[When the Catholic faithful hear the world ‘altar’, they tend to connect it with the structure at the front of their church where the priest conducts the ‘holy sacrifice of the mass’. Protestants have a similar area at the front of their church, although an ‘altar’ is not in place, usually a lectern or dais where the preacher delivers his message. Other Christian denominations devise their own version of their worship or fellowship place. Jewish synagogues have their central area of focus where the Torah and the Menorrah are prominently set up.
Image from www.boxedart.com
In a way, it is helpful for passersby to see a religious building because it reminds them of a God; not only religious structures but symbols as well. The cross is prominent in Christian jewelry; in Messianic, the cross superimposed on the star of David, symbolic of Israel. How important is it to be reminded that a God exists? Or that the God of a particular religion is the True God who saves ONLY the flock of that religion?
In the United States, religious symbols have been banned from public places. Even crosses in military graveyards have been changed with simple blocks of stone, or, as it is now in modern cemeteries, flat slabs of metal on the ground.
Israel is given their first duty upon entering the Land: build an altar to their God. That was the custom of the Patriarchs before such instructions were given. There is in man an urge to worship something, someone, even a god they do not know. Notice how, during an earthquake, tornado, hurricane and other destructive forces of nature, the words that are mindlessly uttered even by skeptics and unbelievers are: “Oh my God!” That reflects human instinct, what’s in his unconscious mind! The Creator has put in place such forces of nature from the beginning of earthly time, and those forces continue to work together to benefit mankind or wreak havoc, yet serve their purpose: to remind the intentionally clueless that there is a Higher Power responsible for sustaining this vast universe.
Sinai perspective: That ‘altar’ in these instructions should be built in the one and only earthly place where it belongs: in the heart of man from whence the love of YHWH is birthed once the mind recognizes, learns and understands the importance of the knowledge of the One True God. One cannot truly love what one does not know . . . but once introduced to the Creator and Master of the universe through His revelation on Sinai, that altar in the heart is automatically built. . . and then true worship begins, not at church, not in front of an altar, but in outward expressions of what is in the heart, simply living the Torah with an ever-conscious appreciation of this benevolent and gracious God!
Commentary here is from the best of Jewish minds as collected in one resource book by Dr. J.H. Hertz, Pentateuch and Haftorahs; our translation of choice is EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses..—Admin1.]
MOSES’ THIRD DISCOURSE
ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAW
Deuteronomy/Davarim 27
PROCEDURE ON CROSSING THE JORDAN
The nation, upon entering the land, was to declare the terms of its tenure by expressive ceremonies. These are four in number. The Law was to be written on twelve stones at Mt. Ebal; an Altar was to be erected there; the Covenant was to be ratified on Ebal and Gerizim; and twelve dooms on various malefactors were to be pronounced; see Josh VIII,30-35.
1-4. Erection of stones for the inscription of the Law—a symbolic act, declaring that the Israelites took possession of the land by virtue of their covenant with God, and on condition of their own faithfulness thereto.
1 Now it shall be: when there come upon you all these things, the blessing and the curse that I have set before you, and you take them to your heart among all the nations where YHVH your God has thrust-you- away,
the elders. They are here associated with Moses, because upon them would soon devolve the responsibility of securing the fulfilment of the Law.
commanded the people. ‘It thus becomes the duty of each individual Israelite to guard and defend the precepts of the Torah and to secure their observance’ (Hirsch).
2 and you return to YHVH your God and hearken to his voice,on the day. At the time; i.e. after the crossing of the Jordan. Many commentators see in this a reference to the twelve stones taken out of Jordan by Joshua (IV,3).
great stones. As they were to contain ‘all the words of this law’. Some commentators have held that only a brief summary of the Law could have been inscribed on the stones. However, since the discovery of the Hammurabi Code, consisting of 232 paragraphs, with a lengthy introduction and conclusion, in all but 8000 words, engraved on one block of diorite, it is seen that the laws of Deuteronomy, or even the whole Torah, could have been written on twelve stones. The Behistun inscription of Darius is, in its triple form, twice as long as the Code (XII,XXXVI), and is carved on the solid rock. There is, therefore, no reasonable doubt that, as Saadyah and Ibn Ezra hold, the 613 Precepts of the Torah were inscribed on those great stones.
with plaster. A coating of lime or chalk as a background for writing in black or another colour. This was quite usual in Egypt. Such writing would not long survive the winter rainstorms of Palestine; but the purpose was not so much permanency, as that the Law be before the eyes of the Israelites at the time when they heard the Blessings and the Curses.
