5

ADDENDUM 2
HA-MAQOM: THE (DIVINE) GROUND
1.1 I translate Hebrew ha-Maqom as the (Divine) Ground. Literally, it means the Place, but
this is misleading in its use as a divine epithet. It is normally rendered the Omnipresent, the One
who is (every)place. This is actually a later medieval understanding of the term (see below). In
Tannaitic literature, it is a divine epithet which expresses Gods immanence and loving relationship
to humanity.
1

1.2 Bendavid demonstrates that ha-Maqom is originally a Biblical expression for (Holy) Place, the
Temple, and a metonym for God.
2
It is probably a shortened form of meqom ha-miqdash, the
Place of the Sanctuary.
3
The Holy Place or Earthly Temple becomes synonymous with the
Heavenly Temple, and as a representation of the divine it is the focus of prayer. For Jews in
Antiquity, the Holy Temple on Mount Zion in Jerusalem was viewed as the sacred center of the
world, the axis mundi, cosmic nexus, the link between people on earth and the heavenly divine
realm.
4
Jews would refer to God by using various metonyms, such as the Place, Abode, Temple,
Heaven, etc. Such euphemisms avoid any sacrilegious speech.
5

1.3 This expression was also popular among Greek-speaking Jews. Josephus refers to God as to
chrion, the Place. Smith astutely observes that Josephus also knows and accepts the belief that
the Place of the Jerusalem Temple had or was a supernatural power.
6
See also 2 Maccabees 3:37-39,

1
See Urbach, The Sages, 66-76; Sharvit, Language and Style of Tractate Avoth Through The Ages, 155.
Compare note 297 to Avot 2:13.
2
See Bendavid, Biblical Hebrew and Mishnaic Hebrew, 182, 444.
3
See Psalms 24:3, Ecclesiastes 8:10, Ezra 9:8. Compare the English place as abode, home. Compare
Psalm 96:6, Glory and majesty are before Him; strength and splendor are in His Sanctuary (miqdasho), with the
parallel in 1 Chronicles 16:27, Glory and majesty are before Him; strength and joy are in His Place/Temple
(meqomo). See also 1 Kings 8:43; 1 Kings 8:30, And when You hear the pleas of Your servant and Your people
that which Israel prays towards this Place/Temple, and You hear (our entreat
ie
s) towards the Place of Your Abode,
to Heaven You will hear and forgive. See Hurvitz, Terms and Epithets Relating to the Jerusalem Temple
Compound in the Book of Chronicles.
4
See Eliade, Symbolism of the Centre, especially 41-48; Green, The Zaddiq as Axis Mundi in Later
Judaism. Compare Levine, On the Presence of God in Biblical Religion; Brooke, Moving Mountains:
From Sinai to Jerusalem, 8-87. And see 1 (Ethiopic Apocalypse of) Enoch 12:4, the Holy Eternal
Place/Temple, on which see Bautch, The Heavenly Temple, the Prison in the Void and the Uninhabited
Paradise, 39 note 4. Lieberman, Tosefta Ki-Fshu!ah, 1:43-44, notes the Rabbinic identification of the Holy
Temple with Gods Heavenly Abode/Temple. See Palestinian Talmud Berakhot 4:5, 8c (edition Sussmann,
40), towards the (Heavenly) Holy of Holies abovetowards the House/Temple of the Holy of Holies
below. Compare Ehrlich, The Non-Verbal Language of Prayer, 100-102.
5
See Lieberman, Greek in Jewish Palestine, 115-141, 200; Lieberman, Hellenism in Jewish Palestine, 28-37.
6
See Smith, The Occult in Josephus, 242-243. See Josephus, The Jewish War, 5:377-378, Will you not
remember the divinely-aided deeds of your (fore)fathers and what mighty enemies this Holy Place put down
for us long ago? For myself, I shudder at recounting the deeds of God to unworthy ears. On the variant
reading in Josephus, what mighty wars this holy Place put down, see Siegert, Hellenistic Jewish Midrash,
249 note 66.
6
When the king asked Heliodorus what sort of person would be suitable to be sent on another
mission to Jerusalem, he said: If you have any enemy or plotter against your government, send him
there, for you will get him back thoroughly flogged, if he survives at all, for there is truly some divine
power about the Place (ton topon). For He who has his dwelling in Heaven watches over that Place
(tou topou) Himself and brings it aid, and He strikes and destroys those who come to do it injury.
7

