Location, Location, Location!
It's All About Location!
But the main difference is not the people; it’s the location. I remember a real estate agent telling me that it’s all about “Location, location, location!” She was right. The location makes all the difference in the world. I am outside in middle of nature. I have a sense of freedom that isn’t there in the gym. I think well. I come up with ideas for the blog and lectures, which doesn’t often happen in the gym. I relax and consider the time productive. My time on the treadmill is a burden. Location matters when I walk, as it does when I learn, pray, or eat.
The Children of Israel did not really have a place in Egypt. They did not belong to society. Yet, out they go, into the desert, again without a sense of place. They may have been in a camp, in their own tents, but I imagine they felt displaced all those years in the desert, never knowing when the cloud would rise and they would have to pick up and move yet again.
It’s not surprising that the verse does not describe God dancing, or passing over, the people; it says that God danced over their Homes, their place, as if God was nurturing a sense of place for them, even as their bags were placed and they were dressed for travel, knowing that they would soon be traveling. They were creating a place for themselves when they placed the blood on their doorposts and lintels. No wonder they were not allowed to move outside of their homes while eating their Pesach Offering. It’s all about location.
They learned that a person does not need to have something permanent in order to have a sense of a place all their own. This is why the Sages teach that we create a space of four cubits around ourselves when we pray or study Torah. We can create a place for ourselves wherever we go.
No wonder we refer to God as Hamakom – The Omnipresent – in the Haggadah! We gained the ability to create our own special locations for ourselves wherever we go as part of gaining freedom. We can move around and make that special “location,” with everything we do.
Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.
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[...] & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish [...]
[...] years, as did Jacob until he settled in Egypt. But even that settling ended in a sense of exile. (Location! Location! Location!) We need a sense of place, and a sense of belonging. When God punished Cain as a “Vagrant and [...]
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At the end of Parashat Yitro in Exodus, immediately following the trans-mission of the Aseret ha-Deebrote, G-d gives Moshe additional messages to convey to Bnei Yisrael.
Chapter 20 verse 21:
“B’Chol” – “ha-Makom” – “Asher azkeer et Sh’mee, Avo aleicha u’bayrachteecha”.
Normally this is translated as something akin to: “In every place wherever I permit My Name to be mentioned, I will come to you and bless you.”
But if you break up the Hebrew words of verse as written above, another meaning unfolds. The arrangement above is based on the Kabbalah’s understanding of the words “Chol, ‘All’” and Ha-Makom, ‘*The* Place.’
Chol, ‘All’, represents the sphere of Yesod, Foundation. In one respect it is the sum total of everything. As such, with respect to the world we live in, ‘The All’ means anything and everything you might be or are doing, and everywhere you may be.
The verse implies a partial equality! ‘The All’ equals, or is at least part of, G-d!, “Ha-Makom!” (‘Makom’ is a Name of G-d as Rav Simcha described above. In addition to ‘Omnipresent’ our sages explain that this Name describes the fact that G-d is ‘the Place’ of the world(s).)
With the key understanding of these two words, we can now understand the verse in a new way:
“B’Chol” – In ‘The All’ – wherever you are, whatever your occupation/profession – ‘The All’ is in fact a manifestation of:
“ha-Makom” – M-e, G-d (so be at ease! I am with you/you are with Me)
“Asher azkeer et Sh’mee,” – If *I*, G-d, Cause My Name to be remembered there, i.e., you pray, think of Me, learn, do Mitzvot, use what you do to fulfill the Torah’s precepts
“Avo aleicha” – I will come to you
“u’bayrachteecha” – and I will bless you.
Some quotes from Rav Simcha’s posting with observations after each:
“…as if God was nurturing a sense of place for them, even as their bags were placed and they were dressed for travel, knowing that they would soon be traveling. They were creating a place for themselves when they placed the blood on their doorposts and lintels.”
I remember helping a friend affix mezuzot on his home. Here was this house, in the middle of New Jersey, a neighborhood that not long ago was just a field with grass and trees with no one living there. Eventually a neighborhood is created. People live there. So do animals, birds, insects and plants. Then one day this person puts mezuzot on all the doorways. SUDDENLY, the *place* is transformed – into the *Place* – an EMBASSY of G-d!!!
“No wonder they were not allowed to move outside of their homes while eating their Pesach Offering.”
This is similar to the Kohanim who had to eat the sacrifices within the Temple’s precincts – or – like the Jewish people who had to eat or spend certain offerings within the city limits of Jerusalem! The mezuzot define a sanctified area akin to these holy places.
“They learned that a person does not need to have something permanent in order to have a sense of a place all their own. This is why the Sages teach that we create a space of four cubits around ourselves when we pray or study Torah. We can create a place for ourselves wherever we go.”
It has been noted that the Jewish people are the only Nation on earth who maintained their nationality and survived without a land. Because in fact – Eretz ‘Yisrael’ – the ‘Land’ of our Patriarch(s) – is a spiritual Place, whose states are states of *Being.* We enter those different states when we observe the Torah, the Moadim/holidays and perform different Mitzvot.
(Even the physical land of Israel is also spiritual and its foods nourish the soul. See the book, “Rav Schwab on Prayer” in the section on Kriat Shema.)