Where can God be found?
Perhaps the most comprehensive and famous answer given to that question was formulated by the 20th century Jewish philosopher, Uncle Moishy, who declared, “Hashem is here. Hashem is there. Hashem is truly everywhere.”
And yet, Sefer Devarim introduces a spiritual innovation that transformed Jewish life. Even though “Hashem is truly everywhere” we are told in Sefer Devarim that at some point in the future God would select one location and that site would be the focus of our worship:
כִּ֠י אִֽם־אֶל־הַמָּק֞וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַ֨ר ה׳ אֱ-לֹֽהֵיכֶם֙ מִכׇּל־שִׁבְטֵיכֶ֔ם לָשׂ֥וּם אֶת־שְׁמ֖וֹ שָׁ֑ם לְשִׁכְנ֥וֹ תִדְרְשׁ֖וּ וּבָ֥אתָ שָּֽׁמָּה׃
“but look only to the site that the LORD your God will choose amidst all your tribes as God’s habitation, to establish God’s name there. There you are to go.”
In place of building altars throughout Eretz Cana’an as Avraham did to proclaim in the name of God. And in place of building altars at the foot of Har Sinai as Moshe did to prepare for revelation. And in place of worshiping God in a portable mishkan whose construction fills half of Sefer Shmot, we are told that God will select one location and once that location is selected all of our korbanot and communal worship will take place there and only there. We know, as we hear these words, that הַמָּק֞וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַ֨ר will end up being Yerushalayim. That is the place God will choose as the location for the beit hamikdash. And each time we hear the phrase הַמָּק֞וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַ֨ר named in Sefer Devarim as the site where something important or sacred will take place in the future, we know that Yerushalayim was the place selected to play that role in Jewish life.
There are twenty two times in Sefer Devarim in which the phrase הַמָּק֞וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַ֨ר appears and each of those twenty two times is a reference to Yerushalayim. The place that God chose. There is, however, a twenty third location in Sefer Devarim where the phrase הַמָּק֞וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַ֨ר appears and it means a very different kind of choice made by someone in a very different situation than God.
Would anyone like to guess in which parasha that twenty third case, the lone exception, appears?
Parashat Ki Teitzei is the parasha with more mitzvot than any other single parasha in the Torah. Like other sections of the Torah in which lists of mitzvot appear, the mitzvot of Parashat Ki Teitzei span the gamut of genre and focus, from the interpersonal to the ritual from the individual to the collective. This is itself a profound teaching: even though scholars have classified mitzvot for centuries, the Torah shares them in bundles containing dozens of distinct mitzvot which undermine all efforts of classification.
And sometimes an individual mitzvah resists being put into a pigeon hole or box.
לֹא־תַסְגִּ֥יר עֶ֖בֶד אֶל־אֲדֹנָ֑יו אֲשֶׁר־יִנָּצֵ֥ל אֵלֶ֖יךָ מֵעִ֥ם אֲדֹנָֽיו׃
“You shall not turn over to his master a slave who seeks refuge with you from his master.”
This is the Torah’s “fugitive slave mitzvah” and it is the opposite of the infamous American Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. According to the Torah, there is an issur d’oraita, a biblical prohibition against returning a fugitive slave to the master from whom he has fled. Even a non Jewish slave who flees a Jewish master must not be returned if his condition was sufficiently dire to motivate him to flee.
The Torah continues עִמְּךָ֞ יֵשֵׁ֣ב בְּקִרְבְּךָ֗ he shall live in your midst בַּמָּק֧וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַ֛ר in the place that he shall choose בְּאַחַ֥ד שְׁעָרֶ֖יךָ בַּטּ֣וֹב ל֑וֹ לֹ֖א תּוֹנֶֽנּוּ׃ in one of your gates whatever he chooses; you shall not oppress him.
Twenty two times the Torah uses the phrase מָּק֞וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַ֨ר to refer to Yerushalayim, the place that God shall choose. Here the Torah refers to מָּק֞וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַ֨ר the place he shall choose as a reference to whichever Jewish city the fugitive slave finds refuge. The place where he – meaning the fugitive slave – shall choose to live.
