“Admat Kodesh” – “Holy Ground”: Where Is It? How Do We Find It?

Do We Build a Mosque, Church or Synagogue on It?

Second Day Rosh HaShanah – September 10, 2010

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor

Richmond, Virginia

 

As I typed in the title for this sermon, having already decided on its content, I realized that the next day, tomorrow, would be nine-eleven. What used to be numbers reserved for emergency usage will forever mark a day that divides history, before and after 9/11, a day on which many will say a personal kaddish, a day when we will all recite kaddish. While I have not visited the field in Pennsylvania, I have driven past the Pentagon numerous times and stared at the now rebuilt side of the structure. I am most familiar with the World Trade Center Towers. I still long to see them in the distance as I approach the city, despite all that I know. New grass grows on the field. The Pentagon is reconstructed and new edifices will rise in the area of the Towers. It won't be like the original, but something will be there.

 

The Pentagon couldn't be left ruined and destroyed. There was some controversy concerning the field. We all knew that "Ground Zero" would eventually be emptied of the rubble and something would be erected on the spot. There was controversy over its architecture. Yet I knew that I hoped in vain that they would just leave it alone. Privately and secretly I just wanted them to fill it in and leave it alone. Then it could be called "Holy Ground" and as a park with benches, we could sit in silence only broken by the traffic on West Street and occasional sirens. That is lost in the construction. It will be another part of Manhattan with offices and hot dog stands and people coming and going. Forever it will be "Ground Zero." But I am hesitant to call it "Holy Ground." All this calamitous harangue about what or not to build two blocks away pains me greatly. I share these thoughts on Rosh HaShanah, the eve of 9/11.

 

 

The phrase "Admat Kodesh" – "Holy Ground" is used only once in the entire Bible, in the Torah [Exodus 3:5] when Moses discovers God's presence at the bush-that-is not-consumed at a place that will become known as Mt. Sinai. It is also called Mt. Horev and "HaHar," "The Mountain," with no further appellation. Because of its holiness God commands Moses to take off his sandals. Obviously that was the method of showing respect.  Though without the word 'admat,' the ground being called kodesh occurs in Joshua 5:15 in a similar experience this time an angel representing God's presence, telling him that the land is holy.

 

Yet these two places were never sanctified in Jewish tradition. We did not designate the place in the Sinai Peninsula as Mt. Sinai. Christians did. We took the experience of Sinai and made that holy and did not try to find and sanctify the place where Moses stood. Similarly, the location of Joshua's experience was never identified. Even places that were or are known, such as Shilo, never achieved such status as "Admat Kodesh" – "Holy Ground." Much later in Jewish history there will be four "Holy Cities" in the land of Israel, Tiberias, Safed, Jerusalem, and Hebron, but were still normal places to live.

In Jewish tradition there are only three "Holy Ground's,'" a cemetery, the land of Israel in general, and the Temple Mount specifically. The Aron HaKodesh, the Ark, only has holiness, kedushah, to the extent that it houses the Torah scrolls. We have holy things such as the Torah and our bodies because they both come from God. We have holy time such as today, all the chagim and Shabbat. Time is always holy.  When I was researching for this sermon and googled 'holy ground' I found that there are many songs with that title, one which I will include in these remarks. Otherwise it was a lot of citations to the current imbroglio.

 

Let me ask – and answer - a few questions:

1. What is "Holy Ground?"

2. What makes an otherwise common place "Holy Ground?"

3. Do we really need "Holy Ground" in our lives?

4. What should we do with "Holy Ground?"

 

I am drawing upon, without necessarily citing some of the thoughts in articles that I googled. You can do the same. Just put "Holy Ground" in the search engine. Have fun.

 

I.

Judaism would answer my first question by saying that Holy Ground is the place where the voice of God is heard. Holy ground can be this Sanctuary, the Okun Chapel, in our Talmud and Torah classes. For me I think it was during my youth in both my Hebrew school class and Junior Congregation. I remember studying in the original Seminary Library Reading Room and "heard" God as I studied. I certainly heard it in the voice of the saintly Rabbi Krett who tutored us in the Talmud, in the European cadence of his voice reviewing the holy text, in alcove off of the then daily chapel.  I have felt "Holy Ground" standing on the seashore and sensed God's power manifest in the unending waves. Their ceaseless flowing to the shore evoked in me a sense of eternity and that brought me to God. I don't think that the ground that both Moses and Joshua stood upon was inherently different from any other clod of earth. What happened there made all the difference. For whatever reason, it was there that they experienced God, they heard God's voice. Common ground can become Holy Ground. It is what happens to us there that makes the difference.

