On Tuesday 17 June we held an evening of prayer and solidarity with our friends, families, and community under fire in Israel. The evening was a chance for us to be together, online as well as in person, with a briefing on the situation, and with learnings from our tradition from Rabbi Adam Zagoria-Moffet, Rabbi Wittenberg, Rabbi Amirit Rosen and Rabbi David Goodman.
Rabbi Adam Zagoria-Moffet taught the following text from the third section of the Zohar, describing the centrality of Jerusalem in our lives. He illustrated it with this famous illustration of The World in a Cloverleaf, map by Heinrich Bünting, created in 1581.
‘Come and see: When the blessed Holy One created humanity in the world, God designed them according to the supernal precious pattern, and placed divine strength and power in the middle of the body, where the heart dwells, which is the potency and nourishment of the whole body. From there, the whole body is sustained, and all members of the body are fed. The heart is firmly connected [161b] to a supernal place above—the brain in the head, dwelling above—and one is linked with the other.1
In a similar way, the blessed Holy One arranged the world. God made it one body, arranging members of the body around the heart, with the heart in the middle. The whole body and all those members are nourished by that heart, which is the power of all, and upon which all depend. The heart is linked and connected with the supernal brain, dwelling above.
So it was when the blessed Holy One created the world. God arranged the ocean surrounding the whole inhabitable world, and the habitation of all seventy nations surrounding Jerusalem. Jerusalem is situated in the middle of all habitation, and it surrounds the Temple Mount, and the Temple Mount surrounds the courts of the Israelites, and the courts of the Israelites surround the Chamber of Hewn Stone, where the Great Sanhedrin sits. The Chamber of Hewn Stone surrounds the entrance hall and the altar, and the entrance hall and the altar surround the Sanctuary, and the Sanctuary surrounds the Holy of Holies—where Shekhinah, the purging cover, the cherubim, and the Ark are located.
Here is the heart of the whole world, and from here are nourished all those areas of habitation, which are members of the body. This heart is nourished by the brain in the head, and one is linked with the other, as is written: מכון (makhon/mekhuven)2, A firm place, for Your sitting enthroned You fashioned, O God (Exodus 15:17).’
1 See Kuzari II:35-44, on the symbolism of Israel as the heart of the world
2 “Tanḥuma, Pequdei 1: “There is a Jerusalem above aligned with Jerusalem below. Out of God’s love for the one below, God fashioned another above…. and God has sworn that the divine presence will not enter the heavenly Jerusalem until the earthly Jerusalem is rebuilt.”
We were joined on-line by Rabbi Amirit Rosen, who is the Rabbi of Kehilat Moreshet Avraham in Jerusalem together with her husband, Rabbi David Goodman who taught us this beautiful source from Massechet Berachot 3a
רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר אוֹמֵר: שָׁלֹשׁ מִשְׁמָרוֹת הָוֵי הַלַּיְלָה, וְעַל כָּל מִשְׁמָר וּמִשְׁמָר יוֹשֵׁב הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא וְשׁוֹאֵג כָּאֲרִי
Rabbi Eliezer says: The night consists of three watches, and over each and every watch, the Holy One, Blessed be He, sits and roars like a lion.
Rabbi David taught:
‘The night is divided into three watches. The shifts happen in the sky, and at each one God himself roars like a lion at the tragedies of the human people.
The shifts happen here in the world too signified by different sounds. In the first watch, the donkey calls. In the second, the dog barks.
In the third, the infant suckles, and the wife talks to her husband.
וְאִשָּׁה מְסַפֶּרֶת עִם בַּעֲלָהּ
But as the Talmud asks, why do we need a sign by the end of the third shift, when the sun is rising anyway, so we know where we are in the day.
The answer the Talmud gives is that the sign is for the people who live in darkness.
Some are in a dark room in a dark house. They can’t wake up and say the Shema.
Rabbi David concluded with this:
‘The sign that matters is the conversation of love. This is the experience of families in bomb shelters. This is the experience of the hostages. If we listen carefully, we can hear that outside the thick walls, there is a new day starting. We cannot see what tomorrow brings. Let’s take this challenging time to listen to conversations of love in the world.”
