מִֽי־יַעֲלֶ֥ה בְהַר־ה׳ וּמִי־יָ֝ק֗וּם בִּמְק֥וֹם קׇדְשֽׁוֹ׃
נְקִ֥י כַפַּ֗יִם וּֽבַר־לֵ֫בָ֥ב אֲשֶׁ֤ר ׀ לֹא־נָשָׂ֣א לַשָּׁ֣וְא נַפְשִׁ֑י וְלֹ֖א נִשְׁבַּ֣ע לְמִרְמָֽה׃
Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD?
Who may stand in His holy place?—
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who has not taken a false oath by My life
or sworn deceitfully.
כִּ֛י חֵ֥לֶק ה׳ עַמּ֑וֹ יַעֲקֹ֖ב חֶ֥בֶל נַחֲלָתֽוֹ׃
יִמְצָאֵ֙הוּ֙ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִדְבָּ֔ר וּבְתֹ֖הוּ יְלֵ֣ל יְשִׁמֹ֑ן יְסֹבְבֶ֙נְהוּ֙ יְב֣וֹנְנֵ֔הוּ יִצְּרֶ֖נְהוּ כְּאִישׁ֥וֹן עֵינֽוֹ׃
For יהוה’s portion is this people;
Jacob, God’s own allotment.
[God] found them in a desert region,
In an empty howling waste.
[God] engirded them, watched over them,
Guarded them as the pupil of God’s eye.
Rabbi Yitzchak Adlerstein (summarizing Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch)
One nation broke this mold. Klal Yisrael became a nation in a territorial vacuum. It was born in foreign lands, and nurtured in a wilderness. It was only allowed to take possession of its land after it had matured, blossomed and developed. Klal Yisrael was allowed its place on earth after it had achieved all that other nations accomplished because of their land. Klal Yisrael was to impose itself upon its land, to further its already-articulated mission, rather than have the land form it. (Indeed, many of the other tasks of building up the land were left to caretaker peoples, who would occupy the land and ready it for the entrance of the Jewish people at the time Hashem saw as appropriate.)
Why? Because “Hashem’s portion is His people.” Klal Yisrael and HKBH are linked and bonded as geography is wedded to other peoples. Yisrael is His portion, as it were – and He is ours. What shared space is to others, focus upon Hashem must be to us. The sole factors that are to shape our culture are the mission statements of our people as articulated in the Torah. Our instructions are to take a bundle of social, economic, and moral values – all flowing directly from the Torah – into the land, and apply them there.
אָמַר רַבִּי אַבָּהוּ בְּשֵׁם רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן, כְּשֶׁנָּתַן הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא אֶת הַתּוֹרָה, צִפּוֹר לֹא צָוַח, עוֹף לֹא פָּרַח, שׁוֹר לֹא גָּעָה, אוֹפַנִּים לֹא עָפוּ, שְׂרָפִים לֹא אָמְרוּ קָדוֹשׁ קָדוֹשׁ, הַיָּם לֹא נִזְדַּעֲזָע, הַבְּרִיּוֹת לֹא דִּבְּרוּ, אֶלָּא הָעוֹלָם שׁוֹתֵק וּמַחֲרִישׁ, וְיָצָא הַקּוֹל: אָנֹכִי ה׳ אֱלֹקֶיךָ,
Said Rabbi Abahu....in the name of Rabbi Yochanan...When the Holy Blessed One gave the Torah, no bird chirped, no fowl fluttered, no ox lowed, the angels did not fly, the Seraphim did not utter the Kedusha, the sea did not roar, the creatures did not speak; the universe was silent and mute. And the voice came forth “Anochi Adonai Elohecha” (I am the Infinite, your God).
(מלכים א ב, לד) ויקבר בביתו במדבר אטו ביתו מדבר הוא אמר רב יהודה אמר רב כמדבר מה מדבר מופקר לכל אף ביתו של יואב מופקר לכל
The verse states with regard to Joab: “And he was buried in his own house, in the wilderness” (I Kings 2:34). The Gemara asks: Is that to say that Joab’s house was a wilderness? Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: Joab’s house was like the wilderness; just as the wilderness is freely open to all, so too, Joab’s house was freely open to all, as he generously opened his house to the poor and made them feel like members of the household.
