As we remove the Torah from the ark, we recite the powerful verse: “Ki mitzion tetzey torah” “Torah shall come from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”
It is a moment of high drama, intensified by the royal regalia of the Torah scroll (crowns, breastplates, ringing bells, silver, etc.) We rise for a “royal promenade” as the Torah circles the room, and out of respect we keep our eyes on the Torah at all times. (Think Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching G-d).
Majestic, yes. Logical, no.
Because Torah does not come from Zion. It comes from Sinai. At least originally, and therein lies a tale. The great biblical scholar Jon Levenson has pointed out that Sinai and Zion are, in a sense, two opposites. Sinai is the site of revelation and covenant, where the whole people of Israel are engaged. Zion is the location of the Temple and the King, where priestly ritual exactitude and royal politics dominate.
One could imagine that the Sinai revelation could be interpreted as “real” religion, or at least “real” Judaism; whereas the Temple and Palace of Jerusalem, several hundred years after Sinai, could be seen as a deterioration of “that old-time religion,” a decline to ritual triviality and legal formalism.
Indeed, that was exactly how Christianity (mis)interpreted Judaism for centuries, and to a limited extent even today.
But Judaism rejected this dichotomy. Judaism was insistent that the “word of the Lord” was not limited to a moment of revelatory ecstasy. It was something that was meant to have an impact on every aspect of our lives, to inform our ritual practice, our political organization, the very fabric of our body politic.
In other words, Torah might have started at Sinai. But the transmission of Torah, the concretization of Torah as a social institution, continued (and continues) from Zion and Jerusalem.
If we are meant to be “a free people in our land, the land of Zion and Jerusalem,” as Hatikvah proudly declares, we must never forget what Zion and Jerusalem are for—a place where G-d’s Torah becomes manifest in our world.
What a privilege it is to be a witness to it!
Rabbi Robert L. Wolkoff