Streams and Spices: The Beis Midrash That Elevates

1a“Like streams stretched out, like gardens by a river, like ahalim that Hashem has planted.”¹ The early Midrash Tanna Devei Eliyahu says: “What do streams have to do with synagogues and study halls, that the verse says ‘Like streams stretched out’ right after ‘How goodly are your tents, O Yaakov’? It comes to tell you: just as streams raise a person from impurity to purity, so synagogues and study halls raise a person from impurity to purity.”² The Gemara, however, learns this from the word ahalim: “Why are ahalim placed next to streams? As it is written, ‘Like streams stretched out, like gardens by a river, like ahalim that Hashem has planted …’”³ Rashi takes the word together with “planted,” reading ahalim as tents, which matches the explanation of Tanna Devei Eliyahu.⁴ Tosafos, however, write: “The Kuntres explained that it is because it is written, ‘Like streams stretched out … like ahalim planted.’ But it seems to me that ahalim in this verse does not mean tents but spices.⁵ Rather, it seems that the teaching comes from the fact that ‘How goodly are your tents’ is placed next to ‘Like streams stretched out.’” So far the words of Tosafos.

1bWe may say that, on Tosafos' reading of ahalim as spices, the Gemara's teaching, drawn from the word ahalim, adds something to that of Tanna Devei Eliyahu. The beis midrash has the power not only to purify the person himself, like one who enters a stream, but also, like spices, which perfume everything around them, to reach others. So if one of the worshipers prays as he should and is privileged to receive the flow of the beis midrash's holiness properly, he passes it on to all the others who pray there. Through him, they too are perfumed with this fragrance and holiness.

2[For there are two levels in Torah study.⁶ A person may be privileged to rise through his Torah study, so that the Torah lifts him from a bad path to a good one, from impurity to purity. Yet all this affects only himself. There is, however, a higher and finer level, at which the Torah lifts a person the way spices perfume him: their effect is not only on the person himself, for others too are perfumed along with him.]

3How can a person reach this level of “like ahalim planted,” to be like spices? The way to it is what Chazal said on the words “upon the mountains of spices”: “In the merit of our fathers, whose fragrance rises before You like spices.”⁷ It is in the merit of the Avos that one reaches the level of spices, as we say, “When will my deeds reach the deeds of my fathers?”⁸ That is, we reflect on how our holy fathers, with all their greatness, treated the holiness of the beis midrash, and what their avodah in prayer looked like. Through this we too can be privileged to receive the flow of holiness from the beis midrash as we should.

4The Sdei Chemed, the great halachic encyclopedia, cites a dispute over whether Shehecheyanu, the blessing over a new or joyous occasion, should be recited at the dedication of a beis midrash, and it leans toward not reciting it.⁹ The Divrei Yoel, the responsa of the Satmar Rebbe, suggests a way around this: bring a new fruit or a new garment, recite the blessing over it, and have in mind the dedication of the beis midrash as well. But this really needs explaining: why should the building of a synagogue be different, so that no Shehecheyanu is recited over it?

5We can explain this along the lines of what we find about the counting of the Omer. The Ran and the Chok Yaakov ask a well-known question: why do we not recite Shehecheyanu over the mitzvah of counting the Omer?¹⁰ They answer that this mitzvah reminds us of the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash. Nowadays, according to most poskim, the halachic authorities, we count only because Chazal enacted it, in memory of the Beis HaMikdash, where the Omer offering was brought. For this reason the custom is to say after the counting: “May it be Your will that the Beis HaMikdash be rebuilt … and then we will offer before You the Omer offering.”¹¹ Since the counting recalls the mourning for the destruction, it is not fitting to recite a blessing over it and say “Who has kept us alive … to this time.”

6We can say the same about the dedication of a beis midrash. As is well known, the power of holiness in synagogues, which count as a “small sanctuary,” increased only after the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash. The Rishonim write this, among them the Radak on the verse we are about to cite and the Abarbanel in his Mashmia Yeshuah.¹² On this Chazal said, about the verse “Though I have scattered them in the lands, yet I have been for them a small sanctuary”: “These are the synagogues and study halls.”¹³ The same is implied by another teaching there: “In the future, the synagogues and study halls will be set in Eretz Yisrael.” The Maharsha there explains, based on the Midrash, that they will be set into the building of the Beis HaMikdash.¹⁴ So, since a synagogue reminds us of the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, we do not recite Shehecheyanu over it.

7From the standpoint of avodah, a person's inner service, we can give another reason why Shehecheyanu is not recited. The building of a synagogue by itself is only the preparation for its purpose. The purpose of the beis midrash and the synagogue is what Chazal described: “Why are ahalim placed next to streams? … Just as streams raise a person from impurity to purity, so ahalim [batei midrash] raise a person from the scale of guilt to the scale of merit.”¹⁵ It follows that everything still depends on a person's avodah: how careful he will be with the holiness of the beis midrash, and how he will prepare his heart to pray with kavanah. Only then will he reach the purpose the beis midrash is meant for: to be completely purified, to rise to the scale of merit, and to enter fully into holiness. That is why we should not recite the blessing over the building of the synagogue alone. Its purpose and task are not yet complete; they still depend on our avodah and our preparation.

8Especially since this beis midrash was built in the pure memory of my holy father and teacher, zt"l, how great an obligation this places on us! We know how much he demanded of us when it came to the holiness of the beis midrash, and how far we are from it. One example is what he wrote on the saying of Chazal about ahalim and streams.¹⁶ These are his words: “We may explain what Chazal said: ‘Why are ahalim placed next to streams? To tell you: just as streams raise a person from impurity to purity, so ahalim raise a person from the scale of guilt to the scale of merit.’ Rashi explains: ‘Ahalim: batei midrash.’ When a person immerses himself in a stream, all of him must be in the water, and not even a small hair may remain outside. In the same way, when a person comes to the beis midrash, he must be there with ‘his head and most of his body,’ his thoughts firmly fixed there, so that his mind does not wander outside. This is the meaning of the verse ‘Fortunate are those who dwell in Your house; they will yet praise You, Selah.’¹⁷ A person must sit in the beis midrash in such a way that ‘they will yet praise You, Selah’: even after he leaves the beis midrash, he goes on praising and thanking Hashem.” Those are his holy words.

9This lets us understand “How goodly are your tents, O Yaakov.” How good it is to sit in the study halls, and how precious this is for every simple Jew on the level of “Yaakov,” even though the holiness he draws from it is only like a “tent,” not something permanent. But that is not enough: there must also be “your dwelling places, O Yisrael.” A baal nefesh, a person of spiritual sensitivity, who stands on the level of “Yisrael,” must have the quality of a mishkan, a permanent dwelling. For him, the holiness of the beis midrash must be fixed in his heart so firmly that it changes him for the good and brings him into holiness for the whole day.

10As we have mentioned, my holy father constantly spoke about the honor and holiness of the beis midrash: about guarding against idle talk, about kavanah in prayer, and about modesty.

11So when we take to heart how great our duty is regarding the holiness of the beis midrash, and how far we are from fulfilling it, how could we bring ourselves to recite Shehecheyanu? That blessing belongs only to a thing's completion and fulfilled purpose. This is another reason why we should not recite Shehecheyanu at the dedication of the beis midrash.

12All that is left for us is to plead with Hashem and ask Him to bestow upon us a spirit of holiness and purity and an abundance of good. Then we will be able to give thanks wholeheartedly to Hashem, Who is good, and through this we will bring the end of days near. Amen.