We tend to think of sanctuaries of the soul - the religious buildings where we gather to connect and to find solace - as solid centers, often old or ancient buildings, some with landmark status. But it’s helpful to recall that tents and shrines and other mobile altars are our original sacred spaces - meant to be both physically and metaphysically on the move -forever fluid, fluctuating, ephemeral and flimsy like fire, like clouds: Not written in stone and resistant to transformations.
This tension between solid structures and fluid ideologies is echoes in the story of the Hebrew Tent of Time that in today’s chapter finds a new resting spot in which to settle down and become a pilgrimage site for the next 369 years.
But before we explore the original Shiloh, let's visit its namesake in Lower Manhattan - founded in 1822, celebrating this year its 200th birthday. Shiloh was the First Colored Presbyterian Church, founded by Rev. Samuel Cornish, who also founded the country’s first black newspaper, Freedom’s Journal. He was followed by other famous abolitionist ministers including Theodore Wright, and Henry Highland Garnet. Over several decades the church changed leaders and locations and after several moves around lower Manhattan, Shiloh resettled in Harlem and renamed St. James. Today, my mentor and friend, Rev. Derrick McQueen leads this welcoming congregation with wisdom and grace, forever reminding his flock and friends of the journey of Shiloh from being a stop on the Underground Railroad, to one of the first African American major churches in the country, to its beautiful historical home in Harlem.
The original name, Shiloh, was not randomly chosen. Named for the first permanent location of the Tent of Time in the Promised Land it echoes the human longing for safety, protection, and the blessing that a real sanctuary can offer even when so much is uncertain and keeps shifting.
The biblical Tabernacle, known in Hebrew as Mishkan, was the first spiritual home for the escaped Hebrew slaves on their journey from Egypt to the land of promise, and like them, the tent went through many locations and tribulations.
By the time it lands in Shiloh, almost at the end of the Book of Joshua, 14 years or so after they cross the river, some but not all of the land has been conquered, and for some reason we are not told, the sacred center moves from Gilgal, by the Jordan river, its first destination, to the hilltop of Shiloh:
וַיִּקָּ֨הֲל֜וּ כׇּל־עֲדַ֤ת בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ שִׁלֹ֔ה וַיַּשְׁכִּ֥ינוּ שָׁ֖ם אֶת־אֹ֣הֶל מוֹעֵ֑ד וְהָאָ֥רֶץ נִכְבְּשָׁ֖ה לִפְנֵיהֶֽם׃
The whole community of the Israelite people assembled at Shiloh, and set up the Tent of Time there. The land was now under their control;
Scholars notice the use of ‘the whole community’ and ‘the land under control’ as aspirational hype-talk that does not necessarily match the reality at the time. Some, such as Prof.Michael M. Homan also suggest that it’s possible the tabernacle never even knew the Sinai wilderness desert or crossed the Jordan. Some proto-version of a mobile altar likely existed but the elaborate details of the Tent of the Time, with tapestries and gilded ritual objects as described in Exodus seem too complex to produce while on the run in the desert -- and they are also strikingly similar to what the Israelites likely found when they got to know Canaan: The sacred shrines of the Canaanite religions look a lot like tents with many familiar details.
In Late Bronze Age Ugarit, the Canaanite god El along with other deities lived in temporary and mobile shrines that were frequently called a tent (Ohel) and a Tabernacle (mškn)Were those local shrines the inspiration for the Tabernacle that established at Shilo once they settled down - and was then retroactively inserted by later editors into the Exodus narratives? Perhaps this was an act of reverence to the ancient nomadic roots of the Canaanites - much like those of the Hebrews - meaning wanderers — who would soon be renamed Israelites.
Shiloh would become the religious center for the Israelites for a few generations - but not for all of them, and not so fast.. In the next chapters a civil war almost breaks out between the tribes because the Shiloh Tabernacle is so compelling - another one will pop up on the other side of the Jordan river, along with big drama. The yearning for spiritual safe haven quickly becomes political posturing. But that’s not its original need, claim and purpose.
The Shiloh of Joshua’s time, like the one founded in Downtown NYC, is a reminder of the need for spiritual shelter, even temporary, even fleeting, when so much uncertainty keeps us on our toes. It’s never ultimately about the location or the type of building itself - storefront or basement, palace or chapel- but about the people who build it and love it enough to turn even a simple tent into a communal home for the highest hopes of human beings, who show up, again and again, eye to eye, hand in hand, through exiles and escapes, persecutions and pursuits, serenity and simple days - to co-create the sacred.
Image: Rev. Dr. Derrick McQueen at St. James Presbyterian Church in Harlem, 2022, honoring the church’s original founding as Shiloh Presbyterian Church, 200 years ago.
Ready to wrap up the journey with Joshua? Almost there.. Join me on November 21 2022, 1pm ET for a one hour Zoom conversation, exploring what we’ve discovered, what are we curious about. I'll be taking time to answer your questions - so please bring one!
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85448738911?pwd=dmRIRndNNDhjaXZsVjh5K3dSYUdLQT09
Meeting ID: 854 4873 8911
Below the Bible Belt: 929 chapters, 42 months, daily reflections: Join Rabbi Amichai’s 3+ years interactive online quest to question, queer + re-read between the lines of the entire Hebrew Bible, with daily reflections, weekly videos and monthly learning sessions. January 2022-July 2025
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Tent of Time is my translation -- the original Ohel Moed is often translated as Tent of Meeting - Moed is indeed the 'space' where people 'meet' and it is also the Hebrew word for 'sacred time' or 'holiday' - so - Tent of Time AND Space... where the Shechina dwells in the Mishkan. All legit Semitic/Canaanite/Hebraic mysteries...
Did I miss it, late-comer that I am to this pilgrimmage, but where / how is Mishkan translatable as the Tent of Time??