Kapitel 40Die Wohnung
Zuhause
Ein Palast zeigt Erhabenheit. Ein Zuhause zeigt den, der darin wohnt.
Der Unterschied zwischen einem Ort, gebaut um gesehen zu werden, und einem, gebaut um bewohnt zu werden — und warum die Tradition das zweite Wort wählte.
The Chassidic formulation could have used any number of words. Palace, temple, throne, sanctuary — each carries dignity and each was available. The word used is dirah, a dwelling. An apartment. Where someone lives.
נִתְאַוָּה הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לִהְיוֹת לוֹ יִתְבָּרֵךְ דִּירָה בַּתַּחְתּוֹנִיםDer Heilige, gepriesen sei Er, begehrte eine Wohnung in den unteren Welten.
Begehrte — nicht benötigte. Das ganze Vorhaben gehört zum Willen, nicht zur Notwendigkeit.
Der Heilige, gepriesen sei Er, begehrte eine Wohnung in den unteren Welten.
Begehrte — nicht benötigte. Das ganze Vorhaben gehört zum Willen, nicht zur Notwendigkeit.
What a home is
A palace is organised around being seen. Its scale, its sightlines and its ceremony all exist to communicate something to someone who is not the occupant. The occupant of a palace is, in an important sense, always at work.
A home is organised around being. There is no audience. Its rooms are shaped by what actually happens in them rather than by what they convey. And the specific thing a home reveals is not the occupant’s greatness but the occupant — the difference between knowing what someone is capable of and knowing what they are like.
In a palace you learn what he can do. In a home you learn who he is.
Where someone is unguarded
This is the boldest thing in the entire Chassidic vocabulary and it is worth pausing on rather than passing over. The purpose of creation, in this formulation, is not that Hashem be glorified — glory is available without a world. It is that there be somewhere He is at home.
Every word of that has to be handled carefully; none of it implies anything lacking, and the previous chapter is the guard against reading it that way. But the choice of word stands, and the tradition made it deliberately.
וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָםSie sollen Mir ein Heiligtum machen, und Ich werde unter ihnen wohnen.
Unter ihnen, nicht in ihm. Der Bau ist ein Mechanismus.
Sie sollen Mir ein Heiligtum machen, und Ich werde unter ihnen wohnen.
Unter ihnen, nicht in ihm. Der Bau ist ein Mechanismus.
Mikdash me’at
The Talmud calls the synagogue and the house of study a mikdash me’at, a small sanctuary — and the phrase is applied by extension to the Jewish home, which is treated in the sources as a site of holiness in its own right rather than as a place one leaves in order to reach holiness.
The direction of the analogy is worth noticing. The home is not being flattered by comparison with the Mikdash. Given dirah betachtonim, the Mikdash is the public instance of what the home is privately: the ordinary case, and the whole point.