In the name of the Rabbis they said: The earth said it. It said: ‘I am as I am, yet I am beloved, as all the dead of the world are shrouded in me, as it is stated: “Your dead will live, my corpses shall arise” (Isaiah 26:19). When the Holy One blessed be He asks me for them, I will return them to Him. I will generate good deeds like a lily and recite song before Him,’ as it is stated: “From the edge of the earth we heard songs” (Isaiah 24:16).
Zohar , Trumah: Verse 562
He divided the desolate place, and there was no greater desolation in the entire world as in that wilderness, that the children of Yisrael broke its strength and power for forty years, as it is written, "... who led you through that great and terrible wilderness" (Ibid. 15). The Other Side dominates in that wilderness and, against its will, the children of Yisrael walked on it and smashed its strength forty years. Had they been righteous during the forty years, they would have removed the Other Side from the world, but because they angered the Holy One, blessed be He, so many times, the Other Side grow strong. They all fell under its power there.
אין התורה מתקיימת אלא במי שמשים עצמו כמדבר הפקר לעניים ולעשירים בדעת ואינו גדול יותר מחבירו אדרבא בטל במציאות נגדו ובזה מתאחדי' ונכללי' זה בזה
(R. Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk)
The Torah only stands firm in one who makes himself like a midbar hefker before those who are poor of mind and rich of mind, and he doesn’t think of himself as better than his friend. On the contrary, he should be completely nullified before his friend, and it is through this that they become united and bound up one with the other.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk
Only when you are "like a wilderness" are you ready to have God's presence rest upon you and merit the light of Torah. "Like a wilderness" means that you have not yet been touched by human hands, that you have never been cultivated or planted, that you must rely on your own strength, as in the teaching, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me?" (Mishnah Avot 1:14).
Itturei Torah [Hebrew], vol. 5, by Aharon Yaakov Greenberg [Tel Aviv: Yavneh, 1996], p. 9
בפסוק הן בנ"י לא שמעו כו' ואני ערל שפתים. פרשנו כבר כי ע"י שבנ"י לא שמעו לכן הוא ערל שפתים. כי הנביא מתנבא בכח שמיעת בנ"י כדכ' נביא מקרבך כו' והנה כ' שמעה עמי ואדברה ואחז"ל אין מעידין אלא בשומע וזה הי' עיכוב עשרת הדיברות. והי' הדיבור בגלות כל זמן שלא הוכנו המקבלים לשמוע דבר ה׳. ובמד' ולא שמעו אל משה שהי' קשה להם לפרוש מע"ז. כמ"ש איש שקוצי עיניו לא השליכו. ואין הפי' דוקא עבודה זרה ממש. רק עבודה שהיא זרה להם כי השמיעה צריך להיות פנוי מכל דבר כמ"ש שמעי בת כו' והטי אזנך ושכחי עמך ובית אביך. וזה עיקר הגלות גם עתה מה שא"י להתפנות ולשכוח הבלי עולם להיות הלב פנוי לשמוע דבר ה׳ בלי מחשבה זרה כמ"ש ול"ת אחרי לבבכם כו'. וז"ש איש שקוצי עיניו לא השליכו. ולכן בגלולי מצרים הלכו. כי אם היו מוכנים לשמוע דבר ה׳ היו נגאלים מיד. והנה עתה שכבר ניתנה התורה לבנ"י. וכ' קול גדול ולא יסף. לא פסק. ואומרים בכל יום שמע ישראל ה׳ אלקינו כו'. והוא המאמר אנכי ה"א. אשר לא פסק. אבל צריכין להכין עצמו לשמוע פרשת ק"ש בלי מחשבה זרה. ולכן מקדימין יצ"מ לק"ש. שע"י גאולת מצרים יכולין להיפנות ממ"ז להיות מוכן לשמוע דבר ה׳. וכמ"ש ולא שמעו כו' מקוצר רוח ומעבודה קשה שהוא שליטת הגוף על הנשמה ורוח. ובשבת היפוך מזה שיורד נשמה יתירה וכל איש ישראל פונה עצמו עכ"פ מל"ט מלאכות. לכן הוא זמן שיכולין לשמוע דבר ה׳:
(Rabbi Arthur Green translation)
"Indeed, the children of Israel have not listened to me, so how will Pharaoh, since I am a man of uncircumcised lips?" [Ex: 6:12] We have already explained that it is because Israel refused to listen that he has these "uncircumcised lips." The prophet prophesies by the power of those who listen. This is the meaning of "a prophet from your midst...[to him you shall listen]" [Deut. 18:15]; it also says: "Hear, my people, and I will speak" [Ps. 50:7]. The rabbis teach that a witness must be one who can hear.