 

Let me pose a question for you to answer to yourselves: Have you ever stood in a place and felt that it was "Holy Ground?" Have you ever had "Holy Ground" experiences in your life? Do you recall those places which in and of themselves were not sacred, but because it was in that special place you heard God's voice and saw God's power and they became "holy ground" to you? Was it under chuppah when you got married? Was it in the delivery room at the birth of your child? Was it watching your child or grandchild ascend the bemah as bar/bat mitzvah? Was it standing under Niagara Falls or atop the Empire State Building or high above the clouds in a plane, or watching the first man on the moon, or the eclipse of the sun?  Have you ever felt a moment of transcendence? Where did it happen? What happened to that place afterwards? Did it return to being normal? Have you ever had an experience in which you want to "take off your shoes?" Holy Ground is the place where we have a vision of God, His power, His presence, His eternity.

 

"Holy Ground" can be anywhere. It doesn't have to be somewhere specific. It doesn't have to be in a place previously designated. It doesn't have remain "Holy Ground" forever. Just for that moment.

 

II.

Do we need "Holy Ground" in our lives? I think so. I hope so. If Holy Ground is that place where to have such a powerful experience, then I really want to have that experience and need I that place. It is an inconceivable thought that from this time and place – Olam HaZeh – I can connect metaphysically to the Power-that-has-made-all-this, to the Power-of-the-Cosmos that cares about me. In an article I found while googling Sabine Barnhart wrote: "the holy ground was part of my life that I walked on…Places become holy because of their significance to the people who experience life and relationships there…The relationship that I have with this place has already created a holy ground within me…If a society can learn to understand the significance of holy ground, mankind could walk this earth with less fear of conflict…Holy ground cannot be conquered. It has to be honored continually so that it will grow in blessedness."

 

Holy Ground can be a place where I stand, like where Moses and Joshua stood. Holy ground can be a place inside of me, wherever I am, at any moment, at every moment. Holy ground can be a physical place. It doesn't have to be. It can be a physical place in my mystical memory and a divine place in my heart. I will always search for such a place and delight in the moment and capture it in my heart and mind forever. Holy Ground can be the quintessential human–divine experience.

 

III.

When all the construction is finished Ground Zero will not be Holy Ground. To the best of their ability, all the remains of the Towers and its people have been removed. It will be an office building with a great view. There will be some empty space, but nothing to evoke that which stood, the agony of the day and the pain of history. It probably won't bring us closer to God. It will be an unforgettable and indelible moment in time that changed all history. All the rhetoric sounds so trivial. It doesn't matter if a church, synagogue or mosque – really an Islamic version of the 92^nd Street YMHA with a mosque in it – is built two city blocks away. If the United States reneges on its multi-cultural and multi-faith composition and foundational values, we all lose that which is most precious to every citizen. There once was a time when we couldn't build synagogues in this country. This is a confrontation that destroys our moral fiber, the holy ground within us. That is unworthy. That is a sin. Then all this is in vain.

 

IV.

The one song that captures these thoughts that I found in researching for this sermon is written by Woody Guthrie. References were made that it has been sung by the Klezmatics, but I haven't heard their edition.

 

 

Holy Ground

Woody Guthrie, Lyrics

 

Take off, take off your shoes

This place you're standing, it's holy ground

Take off, take off your shoes

The spot you're standing, it's holy ground

 

These words I heard in my burning bush

This place you're standing, it's holy ground

I heard my fiery voice speak to me

This spot you're standing, it's holy ground

 

That spot is holy holy ground

That place you stand it's holy ground

This place you tread, it's holy ground

God made this place His holy ground

 

Take off your shoes and pray

The ground you walk it's holy ground

Every spot on earth I trapse around

Every spot I walk it's holy ground

 

Every spot it's holy ground

Every little inch it's holy ground

Every grain of dirt it's holy ground

Every spot I walk it's holy ground

 

Conclusion

We need to discover our national holy ground.

We need to discover our personal holy ground.

We need to discover our religious and spiritual holy ground.

Here in shul we must experience holy ground.

We must take it with us when we leave.

 

In a spiritual, metaphysical way let us live our lives, like Moses and Joshua with our sandals off, walking our lives on admat kodesh, holy ground.                               Amen.