Where Does the Divine Dwell?

Ps 26:7

It’s assumed that today’s psalm was recited by pilgrims who arrived at the gates of the Jerusalem temple, weary from the journey and feeling vindicated and worthy of the opportunity to bow before their god. The art of pilgrimage still exists in our realities today though it is not always to temples that many of us travel.

Whether it’s a sacred tomb or mountain top, a parent’s grave or childhood hideout, favorite cafe or museum - we all have the locations where something feels special. This notion of the special, even sacred, defines the ways we sometimes name one place more valuable than another, more imbued with sanctity or worth. This is how we get to lawsuits, wars, and epic battles. 

Even as we cherish our homes and homelands, keep them safe and keep intruders out - what would be different in our embattled world if we really knew that the sacred is not limited to one domain or territory, but rather that the entire planet is equally sacred and worthy of our protection, as perpetual pilgrims of progress, committed to peace? 

This question is on my mind today and on the minds of many. The answer is a complex balance of both/and that we so desperately deserve and need. 

And today’s psalm, as it has been explained throughout the ages, provides a possible blueprint for both honoring our sacred domains - and expanding the sense of the sacred way outside whatever box. 

The poet, perhaps as pilgrim, has arrived at the temple and declares: 

יְֽהֹוָ֗ה אָ֭הַבְתִּי מְע֣וֹן בֵּיתֶ֑ךָ וּ֝מְק֗וֹם מִשְׁכַּ֥ן כְּבוֹדֶֽךָ׃

“O ETERNAL One, I love Your temple abode,

the dwelling-place of Your glory.”

Ps 26:7

These words echo the sense of relief, of being at home, of looking around at one’s long awaited destination and saying out loud “I remember why I love being here.” 

Although the original intent of this psalm was the temple - the rabbis of the ages rendered it to mean every house of worship in Jewish communities. 

In some prayer books it is found in the early part of the morning liturgy, as one enters the synagogue. You can also find it on many marble synagogue arches and lintels around the world - these are the local replacements of the original central house of worship in Jerusalem.  The indication is that while historically we believed that the Divine dwelled in Zion and Jerusalem was HQ where we had to go on pilgrimage three times a year -- things had to change. With the second temple’s destruction and the centuries of exile that followed - local centers became the holy hubs  and the divine dwells everywhere. Some claim it takes ten people gathered to invoke the sacred, some say it’s wherever you let it in. 

But is the Holy Land not still more holy than other lands? Is this not the reason for Israel’s existence? 

The debates around this hot issue are at the heart of the painful conflict and also define the different ways people determine what’s happening today in Israel. For some, the homeland has political-historical significance, with clear ties to where we come from and important as a haven and a home. For others, it is a religiously mandated land and therefore is more holy than others - and worth settling - and fighting for. 

Centuries of diasporic debates yielded multiple opinions on this issue, way before it was a practical and problematic challenge as it is right now.  Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai claims in a conversation quotes in Midrash Tanchuma, roughly from Roman times, that the Jerusalem Temple was unique in its significance as it stood just below the celestial temple where the divine resides. But another sage, Rabbi Jacob b. Isi makes another claim, linking the creation of the tabernacle and the temple to the creation of the world. If one reads closely the verses of the creation of the world in the first chapters of Genesis, and the chapters in Exodus and in the Book of Kings that describe the completion of the tabernacle and the temple - one sees many surprising parallels. Rabbi Jacob’s take is that the whole wide world is the divine temple:

“Because the creation of the Tabernacle was similar to the Creation of the whole World, David prays: “O Lord, I love Your temple abode, the dwelling-place of Your glory” (26:8).

It is a privilege to have a home that’s safe, a place to go for shelter and for spiritual serenity, and it’s a luxury to live in a place where one can feel the presence of the divine dwell and offer some rest and renewal. We can all be pilgrims to temples and beaches that seem more sacred than other more mundane places. We all need to make sure that people can have homelands that protect our human dignity, freedom and peace. Is one place holies than the other? Probably not.

On this special day, as millions worldwide are marking Israel’s existence with different emotions - pride, pain, prayers and questions - while others protest Israel’s very existence - may we all remember that the divine is everywhere, all the time, and we all are pilgrims, privileged to live on this sacred earth together, for a brief journey a pilgrimage for purpose of peace.

These psalms, as will we, continue to wrestle with these perennial questions, seeking the sacred within, beyond, on holy hills and lands, and in each other’s eyes and hearts.

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