Facing Jerusalem — BT Berakhot 30a — #23

Our Rabbis taught in a baraita: A blind person or one who cannot discern the cardinal directions should direct his heart toward God in heaven, as it says, And they will pray to Adonai (I Kings 8:44). One who stands outside the Land of Israel should direct his heart toward the Land of Israel, as it says, And they will pray to You by way of their land (I Kings 8:48). One who stands in the Land of Israel should direct his heart toward Jerusalem, as it says, And they pray to Adonai by way of the city that You have chosen (I Kings 8:44). One who stands in Jerusalem should direct his heart toward the Temple, as it says, And they will pray toward this house (II Chronicles 6:32). One who stands in the Temple should direct his heart toward the Holy of Holies, as it says, And they will pray toward this place (I Kings 8:35). One who stands in the Holy of Holies should direct his heart toward the parochet (ark cover). One who stands behind the chamber of the parochet should envision himself as standing before t

he parochet. Thus we find that one who is in the east should turn and face west [to pray]; one who is in the west should turn and face east; one who is in the south should turn and face north; one who is in the north should turn and face south; all Israel should turn their hearts to one place.

INTRODUCTION

The Rabbis discussed at length the Temple, the meaning of its destruction, and their longing for it to be rebuilt. They determined that we should face Jerusalem to pray. Consequently, to this day synagogues build their ark on the wall facing Jerusalem, and synagogues in Jerusalem face the Temple Mount. Many Jews have a small plaque called a mizrach (“east”) on the eastern wall of their house to remind them of the direction of Jerusalem.

"Without Jerusalem, the Land of Israel is a body without a soul." (Elhanan Leib Lewinsky)

But the Talmud doesn’t discuss the Western Wall. In recent decades, the Kotel (the Western Wall, so named because it is the western retaining wall around the Temple Mount) has come to be an important place of prayer for many Jews due to its proximity to the spot where once the Temple stood. The Orthodox rabbinate in Israel controls the area adjacent to the Wall, regulating with an iron fist who may prayer there and how. Women wishing to pray with tallit and read Torah have been excluded, often violently. Led by Women of the Wall, and the courageous force of nature, Anat Hoffman, they have prevailed. Recently, the Israeli government approved a plan to create an egalitarian prayer space at the Kotel in the section known as Robinson’s Arch. I chose this passage in celebration of this victory.

COMMENTARY

While the passage from Berakhot 30a certainly makes it sound like facing Jerusalem for prayer is an open-and-shut case, Baba Batra 25a reports that, “Rav Sheshet believed that the Shekhinah is in all places. Accordingly, when [he prayed] he would say to his attendant: Set me facing any direction except east. And this was not because the Shekhinah is not there, but because the minim (sectarians) prescribe that one face east.” Other sages recommend facing west (the Shekhinah is in the west according to R. Abbahu), north (to become wealthy according to R. Yitzhak), and south (to become wise, again according to R. Yitzhak). It would appear that at some point in history, Jerusalem was not yet a fixed direction for prayer. It is worth noting that Rav Sheshet was blind; the passage in Berakhot 30a seems to suggest that people who are blind or directionally challenged are exempted from the requirement to face the Temple Mount, either because it is an onerous imposition given their disability, or because for them it is not experientially meaningful.

"Jerusalem is a port city on the shore of eternity." (Yehudah Amichai)

When the Temple stood, it was a visible sign of God’s presence, lending sanctity to the Temple Mount, and by extension to Jerusalem, where tradition holds God chose King Solomon to build the First Temple. In this passage, written after the Destruction of the Second Temple, when the Jews are bereft of their Sanctuary and coming to realize that it will not soon be rebuilt, the Rabbis construct, with words, the metaphysical structure of the world: the world is composed of a series of concentric circles of holiness, with the ark of the covenant at the center, the Holy of Holies next, followed by the Temple, and then Jerusalem, and then the Land of Israel. Because the Temple was “God’s house” and God figuratively “resided” in the Holy of Holies, that is the address one faces for prayer. And even if the Temple no longer stands, one imagines it in one’s religious imagination and makes it potent in one’s life by facing a certain spot on the globe for prayer.

"No city in the world, not even Athens or Rome, ever played as great a role in the life of a nation for so long a time, as Jerusalem has done in the life of the Jewish people." (David Ben-Gurion)

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER AND DISCUSS

1.     What power and meaning do facing Jerusalem for prayer hold for you? Do you have a mizrach in your home? Why or why not?

2.     Many Jews would say that they do not genuinely long for the Temple to be rebuilt and the cult of sacrifices to be restored. Are there reasons to face Jerusalem for prayer nonetheless?

3.     Prayer at the Kotel—which is only a retaining wall—worries some people, who believe the intense focus on praying at the Wall comes close to idolatrous worship of the Wall. What are your thoughts?