Naso

NOT BY MIGHT NOR BY POWER

The first two mitzvot in this week’s parashah have to do with the prohibition of entering the Beit HaMikdash when one is ritually impure.  The Torah states:  – Command the Children of Israel that they shall send away from the camp everyone with tzara’at, every zav, and everyone contaminated by the dead… so that they not contaminate their camps in which I dwell (5:2-3).  Two mitzvot are alluded to here: one positive (they shall send away), and one negative (so that they not contaminate).  Depending on the type of tumah a person has, he or she is prohibited from entering one, two, or three camps – Machaneh Shechinah, Machaneh Leviyah, and Machaneh Yisrael.  In the Beit HaMikdash, these three camps corresponded to the Azarah (the Temple), Har HaBayit (the Temple Mount), and Jerusalem.

In his discussion of the underlying reasons for these mitzvot, Sefer HaChinuch writes:  “One could compare this matter, allegorically, to the palace of a king from which they distance anyone with tzara’at or anyone whose body or even whose clothing is loathsome.  This is similar to the verse  – For one is not to come to the gate of the king with sackcloth (Esther 4:2)” (Mitzvah 362).  In the next mitzvah (363), the Chinuch adds, “This mitzvah applies… even nowadays… for the sanctity of HaShem rests upon [the site of the Temple] even today, when it is desolate, as Chazal derive from the verse I will make your sanctuaries desolate (VaYikra 26:31).”

The Chinuch is referring to a concept developed most notably by the Rambam.  In many places, the Talmud cites a dispute regarding the status of the Beit HaMikdash and the entire Land of Israel.  Regarding the Beit HaMikdash and Jerusalem, the Rambam rules that קדושה ראשונה קדשה לשעתה וקדשה לעתיד לבוא – the sanctity generated at the time of the First Temple took effect during that period and continues ad infinitum; it was not abrogated when the Temple was destroyed.  Regarding the rest of the Land, however, he holds that קדושה ראשונהקדשה לשעתה ולא קדשה לעתיד לבוא – the first sanctity was nullified by the destruction of the First Temple; but קדושה שניה קדשה לשעתה וקדשה לעתיד לבוא – the sanctity generated by Ezra at the time of the Second Temple existed then and continues until this very day.  The Rambam explains the reason for this difference:

Why do I say [this]…?  For the sanctity of the Mikdash and Jerusalem stems from the Shechinah [Divine Presence], and the Shechinah never dissolves.  Behold, it says,   – I will make your sanctuaries desolate, and the Sages state, “Even though [your sanctuaries] are desolate, they still remain holy.”
The Land’s obligation of shevi’it and ma’asrot, however, is based only on public conquest [i.e., Yehoshua’s conquest].  And since the Land was taken away from them [at the time of the first destruction], the conquest was annulled and [the Land] was biblically exempt from ma’asrot and shivi’it, for it was no [longer considered] Eretz Yisrael [in terms of these mitzvot].

When Ezra returned and sanctified [the Land], he did not sanctify it through conquest, rather through chazakah – taking hold of it.  Therefore, any place that the people who ascended from Babylonia took hold of – thus sanctifying it with Ezra’s second sanctification – is holy today, even though the Land was taken away from us…  (Hilchot Beit HaBechirah 6:16)

That is, Ezra’s sanctification is everlasting because it was brought about by way of settlement.  Chazakah is a stronger mode of acquisition than conquest is, for the latter can be annulled by a subsequent conquest, while the former is immutable.  In his work “Eretz Yisrael Nachalat Am Yisrael,” R. Yechezkel Abramsky explains the Rambam’s idea thus:  “Ezra’s aliyah, which was based on a yearning for the Land where God chose to rest His name, left its mark on the Land – from a halachic standpoint – for that generation and all future generations…  What Yehoshua’s conquest could not do with its military might, Ezra’s aliyah accomplished with the strength of its spiritual fervor…  – Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, said the Lord of Hosts (Zecharyah 4:6).”

The Kuzari states, “If this Land had only this advantage, that the Shechinah rested there for 900 years [when the two Temples stood], it would be fitting for people to yearn to ascend there in order to purify their souls…” (Kuzari 2:23).  It is true that nowadays the Shechinah rests “only” in Jerusalem, but the entire Land is holy (קדושה שניה קדשה לשעתה וקדשה לעתיד לבוא), and this is where the Shechinah once dwelt and will dwell again in the very near future.  Isn’t this enough of an incentive for us to take possession of our historical Homeland – with spiritual fervor like Ezra did – and redeem it from those who wish to take it away from us?

Reprinted from Eretz Yisrael in the Parashah by R’ Moshe D. Lichtman