ALIYAH LEREGEL - Basic concepts
Devarim16:16 stated:
שָׁל֣וֹשׁ פְּעָמִ֣ים׀ בַּשָּׁנָ֡ה יֵרָאֶ֨ה כָל־זְכוּרְךָ֜ אֶת־פְּנֵ֣ייְקֹוָ֣ק אֱ-לֹהֶ֗יךָ בַּמָּקוֹם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר יִבְחָ֔ר בְּחַ֧ג הַמַּצּ֛וֹת וּבְחַ֥גהַשָּׁבֻע֖וֹת וּבְחַ֣ג הַסֻּכּ֑וֹת וְלֹ֧א יֵרָאֶ֛ה אֶת־פְּנֵ֥י יְקֹוָ֖ק רֵיקָֽם:
Three times a year—on the Feast ofUnleavened Bread, on the Feast of Weeks, and on the Feast of Booths—all yourmales shall appear before the LORD your God in the place that He willchoose. They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed,
1. The Grammatical Problem:
The verb which is translated as "shall appear" isyay’ra’eh, which is in the nif’al, or passive case.The literal meaning of that verb, therefore, is “he (i.e., each male) willbe seen”.
The word following that passive verb, however, is et.That word possesses no intrinsic meaning; rather, it usually functions as an object marker [OM], indicatingthat the noun that directly follows is the direct object of the verb which precedesit. For example, the sentence "The boy threw the ball" should have anet between the words "threw" and "ball". Thus: Ha-yeledzarak et ha-kador.
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Only active verbs - not passive ones - have direct objects. Averb meaning "will be seen", therefore, since it in the passive mode,is not able to receive a direct object. Nevertheless, the Torah's clause in theverse quoted above reads, "each of your males will be seen etthe face of the Lord your God…" which of course makes no sense.
All the translations I have seen try to avoid this problem bytranslating the underlined phrase as: …shall appear before the Lord…" – atranslation which avoids the problem by ignoring the grammar.
The Gemara (Chagigah,2a, 4b) deduces halachot from the passive word yay’ra’eh by readingit as if the pointing were yir’eh which is the active casemeaning “he will see”. For example, the Gemara there] concludes that, “A manwho is blind in [even] one eye is exempt from the mitzvah of aliyah,for [the passive verb] yay’ra’eh may also be read as [the active,transitive verb] yir’eh [from which we may deduce that], in thesame mode that he sees, he is to be seen: i.e., just as normal vision is withboth eyes, likewise his obligation to be seen [via the pilgrimage] exists onlyif he is able to see with both eyes.
The foregoingderashah from Chagiga implies that on some level of interpretation, the OM etis to be taken literally: i.e., in acertain sense, in his experience of aliyah leregel, each individual willperceive God – as audacious as that might sound!
This concept,i.e., of perceiving the Divine reality within the realm of the tangible, isimplicitly manifest by the Torah’s re-iteration of the three PilgrimageFestivals in parashat Ki Tisa - immediately following chayt ha’egel – the incident ofthe Golden Calf. That placement suggeststhat a desired result of this mitzvah is to provide Israel with the opportunityto focus on God’s presence in a physical, material mode.
Tosefot to BB 20bmay reinforce this idea of perceiving God "with one's eyes" - in a certainsense. They cite the following Rabbinic statement:
The mitzvah of bringing the Second Tithe to Jerusalemand consuming it there leads to devotion to Torah study.
They explain that concept in light of the fact that theperson who visits Jerusalem in order to consume the Second Tithe gains theopportunity to witness devotion to God through the sacred service in theTemple. This service generates a palpable sense of kedushah, which in turn inspiresthe individual to renew his devotion to studying and stiving to comprehendHashem's Torah.
The foregoingexplanation of Tosefos is based upon the concept that one way to perceiveGod is to perceive human responses to the tangible location of His Shechina-presence.The Temple Avodah constitutes a symbolic, tangible incarnation of the conceptof devoting one’s life to the service of God. By confronting this incarnatesymbol, the pilgrim perceives the Object of this service.
Furthermore, bybringing a korban - i.e., by fulfilling the Torah's prohibition of "not seeingMy Face empty-handed”- and by bowing to the Divine Object of his devotion, hebecomes an intrinsic part of the choreography of this service. As such, he does not only see,thereby fulfilling the imperative of yir'eh, but also, as hebecomes part of the visible choreography of the Sacred Service, fulfilling theimperative of yay'ra'eh as well.