3 YHVH your God will restore your fortunes, and have-compassion on you: he will return to collect you from all the peoples wherein YHVH your God has scattered you.4 If you be thrust-away to the ends of the heavens, from there YHVH your God will collect you, from there he will take you,
5-8. BUILDING AN ALTAR
This command is not contrary to chap. XII, that an Altar be erected only in the Central Sanctuary, as the latter law came into force only after the conquest of the Holy Land.
It is noteworthy that the building of an Altar, i.e. the institution of Public Worship, was to be the first duty of the Israelites on their entering into Canaan. Throughout the ages, provision for public worship and the religious instruction of the children was ever the first care of the loyal Jew on coming into a new land.
5 and YHVH your God will bring you to the land that your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it, he will do-well by you and make you many-more than your fathers.no iron tool. See Exod. XX,22. ‘The purpose of the Altar is to promote peace between Israel and his Father in Heaven. Let it not, therefore, be polluted by the touch of an iron tool, the symbol of division and destruction’ (Talmud).
6 YHVH your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed, to love YHVH your God with all your heart and with all your being, in order that you may live.
Image from nabataea.net
unhewn stones. lit. ‘whole’ or, ‘peaceful stones,’ the adjective being of the same root as ‘peace.’ The Altar, whose purpose is the expiation of sin, can only fulfill its mission when peace and brotherhood reign in Israel.
7 YHVH your God will place all those threats upon your enemies and on those-that-hate-you, that pursue you;peace-offerings. An emblem of Israel’s peaceful association with God.
shall eat there. The sacrificial meal was to form part of the ceremony of ratification; Exod. XXIV,11.
8 and you, (if) you return and hearken to the voice of YHVH and observe all his commandments that I command you today:upon the stones. Not on the stones of the Altar, which were rough and unhewn, but upon those of v. 4.
very plainly. So that the words of the Law could be easily read and understood. ‘In 70 languages,’ is the deep comment of the Rabbis, as its message for all the children of men. They welcomed any serious attempt to make the Scriptures known and understood by those enabled to read the Hebrew Original. ‘The words baer hetev, demanding that the words on the stones of the Altar be lucidly explained, gave rise to the School of Sopherim, the Scribes, whose office was to read the Book of the Law of God, distinctly, giving the sense, and causing the people to understand the reading (Nehemiah VIII,8). In time, this activity resulted in the various Targumim, the versions in the Aramaic vernacular of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel, and in the Greek of Aquila, the pupil of Akiba. In the course of the ages, the Scribe of old became the Rabbi of today. He expounds the Law at the solemn convocations in the synagogue, applies it to the everyday needs and problems besetting the lives of the worshipper, and perpetuates it by teaching it diligently to the children of the community under his guidance’ (Shechter).
The fulfilment of the command concerning the stones and Altar is given in Josh. VIII, 30-32.
9-10. ‘NOBLESSE OBLIGE’
9 YHVH your God will make you excel in all the doings of your hands, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your animals, and in the fruit of your soil, to good-measure, indeed, YHVH will return to delighting in you, to (your) good, as he delighted in your fathers-this day. The erection of the Altar and the initiation of the sacrificial rites connected therewith, that were to take effect on the Israelites’ entry into Canaan, made them become God’s people, charged with the obligation of fulfilling His commandments and statutes. The consequences of obedience and disobedience are given in the next chapter.
10 if you hearken to the voice of YHVH your God, by keeping his commandments and his laws-what is written in this document of Instruction- if you return to YHVH your God with all your heart and with all your being.11-14. MANNER OF THE SOLEMN BLESSING AND DOOM
The ceremony was antiphonal in character, the Levites speaking, and the people responding with an Amen. According to Tradition, the Levites stood round the Ark in some spot in the valley, midway between Gerizim and Ebal. They would first turn towards Gerizim and pronounce the Blessing, and the whole multitude on the slopes answered Amen. Turning then to Ebal, they would pronounce the Doom, followed by the same response. ‘Never did human imagination conceive a scene so imposing, so solemn, so likely to impress the whole people with deep and enduring awe, as the final ratification of their polity commanded by the dying Lawgiver’ (Milman).
