Last week, we discussed the proclamation we make as the Torah is being taken from the ark. The last line of the proclamation declares: “Proclaim Ad-nai’s greatness (gadlu) with me, and let us exalt (unromemah) G-d’s name together.”

As the Torah processional begins, we comply with the requests of the shaliach tzibbur:

“Greatness (gedulah), power, glory, victory and majesty are yours, Ad-nai…”. Exalt (romemu) Ad-nai our G-d, and bow down at G-d’s holy mountain…”

The choice of these verses is not merely a consequence of their semantic similarity. As is so often the case, they reflect the proto-Zionism of the siddur. The first verse, “Greatness, power, glory…” is taken from the speech of King David (1 Chronicles 29) in preparation for the building of the first Temple in Jerusalem. That theme is taken up explicitly in the final verse, from Ps. 99, which talks about bowing toward G-d’s holy mountain, i.e., the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. And, indeed, every Jewish prayer service, everywhere in the world, is directed toward Jerusalem.

In America, or Europe, we face East. In India, West. In South Africa, North, and in Sweden, South. If we are in Israel, we face Jerusalem. If we are in Jerusalem, we face the Temple Mount. If we are on the Temple Mount, (a rare and possibly forbidden occurrence, to be sure) we face the place where the Holy of Holies would have been (namely, the rock in the Dome of the Rock). In other words, these prayers, recited as we are “travelling,” remind us that there is a focus, both spiritual and geographic, around which we in fact are “centering.”

On a deeper level still, it should be pointed out that the array of divine qualities mentioned in the first verse were eventually used in kabbalah to designate the sefirot, the hidden archetypal aspects of the Divine personality. As we “center” geographically and spiritually, so too we “center” by aligning our personality with the personality of the Holy One.

And what, exactly, does all this have to do with Torah? As the rabbis said, there are 70 faces to the Torah. Like a finely cut diamond, every word of the Torah can reflect the divine light in multiple ways. As G-d is infinitely complex, and infinitely giving, so too Torah, the Word of G-d, is infinitely complex and infinitely giving.

“Turn it and turn it, for all is in it.”