Celebrating Nine Years of Moving on Up

 

In Parshat Shoftim (Devarim 17:8-10) we read: “If a matter of law is hidden from you- between blood and blood, between decision and decision, or between leprosy and leprosy matters under dispute in your city; you shall rise and ascend to the place that HaShem your God will have chosen. You are to come before the Kohanim- the Leviim and the judge officiating during those days; you will inquire and they will tell you the legal decision. You are to act according to the word that they tell you from that place that God will have chosen; and you are to be careful to fulfill exactly as they instruct you.”

 

According to Rashi, “The place that HaShem your God will have chosen” refers to the city of Jerusalem.

 

The Mishna is Sanhedrin 86b states:

 

There were three courts there (in Jerusalem)- One sitting at the entrance of the Temple Mount (Petach Har HaBayit), one higher up on the Temple mount sitting at the entrance to the Temple Courtyard (Petach HaEzra) and one even higher up the mount sitting in the Chamber of Hewn Stone (Lishkat HaGazit).

 

The dissenting sage and his disputants on the local court come to the entrance of the Temple mount. If the court has heard from their teachers a tradition in this matter, then they tell them the law, if not then they go to the next set of judges sitting at the entrance of the Courtyard. If that court has heard from their teachers a tradition in this matter, then they tell them the law, if not then they go to the next set of judges who sit in the Chamber of Hewn Stone from which Torah goes forth to all of Israel as it says “From that place which God shall choose”.

 

The Gemara in Sanhedrin 87a explains that we learn from the words in Devarim 17:8 “you shall rise and ascend to the place that HaShem your God has chosen” that the Beit HaMikdash is higher than any other points in the Land of Israel and Israel is higher than all of the other lands.

 

The proof comes from Yirmiyahu 23:7, 8: “Therefore behold days are coming, says God, and they will no longer say (when taking an oath): As God lives, Who took up B’nai Yisrael from Egypt, but rather: As God lives, Who took up and Who brought the seed of the house of Israel from the northern country (Babylonia) and from all the countries to which I had driven them and they shall dwell in their Land.”

 

Maharal explains that the Land of Israel is spiritually the most elevated place (not necessarily topographically). That is why the prophet Yirmiyahu says that God will say that He “took up” the house of Israel from the north. Spiritually they “went up” to the Land of Israel but physically they were actually travelling south.

 

This week marks nine years since I made “Aliya”, physically and spiritually “moving up” to the Land of Israel and the City of Jerusalem.

 

May we be blessed to see the fulfillment of Yirmiyahu’s prophecy where all of the Jewish people from all of the countries will return to the Land of Israel.