Musaf. And those were communal sacrifices.
23:53 – AM: They were paid for by a communal fund. That communal fund was raised every year and the fiscal year in the Temple began on Rosh Chodesh Nisan, the month of Pesach, and so therefore they spent the month before in the annual synagogue appeal. They raised the money the month before, and then they started using the money for the daily sacrifices starting at the beginning of Nisan. So therefore, every year, the Shabbat before Rosh Chodesh Adar, we read Shekalim to remind everybody, time for the annual synagogue appeal in the Temple.
24:41 – AM: And people have a month to pay up their pledges because we’re starting to use the money for the Karbanot. That’s the answer, the explanation the rabbis give. But I think your explanation is really interesting and I think it allows us, it’s like Shai Held says, it allows us to understand how the religions, Judaism and Christianity, are so closely tied to one another. How we share these common threads, the Shekalim, the Zuz. That’s amazing. I never knew that from David Weiss Halivni.
25:16 – AM: I learned something. I didn’t take his class at Columbia College, but I learned something, and that’s great. And this is just interesting, and I hope that everybody, as you listen to Parshat Shkalim this Shabbat, that these ideas are things that can percolate for us. And Geoffrey, if it’s Parshat Shekalim, It means that Purim’s around the corner and Pesach is just around two quarters. So, I’m excited to enjoy these special Shabbatot together with you as we prepare for them and to wish everybody a Shabbat Shalom, Chodesh Tov, Rosh Chodesh, if the second Adar is Sunday and Monday, we have a wonderful principle, M’shanichnas Adar mar bim b’simcha. When Adar begins, we celebrate, so everybody should be in a good mood. Shabbat Shalom, everybody.
26:04 – GS: Shabbat shalom, and the only thing that I want to add, and I encourage you, Rabbi and I were at the Sefaria 10th anniversary dinner where they really celebrated 10 years of digitizing and indexing all of Jewish learning. One of the sources I give in the Sefaria source sheet links it again in another way to spring. In the Jerusalem Talmud, it says, what is the reason that they raise the money at this time? And Rabbi, you’re correct. It was for the sacrifices and all that, but it was also to repair the roads, rural roads, which may have been damaged during the raising season.
26:48 – GS: People were coming up in pilgrimage, and the roads and the infrastructure had to be prepared. Spring was in the air. All the fallen trees had to be trimmed. It is a beginning of this, a celebration of spring. And the last thing that I’ll say is, it’s just a few shekels. One of the things that is happening in Israel today, and we’ve tried to tie every week to the current situation, is there’s a small [legislative] bill about money to support the yeshiva students [coming up in the Kneset]. And there are arguments, if you look at the most recent version of Inside Israel with Daniel Gordis.
27:32 – GS: There are beliefs that the government will fall over this little symbolic tax diversion of money because the whole country has had enough of part of the population not carrying their load. And if you think about it, we started tonight with the half shekel was a way of counting heads for the army, and we’re talking about repairing roads, and how we’re all in this together, and it’s the simple shekel. So, pay attention to the news. The government could fall over a simple shekel, and we will be a part of history, and we need to clean up our house for the new year.
28:15 – GS: So I wish all of us that we should be now, in the midst of the end of winter, preparing for this wonderful spring where anything is possible, and celebrate that shekel, celebrate our texts and our rich history, and Shabbat shalom, and see you all next week.
28:37 – AM:
Shabbat shalom. Shabbat shalom. Be well.
Sefaria Source Sheet: www.sefaria.org/sheets/549744
Listen to last year’s episode for parshat Vayakhel: man made
Where is God?
Parshat Terumah
As the commentary in Etz Hayim notes: “The text does not tell of God dwelling “in it,” i.e. in the sanctuary, but “among them,” i.e., among the people of Israel.
Similarly, with regard to the First Temple and as memorialized on the Haftorah selection:
This resonates with us moderns: God does not inhabit an edifice of bricks and mortar; he dwells in the hearts and minds of his faithful. For a humanist this translates into God lives inside of man. Dare we attribute such an enlightened interpretation to our forebears?
For classical theologians and mystics the question posed by a temple was more basic… how can it be that God can be confined to one place… any place?
By tradition, Jacob’s dream of the ladder with ascending and descending angels occurred at The Place (מקום) of the future First and Second Temple. the Rabbis assert:
For the mystics the bigger problem is how to explain a finite physical world when God is infinite. If God is the Eyn Sof … an existence that suffers no beginning and no end, how is a created world with beginnings, ends and finite dimensions, let alone “evil” permitted to exist.
The standard answer in the kabbalah .. the Jewish mystical tradition, is that of the 10 sefirot. Everything is contained in God, but there are different emanations that shine and are reflected, in various degrees of physicality, which ultimately create a perception of a created world.