Philo also uses Greek topos, the (Holy) Place for the Temple.
8
The notion of the Heavenly Temple
probably underlies the eternal Place (ainios topos) in the Old Greek of Isaiah 33:14.
9

1.4 The Biblical usage of ha-Maqom as Temple continued into late Second Temple times. It
clearly underlies the Greek topos in several references to the Temple in the New Testament.
10

1.5 This usage of ha-Maqom is also evident in several Tannaitic traditions. See Tosefta Berakhot
3:16 (edition Lieberman, 1:16), Those standing in the Sanctuary/Temple (miqdash) direct their
heart toward the abode/house (beit) of the Holy of Holies and pray (the Tefillah-Prayer), for it is
stated (1 Kings 8:30, Your people Israel who) shall pray to this (Holy) Place/Temple (ha-Maqom ha-
zeh). (Thus) all Israel found (themselves) praying to one (Holy) Place (Maqom echad).
1.6 The one (Holy) Place is, of course, the Holy Temple at whose center is the Holy of Holies
and whose Earthly Sancuary has as its celestial counterpart the Divine Heavenly Sanctuary/Temple,
which continued its Biblical function as the locus of prayer even after the earthly Temple was
destroyed.
11

1.7 See Mishnah Berakhot 5:1, One may not stand to pray (the Tefillah-Prayer) except while in
the mood/middle of gravitas.
12
(An exemplum:) The saints of yesteryear
13
would pause one
moment
14
and (then) pray, so that they could (first) direct their hearts to the (Holy) Place.

7
Compare Bickerman, The Altars of Gentiles: A Note on the Jewish Ius Sacrum, in Studies in Jewish
and Christian History, 605-606.
8
See Philo, On the Confusion of Tongues, 95-98 (edition Loeb, 4:60-63, and see 61 note c).
9
It may also underlie the use of the divine epithet Maqom in 3 (Hebrew Apocalypse of) Enoch (18:24; 44:3;
45:1,6; 46:1; 47:1, 4; 48:1, 4, 5), which is generally dated to the fifth century CE but is partly based on
earlier sources. Compare Scholem, Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and Talmudic Tradition, 35 and
notes 11-12.
10
See Matthew 24:15 and Luke 1:9, 21-22 (the Holy Place); Acts 6:13 (this holy Place); Acts 6:14
(this Place).
11
See de Souza, The Heavenly Sanctuary/Temple Motif in the Hebrew Bible. Carol Meyers, Temple,
Jerusalem, The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 6:350-369, explains: The temple conception involved a continuum
from heaven to earth. It bore meaning that transcended its material reality. It was a cosmic structure and it
involved covenant/Torah. The removal of the earthly component did not detract from its heavenly existence,
nor from the dynamic reality of the Torah.
12
On the term koved rosh, gravitas, see Excursus D ??, and on its opposite, frivolity, see note 217 to Avot
3:13a.
13
The editorship of the Mishnah cites an exemplum about the saints of yesteryear ("asidim ha-rishonim),
famous pious folk from Biblical times until the end of the Second Temple period. See Beck-Berman,
H!asidim in Rabbinic Traditions, 27-28.
14
On the expression a single moment, one moment, see note 257 to Avot 4:17.
7
1.8 It is unclear whether or not the saints of yesteryear are anachronistically portrayed as praying
the Tefillah-Prayer or simply some other prayer; the basic point would not be affected. But left
unexplained is how a brief pause to direct their hearts to the (Holy) Place demonstrates the proper
mood of gravitas for prayer. Furthermore, while ha-Maqom here certainly refers to God, it is unclear
whether it has the later sense of the (Divine) Ground (see below) or retains the earlier usage as the
(Holy) Place/Temple, the personification of the awesome Divine Presence. And whether or not the
wording in this tradition reflects a late Second Temple idiom or that of the early third century
redactors, why use this particular appellation for God? There are many others that would certainly be
appropriate here, such as the Holy One, the Father who is in Heaven, the King of the kings of kings,
and so forth.
15

