Lecture 62: The History of the Resting of the Shekhina ֠The Assembly at Shekhem ֠A Renewal of the Sinaitic Experience
Mikdash
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This week
of Torah learning at the Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash of Yeshivat
Har Etzion is being sponsored by Ronni & Nachum Katlowitz in honor of
Ronni's mother's birthday - Happy Birthday Mrs. Lucia
Pasternak!
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Lecture
62: The History of the resting of the Shekhina –
THe
ASsembly at Shekhem –
A
renewal of the Sinaitic experience
Rav Yitzchak
Levi
Following the ceremony of the blessings and curses at
And Yehoshua gathered
all the tribes of
In his talk, Yehoshua surveys the history of the people of
So Yehoshua made a
covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in
Shekhem. And Yehoshua wrote these words in the book of the Torah of God, and
took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary
of the Lord. And Yehoshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a
witness to us; for it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke to us.
It shall be therefore a witness to you, lest you deny your God.”
(Yehoshua 24:25-27)
According to Scripture, the people of
In this lecture, we will try to understand the nature of this assembly,
the meaning of the covenant, the comparison between this assembly and the
Sinaitic revelation, and why it was specifically Shekhem that was chosen for
this event.
THE COVENANT IN SHEKHEM - THE SINAITIC EXPERIENCE IN ERETZ YISRAEL
There is a clear parallel between the assembly in Shekhem and the giving
of the Torah at
·
All of the tribes of
·
The people assemble
before God.
·
The people are asked
to remove the strange Gods from among them and to worship the God of
Israel.
·
Yehoshua brings the
people to the explicit and conscious choice to serve God, at the conclusion of
which they say (v. 24), " The Lord our God will we serve, and His voice will we
obey," which, in its essence and in its style, parallels Israel's words at the
foot of Mount Sinai, "We shall do and we shall obey."
·
As at
·
The verses note that
a sanctuary is found in Shekhem.[1]
This parallels the understanding of various early authorities according to which
the Sinaitic experience constituted the first expression of a Mishkan.
(This comparison stems from several elements of the Sinaitic experience, for
example, the division between the site of the resting of the Shekhina and
the site of service, the building of an altar, the various types of sacrifices,
and others.)
·
In the verses cited
above, Yehoshua says to the people that the stone that was set up there should
serve as a witness. This testimony brings to mind the tablets of testimony at
the original Sinaitic experience. This is the way it is understood by Targum
Yonatan ben Uziel:
This stone shall be
for us like the two stone tablets, because we made it to serve as a witness,
because what is written upon it is like the words that God spoke to
us.
What we have here, then, is a clear parallel to the giving of the Torah,
as well as a parallel between the words that were written and those that were
said orally.
Why was a new Sinaitic experience necessary when
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE ASSEMBLY AT SHEKHEM AND THE ORIGINAL SINAITIC EXPERIENCE
Despite the great similarity between the two events, there is an
essential difference between the original Sinaitic experience and the assembly
at Shekhem. At Mount Sinai, there was a manifest Divine revelation – "an
awakening from above" - an absolutely miraculous appearance of God, with God
speaking directly to the people in the midst of thunder and lightning, a heavy
cloud on the mountain, and the voice of a shofar sounding louder and
louder.
In anticipation of this great revelation, the people were told to purify
and sanctify themselves, wash their clothes and take care not to ascend the
mountain. Chazal say that God "arched the mountain over them like a
tank;" in other words, the revelation was so powerful that it contained an
element of coercion. At the assembly at Shekhem, on the other hand, there does
not appear to have been any Divine revelation.
In this context, Yehoshua's words to the people in verse 27 are very
interesting. He says to them that the stone heard all the words of God that He
spoke to them. Surprisingly, there is no reference in the verses themselves to
the fact that God spoke to the people. The commentators grapple with this
difficulty, and explain the verses in various ways.
Rashi explains:
… It can also be
explained in its literal sense, because it heard the words that I spoke to you
as God's agent.
