Fulfilling Man’s Mission It’s all about tents! By Isaiah Cox and Aaron Sichel 23 March 2009 The explicit instruction from Hashem to the Jewish people to “return to your tents”1 after the giving of the Torah is, Rashi tells us, a commandment that husbands and wives shall once again build their own holy houses, to once again unite and make homes suitable for Hashem’s presence. In context with the previous verse, this is the way to ensure that our attitude and mindset when we were with Hashem at Sinai remains with us as a people forever. We preserve the atmosphere of the giving of the Torah through building a marriage. Actually, the giving of the Torah at Sinai is an echo of the very first commandment Gd ever gave mankind: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, you must not eat thereof; for on the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.”2 And then, right after this, the first of all commandments, the mission statement for Adam, what does Gd do? “Hashem Gd said, “It is not good for man to be alone.”3 It is a complete nonsequitur! Think about that – you would think that having just gotten a command from the Source of all Existence, Adam would be very much unalone: God is standing right there with him!!!! He is the least alone being in creation! And yet exactly at the moment he hears Gd's voice....it is only then that God determines that Adam simply cannot be allowed to live alone....! God is informing us as to Adam's existential state: Adam IS ALONE!!!! 1
Devarim 5:27
2
Bereishis 2:16,17
3
Bereishis 2:18
He has heard God's voice, he knows exactly what Gd and the Universe demand from him, with greater clarity than any human since.... and yet HE'S TOTALLY and utterly ALONE! That's an amazing assertion! But Gd states it. Adam's purpose in the Garden, in Creation will never be fulfilled if it's just Adam and God alone. Adam needs another human to relate to completely. So Adam is put to sleep and now a new human is created to join him.4 Now consider Matan Torah afresh: Am Yisrael has just heard God's voice, it has received an introduction to Reality more clear and vivid than any human before or since they have been told with crystal clarity what they are to do on this Earth. They have a national mission, their work is set out for them and they have a crystal clear unbiased perception of their role within the fabric of Existence and the earth.... but the people are aware at some level of a new insane problem. The objectivity is unsustainable: "Out of all flesh: is there anyone like us, who's heard the voice of the Living God speaking from within the fireand lived?!" And amazingly God approves of their words...5 And now therefore "Go back to your tents”!!!6 Dive back into the personal! Your mission on this earth just like Adam's will never be fulfilled if your wife and family aren't standing there with you. No shortcuts, dear children! Just like Adam, at the moment of hearing God's voice, of experiencing a cosmic objectivity.... Israel is only now required to dive into the murky oceans of relationships, interactions, emotions, 4
Gd creates the very vehicle that will lead to Adam's violation of his sole mission! This, of course, becomes the pattern for all humanity; sexuality is often misused, and so we miss the whole point! 5
There is much more here: Moshe is told to stay with Hashem. He no longer has a tent to return to; he alone, having reached a higher level than Adam himself, is never alone because he is with Hashem. 6
Devarim 5:26
interconnections and intimacy the things that seem so prosaic and small, so difficult and so removed from an objective, sweeping Divine mission. Mitzvos do not exist in a vacuum; they are meant to be immediately applied to our marriages. The unit of man and wife are meant to be the atomic unit for all people, and especially for the Jewish people.7 The “tent” is the basic building block of a nation, representing the couple, secure together. Judaism does not suggest that we abandon the self to a great mass of humanity, to a single cause. We suborn the self to the family unit, and then in turn we make up klal yisrael. Not for nothing does Bilaam use the poetic phrase “Ma Tovu Ohalecha”, “How Goodly are your Tents, oh Jacob!” Bilaam saw that the fundamental unit of the Jewish nation is found in its marriages, in its tents – and this is why he returns to advise Israel’s enemies to send their daughters into Israel’s camp as whores, to tear up the tents of Yaakov, to destroy the holy relationships between husbands and wives. This brings us to the other aspect of tents: The tent also represents tznius, the idea of privacy, of keeping the intimate in its place. When Pinchas kills Zimri and Cozbi, in part it is because they were conducting intimate acts in public; they had missed the fundamental point that, once Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge, we are meant to understand the difference between the public and the private. But within the tent, we find the highest levels of sanctity. The angels atop the Aron8 look like a man and woman, reaching to embrace one another. Intimacy between husband and wife is a union of holiness.9 The mere act of coupling with 7
The first, and perhaps most famous tent, was that of
Sarah and Avraham, the first Jewish couple. 8
which was enclosed in the Beis Hamikdash, just like our tents are meant to shield us from others 9
Both men and women should always strive to be
love takes something performed by every animal, and joins it to heaven. Indeed, love within a marriage might be a higher form. In Melachim we learn that workers on the Beis Hamikdash spent 2 months at home for every month they spent in Lebanon working. Why? R’ Avin said that Hashem cherishes marital intimacy10 more than the beis hamikdash itself.11 That the Mishkan and a Marriage are even comparable tells us that they are on the same plane: they have the same goal! Ramban points out that when men and women are intimate in holiness, the shechinah dwells with them.12 A marriage is itself a mishkan, because, when effected with love and desire, both invite the Shechinah inside. Of course, love and desire must be there, because without them, physical intimacy is merely earthly, animalistic. And the Ramban adds that without those elements, Hashem is not present.13 14 married (Rambam, Hilchos Ishus 15a:16). 10
It is important that intimacy itself is considered holy – not only if it is tied to procreation. The mitzvah of onah applies whether or not procreation is possible, which means that the union between man and wife has an importance independent of the edict “be fruitful and multiply” which applies to all creatures. 11
Yerushalmi (Kesubos 5:7)
12
Based on Sotah, 17A
13
This may also explain why intimacy is called “knowledge” or daioh. Chava and Adam ate from the tree of knowledge, became aware of their sexuality – and yet: intimacy with love is knowledge, both of each other, and of Hashem (through the presence of the shechinah). 14
This can also explain how Rashi emphasizes that intimacy between a man and his wife was particularly important on Shabbos. “Sabbath a night of enjoyment, relaxation and physical pleasure.”[Rashi to Ketubot 62b] Elsewhere Rashi advocates that not only scholars, but laypeople also should engage in this practice on Friday night. [Rashi to Niddah 17a] Every Jewish marriage aims to invite Hashem into the relationship, and if Shabbos is a path to the unification of heaven and earth, then the unification of a couple on Shabbos is doubly so.
The connection between marriage and the Mishkan can also be found in the text. Shmos, 35:22 says “vayavo haanashim al hanashim” which Rashi understands as “im hanashim” – when volunteering gold jewelry for the building of the Mishkan, men and women came with each other, as Simha Baer says: as couples. The holiness of building the Mishkan was provided by married couples, volunteering their personal jewelry. They were in effect loaning their personal connection to the shechinah. The direct link between Gd’s presence in a marriage and Gd’s presence in the Mishkan is established when married Jewish couples contributed together to the building of Gd’s home. Hashem understands this perfectly, sending the Jewish people right back to their tents to absorb and apply the Torah they have received, just as he gave Chava to Adam in order so that Adam would follow Gd’s sole commandment.