This is what delayed the giving of the Ten Commandments. Speech was in exile as long as those who were to receive Torah had not yet readied themselves to hear the word of God. When it says [of the people in Egypt] that "they did not listen to Moses" [Ex. 6:9], the Midrash says that it was hard for them to abandon their "foreign worship." Thus it is said: "No man would cast away the abominations of his eyes" [Ezek. 20:8]. This does not necessarily refer to idols, but to worship that was foreign to them.
Hearing requires being empty of everything. "Hear, O daughter, and see, give ear; forget your people and your father's house" [Ps. 45:11]. This is the essence of exile today as well: our inability to empty ourselves, to forget this world's vanities so that we empty the heart to hear God's word without any distracting thought. This is the meaning of the verse: "Do not turn after your hearts [or your eyes]" [Num. 15:39]. It was because "no man would cast away the abominations of his eyes" that they walked amid "the idols of Egypt." Had they been ready to hear God's word, they would have been redeemed immediately.
Now Torah has already been given to Israel by "a great voice that did not cease." [Deut. 5:19]. It has never stopped. Each day we say "Hear, O Israel, YHWH our God, YHWH is One" [Deut 6:4]; this is the voice saying: "I am YHWH your God"; it has never stopped. But we have to prepare ourselves to truly hear the Shema' without any distracting thought.
This is why we mention the Exodus [in the Song of the Sea] before the Shema'. By being redeemed from Egypt we are emptied of all distraction and become ready to hear God's word...
ובמדרש נמשלה תורה במדבר שצריך להיות הפקר כמדבר כמ"ש וממדבר מתנה משל לנשיא שנכנס למדינה וברחו כו' למדבר וקיבלו בכבוד כו'. פי' דבר היא מנהיג ומושל. ומדבר הוא להיות נכנע תחת המנהיג. והיינו שאדם מבטל עצמו שאין לו שום כח ופעולה בלי חיות השי"ת.
trans. Arthur Green
In the Midrash, the Torah is imagined as like the wilderness (midbar), in that one needs to be “hefker (free, unattached, ownerless)” like the wilderness…The Midrash tells of a prince who entered one city after another only to see the people flee before him, until he came to a ruined city (midbar), where he was greeted with praise. Said the prince: “This is the best of all the cities. Here I will set my throne.”
The word “midbar” comes from a root meaning “to lead” or “rule.” The “midbar” is one who acquiesces to that rule. That is to say, a person should empty oneself (m’vatel et atzmo) such that one has no strength or initiative save for the live force of the Exalted One.
אין התורה מתקיימת אלא במי שמשים עצמו כמדבר הפקר לעניים ולעשירים בדעת ואינו גדול יותר מחבירו אדרבא בטל במציאות נגדו ובזה מתאחדי' ונכללי' זה בזה
(R. Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk)
The Torah only stands firm in one who makes himself like a midbar hefker before those who are poor of mind and rich of mind, and he doesn’t think of himself as better than his friend. On the contrary, he should be completely nullified before his friend, and it is through this that they become united and bound up one with the other.
