Reverence for A Sacred Space and the Torah

Parshat Nitzavim-Vayelekh

by Rabbi Avi Billet

We read the double parsha of Nitzavim Vayelekh. In Vayelekh, there are two mitzvos surrounding a Sefer Torah. The second of these is considered by many to be the final mitzvah in the Torah – to write a Torah. Since not everyone can write a Torah, or nowadays afford a Torah, a widely accepted opinion is that we can fulfill this through having Sefarim (Jewish books) in our homes that allow us to engage with Torah study. 

The other mitzvah related to a Sefer Torah is to have it read at the gathering called Hakhel, when the entire nation would come to Jerusalem once every seven years, on the holiday of Sukkot. Those who heard the Torah would be inspired in one form or another (perhaps from what they heard, perhaps from seeing the enormous crowd, perhaps from participating in such a spectacle). While I don’t know how the entire nation would hear, in the absence of an amplification system, I imagine that somehow it worked out.

R Samson Raphael Hirsch writes about this event: 

“In a general assembly of the nation, they hear of the Divine origin of the Torah and of the obligation to fulfill it. The nation itself vouches for this, and proclaims it ever anew through its supreme representative. This consciousness, renewed in the assembly of the whole community, shall have the effect that ילמדו (“they will learn”): constant growth in the study of the Torah will become for them an exalted aim. ויראו (“And they will fear”): Both of these – the mitzvah of Hakhel in the assembly and the mitzvah of ילמדו at home – will bring them to the feat of God, which will ultimately result in the observance of the entire Torah. For on the momentous occasion of the assembly of the whole nation, they renew their awareness that one God is the God of them all, the Director of their fate and the Guide of their actions, and this awareness will heighten their fear of God and channel it toward one goal: To keep/observe all the words of this Torah.”

Rav Hirsch makes a few additional points through his commentary on these two Sefer-Torah-focused passages. Moshe tells the people to take the Sefer Torah and put it next to the Ark (some say IN the Ark) to bear witness to the truth of all of this. 

1. That he is told to give this final version of the Torah to the people indicates that what we call the Written Torah (תורה שבכתב) was originally transmitted to the people orally – for 40 years! - without being written down. (I like to point out the impossibility of the Torah we have being in their hands – imagine if the Spies and Korach crowd read the script of their rebelliousness before it happened!) Moshe wrote it down at the end of his life – leaving the subject of the authorship of the last 8 verses of the Torah (those describing his death and afterwards) as a fascinating conversation. (31:26) 

2. There is a debate as to where this Torah was kept: In the Ark, next to the Ark, or somewhere else in relative proximity to the Ark. If it was kept in the Ark, this leads to a fascinating thought. We know that the Holy of Holies was only entered one day of the year, Yom Kippur, for specific services (Avodah) related to that day. Apparently, this was an exception – once every seven years – to get out the Torah for its reading. [This view is based on a Devarim Rabbah passage] 

Rashi does note that this Torah was read from by the king at Hakhel, and the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur. This begs a similar question, because the Avodat Yom HaKippurim does not include a time when the Kohen Gadol would take the Torah out of the Holy of Holies. So was it really kept in the Ark? 

Tosafos (Baba Basra 14a) rejects the idea that the Torah was kept in the Ark, and offers that the Torah in question is the one that Moshe gave to the Tribe of Levi (he is credited with distributing 13 Torahs at the end of his life, giving one to each of the twelve tribes plus Levi), which was kept somewhere in the vicinity of the Holy of Holies, but in the main sanctuary area. 

 3. This Torah was known as the Sefer HaAzarah, and was used irregularly for reading, but more regularly as the standard text to which other Torahs were compared to determine their accuracy (this is before computer programs would check Torahs). 

[2&3 are in Hirsch’s commentary on 31:11]

The perspective that has this Torah inside the Ark is fascinating because it creates one of the more bizarre exceptions to a rule that is seemingly inviolable, going into the Holy of Holies outside of Yom Kippur. [This lends for a different discussion about the Ark, which was recorded to be taken out to war on some occasions in the Bible. Since the actual Ark was at one point captured, did they subsequently create a second Ark to be used specifically for war?] If there was only one Ark, and kings would take the occasion of war to take the Ark out, did they also go into the Holy of Holies at that time to extract it?

Obviously, the perspective that the Torah was kept in a separate space is easiest to follow and understand. It is challenged, however, by the verse (31:26) which indicates that the Torah was placed either in or right next to the Ark.

Does it matter where it was? 

For us, practically, no. Whatever was done in actuality surely had a Mesorah, and I am confident that they did what was right. But it begs us to consider how we view a sacred space, and whether exceptions can be made in terms of how we treat whatever rule defines that space as sacred.

There are people who dress one way when they go about their business in any given day, but specifically when they are going into a shul, for whatever reason, dress in a manner that is more respectful to that space. I’ve heard the same be said of people who were going to visit a great Rabbi for his blessing, who are sensitive to honor his space through dressing more modestly and respectfully than they might otherwise.

More obviously, the way we conduct ourselves during davening, which is easily our most sacred space, behooves us to consider if we are respecting the space in the best way possible. We certainly stand at all the right spots, and are respectful when the Torah is carried around the room. But are we always equally respectful when the Torah is on the table and when it is being read? And in the space for prayer, do we engage in conversations that are idle or irrelevant to our task at hand? Or perhaps, irreverent to the space designated to communicating with our Creator?

The Torah being read at Hakhel and on Yom Kippur was meant to be a great inspirational moment in time, perhaps exacerbated by its rarity in the scheme of things. [I like to compare Hakhel to the Siyum Hashas of Daf Yomi, which takes place around every 7.5 years and is inspirational to tens of thousands of people, even those who don’t study Daf Yomi.] We hear the Torah so regularly, thank God, which lends itself to too much familiarity, that we forget how amazing an experience it ought to be. 

Let us embrace the Torah reading, every time, with a newfound awe of what is taking place when the Torah is on the Shulchan in the shul – it is the time we have the blessed opportunity to hear the Word of God. What an incredible privilege that is!