1.9 Possibly, there is one solution which resolves all these questions. Fraenkel
16
has soundly argued
that these two traditions in Mishnah and Tosefta Berakhot are closely related, which tends to support
the interpretation that ha-Maqom means the Heavenly Place/Temple in both traditions. I suggest
that by citing this story of the saints of yesteryear to exemplify how to pray the Tefillah-Prayer with
gravitas dignity, seriousness, earnestness the editorship of the Mishnah alludes to an ancient
pious practice of briefly pausing before prayer and imagining oneself standing in the Temple in the
presence of the awesome Divine Power of that Place. This would resolve all the questions raised
above. If so, then this tradition may contain an echo of an early Jewish mystical practice. Such
practices have been analyzed in depth by several scholars.
17
The Rabbinic insistence on locating the
sacred axis for prayer in facing the site of the Temple in Jerusalem (which continues to this day) is
probably part of a larger Rabbinic program on continuing the memory of the Holy Temple.
18

2.1 Toward the end of the Second Temple period, and especially after the destruction of the
Temple,
19
ha-Maqom apparently undergoes a transformation and is reinterpreted as the
Ground/Foundation of the cosmos/world, the One who supports/upholds the cosmos. There is a
Rabbinic tradition (see below) which speaks of God (or Gods supporting arms) bearing the entire
cosmos, but not being borne by it.
2.2 This notion is attested in a Jewish text generally dated to about the end of the first century CE.
It appears within a paean to the glorious Creator of the universe in Ladder of Jacob 2:9 (edition

15
For a fairly complete list, see Marmorstein, The Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God, 1:54-107. Unfortunately,
his discussion of ha-Maqom, 92-93, is rife with inaccuracies.
16
Fraenkel, The Aggadah in the Mishnah, 665-666.
17
See Wolfson, Iconic Visualization and the Imaginal Body of God: The Role of Intention in the Rabbinic
Conception of Prayer; Levenson, The Jerusalem Temple in Devotional and Visionary Experiences; Kaiser,
Seeing the Lord's Glory, 25-80. Compare Elior, From Earthly Temple to Heavenly Shrines. On ancient
Jewish practices of visualization of God in connection with the Temple, see also Neis, Vision and Visuality in
Late Antique Rabbinic Culture; Bregman, Aqedah: Midrash as Visualization, Appendix I: Visualization as
Spiritual-Psychological Seeing. Compare also Henshke, Directing Prayer toward the Holy Place: the Plain
Meaning of the Mishnah and Its Echoes in Talmudic Literature.
18
See Cohn, The Memory of the Temple and the Making of the Rabbis.
19
On Rabbinic responses to the destruction of the Temple, see Bokser, Approaching Sacred Space;
Bokser, Rabbinic Responses to Catastrophe.
8
Lunt, 2:408), carrying/ bearing the whole cosmos/world under Your arm, yet not carried/borne by
anything.
2.3 This shift in the understanding of ha-Maqom may be reflected in the Rabbinic interpretations
of the story of Jacobs Ladder. The word ha-Maqom appears twice in the Biblical story: Genesis
28:11, And he came upon the place, and Genesis 28:17, How awesome is this place! This is none other
than the abode of God, and that is the gateway to Heaven. Surprisingly, there are almost no Rabbinic
interpretations of ha-Maqom in these verses that explicitly refer to the Temple.
20