After bringing the words of the Targum cited above, the Radak explains:
According to the
plain sense, "which he spoke to us" means: That which I spoke to you and the
covenant that I made with you – I did not make up. For they are the words of the
Lord which He spoke to us at
The Abravanel offers a similar explanation:
"Behold, this stone
shall be a witness to us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord," and it is
a witness - "And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth" (Devarim
32:1). That is, before it were
said the words that the blessed God commanded to say. And this is [the meaning
of] "which He spoke to us."
The Malbim (ad loc.) explains:
"And Yehoshua said
[to all the people], ‘Behold, this stone,’" that is to say, together with the
book within it, "shall be a witness to us." As Moshe Rabbenu, of blessed memory,
said: "Take this book of the Torah, and put it on the side of the ark of the
covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against you."
And similarly [Yehoshua] called upon his book that rested in the stone to be a
witness with respect to two things: 1) "to us," including himself among them,
"because it heard all the words of the Lord," that is to say, for there we find
all that the Lord has spoken to us, i.e., the words of God that are found
throughout this book, and also that which Yehoshua said to them now beginning
with the words, "Thus says the Lord." 2) "It shall therefore be a witness to
you, lest you deny" - like someone who summons a witness so that he not be able
to deny in front of him. Since they were then in Shekhem, it was there that he
made the hollow stone and placed his book inside, and from there they brought it
to the sanctuary in Shilo and set it up. The oak was certainly outside the
sanctuary, for it is forbidden to plant a tree in a sanctuary, and he showed
that the status of his book was not like that of a Torah scroll for all
purposes…
We see, then, that the stone's “hearing the words of the Lord” can be
understood in several ways:
-
According to Rashi, Yehoshua spoke as God's agent, and therefore it was as if the stone heard the words of God.
-
According to the Radak, Yehoshua brought the words of God. Speaking to the stone is understood in the same way that we understand, "And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth."
-
The Malbim connects this to the book that Yehoshua wrote, and the stone is close to the book in which are found the words of the Lord. The written testimony is like hearing the words of the Lord.
In any event, in
contrast to the Sinaitic experience, here there is no Divine
revelation.
CHOOSING TO SERVE GOD - A CHOICE FROM BELOW
Another aspect of this same point is that the renewal of the covenant
initiated by Yehoshua brings the people to freely choose – "an awakening from
below." This choice is made several times over the course of Yehoshua's
oration.
First, Yehoshua sets before the people the choice between fearing God and
serving Him in sincerity and in truth, on the one hand, and worshipping strange
gods. The people say that they want to serve God who took them and their fathers
out of the
Yehoshua does not content himself with this declaration, and once again
admonishes the people that they will not be able "to serve the Lord, for He is a
holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not tolerate your transgressions nor your
sins." If they sin, He will consume them. Once again, the people answer that
they will serve God (vv. 19-21).
Then Yehoshua says to them, "You are witnesses against yourselves that
you have chosen the Lord for yourselves, to serve Him." He turns to them and
asks them to remove the strange gods from among them. And they answer, "The Lord
our God will we serve, and His voice will we obey" (vv.
22-24).
In other words, three times and in three stages Yehoshua sets before the
people the responsibility and the ramifications of their choice and he tries to
ascertain that the people are aware of the ramifications of their
actions.
It is possible that when the people of
In this context as well it is significant that the new covenant is made
specifically in Shekhem, the place where the patriarchs naturally and by their
own free choice began their lives in Eretz Yisrael.
It is important to emphasize that as opposed to the ceremony involving
the blessings and the curses that took place at
Only be strong and
very courageous and observe to do according to all the Torah, which Moshe My
servant commanded you. Turn not from it to the right hand nor to the left, that
you may prosper wherever you go. This book of the Torah shall not depart out of
your mouth; but you shall meditate therein day and night, that you may observe
to do according to all that is written in it, for then you shall make your way
prosperous and then you shall have good success. (Yehoshua
1:7-8)
This is, indeed, a Divine command, but it does not specify the manner in
which it is to be carried out. Yehoshua chooses to execute it in the manner
described in chapter 24, based on his own judgment and
choice.
