Dear
Friends,
On
the Sabbath of Chanukah, we read the following Divine Promise to the
People of Israel regarding the future redemption:
"Sing
and be glad, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will
dwell in your midst, proclaimed Hashem. Many nations will join
themselves to Hashem on that day, and they will become a people unto
Me; and I will dwell in your midst." (Zechariah 2: 14,15)
In
the ancient Aramaic translation of our scriptures known as "Targum
Yonasan," the words "I will dwell in your midst" are
translated as: "I
will place My Shechinah in your midst."
The Shechinah is to dwell among us, and not just in the Temple. In
fact, the purpose of the Temple, states the Torah, is to elevate and
sanctify us so that the Shechinah can be in our midst, as it is
written: "And they shall make a Sanctuary for Me, so that I may
dwell among them" (Exodus 25:8). The verse does not say, "so
that I may dwell in
it" (the
Sanctuary), but "so that I may dwell among them"
(Commentary of the Alschich and Malbim).
When
the People of Israel built the Sanctuary in the wilderness of Sinai,
they were told to light the Menorah with a continuous light before
the Ark of the Testimony (Exodus 27:20,21). This was also done in the
Temple in Jerusalem. Rabbi Sheshes, in the Talmud, asks the following
question regarding the purpose of this light:
"Does
He - Hashem - require its light? Surely during the entire forty years
in the desert they traveled only by His light. It is, however, to
serve as a testimony to all human beings that the Shechinah rests in
Israel." (Shabbos 22b)
The
light of the Menorah is to represent the Shechinah dwelling in our
midst.Why it important for all humanity to know that the Shechinah is
found in the midst of the People of Israel? Rabbi Samson Raphael
Hirsch explains that while some religions teach what one has to do in
order to come close to God in the next
world, the Torah teaches what we need to do in order that God comes
close to us in this
world. Rabbi Hirsch adds:
"Judaism
teaches that the primary dwelling place of the Shechinah is on this
earth. God seeks, first of all, to dwell among humankind; He says to
the human being: 'They shall make Me a Sanctuary so that I may dwell
among them.' Let them make of their lives on earth a sanctuary to Me,
and then I will dwell in their midst. The task of paving the way for
an age when the Kingdom of God will begin again - not just in heaven
but here on earth - is to be the mission of Israel... This is also
the goal of Torah - the Divine Teaching." (Commentary to
Genesis 9:27)
The
light of the Menorah is to therefore convey the following message to
all human beings: Just
as the Shechinah dwells among Israel when they fulfill the Divine
teaching, so too the Shechinah will dwell among humankind when they
fulfill the Divine teaching.
As
we shall explore in future lessons, the Shechinah was fully revealed
in the Garden of Eden, where the human being was to live a life of
tzedek - justice-love, as it is written: "Hashem God took the
human being and placed him in the Garden of Eden, to cultivate it and
to protect it" (Gen. 2:15). When the human being failed to
fulfill this mandate, and was exiled from the Garden, the Shechinah
became hidden. She was later revealed to righteous men and women,
such as Abraham and Sarah, who dedicated all aspects of their lives
to the principle of tzedek. At the final stage of human history, when
all human beings will dedicate their lives to tzedek, the Shechinah
will be revealed to all humanity. This universal revelation is
mentioned in Midrash Leviticus Rabbah (1:14), which refers to the
Shechinah as "the glory of Hashem":
"In
the present world, the Shechinah is revealed upon individuals;
however, in the future that is to come, 'the glory of Hashem will be
revealed, and all humankind will see it together' (Isaiah 40:5)."
A
Good Chanukah,
Yosef
Ben Shlomo Hakohen
