Seeking the Place

(5) you shall inquire after His dwelling – You will come to Him from faraway places and ask, where is the way to the House of Gd? And each one will say to his fellow “…come, let us go up to the Lord's mount, to the house of the God of Jacob…” (Yeshayahu 2:3) Just as “They shall inquire of Zion; their faces are directed hitherward…” (Yirmiyahu 50:5) And in the Sifre (Re’eh 8) it says: ‘you shall inquire,’ this means you should inquire from the mouth of the prophet. Perhaps one should wait until the prophet speaks to them? The Torah says ‘you shall inquire after His dwelling and come there.’ Seek and find and afterwards the prophet will say to you, and so you find with David, etc… In the way of true understanding ‘you shall inquire after His dwelling’ means you shall seek His glory, ‘and come there’ to see the face of the Master, the Lord Gd of Israel. It is from here that the Sages employed the word shechina.

(5) To the place – When one transforms the letters of this phrase through atbash (a code which substitutes the last letter of the alphabet for the first, the second last for the second, etc…) the resultant word has the numeric value of ‘this is Jerusalem’ (Sifre). The numeric value of place (makom) is the same as to Zion (l’tzion).

(1) THE precepts of the tenth class are those enumerated in the laws on the Temple (Hilkot bet ha-beḥirah), the laws on the vessels of the temple and on the ministers in the temple [Hilkot kele ha-miḳdash veha-‘obedim bo]. The use of these precepts we have stated in general terms. It is known that idolaters selected the highest possible places on high mountains where to build their temples and to place their images. Therefore Abraham, our father, chose Mount Moriah, being the highest mount in that country, and proclaimed there the Unity of God. He selected the west of the mount as the place toward which he turned during his prayers, because [he thought that] the most holy place was in the West; this is the meaning of the saving of our Sages, "The Shekinah" (the Glory of God) is in the West" (B. T. Baba B 25a); and it is distinctly stated in the Talmud Yoma that our father Abraham chose the west side, the place where the Most Holy was built. I believe that he did so because it was then a general rite to worship the sun as a deity. Undoubtedly all people turned then to the East [worshipping the Sun]. Abraham turned therefore on Mount Moriah to the West, that is, the site of the Sanctuary, and turned his back toward the sun; and the Israelites, when they abandoned their God and returned to the early bad principles, stood "with their backs toward the Temple of the Lord and their faces toward the East, and they worshipped the sun toward the East" (Ezek. 8:16). Note this strange fact. I do not doubt that the spot which Abraham chose in his prophetical spirit, was known to Moses our Teacher, and to others: for Abraham commanded his children that on this place a house of worship should be built. Thus the Targum says distinctly, "And Abraham worshipped and prayed there in that place, and said before God, 'Here shall coming generations worship the Lord'" (Gen. 22:14). For three practical reasons the name of the place is not distinctly stated in the Law, but indicated in the phrase "To the place which the Lord will choose" (Deut. 12:11, etc.). First, if the nations had learnt that this place was to be the centre of the highest religious truths, they would occupy it, or fight about it most perseveringly. Secondly, those who were then in possession of it might destroy and ruin the place with all their might. Thirdly, and chiefly, every one of the twelve tribes would desire to have this place in its borders and under its control; this would lead to divisions and discord, such as were caused by the desire for the priesthood. Therefore it was commanded that the Temple should not be built before the election of a king who would order its erection, and thus remove the cause of discord. We have explained this in the Section on Judges (ch. xli.).