2.3.1 See Sifre Numbers 119,
21
Rabbi Elazar the Caper man (about 120-200 CE) says: From where
(in Scripture) do you say that the (Divine) Ground showed (a vision of the future) to Jacob our
(fore)father (in which) the Holy Temple was built, and the sacrifices were (still) being sacrificed, and
the priests serving, and (then) the (Divine) Presence (departing the earthly Temple and) ascending
(Heavenward)? For it is stated (Genesis 28:12), And he (Jacob) dreamed: And see, a stairway, etc.
There is no dream unless it has an interpretation. And he dreamed: And see, a stairway stationed on the
earth this is the Holy Temple; and its top reached the Heavens these are the sacrifices sacrificed,
whose aroma ascended to Heaven; and see, angels of God these are the high priests, who ascend
and descend on the ramp. (And it continues Genesis 28:13, And see, the Lord) stationed upon it, and
He (God) said (which refers to the Temple, since the identical term stationed appears in Amos
9:1), I saw the Lord stationed upon the altar (of the Temple).
2.3.2 Possibly, the (Divine) Ground and the Holy Temple allude to Genesis 28:17, How
awesome is this place! This is none other than the abode of God, and that is the gateway to Heaven. But it
is striking that instead of ha-maqom in Genesis 28:11 or 28:17, the homilist instead chooses Genesis
28:12, a stairway stationed on the earth this is the Holy Temple.
2.4 The ancient maxim that God is called the Place since He is the place/space of the
cosmos/world, but the cosmos/world is not His place/space was apparently quite popular.
2.4.1 It appears to underlie a comment by Philo, who presumably heard of a similar tradition in
Greek. See Philo, On Dreams, 1:63-64 (edition Loeb, 5:328-331), According to the third
signification, God Himself is called Place/Ground (topos), since (He) is both the One to
encompass/contain all things, and also to be encompassed/contained by nothing whatever, and (also)
since He is the One who is the refuge (kataphugn) of everyone, and (also) inasmuch as He Himself
is His own space (chra), making space (kechrks) for Himself and He alone bearing/supporting
(empheromenos) Himself. I, indeed, am not a place, but in a place, and similarly each existing being.
So the one encompassed/contained differs from the one encompassing/containing it; and the Deity,
being encompassed/contained by nothing, He Himself is necessarily His own place (topos).
2.4.2 Philos many different explanations seem to reflect his uncertainty over the meaning of the
divine appellation the Place. But his various explanations all point to God as the
foundation/Ground of the cosmos, except for one: God is the refuge, refuge place. Perhaps this is

20
Compare Genesis Rabbah 69:7 (edition Theodor and Albeck, 796-797) and Kasher, Torah Shelemah,
6:1143 133; Kugel, The Ladder of Jacob, 9-35.
21
See Sifre Numbers 119 (edition Horovitz, 143; edition Kahana, Preliminary Edition of Sifre Numbers 107-
161, 1:31; following Manuscript Vatican 32). See the parallels listed in Genesis Rabbah 68:12 (edition
Theodor and Albeck, 785-786) and Kasher, Torah Shelemah, 6:1130 69, 5:1141-1142 127.
9
somehow derived from maqom meaning Sanctuary, since the Temple served as a place of
sanctuary, or more likely meonah, (holy) Place/Temple, (refuge) place/sanctuary (see below).
2.5 See Genesis Rabbah 68:9,
22
(Homiletically interpreting Genesis 28:11) And he pleaded with the
Place/Ground (God), etc. Rabbi Huna in the name of Rabbi Ammi (about 240-310 CE) said: Why
do (people) refer euphemistically to the name of the revered Holy One and call Him the Ground?
For He is the Ground of His cosmos/world but His cosmos/world is not His Ground. Said Rabbi
Yose son of Chelpitah (about 120-200 CE): We do not know if the revered Holy One is the Ground
of His cosmos/world or if His cosmos/world is His Ground. But from what is written (Exodus
33:21), See, with Me (alone) is (the) place/Ground (of the world) (you should) be (saying that) the
revered Holy One is the Ground of His cosmos/world but His cosmos/world is not His Ground.
2.5.1 Here ha-Maqom is no longer the Divine Place/Temple but the Divine Ground/Foundation of
the cosmos.
23
A conception of God as the One who supports the cosmos is consistent with those
rabbinic traditions attributed to Tannaitic sages in which God upholds the cosmos a cosmos floating
in space.
24

2.6 In a nearly identical midrash, maqom is replaced by meonah, abode, (holy) Place/ Temple,
(refuge) place/sanctuary. Both words are similar in meaning.
25
See Midrash Tannaim to
Deuteronomy 33:27,
26
(Interpreting Deuteronomy 33:27) The ancient God is a Sustainer (meonah).
Said Rabbi Yitzchaq (about 120-200 CE): We do not know if the revered Holy One is the Sustainer
of His cosmos/world or if His cosmos/world is His Sustainer. But from what is written (Psalm 90:1),
Lord, You have been our our (perpetual) Sustainer (maon), we know that the revered Holy One is the
Sustainer of His cosmos/world, but His cosmos/world is not His Sustainer.
2.6.1 The homilist seems to understand meonah in Deuteronomy 33:27 as Sustainer/ Supporter,
presumably in light of the second clause, which describes God the One who upholds the
cosmos/world. A slightly different interpretation appears in Psalm 90:1-2, Lord, You have been our
(perpetual) Sustainer (maon), in generation (after) generation; before the mountains were born and
(before) You (perpetually) established/created the earth and world, from eon unto eon You are our God.
Here maon is understood as (perpetual) Sustainer/Supporter.

