“Time and space are interrelated. To overlook either of them is to be partially blind. What we plead against is man’s unconditional surrender to space, his enslavement to things. We must not forget that it is not a thing that lends significance to a moment; it is the moment that lends significance to things.”
Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath
The future design of Ezekiel’s temple includes space and time dependent innovations including a unique feature that does not seem to have precedent in the first temple and may not have been implemented when the second temple was built less than a century following the prophetic vision. This is also some indication here that what he may be proposing here is an altogether different calendar of Judaic holy days, perhaps an ancient one, long rejected and forgotten.
In Chapter 44 Ezekiel tells us that the Outer Eastern Gate, associated with the east and with the Divine Presence, will be forever shut. In this chapter he delivers an interesting concept that’s about the Inner Eastern Gate - connected to the rhythm of time, it too will be shut - but only open on specific special sacred occasions:
כֹּה־אָמַר֮ אֲדֹנָ֣י יֱהֹוִה֒ שַׁ֜עַר הֶחָצֵ֤ר הַפְּנִימִית֙ הַפֹּנֶ֣ה קָדִ֔ים יִהְיֶ֣ה סָג֔וּר שֵׁ֖שֶׁת יְמֵ֣י הַֽמַּעֲשֶׂ֑ה וּבְי֤וֹם הַשַּׁבָּת֙ יִפָּתֵ֔חַ וּבְי֥וֹם הַחֹ֖דֶשׁ יִפָּתֵֽחַ׃ וּבָ֣א הַנָּשִׂ֡יא דֶּ֩רֶךְ֩ אוּלָ֨ם הַשַּׁ֜עַר מִח֗וּץ וְעָמַד֙ עַל־מְזוּזַ֣ת הַשַּׁ֔עַר וְעָשׂ֣וּ הַכֹּהֲנִ֗ים אֶת־עֽוֹלָתוֹ֙ וְאֶת־שְׁלָמָ֔יו וְהִֽשְׁתַּחֲוָ֛ה עַל־מִפְתַּ֥ן הַשַּׁ֖עַר וְיָצָ֑א וְהַשַּׁ֥עַר לֹא־יִסָּגֵ֖ר עַד־הָעָֽרֶב׃ וְהִשְׁתַּחֲו֣וּ עַם־הָאָ֗רֶץ פֶּ֚תַח הַשַּׁ֣עַר הַה֔וּא בַּשַּׁבָּת֖וֹת וּבֶחֳדָשִׁ֑ים לִפְנֵ֖י יְהֹוָֽה׃
YHWH spoke: The gate of the inner court that faces east shall be closed on the six working days; it shall be opened on the sabbath day and it shall be opened on the day of the new moon.
The Nasi shall enter by way of the vestibule outside the gate, and shall attend at the gatepost while the priests sacrifice his burnt offering and his offering of well-being; he shall then bow low at the threshold of the gate and depart. The gate, however, shall not be closed until evening.
The common people shall worship before YHWH on sabbaths and new moons at the entrance of the same gate.
Ezekiel 46 1-4
There is powerful ritualistic logic to a gate that only opens on the sacred days, with the added decorum of gets to enter or just peep through the threshold. In this way the Sabbath, as well as the New Moons, are elevated in time - but also marked as extraordinary also in physical space. The Hebrew expression Ezekiel uses here “sheshet yemei hama`aseh” or “the six days of labor,” clearly cites Genesis but is its own unique formulation. In later generations this phrase will be inserted into the liturgy that marks the closing of the Sabbath gate - the Havedala, or Separation ritual. This ritual, according to Jewish tradition, can only occur when the sabbath sun sets and three stars can be seen in the sky - again, a ritual weaving of sacred time and space, in the service of the soul or perhaps a greater source of life than our ordinary, labor driven living.
As Heschel writes in his monumental ‘The Sabbath’:
“Shabbat comes with its own holiness; we enter not simply a day, but an atmosphere.. The world has our hands, but our soul belongs to Someone Else. Six days a week we seek to dominate the world, on the seventh day we try to dominate the self.”
But a close reading of this chapter brings up a question: Where are the other festivals? Did the Eastern Gate not open up for Passover or the other annual pilgrimages?
Dr. Moshe Sokolow ponders this question further:
“Logic would suggest that if the purpose of the openings was both to facilitate access for the nasi as well as to differentiate between ordinary workdays and holidays, then festivals must have been included despite not being mentioned explicitly. Furthermore, it is reasonable to assume that on the three pilgrimage festivals the gates were kept open simply because the size of the crowds required it..the conjoining of Shabbat and the new moon to the exception of the festivals is strongly reminiscent of the penultimate verse in the Book of Isaiah: “And new moon after new moon, and sabbath after sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship Me—said YHWH” (66:23)
What we may be looking at here is an older calendar, known to Isaiah and Ezekiel, or at least some sort of calendar on which the priorities of sacred time were different, and the celebration of holidays and even pilgrimages evolved over time to become more central features of Jewish time.
Shabbat and the New Moons are still celebrated today, though no actual gates open or close except in the ways we choose to follow Heschel’s advice and ‘enter an atmosphere’ unique from our week long work mode so that we can “try to dominate the self.”
As this new year begins on yet another calendar perhaps it's on us, each in our own way, to decide how to better balance our life and labor, and which gates in time and space to designate for our recurring returns into the realms of the sacred, and the soul, and then sanctioned, in whatever way it works.
Join me to begin the new year with a conversation about the ways our ancient heritage informs our lives and can hopefully help us navigate and make sense of our unfolding brutal and tragic reality.
We’ll meet on January 4 2024, 5pm ET to say goodbye to the Prophet Ezekiel, celebrate the 500th chapter of Below the Bible Belt, and get a glimpse of our next section on this journey- the twelve so-called minor prophets.
Here’s the link to the next Below the Bible Belt Zoom Live Conversation:
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