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Remove the foreign gods that are in your midst. Purify yourselves and change
your clothes. Then we will rise and ascend to Beth El. There I will construct an
altar to God, Who answered me in my hour of trouble, and Who accompanied me
in the path that I took. (Gen. 35:2-3)
The first time Jacob had come to Beth El, he erected a matzeivah, a pillar with
which to worship God. Now, Jacob built a mizbei'ach, an altar. What is the
difference between worshipping God with a pillar or with an altar?
The Torah later prohibits erecting a matzeivah, even if it is to be used to worship
God (Deut. 16:22). The Sages explained that the matzeivah was beloved in the
time of the Patriarchs, but abhorred in the time of their descendants (Sifri Shoftim
146).
What brought about this change in status?
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way of serving God, based on a unique combination of the spiritual paths of the
three Avot .
To fully function, the Jewish nation requires a variety of talents and fields of
expertise. Spiritual leadership, in the form of teachers of Torah and kohanim, came
from the tribe of Levi. Kings and national leaders arose from Judah. Issachar
excelled in producing scholars and judges. Other tribes specialized in commerce,
agriculture, and national defense.
The altar Jacob built from many stones upon his return to Beth El embodied the
new paradigm of serving God. This was no longer a time of a single, uniform service
of God. There were now many paths to serve God, which joined together in one
altar, as all aspired toward the common goal of Divine service.
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Jacob therefore instructed his family, Remove the foreign gods in your midst. The
Sages taught that the evil inclination is a foreign god (Shabbat 105b). Jacob
pleaded that they remove the evil inclination which convinces us that others are
foreign. He wanted his family to recognize that, on the inside, the disparate
members of the Jewish people are united in purpose and soul. For this reason, the
Torah refers to Jacobs family as seventy soul (Ex. 1:5), in the singular,
emphasizing that the souls of Israel are united at their source.
It is only the externals our deeds and actions that separate us. Therefore
Jacob requested that his family purify themselves by changing their clothes, by
removing the superficial exterior which conceals our true inner unity.
Then, Jacob announced, we will be ready to ascend to Beth El and worship God
together. There we will serve God using a mizbei'ach, composed of many stones
and many paths but all working together toward the same ultimate goal of
serving God.
(Sapphire from the Land of Israel. Adapted from Midbar Shur, pp. 74-75)
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