Chosen And Sanctified

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In this week's parsha, Re'ay, we have verses that speak about the place where the Temple would be built. Speaking about the different offerings which are offered to Hashem it says, "Rather, to the place that Hashem your G-d will choose..."  "And it will be, that the place, that Hashem your G-d will choose to rest His Name..." "But only in the place that Hashem will choose..." What these verses are telling us, is that once Hashem will choose the final resting place of His Name, offerings to Him will only be able to be brought there and nowhere else.

What did they do before Hashem chose the place to rest His Name? Our sages said, "As long as Yerushalayim wasn't chosen, all of the land of Israel was allowed to have altars... As long as the eternal home wasn't chosen, Yerushalayim was able to have the Divine Presence..." This means that before Hashem chose the place for the Temple, anyone could have an altar in his back yard and bring offerings to Hashem whenever he wanted to.

The Rambam tells us that it was well known, that on the place that the Temple was built Avraham, Noach, Kayin and Hevel, and even Adam brought sacrifices. And Adam was created from the earth of the Temple. Then the Rambam adds, that "our sages said, 'Adam was created from the place where he atoned.'" From the Rambam it seems that this was already a holy place before Hashem chose it.

The question is, was this place always holy, or did it become holy when Hashem chose it?

Another question. From our verses that say, "the place that Hashem your G-d will choose," it is clear, that only after Hashem chooses the place, will it become holy. So why does the Rambam tell us the history of the place, that Avraham, Noach, etc. Brought sacrifices there?

To understand this, we first need to understand the difference between when Hashem chooses a place, making it holy, and when people sanctify a place or an object and make it holy.

When we sanctify a place or an object, the holiness is permanent, however, because the place or the object is limited, the holiness is limited to the limitations of the place or the object.

When Hashem chooses a place, the holiness is not limited to the limitations of the place, rather to the One Who is choosing, Hashem, therefore it is unlimited. However the place itself does not become permanently holy without us making it holy. When Hashem moves on, the place doesn't retain the holiness.

Hashem chose other places before the Temple Mount. For example, the Mishkan in Shiloh, that stood for 369 years, and the Mishkan that Moshe erected at Mount Sinai, and later it was erected wherever the cloud that led the Jewish people would stop. These places were all chosen by Hashem, yet when the Divine Presence moved on, they didn't retain their holiness. Why not?

It is only when we have the combination of both, Hashem's choice and our effort to sanctify the place that it becomes the eternal resting place of His Name, the Temple Mount, Mount Moriah in Yerushalayim.

This is why the Rambam tells us that Avraham, Noach, etc. Brought sacrifices. To explain why the Temple Mount became the final and eternal resting place of His Name. It wasn't enough that Hashem chose the place, we also needed Avraham, Noach, etc. To sanctify the place, and the combination of the two made it eternally holy.

What moved Avraham, Noach, Kayin, Hevel, and Adam to bring their sacrifices on Mount Moriah? It was because they knew through prophecy, that in the future Hashem would choose this as the final resting place of His Name. So ultimately it was Hashem's choice in the future that made it the resting place of His Name.

We are left with a question. The Rambam says that Adam was created from the earth of the Temple Mount. If this is the case, it would seem that Hashem already chose this place even before he created Adam. So why does He say, "the place that Hashem your G-d will choose," which means that it will be in the future?

To answer this question, the Rambam quotes the words of our sages, that "Adam was created from the place where he atoned." In other words, the reason Hashem created Adam from the earth of the Temple Mount, was because He knew that in the future, Adam would bring sacrifices there, it was Adam's choice not Hashem's.

Each of us was chosen by Hashem, each of us are a small Temple. Hashem rests His Name on us in the form of a Neshama. But it is up to us to put in the effort to experience what we have. It is the combination of both Hashem's choice and our effort, through Torah study and the performance of mitzvahs, that we experience the eternal holiness of Hashem.

May our efforts in Torah study and the performance of mitzvahs, bring Moshiach, when we will once again experience Hashem's unlimited holiness, in the eternal resting place of His Name, the Third and final Temple, in Yerushalayim, on the Temple Mount, Mount Moriah. The time has come.