בפסוק הן בנ"י לא שמעו כו' ואני ערל שפתים. פרשנו כבר כי ע"י שבנ"י לא שמעו לכן הוא ערל שפתים. כי הנביא מתנבא בכח שמיעת בנ"י כדכ' נביא מקרבך כו' והנה כ' שמעה עמי ואדברה ואחז"ל אין מעידין אלא בשומע וזה הי' עיכוב עשרת הדיברות. והי' הדיבור בגלות כל זמן שלא הוכנו המקבלים לשמוע דבר ה׳. ובמד' ולא שמעו אל משה שהי' קשה להם לפרוש מע"ז. כמ"ש איש שקוצי עיניו לא השליכו. ואין הפי' דוקא עבודה זרה ממש. רק עבודה שהיא זרה להם כי השמיעה צריך להיות פנוי מכל דבר כמ"ש שמעי בת כו' והטי אזנך ושכחי עמך ובית אביך. וזה עיקר הגלות גם עתה מה שא"י להתפנות ולשכוח הבלי עולם להיות הלב פנוי לשמוע דבר ה׳ בלי מחשבה זרה כמ"ש ול"ת אחרי לבבכם כו'. וז"ש איש שקוצי עיניו לא השליכו. ולכן בגלולי מצרים הלכו. כי אם היו מוכנים לשמוע דבר ה׳ היו נגאלים מיד. והנה עתה שכבר ניתנה התורה לבנ"י. וכ' קול גדול ולא יסף. לא פסק. ואומרים בכל יום שמע ישראל ה׳ אלקינו כו'. והוא המאמר אנכי ה"א. אשר לא פסק. אבל צריכין להכין עצמו לשמוע פרשת ק"ש בלי מחשבה זרה. ולכן מקדימין יצ"מ לק"ש. שע"י גאולת מצרים יכולין להיפנות ממ"ז להיות מוכן לשמוע דבר ה׳. וכמ"ש ולא שמעו כו' מקוצר רוח ומעבודה קשה שהוא שליטת הגוף על הנשמה ורוח. ובשבת היפוך מזה שיורד נשמה יתירה וכל איש ישראל פונה עצמו עכ"פ מל"ט מלאכות. לכן הוא זמן שיכולין לשמוע דבר ה׳:
(Rabbi Arthur Green translation)
"Indeed, the children of Israel have not listened to me, so how will Pharaoh, since I am a man of uncircumcised lips?" [Ex: 6:12] We have already explained that it is because Israel refused to listen that he has these "uncircumcised lips." The prophet prophesies by the power of those who listen. This is the meaning of "a prophet from your midst...[to him you shall listen]" [Deut. 18:15]; it also says: "Hear, my people, and I will speak" [Ps. 50:7]. The rabbis teach that a witness must be one who can hear.
This is what delayed the giving of the Ten Commandments. Speech was in exile as long as those who were to receive Torah had not yet readied themselves to hear the word of God. When it says [of the people in Egypt] that "they did not listen to Moses" [Ex. 6:9], the Midrash says that it was hard for them to abandon their "foreign worship." Thus it is said: "No man would cast away the abominations of his eyes" [Ezek. 20:8]. This does not necessarily refer to idols, but to worship that was foreign to them.
Hearing requires being empty of everything. "Hear, O daughter, and see, give ear; forget your people and your father's house" [Ps. 45:11]. This is the essence of exile today as well: our inability to empty ourselves, to forget this world's vanities so that we empty the heart to hear God's word without any distracting thought. This is the meaning of the verse: "Do not turn after your hearts [or your eyes]" [Num. 15:39]. It was because "no man would cast away the abominations of his eyes" that they walked amid "the idols of Egypt." Had they been ready to hear God's word, they would have been redeemed immediately.
Now Torah has already been given to Israel by "a great voice that did not cease." [Deut. 5:19]. It has never stopped. Each day we say "Hear, O Israel, YHWH our God, YHWH is One" [Deut 6:4]; this is the voice saying: "I am YHWH your God"; it has never stopped. But we have to prepare ourselves to truly hear the Shema' without any distracting thought.
This is why we mention the Exodus [in the Song of the Sea] before the Shema'. By being redeemed from Egypt we are emptied of all distraction and become ready to hear God's word...
Yahia Lababidi - Poet
When I lived in Cairo, Egypt, over a decade and a half ago, I would head to the desert periodically: to empty myself of the city’s noise, overhear myself, and then lose myself.
I approached these desert pilgrimages with the earnest intention and passionate belief that I was going to encounter that part of myself not entirely accessible in other circumstances. In the desert, there is nothing to hide behind, nowhere and no one to turn to. It is where all those mad hermits and mystics—my people!—had their visions. It’s an extreme environment and I suppose I felt that if I flirted with that extremity, in a committed, honourable way, a breakthrough might be granted to me. (If you were somehow avoiding yourself, and you went to the desert, somehow you would meet.) The rumblings of Eternity were there, if you could just be still enough, quiet enough and indifferent enough to your self, your many selves, your many frivolous selves.
Walking, reading, musing, I felt outside space and time and came to realize the necessity of aloneness: aloneness as a prerequisite for the sublime sensations or epiphanies I sought. Sure, you could be alone around people, alone in your living room but if you reached toward this elemental aloneness—one with the sand, the rock, the water, the stars and the sea—you could experience a deeper innocence and purity of perception and as a result become a better witness to the life inside you and around you. The desert doesn’t, really, care much for you. It may, perhaps, want you there, but it doesn’t need you there. It doesn’t seek to appease you in any way. It only wants to declare its harsh, bold truths and if you can stand it, then you might stay.