This is a mitzvah that defies categorization. We are commanded to act with mercy towards a vulnerable outsider who seeks the protection and refuge of the Jewish people and of Judaism. Ramban points out the pragmatic and instrumental value of this mitzvah. In the context of an army marching to battle, the local context of this mitzvah in Parashat Ki Teitzei, a fugitive slave can be a source of intelligence that can be of tremendous military value. Rabbi Shmuel David Luzzato, the 19th century Italian Torah scholar, notes that this mitzvah is predicated on the Torah’s rejection of the harsh conditions of slavery among the ancient near eastern neighbors of the Israelites.
But the use of the phrase מָּק֞וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַ֨ר is itself a theological and religious statement. There are two ways that a space can become holy. Yerushalayim more generally, and the site of the Beit HaMikdash more specifically was chosen by God for God’s presence to rest there. That is the place that God shall choose. But any Israelite city where a fugitive slave finds refuge is also מָּק֞וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַ֨ר the place chosen by the fugitive slave becomes his home and takes on an echo of that same holiness.
A shul is known as a mikdash me’at, or a small sanctuary. Even though there are tens of thousands of shuls in every corner of the planet, they still exemplify the religious ethos championed in Sefer Devarim that worship should be centralized. This is expressed in several halachot which all emerge from valuing the shul beyond it being merely a place where a minyan convenes a few times each day. One who cannot pray with the congregation should still try to pray in shul, even when it is empty, or should try to pray at home, at the same time as his or her congregation is gathered for tefilah. And, the halachot that reflect the special status of a shul, for example, the prohibition against having a conversation about mundane affairs inside a shul or the prohibition against using a shul as a shortcut to walk from one place to another, are halachot that do not depend on the time of day or on how many people are here.
This is why I encourage people to come to shul each day for tefilah as an independent value that is distinct and separate from whether or not there is nor is not a minyan. And whether or not one comprises one of the first ten men over age 13 to comprise the minyan. There is religious meaning in praying alongside other Jews in a sacred space.
And, a shul becomes a kehilah kedoshah, a sacred community when it is a place where vulnerable people find refuge. The Torah compares the safety that a refugee finds in any home in any city with Har HaBayit in Yerushalayim and that form of sanctity can be nourished even today. People who are down on their luck, people who are broken, people who have not gotten a fair deal from their employers or even from their families, should find refugee and support and friendship in a shul.
And, even those of us who are blessed and fortunate in every imaginable way still bear the scars of the inevitable heartbreak that accompanies even the most privileged lives. There is a halakhic preference for someone over the age of thirty to lead tefilot for Selichot, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur. The Mishneh Brerurah, the great commentary on the Shulhan Arukh from the turn of the twentieth century explains that it is impossible to reach the age of thirty without having known heartbreak and only someone who has known heartbreak can take on the awesome responsibility of leading the congregation in prayer on the Days of Awe.
I think a lot of people younger than thirty have encountered heartbreak too. The question is whether we suppress those memories and hide those traumas when we come to shul, or whether we can be real here with one another and with ourselves.
As the holidays approach, I want to invite you all to be real with one another and to be real with yourselves. If we can embrace the vulnerable members of the community, and if we can embrace the brokenness of one another, then our shul can be a chosen space, holy like the Beit Hamikdash. And if we can connect to our own brokenness, and bring that grief and vulnerability and loneliness and fear into the shul and into our tefilot, then we have the chance of finding refuge.
Ultimately, the slave fleeing an abusive master seeks the same thing that we seek in a place of worship: HaMakom, which is not just “the place” but is another Jewish name for God. We seek a Divine presence that connects us to that which is eternal and to one another so that we can feel welcome and whole and at peace. It is my goal to cultivate that presence in our shul and, as the New Year approaches, I want to invite you take on that mission as well. If we are successful, our community will bring comfort to those who need comfort, refuge to those who need one, and become a space of authenticity and realness for each one of us.
And if we maintain our faith in this mission then our shul can become, not just “a place” but “HaMakom” a kehilah kedoshah where God’s very presence can be sought and experienced.
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 