Synagogue or Temple
This month of August is the season of travelling, going on vacation in the northern hemisphere.
Jeremy Rosen
The very idea resonates with our wandering in the desert for forty years and then in exile all over the world. We are inveterate travellers, and there is almost no spot-on earth today where you will not find a Jew or an Israeli or a Chabad Chasid. Where did this wanderlust come from?
The Torah talks about a tent, Ohel Moed, the Tent of Meeting, where, during the forty years before they settled in the Land of Israel, Moses held court. It functioned as a kind of Community Centre and a place the people would go to for information and, of course, to complain. But there was also the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, which was a collapsible sanctuary whose function was solely as a religious ceremonial centre in which people other than the priests were merely spectators. Unless they were coming to offer personal sacrifices. In the Bible, it was called Mishkan HaShem, God’s Dwelling Place, as well as Mishkan HaEdut, the Place of the Testimony, or Mishkan Ohel Moed, the Place of the Tent of Covenant. Whatever it was called, at its centre was the Aron HaBrit, the Ark of the Covenant.
The Mishkan and the Aron continued into the Promised Land and were carried around the city of Jericho before its walls fell. It is unclear but looks as though it started in Bethel then went to Gibeah, then Shiloh. David brought the Ark to Jerusalem, and Solomon brought it all into his Temple. And there it remained until the Babylonian conquest, when it disappeared.
We (and Hollywood) love conspiracy theories. We continue to speculate where it might be to this very day, assuming it was not stripped of its gold by the Babylonians and its wood recycled. None of it has been seen since, regardless of whether the Ethiopian Church believes that it has it or it is hidden under the Vatican or the Golden Dome.
The word Mishkan comes from the Hebrew word SHaChaN meaning to dwell. And the implication is that it represented the dwelling place of God or the one place on earth that was metaphorically closest to God.
In the Book of Deuteronomy ( Chapters 11 through 16) the word SHaCHaN is used five times to refer to “The Place Where God will have His Name dwell.” Which has always been understood as referring to the Temple itself.
Meanwhile, back in Babylon, Jews looked towards Jerusalem and re-building the Temple. The exiled community revived the idea of a Mishkan Ohel Moed as a community centre, the focal point of Jewish life, and a place of study to ensure that the Biblical texts were read and not forgotten. So that a dual system developed of Diaspora Jews having a Gathering Centre, a Beit HaKnesset, to replace the Tabernacle, and the Study House, the Beit Midrash for study.
These were what was left of communal ritual, the two alternatives, prayer or study. And the rabbis argued about which was the priority. The place of study, the Beit Hamidrash, doubled up as a place for prayer. And what became known as a synagogue, from the Greek term, synagein, which means to bring together (like synergy) was primarily “a place of assembly”, but it could also function as a place of study too. The Yiddish word Shul (from German Schule, “school”) was later used to refer to the synagogue, but it emphasizes study as a priority. The other Yiddish Shtible simply means any room where you get together to pray or study. So that what you call it, depends on how you envisage its religious roles and priorities. Different denominations within Judaism emphasized different priorities.
I should confess that I really don’t like the word synagogue! To me, it sounds like a cross between Sin and Demagoguery! But what can we do? Blame the Greeks. But I don’t like the name Temple either. Some Christians preferred to call it a Tabernacle. Perhaps because Temple conjures up a model long gone of being passive observers and lots of sacrifices. In contrast, a synagogue or Beit Knesset or Beit Midrash was based on the idea of knowledge and study as well as prayer, but not necessarily with functionaries. This is why so many communities can manage perfectly without a rabbi or officiating clergy, relying instead on an educated laity. This is not for everyone of course but it does emphasize the possibility of different paradigms. It also emphasizes why the home is just as important as the community.
And ironically, nowadays Knesset brings to mind Israeli parliamentarians shouting at each other and coming to blows on the floor of the legislature! So you see, there is no way to please everyone.
After the Temple was destroyed the rabbis added a new name for God, Makom. The Place indicates that God was everywhere and anywhere and had gone into exile too. One did not need a Temple or indeed anywhere else specifically to interact with God.
This finally brings me back to the beginning and the message of this piece. Wherever we travel we can take our God and our values with us. We should not think we can leave them at the doors of our homes or in our synagogues or temples. Could even be on our island paradises or yachts! The rabbis say marriage creates a family and home called a Mikdash MeAt, a Little Holy Place. Wherever we go, even on holiday we should take along our religious values as well as the rest of the family.
Rabbi Jeremy Rosen lives in New York. He was born in Manchester. His writings are concerned with religion, culture, history and current affairs – anything he finds interesting or relevant. They are designed to entertain and to stimulate. Disagreement is always welcome.