The word etdoes not always serve as an OM; it also may mean “together with”. Forexample, B’shuv Hashem et shivat Tzion… meaning: “When Godwill return together with the returnees of Zion, we willhave been as dreamers (i.e., in retrospect, our entire exilic experience willseem to have been [nothing more than] a [bad] dream).” In light of the above point, therefore, thepassive reading of our challenging clause may be translated:
…each of yourmales yay'ra'eh = will be seen
et p'nei = together with thepresence of
Hashem Elokecha - Hashemyour God."
I am thussuggesting that et in our context possesses a duelSs connotation:
a. OM – “Each of your males will perceive”[yir'eh] the Divine Presence – as you witness the choreographic devotionto the service of God in the Temple.
b. “Together with” = “Each of your males will beseen [yay'ra'eh] together with Hashem” as you become part of theincarnate choreographic response to that Presence and, in so doing, you willbecome part of the visible manifestation of the Divine Presence to others
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2. THE PILGRIMAGE EXPERIENCE
Ramban on theverse l’shich’no sidr’shu asserts that the Torah isinstructing us to make the pilgrimage to Zion even from distant locales, and torequest directions on the way. This process represents a symbolic “incarnation”of the quest for God as a necessary element of the human condition. In other words,the pilgrimage itself – and not only the reality of being inJerusalem – possesses significant symbolic value. (We shall see that thesymbolic value of the pilgrimage is in the return trip as well.)
Sefer Devarim doesn’t mentioncalendrical dates for the festivals; instead, it identifies each festival onlyby its significance in the agricultural cycle. The focus, therefore, is on the theologicalimplications of the various stages of the harvest.
Likewise, when describing he specific TempleService for each holiday, Sefer Devarim does not mention its korban Musaf,but rather its avodas hayom. The latter offerings reflect the specificagricultural season to which that holiday responds (e.g., the barleyharvest on Pesach, the wheat harvest on Shavuot, and the First Fruits[Bikkurim] on Sukkot). The Musafim, on the other hand, are apparently afunction of the specific charisma of that day’s sanctity.
This agriculturalfocus may explain why the Moadim section in our parasha ispreceded by the parasha of Ma’aser Sheini. The landowner’s act ofseparating out one tenth of one’s yield for him, his family and friends to eatin ritual purity in Yerushalaim - while rejoicing in God’s presence - serves tobreak or pierce through the pagan-like illusion of self-containment which the personwho spends his life working the ground may tend to feel. To partake of abeloved friend’s gift in his or her presence is to choreograph deep sense of gratitude.
In otherwords: Throughout the agricultural seasons, the farmer must be almostexclusively engaged in self-preservation, as he intensively channels his majorenergies and thoughts towards the goal of producing a successful crop. Thiscommitment to the crop has the phenomenological effect of de-contextualizingthe worker from his essential existential relationships: with God, family, andcommunity. The mitzvah of pilgrimage, including the mitzvah of consumingMa'aser Sheini in Yerushalaim, forces the farmer out of the narrow confines of thisself-preservation context and serves to restore him into the context of these essentialrelationships. Although the obligation to appear in the Temple devolved uponthe men, the entire family often made the pilgrimage, especially on Pesach. Celebratingthese Holidays by rejoicing with family, in community and in the presence ofthe Divine indwelling, obviously served to restore and reinforce these threerelationships [See especially 16:11]. *
The foregoing conceptualization may explainthe Torah’s tendency to associate the concepts of Mikdash and Shabbat. (See,for example, the final verse of parashat Terumah). Work is necessary, and divinely mandated;nevertheless, it de-contextualizes us, it puts us “out of alignment” so tospeak. It separates us - emotionally, and often, geographically - from our significantrelationships, from the ones we love the most. Shabbos, bikkurim,the mitzvah of aliyah l’regel and mitzvat achilat ma’asersheini bi’rushala’im all serve to re-prioritize, in our awareness, ourmost valuable relationships – i.e., with Hashem with family, and with K’lallYisrael.
Tosafos BB: “Holinessof place” is not only because of the presence of the Shechina but primarilybecause of the ongoing human responses to that presence in Yerushalaim,especially the avodah and Talmud Torah. Yerushalaim in the time of the Templeconstituted a symbolic actualization of the God-mandated life.
In general,with the exception of kedushas Shabbos, kedushah is created byhuman designation exclusively. Hashem chose Yerushalaim and EretzYisrael, but their sanctities were created by human effort.
We must viewthe avodah as a Divinely mandated choreographic symbol of life-long service ofHashem. It is an exercise in surrender to God’s will. The people on pilgrimageare obligated to internalize that value through witnessing and participating inthe avodah, and then translate it into their daily activities upon theirreturn.
Ramban (s.v. leshicnosidreshu) notes a very important aspect of the phenomenology of aliyahleregel, namely, the need to search for God and to enlistothers in that search. We must feel God’s absence in our lives, and respondto that feeling by yearning and searching for His presence. This is because allgenuine relationships require the experience of loneliness, without which thethere would be no independent perception of the self or of the other. Paradoxically, if the other were constantlyconnected to us, we would be unaware of him, or of the self, as discreet units.
