[Avodah] Underlying Truth of the Realm Holiness in Israel

[Professor L. Levine]

The following is part of RSRH's commentary on Shemos 35


22 The men came, along with the women, all, moved by their hearts:
they brought brooches, nose-rings, rings and buckles, all kinds of golden objects, and everyone who had assigned an offering of gold to G-d.


The underlying truth of the realm of holiness in Israel is that this
realm is not superhuman, towering above and negating ordinary life
and its conditions. On the contrary, the altar must be erected on the
earth itself, with nothing intervening between the altar and the earth.
The altar of the Torah was erected not on the verdant Mount Gerizim,
but on the desolate Mount Eival (see Commentary, Bereshis 12:6-7).
So, too, in general, the Sanctuary of the Torah presupposes the concrete
reality of human earthly existence. The Sanctuary is directly connected
with this reality, and is to be actualized, without separation, in the
reality of life. For the highest goal and highest holiness is basically just
that purpose and that actualization for which man was created in his
earthliness and physical life.
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