The two assemblies – the blessings and curses on
It is possible to suggest that Yehoshua's statute and ordinance are
connected to the laws governing the relationships between man and his fellow,
and deal with legislation stemming from Israel's having entered the land. Thus,
for example, it is possible that it was here that Yehoshua enacted his ten
enactments for those who entered Eretz Yisrael (Bava Kama
80b), which, for the most part related to social issues that accompanied the
settlement of the land.[2]
THE ASSEMBLY AT SHEKHEM - A CONVERSION CEREMONY
R. Yoel Bin-Nun[3]
has proposed a different understanding of the assembly at Shekhem. He argues
that the assembly at Shekhem was a conversion ceremony, in which participated,
on the one hand, representatives of the tribes of Israel, and on the other hand,
representatives of the people living in the Shekhem area who wished to join the
people of Israel.
R. Bin-Nun's basic
argument is that the house of Avraham includes not only Avraham's children and
direct descendants, but also "those born in his own house" (mentioned in
Bereishit 14:14: "…He led forth his trained servants, born in his own
house, three hundred and eighteen"). These people are not slaves, but rather
families that joined the original house of Avraham. The number 318 which appears
in the verse refers only to the warriors; if we include their wives and families
the number reached into the thousands.
The Rambam in
Hilkhot Avoda Zara describes Avraham's activity after having recognized
his Maker:
When the people
flocked to him and questioned him regarding his assertions, he would instruct
each one according to his capacity till he had brought him to the way of truth,
and thus thousands and tens of thousands joined him. These were the persons
referred to in the phrase, "men of the house of Avraham." (Hilkhot Avoda Zara
1:3)
The Rambam relates to the house of Avraham, which included thousands and
tens of thousands. We seem to be dealing with a large company of unnamed people
who attached themselves to the house of Avraham. Thus, for example, the story of
Shimon and Levi's conquest of Shekhem mentions only them, but it is reasonable
to assume that many others who are not explicitly mentioned joined them in the
conquest.
On the other hand, when the people of
It is reasonable to assume that part of the house of Avraham settled in
Shekhem after the city had been conquered. If we accept this assumption, it
turns out that a large portion of the population in the Shekhem area were not
Chivi or Canaanite, and it stands to reason that they were descendants of those
who came from "beyond the river."
In addition, during this period, Eretz Yisrael was under the
patronage and rule of
With the settlement
of the people of
In order to deal with
his fears, Yehoshua proposes that this entire population in Shekhem join the
people of
According to this
understanding, two different groups took part in the assembly at Shekhem:
representatives of the people of
This reading of the
chapter explains why mention is made of the "other side of the river" and of
Now we can understand
why a new covenant is made and why a "statute and ordinance" were given in
Shekhem. Moreover, according to this explanation, it may be suggested that the
"sanctuary of the Lord" mentioned in the passage refers to a sanctuary to the
God of Israel built on the site of an older temple found in the city after the
idols were removed, and it was rebuilt on an east-west axis, similar to the
Mishkan and Mikdash which were directed toward the
west.
However, this act of
conversion and re-acceptance of the Torah in Shekhem failed, as is proven by the
history of Shekhem in the days of Avimelekh in the book of
Shofetim:
And when all the men
of the
The site that had served as a temple to God in the days of Yehoshua
turned into a temple to Ba'al. Its original mission failed. In place of a temple
to God, there is now a temple to Ba'al, and thus the important attempt at the
end of the days of Yehoshua to convert this unique population living in the
region of Shekhem failed within a single generation in the days of
Avimelekh.