In addition,Ramban’s stress upon the need to speak with others evokes the element of unityinherent in the mitzvah of pilgrimage…
Hashem thuscreated Adam alone, and forced him to experience loneliness (ul’adam lomatza ayzer k’negdo) before He presented him with his life’s partner.
Work precludesrelationship not only because concentration on work prevents any otherrelational focus, but also because creativity - with its idealfocus/concentration being exclusively upon the thing created – ideallyprecludes even an awareness of oneself.
This pointexplains why work is strictly prohibited during shiva – as itundermines the existential need of the mourner to concentrate upon hisrelationship with the deceased – and to adjust to the relationship’s radical transformation.
The variousstages of the agricultural season, therefore, create a feeling of disconnectwith all our primal relationships (except, of course, thoserelationships relevant to the work itself). This distancing even tends toinclude Hashem, our most primal relationship, as well as family. In addition,the correlation which we experience between the effort we expend in our workand the results tend to create within us a perception of self containment, ormore precisely, an ability to control the results of our efforts, an in the expressionkochi ve’otzem yadi asah li es hachayil hazeh.
The pilgrimagefestivals should have the effect of restoring primal relationships - namely,our relationships with God and with family - which tend to be “put on hold”during the most intensive periods of the work year. The burdens of worknaturally tend to move us from the context of family and God awareness.
The importanceof re-establishing family relationships is indicated by the mention ofrejoicing together with all the specific members of one’s immediate family, aswell as with the disenfranchised who have no homestead or family.
The Gemara(Pesachim 8b) therefore concludes from a verse in our parasha (u’fanisababoker vehalachta l’ohalecha) that the return trip is an intrinsic,essential part of the pilgrimage. Through the imperfect u’fanisa,the Torah indicates that the goal of the pilgrimage is indeed ohalecha(cf., The Wizard of Oz – l’havdil!).
3. The prohibition against removing the badim(b’tab’a’os ha’aron yih’yu habadim; lo yasuru mimenu) thisconcept as well: The Source (=God, Torah) is an unmoved, stationary mover whosevalues we must take along with us.
4. This concept is also implies by IbnEzra’s explanation of the ladder in Yaakov’s dream. Also the famous Midrashregarding the angels (Chulin 91b), which depicts the angels seeing sleeping onthe ground the very the same image of Yaakov which they see engraved upon theThrone of Glory.
5. The mikdash itself constitutes theintersection of the tangible with the intangible, the eternal with thetemporal. Its very existence argues for their interconnectedness.
A summaryconclusion:
a. Distancing from God and familynaturally occurs as the result of one’s work
b. The pilgrimage serves to reestablishingour relationship - reconnect us – with our Creator and with our ultimatepurpose in life, which is to continue creating an olam shel chesed.
c. The pilgrimage requires us to disengagephysically from the source of holiness in order to become thedelivery system through which holiness permeates our homes andultimately the entire world.
Ya’ra’ehes: Esis an OM. The pilgrim will search out and physically see in the mikdashand in the avodas hamikdash a tangible manifestation of theDivine Presence.
6. Yay’ra’eh es = eshere is not an object marker but rather means “together with”. Upon thecompletion of your round-trip pilgrimage, your appearance - your manifestation to the people whom youlove most - is also a manifestation of God, kiv’yachol: Hisvalues, His will, the experience of Hashem Himself which you are bringing homewith you – l’ohalecha.
Read fromSukka 49b the derasha on ma yafu pa’amayich bas nediv…The searchfor the God from whom humanity has disconnected - and Who has therefore hiddenHimself in the transcendental realm, modestly and patiently waiting for us toseek Him out – this search is the ultimate act of nedivut -dignified generosity and chesed.
*דברים פרק טז
(יא) וְשָׂמַחְתָּ֞ לִפְנֵ֣י׀ יְקֹוָ֣ק אֱלֹהֶ֗יךָאַתָּ֨ה וּבִנְךָ֣ וּבִתֶּךָ֘ וְעַבְדְּךָ֣ וַאֲמָתֶךָ֒ וְהַלֵּוִי֙ אֲשֶׁ֣רבִּשְׁעָרֶ֔יךָ וְהַגֵּ֛ר וְהַיָּת֥וֹם וְהָאַלְמָנָ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר בְּקִרְבֶּ֑ךָבַּמָּק֗וֹם אֲשֶׁ֤ר יִבְחַר֙ יְקֹוָ֣ק אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ לְשַׁכֵּ֥ן שְׁמ֖וֹ שָֽׁם: