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Parshat Vayakel
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Cleaving to the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

כל איש ואשה אשר נדב לבם אתם להביא לכל המלאכה

"And unite our hearts to love and fear You...” (Ahava Raba blessing)

The love of God is pronounced through voluntary actions for the sake of God. Thus, we see that the building of the Mishkan came from the work of volunteers, as seen in in our title quote. Indeed, the building of the Bait HaMikdash is said to come through the 'seeking of the Holy Presence' and then 'coming there' to the Temple Mount, or in other words, an internal seeking of love for the Holy Presence which brings to entering the Temple Mount and building the Temple.

In continuation of our previous issues, which dealt with the seeking of the Holy Presence through the various locations of the Temple in the Land of Israel, we shall continue to our next location after Nov, the city of Givon, where the Mishkan rested for 50 years, beginning with the reign of David in Hebron and ending with King Solomon's building of the Temple in Jerusalem. It seems that it this period, when the permanent Temple of Jerusalem was especially close, we witness an accentuated love for the Holy Presence in Israel in the figures of David, whose name means love (as in 'dodecha' - 'your love' (Songs 1, 2)), and King Solomon, whose name was also 'Yedidya' - 'lover of God'. It is at this point that David takes the initiative to raise the ark from Kiryat Yaarim to the City of David, but is detained from doing so because of the incident of Uza in which HaShem struck down a number of the participant of the procession, since the ark was carried on a wagon, an improper way to carry the ark, which must be taken 'by shoulder' only. Therefore, the ark was taken to the house of Oved Edom instead of the City of David in Jerusalem. This matter highlights how the attribute of love towards God must always be balanced with the attribute of awe and carefulness to obey His commandments properly.

After several months, when David sees that blessing occurs upon Oved Adom, David raises his courage to move the ark to the City of David (not the Temple Mount) with great rejoicing and dancing. According to numbers of sources (including the 'Reshit Hochma' of Hebron), this attribute of great joy too is an exhibition of one's love for God. Indeed, the city where the Temple itself rested at that time, Givon, also hints to this attribute of love. Givon literally means 'hill', as in the word 'giva'. Our Sages teach that Avraham called the Temple Mount a 'hill/mountain' while Yitzhak called this same location 'a field'. It seems that these different perspectives reflect the classic differences between Avraham, representing the attribute of loving kindness, and Yitzhak, representing the attribute of justice. Therefore the low-land 'field' represents the attribute of Yitzhak, the attribute of 'justice', as we explained in parshat Beshalah on the the 'low-lands' of the Philistines. In contrast to these 'low-lands' of Yitzhak stand the 'high-lands' of Avraham - 'lover of God'. Therefore, Givon - 'The Hill' - represents the final step 'of love' towards the Mountain of God, the Temple Mount.

It seems that these overtures of kind love, on the side of David, can be traced to the spirit of Hebron where David first ruled. This is Hebron, City of the Patriarchs, upon who it is said, 'and He remembers the kindness of the Patriarchs and brings a redeemer for their offspring for His Namesake with love.”  

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #159

"Once I was writing a commentary on Shir HaShirim (the Song of Songs), and at a certain point I wrote that one of the verses hints to attributes of the Patriarchs. Just at that moment I heard others learning practically the same idea that I had just put down into writing about the Patriarchs..." M.Y

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