The same holds true for the temple. There is an eternal and entirely spiritual temple which God inhabits and which inhabits God… our material temple is simply a reflection of that celestial temple.
When Moses is commanded to build the tabernacle in Exodus 25:9, God instructs Moses:
As the Etz Hayim notes: “Exactly as I show you The tabernacle and its furnishings are conceived of as earthly replicas of heavenly archetypes… ”
According to this approach, the earthly temple is a reflection or emanation of a Celestial Temple. [2]
This concept of our Temple and services mirroring the Celestial Temple and prayer services of the Angels is institutionalized in our prayers especially the Kedusha where:
In the Pesikta D’Rav Kehana, which contains material that dates back to the times of the Midrash (3rd and 4th century) we find an fascinating rendering of this theology.
For anyone who has heard of Lurianic Kabbalah and the system of Tzimtzum this is a truly revolutionary midrash and the only Midrashic/Talmudic reference to the Tzimtzum of God in Rabbinic literature.
Let me explain… According to Gershom Scholem, the preeminent authority on the development of the Kabbalah, the de facto solution to the infinite God creating a finite world conundrum; not to mention His dwelling in a wordly temple, was the theory of emanation. In the theory of emanation God’s totally spiritual and infinite presence is reflected through a series of increasingly degraded and physical illuminations and reflections until the physical is possible.
This solution is philosophically unsatisfying since it literally kicks the can down the road… but it was the best that the mystics could do and it survived from the earliest days of the Kabbalah and Zohar until the expulsion from Spain in 1492… close to 1,000 years after our Tzimzum midrash was written.
The expulsion from Spain disrupted Jewish thought and sensitized the mystics to the dialectic between Exile and Return and suffering and redemption.
Isaac Luria who lived only to the age of 38 turned the theory of emanation on it’s head. According to Luria, God didn’t so much as create the physical world as He contracted Himself into Himself in order to permit the existence of a physical world, including matter, evil and … a temple.
In my view, this emanation on-it’s-head approach is as philosophically unsatisfying as emanation. It begs the same question. But from a poetic, humanist, existential let alone pedagogic perspective it is stellar. Any parent who learns to step back in order to permit a child to move forward will appreciate Tzimtzum!
Another way of phrasing contraction would be diminution. In a very real and radical way, tzimtzum implies that God commits the ultimate blasphemy/sin.. he diminished Himself.. the Godhead.
Tzimtzum is a variation on the old conundrum… If an all powerful God can make anything… can He make a weight that is too heavy for He Himself to lift? In the case of tzimtzum the answer is Yes. God can diminish himself to a point that He alone cannot repair the damage…. As it were.
It is clear to me that tzimtzum is a dialectical process. As in our original midrash, God withdraws from the celestial temple to concentrate into the temporal temple. And, according to Luria, when God withdraws He leaves [concentrated] traces of His holiness called Reshimu or residue similar to the residue of oil or wine in a bottle the contents of which have been poured out. The process is not smooth, it is disruptive to the point that Luria coined a term “Breaking of the vessels” Shevirat haKelim to refer to this big bang of contraction.
When God contracts, the vessel that holds Him is ruptured into pieces. Both the residue and broken pieces contain remnants of the infinite. God is removed, exiled (c.f. “the Divine Presence in Exile” – שכינתא בגלותא) and separated from these remnants and only man can unite God by repairing these broken pieces and this is redemption – Tikun.
This is the mystical concept of Tikkun Olam, fixing the world. What it has in common with the social-action concept of Tikkun Olam is that both are thoroughly dependent on Man.
Getting back to our Temple…
We now come full circle and have a radically humanistic conception of God’s presence in our world.. hinted at first by the Rabbis of the Fourth Century Midrash and flushed out in a radical theology by a 30 year old decedent of refugees from the Spanish inquisition in Safed.
God’s dwelling in the Mishkan is dependent on man. The tabernacle and Temple represent a poetic dance between God and man, exile and return, suffering and redemption… for both parties. The vision of Jews and God outside of the temple, willingly withdrawing from the temple appears less absurd.
The Kotzke Rebbe’s answer to the question “Where is God?” is both empowering and obligating.
“Where is God? Wherever we let Him in.”
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[1]
“ר’ הונא בשם ר’ אמי אמר: מפני מה מכנין שמו של הקב”ה וקורין אותו “מקום”? שהוא מקומו של עולם ואין עולמו מקומו” – בראשית רבה, ס”ח, י’
[2] For a comprehensive review of this literature see:
The Celestial Temple as viewed in the Aggadah by Victor Aptowitzer found in Binah: Volume I; Studies in Jewish History (Washington Papers) Paperback – June 6, 1989 PRAEGER, NY Westport, CT, London
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