11 For the commandment that I command you this day: it is not too extraordinary for you, it is not too far away!12 It is not in the heavens, (for you) to say: Who will go up for us to the heavens and get it for us and have us hear it, that we may observe it?
to bless. The Blessings, however, are not mentioned. According to the Talmud, a Blessing and a Doom were pronounced alternately, the Blessing being in each case the negative form of the Doom. Thus the first Blessing would be, ‘Blessed is the man who maketh not a graven or molten image,’ and so on.
13 And it is not across the sea, (for you) to say: Who will cross for us, across the sea, and get it for us and have us hear it, that we may observe it? 14 Rather, near to you is the word, exceedingly, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it!the Levites. The Levitical priests.
speak. Solemnly pronounce.
15-26. THE SOLEMN DOOMS
In their clarity and succinctness, these denunciations recall the Decalogue. They relate to extreme cases of irreligion and immorality: (1) idolatry; (2) dishonour of the parents; (3) removal of landmarks; (4) want of humanity to the blind; (5) injustice to the helpless; (6-9) incest and immorality; (10) murder; (11) bribery; and (12) general disobedience of the Law. The offences selected are such as could not readily be brought to justice before a human tribunal.
15 See, I set before you today life and good, and death and ill:cursed be. Or, ‘cursed is.” The words announce the inevitable result in God’s righteous government of a certain line of conduct.
Amen. ‘So be it’, original meaning. A solemn affirmation to a preceding statement. Whosoever answers Amen to an oath, it is as if he had himself pronounced the oath. In alter times, Amen becomes in the Synagogue—as distinct from the Temple—the regular liturgical response of the worshipers. It was often doubled at the end of a psalm or prayer. Great spiritual value was attached by the Rabbis to the reverent response of Amen in prayer. ‘Whosoever says Amen with all his strength, to him the gates of Paradise shall be opened.’ Amen is now one of the commonest words of human speech. Three great Religions have brought it into the daily lives of men of all races, climes, and cultures.
16 in that I command you today to love YHVH your God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments, his laws and his regulations, that you may stay-alive and become-many and YHVH your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.dishonoureth. The Heb. is the exact opposite of ‘honour thy father and they mother’; Exod. XXI,17; Lev. XX,9.
17 Now if your heart should face-about, and you do not hearken, and you thrust-yourself-away and prostrate yourselves to other gods, and serve them,his neighbour’s landmark. See Deut. XIX,14.
18 I announce to you today that perish, you will perish, you will not prolong days on the soil that you are crossing the Jordan to enter, to possess.the blind. This includes the inexperienced and morally weak, who by disingenuous advice can be led to commit irretrievable, or even fatal, mistakes (Rashi). [Lev. XIX,14. nor put a stumbling block before the blind. ‘Trip up a blind man’ (Moffatt), either in sport or malice. Alas for the prevalence of human callousness and cruelty that render the formulation of such a precept necessary. ‘Deaf’ and ‘blind’ are typical figures of all misfortune, inexperience, and moral weakness. This verse is a warning against leading the young and morally weak into sin, or provoking them to make irretrievable mistakes.
19 I call-as-witness against you today the heavens and the earth: life and death I place before you, blessing and curse; now choose life, in order that you may stay-alive, you and your seed,that perverteth the justice. See Deut. XXIV,17. Moffatt renders, ‘A curse on the man who tampers with the rights of an alien, an orphan, or a widow.
his father’s skirt. See on Deut. XXIII,1; Lev. XVIII,8.
any manner of beast. See Lev. XVIII,23.
with his sister. By either parent; Lev. XVIII,9,17. As such marriages were often contracted before the Giving of the Torah, it was necessary to emphasize their heinousness.
23 Damned be he that lies with his mother-in-law! And all the people are to say: Amen!mother-in-law. The Persians married their nearest blood-relatives; thus, Cambyses had two of his sisters in his harem.
24 Damned be he that strikes down his neighbor in secret! And all the people are to say: Amen!smiteth his neighbour. ‘By calumny’ (Rashi), which smites the honour, peace, and happiness of one’s neighbour; Exod. XXI,12.
25 Damned be he that takes a bribe, (thus) striking-down a life (through) innocent blood! And all the people are to say: Amen!bribe. Exod. XXIII,8; Deut. XVI,19.
that confirmeth not. ‘A comprehensive summing p of the foregoing in general terms, making the Torah, as a whole, binding on every individual Israelite. as contrasted with Israel’ (Wiener).