22
See Genesis Rabbah 68:9 (edition Theodor and Albeck, 777-778; following Manuscript Vatican 30). For
parallels, see Albecks notes there; Kasher, Torah Shelemah, 6:1124 47, 22:43 143 and notes.
23
See the discussion in the commentary of Simon ben Tzemach Duran to Avot 2:9 (edition
Katzenellenbogen, 1:292-294). In his note, Kasher, Torah Shelemah, 6:1124 47, cites Manuscript Midrash
ha-Beiur, And why is His name called ha-Maqom? Since He upholds (meqayyem) the words of the
righteous.
24
See Simon-Shoshan, The Heavens Proclaim the Glory of God...: A Study in Rabbinic Cosmology.
25
See, for example, Psalm 26:8, Lord, I love Your House/Temple abode (meon), the dwelling Place (Maqom) of
Your glory. It is unclear (but not significant for our discussion) whether the homilist understands
Deuteronomy 33:27 as The ancient God is a (sustaining) Place (meonah), for underneath (the world) are the
(supporting) arms of the Eternal (olam), or as The ancient God is a (sustaining) Place, for (supporting)
underneath are the (divine) arms of the world/cosmos.
26
See Midrash Tannaim to Deuteronomy 33:27 (edition Hoffmann, 222); Midrash ha-Gadol to
Deuteronomy 33:27 (edition Fish, 776-777).
10
2.6.2 This is how it is explained in Midrash Leqach Tov to Deuteronomy 33:27 (edition Buber,
132), You are the Sustainer (maon) of the cosmos/world, since the whole cosmos/world is
sustained/maintained (mitqayyem) by You.
27
It should be noted that later scribes often replaced an
original ha-Maqom with ha-Qodesh barukh hu.
28

2.6.3 A similar understanding is found in Sefer Yetzirah 38 (edition Hayman, 131-133), He is the
Ground of the world but the world is not His Ground, that is, He upholds/bears (nosei )
everything.
29

2.7 See also Genesis Rabbah 13:7 (edition Theodor and Albeck, 117; following Manuscript Vatican
30), (Interpreting Genesis 2:5, because the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth) and there was
no person to work/till/serve (laavod) the ground/Ground (God). What!? And was there no person to
cause people to serve (leabeid) the revered Holy One like Elijah? (Surely the verse refers to tilling the
earth! It really has a double meaning:) And there was no person to serve the ground/Ground. A person
was not created except for toil: if one merited, he toils in the Torah (and thereby serves God); but if
not, he toils in the earth. Happy is the person whose toil is in the Torah. Here the sages apparently
make a wordplay on adamah as both ground and (Divine) Ground.
2.9 I therefore translate ha-Maqom as the (Divine) Ground in order both to reflect the Rabbinic
understanding and to indicate that this is a euphemism for God. As far as I know, Braude and
Kapstein were the first to correctly observe that ha-Maqom in Rabbinic literature means Ground of
existence, Ground of Being, or Preserver of the world.
30
But it seems that their insight has been
completely ignored.
3.1 Note also the customary words of consolation, May the (Divine) Ground/Supporter (ha-
Maqom) comfort (support) you in the midst of the rest of the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
This formula is not found in Semachot 6:1 or 14:12. In Mishnah Middot 2:2, the greeting given to a
mourner is: May the One who dwells (ha-Shokhein) in This House/ Temple console you. Of
course, the One who dwells in the Temple is none other than ha-Maqom, the (Holy) Place.
Apparently, the current formula arose in medieval times under the influence of the prayer for healing
which appears in Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 12b (following Manuscript Oxford, Oppenheimer,
Additional Folio 23), Rabbi Yehudah says: May the (Divine) Ground/Supporter (ha-Maqom) have
compassion on you and upon all the sick of Israel. Rabbi Yosi says: May the (Divine)
Ground/Supporter have compassion on you in the midst of the sick of Israel.
3.2 Throughout classical Rabbinic literature, when the Sages talk about divine omnipresence, they
do not refer to God as ha-Maqom, but rather to the (Divine) Presence (Shekhinah) or the revered