This interpretation allows us to understand another point. Why was it
necessary that there be two assemblies reminiscent of the Sinaitic experience,
first the ceremony involving the blessings and curses at
The assembly at
WHY WAS THIS ASSEMBLY
CONDUCTED SPECIFICALLY AT SHEKHEM[5]
Why was this lofty assembly involving a renewed acceptance of the Torah
and a reenactment of the Sinaitic experience conducted specifically at Shekhem?
The Radak offers the following answer:
It seems that the ark
of God was brought there in order to make the covenant in the presence of the
ark, as it is stated: "And Yehoshua wrote… in the book of the Torah of God,"
from which we see that the ark containing the book of the Torah was there.
Yehoshua gathered [the people] to Shekhem and not to Shilo, where the ark was
found, because that was where Avraham our forefather first tarried when he
entered the land. As it is stated, "And Avraham passed through the land to the
place of Shekhem" (Bereishit 12:6). And furthermore, because there a
great miracle was performed for Yaakov our forefather and they should remember
it and cleave exclusively to God. And furthermore, because Yaakov's initial
inheritance of Eretz Yisrael was in Shekhem, when he bought a
piece of land from the children of Chamor, Shekhem's father. And there Yehoshua
said to them, "Put away the strange gods which are among you" (Yehoshua
24:23), just as Yaakov said to his children in Shekhem, "Put away the strange
gods that are among you" (Bereishit 35:2). (Radak, Yehoshua 24:1,
s.v. va-yitzyatzvu)
The Abravanel adds:
Because in this place
Yaakov said to his children, "Put away the strange gods that are among you," and
therefore Yehoshua saw fit to say similar things in that same
place.
According to the Abravanel, there is a similarity between the actions of
Yehoshua and those of Yaakov in the city of
The Radak offers other explanations as well: Shekhem was Avraham's first
stop after entering Eretz Yisrael, and it was also the site of a great
miracle performed for Yaakov. According to this understanding, the great
assembly in Shekhem was meant to express the people of
It was of great spiritual and national importance that the children's
entry into the land should follow the same path taken by their forefathers, thus
realizing their ancestors' goal of entering Eretz Yisrael through
Shekhem.
SUMMARY
The great assembly at Shekhem at the end of Yehoshua's life constituted a
summation of Yehoshua's work and an attempt to reinforce the standing of the
Torah in the nation in general. According to R. Yoel Bin-Nun's proposal, it was
also an attempt to convert the local population living in the Shekhem
region.
The assembly involved
a renewed giving of the Torah in Eretz Yisrael and a renewed decision on
the part of the people to accept the Torah and the yoke of heaven. This assembly
joins with the assembly of the blessings and curses and the writing of the Torah
on the stones at
In the coming
lectures, we will examine the status of Bet-El and Mitzpeh, important cities in
the days of the Shofetim and Shemuel, and briefly consider the status of
the Givonim.
(Translated by David
Strauss)
[1] The term that is
used here, "sanctuary (mikdash) of the Lord" is certainly exceptional.
The Radak (ad loc.) explains that "the house in which the ark rested in Shekhem
was called a 'mikdash' owing to the sanctity of the ark that was
temporarily there." The Malbim explains that the reference is to Shilo, even
though according to the plain sense of Scripture we are dealing with
Shekhem.
However we understand
this, we are dealing with an assembly in which words were written by Yehoshua in
a book of the Torah of God and a stone served as a witness to the covenant that
was made with God.
[2] The essence of
Shekhem was dealt with by R. Yisrael Leibovitz in his booklet, Tabor
Ha-Aretz, published by Yeshivat Od Yosef Chai and Garin Shekhem in
Shevat 5748, and in his book, Pnei Levona (Jerusalem, 5763). There, he
relates at length to the matter under discussion here.
[3] In an oral
shiur.
[4] Of course, this
question requires a different answer if we don't see the assembly at Shekhem as
a conversion ceremony.
[5] This issue goes
beyond that of the assembly in Yehoshua 24 and is connected to the
character of Shekhem in general, including this assembly.