Parshat Vayera
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron
בס"ד
לשכנו תדרשו
Re-discovering the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land
"וירא אליו ה' באלוני ממרא"
"From Your place, our King, may You appear and rule upon us, for we are awaiting You. When will You rule in Zion? Speedily in our days forever You shall dwell among us..." [1]
Our hearts and the hearts of all Israel yearn for the return and re-discovery of God's Kingship, the return and re-discovery of the Holy Presence, in Zion, in our Holy Land. The time has come to follow in the footsteps of Avraham our father, who searched all places on the globe for the Holy Presence and found it in our Holy Land, even before being commanded by HaShem to go to this Land in the beginning of last week's parsha.[2]
The time has come to follow in our father Avraham's footsteps, who ran after his bull, in this week's parsha, from his tent in Hebron to close-by Ma'arat HaMachpela, 'discovered' the Holy Presence there, and thereafter continued to make a pilgrimage of prayer every day to that spot.[3] The time has come to recognize and re-discover the Godly significance of location in our thoughts, speech, and daily lives
In halacha we find many references to the exact definitions of location designated for the 'dwelling' of the Holy Presence among us, from the measurements of the Temple Mount, via exact measurements of the Land of Israel, to even the measurements of an ad-hoc minyan in arbitrary rooms in the Diaspora. After all this is said, what sources do we have as to the spiritual dimensions in regard to Hebron and Ma'arat HaMachpela
As we see from Avraham's close-by pilgrimage within Hebron to Ma'arat HaMachpela, we learn that even several meters can make a difference in the spiritual intensity of location, even outside of the Temple Mount. Nevertheless, there are sources that point to the Torah's saying that Kaleb 'reached Hebron', without saying 'Ma'arat HaMachpela', showing that all of greater Hebron has spiritual power like Ma'arat HaMachpela, sufficient to save Kaleb from the scheme of the spies. [4]
There is yet another source suggesting a distance of three parasangs (6 km or 4 miles) as being at-least the extent of spiritual intensity stemming from Ma'arat HaMachpela, causing the nations 'to lick the dust of the earth' there in honor of the [5] tomb of Yaakov. That said, however, if we take into consideration the other holy places of Hebron, such as the Tomb of Jesse and Ruth, the ancient cemetery full of saints, and the many yeshivas and Kollelim spread across Hebron-Kiryat Arba, every meter we walk is a spiritual journey, spanning past, present, and future, into connecting to the Holy Presence in our Holy Land.
Real Stories from the Holy Land #40: "It was about 22:00 on Hoshana Raba night and I had still not davened Maariv. Even though I live in a neighborhood of Kiryat Arba several miles away from Ma'arat HaMachpela, I had a special 'hankering' to pray specifically at Ma'arat HaMachpela on this special night, even though finding a minyan there at such a late hour was close to impossible, especially since most people would begin the tikun of Hoshana Raba by then. I hitchhiked to Ma'arat HaMachpela, and just as I arrived, a goup of soldiers, well over enough for a minyan, 'happened' to come then and began to pray Maariv."
[1]Kedusha of Amida Shabbat
[2]Zohar 1, 78a
[3]Ibid, 127b
[4]Shaar Hahatzer 380
[5]Zohar Shmot 1