27
Similarly in Midrash Psalms 90:10 (edition Buber, 390-391); Yalqut ha-Makhiri Psalms 90:2 (edition
Buber, 83; with minor differences). Compare Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, 5:289 note 130.
28
See Kahana, The Two Mekhiltot on the Amalek Portion, 75-76; Krupp, Ein neues Fragment zu Sifre
Devarim, 299.
29
See de Souza, The Heavenly Sanctuary/Temple Motif in the Hebrew Bible, especially 303. Compare
Landau, Die dem Raume entnommenen Synonyma fr Gott in der neu-hebrischen Litteratur, 30-45.
30
See Braude and Kapstein, Tanna debe Eliyyahu, 31, 552.
11
Holy One.
31
The use of ha-Maqom as the Omnipresent, the One who is in every place, probably
arose in the post-Talmudic period when the original meanings of the term were forgotten.
3.3 See Pirqe deRabbi Eliezer 35,
32
And why is the name of the revered Holy One called the
Omnipresent? Since in every place that the righteous go, there He (God) is found with them, for it is
stated (Exodus 20:21), In every place (where I make mention of My name I will come to you and I will
bless you). And another (reason Scripture) called the revered Holy One (the) Ground/Place
33
is since
He is the One who holds up (maamid) the entire world with His power, that is, He is the Ground
of the world.
3.3.1 The first explanation of ha-Maqom, the later medieval one, entered all witnesses of Pirqe
deRabbi Eliezer, but the second (original) explanation disappeared from all but a few manuscripts.
34

While Pirqe deRabbi Eliezer dates to about the ninth century, there are later interpolations in this
work. It is impossible to be certain whether the first (medieval) explanation is a later addition to the
work.
3.3.2 In a related phenomenon, the second (original) explanation is found in all witnesses of Midrash
Psalms 90:10 (edition Buber, 391, see Bubers note 60), but the first (medieval) explanation of ha-
Maqom appears only in a few later manuscripts and the printed editions. It is clearly a later
addition.
35

3.3.3 The first (medieval) explanation is also cited in a work dated to the thirteenth century, Midrash
ha-Gadol to Genesis 28:11 (edition Margulies, 498), as well as in Israel Ibn Joseph Al-Naqawa, Sefer
Menorat haMaor (edition Enelow, 2:43-44).
3.3.4 Therefore, the understanding of ha-Maqom as the Omnipresent probably arose sometime
between the ninth and thirteenth centuries and became the regnant one until today.
36



31
Correctly noted by Landau, Die dem Raume entnommenen Synonyma fr Gott in der neu-hebrischen
Litteratur. See Babylonian Talmud Bava Batra 25a (following Manuscript Hamburg 165), Shekhinah be-khol
maqom, The (Divine) Presence is in every place; Numbers Rabbah 12:4, to teach you that there is no place
(maqom) devoid of the (Divine) Presence (Shekhinah). See also Midrash Psalms 24:5 (edition Buber, 205), a
king of flesh and blood, when he is in the bedchamber (koitn), he is not in the banquet hall (triclinium), and
when he is in the banquet hall, he is not in the bedchamber; but the revered Holy One fills the upper worlds
and the lower worlds. The homilist apparently mocks the preoccupations of the mortal king: sex and
feasting.
32
See Pirqe deRabbi Eliezer 35 (chapter 34 in edition Higger, Horeb 10:204, and see his notes 10:267),
following Manuscript Casanata 1.4.10 (Hebraica 2858).
33
The words called the revered Holy One (the) Ground/Place are added here from a marginal note. They
are restored here as required by the context.
34
See Higger, Horeb 10:267 note 1.
35
Compare Kasher, Torah Shelemah, 6:1125 48 note; 16:166 539 note.
36
Compare the commentary of Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller to the end (actually, a medieval addition) of
Mishnah Middot 5:4, Praise the revered (Divine) Ground.