In just a few days many Jewish communities will gather for the annual reunion that begins the new year. Temples that are mostly empty year-round (not to mention Covid) will fill up, and rented halls will welcome pilgrims for the holy days of awe. On the one hand, this 1-2 days a year of religious attendance is a new reality for Jews (and other religions), but history teaches that it actually may be found in our religious origins. Ancient Judaic religion, Jerusalem Temple based, thrived on three annual gatherings - and for a while - it was all in one place. The God Spot.
Then, like now, brisket was not just a festive main dish - it was a critical ingredient in the formation of cultural meaning. The meat also holds a possible secret to why eventually the three annual temple festivals were no longer restricted to one place.
Imagine that instead of thousands of Jewish prayer locations all over the world we’d only have one single sanctuary today?? Would we possibly agree on anything?
Amazingly, the insistence on one central worship address was exactly the status quo desired and activated for some time by our ancients- though it isn’t where we started, and it likely didn’t last too long.
The Book of Words, in today’s chapter, suggests a major shift in worship focus - offering a new idea that did not exist before for the nomadic Hebrews. You can’t just worship anywhere, says Moses, negating, with full force, the notion of regional religion. The new law, to be enacted when they will settle in the land, is just one location which is where God will reside, where the religious establishment will function, and where the people will go to eat meat, connect, pray and pay. The mobile Tent of Time will travel no more, transformed into marble.
After fierce warnings against local pagan practices that celebrate the divine in nature, everywhere, under sacred trees and on top of local holy hills, this are Moses’ instructions:
כִּ֡י אִם־לִפְנֵי֩ יְהֹוָ֨ה אֱלֹהֶ֜יךָ תֹּאכְלֶ֗נּוּ בַּמָּקוֹם֙ אֲשֶׁ֨ר יִבְחַ֜ר יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֘יךָ֮ בּוֹ֒ אַתָּ֨ה וּבִנְךָ֤ וּבִתֶּ֙ךָ֙ וְעַבְדְּךָ֣ וַאֲמָתֶ֔ךָ וְהַלֵּוִ֖י אֲשֶׁ֣ר בִּשְׁעָרֶ֑יךָ וְשָׂמַחְתָּ֗ לִפְנֵי֙ יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ בְּכֹ֖ל מִשְׁלַ֥ח יָדֶֽךָ׃
“Consume you offerings before your God Adonai in The Place that your God Adonai will choose—you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levite dwelling in your settlements— be happy before your God Adonai in all your undertakings.”
Throughout this chapter the word ‘Makom’ is emphasized -- ‘The Place’ - but it doesn’t specify where it is. (fun fact. In Jewish legal language The Makom is not only God’s Temple, where humans go to - but also the vagina - where humans come from.)
But what’s Adonai’s new address? Isn’t it supposed to be Jerusalem? Why is the name not mentioned throughout this chapter?
Well. There were several addrssess.
Scholars ponder how many central locations there were before the ark landed in Jerusalem. We’ll visit them when we read through the books of Joshua, Judges and Kings. The tabernacle crossed the Jordan river, first went to Mount Ebal, later, to Mount Gerizim - where the Samaritans still worship today - then on to Shilo, Kiryat Yaarim, and only then on to The Place that will be known as Temple Mount.
The shift from local shrines to one central address reflects the gradual socio-political-religious evolution that redefined the Hebrew tribal norms. Hundreds of years led from the many shrines to the one, and from one, eventually to The One. It’s likely that the authors or editors of Deuteronomy, around the 5th century BCE were already in Jerusalem, already part of the system that prioritized central rule and authority. The regulation of taxes and the priestly tithes, income from the pilgrimages, centralized judicial system and the canonisation of Torah and Law came hand in hand. But why didn’t they mention the Temple in Jerusalem by name as ‘the designated place’? Perhaps because insisting on centralized religion, even back then, was no easy demand. People still preferred to stay in their own area, perhaps holding on to unique traditions and rituals that did not conform to the new norm.
The meat is the clue to the fact that the insistence on one location did not last long. Zvi Koenigsberg, an archaeologist, explains: “Deuteronomy 12 requires Israelites to slaughter all their animals at a central location. The implied meaning of this requirement is that all meat must be sacrificed before being eaten...The text then offers an exception for people who live far away from the centralized place... We see here the way the later Deuteronomic scribes, living in a large territory, revised their ancient centralization of worship law, which assumed a limited territory.”
In other words - they tried to make it central and demand that all people come to Jerusalem to sacrifice, slaughter and eat meat. But as the geographical dimensions of the nation grew - it became less and less doable. Other regional temples started showing up, way before the Jerusalem Temple was burned down. Decentralization happened over time, despite official policy and dogma. The texts had to be vague.
So anyway, wherever and however you will celebrate the New Year in the coming days - may the gathering bring joy, the food ( vegan options?) nourishing to body and soul, the pleasures profound, and the pilgrimage an opportunity to find The Place within where all is connected, and all is One.
Shana Tova!
Image : Bunting’s Map of the World (1580s)
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