Putting a modern twist on a 2,000-year-old tradition

Mark Mietkiewicz

It was one of the biggest acts of togetherness in Jewish history. In the days of the Temple, Jews would converge on Jerusalem to fulfil a commandment that could only be performed once every seven years: the mitzvah of Hakhel, the assembly of the Jewish people. Although Hakhel is not in force today (alas, no Temple), many people still put a modern twist on the 2,000 year-old tradition.

We have just completed the shmittah or sabbatical year during which the land in Israel lies fallow and debts between Jews are forgiven. As described in Deuteronomy, during the festival of Sukkot following the shmittah year, Moses commanded the priests and elders to perform what is considered an incredible act of Jewish unity, to “assemble (Hakhel) the people – the men, the women, the small children – … in order that they will hear and they will learn … and observe to do all the words of this Torah.”

You read that right: “the men, the women, the small children.” Unlike some other mitzvot, this one is very specific and very inclusive. But what good would it be to shlep the kids to the ceremony? Haim Sabato paraphrased the 19th-century scholar, The Malbim. Infants and toddlers “will not benefit in the manner of adults, who seek to savour every morsel of Torah. Rather, they will benefit in a more powerful way than the adults, because this experience will remain in their minds’ eye all their lives. They will directly experience the awesome sight of millions of Jews standing united for hours, transported beyond commonplace concerns and focused with all their beings on their sole purpose: to hear the lessons that the king is reading from the book.”

And quite a ceremony it was. Trumpets would sound throughout Jerusalem and a large wooden platform would be erected on Temple grounds. The king would sit on the platform and all in attendance would gather around him. Torah scrolls would be handed from dignitary to dignitary until it was presented to the king who would read selections to the assembled nation.

The Temples were destroyed. Jewish sovereignty ended. Although there is no longer a formal obligation to observe Hakhel, some Jews continued to commemorate the mitzvah into the Middle Ages. Eliezer Segal remarks, “It is difficult not to be amazed by the sheer tenacity of this ancient rite, and by our ancestors’ determination to keep it alive for so long after the destruction of the Temple. Though there are many possible reasons for the phenomenon, I feel that much of the Hakhel gathering’s attraction stemmed from the way in which it gave tangible expression to that most evasive of ideals: the unity of the Jewish people.”

Flash forward several centuries to October 1952. Citizens of the young State of Israel have just observed its first sabbatical year and Time Magazine was on hand to describe the country’s first Hakhel: “Last week the shmittah was over. Ten thousand pilgrims, most of them newly arrived immigrants from the Middle East, marched to the top of Mt. Zion, where they celebrated the end of the seventh year – the ceremony of Hakhel – for the first time since King Agrippa presided over the rites in 42 A.D. This year, since none of the Israeli government leaders is strictly Orthodox, the head of the state was represented by Jerusalem’s chief cantor, who read the Torah from the top of a truck. As he finished, old men blew on the double ram’s-horn. Pilgrims wearing rich prayer shawls cried out in jubilation, dancing and clapping their hands to the jangling of tambourines.”

Although those ceremonies were not captured on video, you can take a look at what things were like in 1966 thanks to a historic (silent) video with President Zalman Shazar, Chief Sephardi Rabbi Yitzchak Nissim and Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman.

One of the greatest proponents of a modern-day tribute to Hakhel was the Lubavitcher Rebbe. In order to emphasize the importance of unity during this special year, the Rebbe would depart from his normal custom and hold the etrog, palm, myrtle and willow together throughout the entire Hallel service. Those four species – needed to fulfill the mitzvah of lulav – are commonly thought to represent Jews, very different yet reliant on each other for survival.

Can’t make it to Jerusalem this Hakhel year? You can still demonstrate your Hakhel-affinity by joining an online Hakhel List – and benefit from the confluence of Hakhel, Kabbalah and yes, the web.

“Simply by joining a central listing, any Jew can fulfill the inner meaning of this mitzvah, which is to unite the entire Nation of Israel, an action with most powerful reverberations in this spiritual realms, and indeed with the power of bringing about the complete and true redemption by Moshiach.”

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