Heavenly Jerusalem on Earth

Haviva Pedaya writes on the heavenly Jerusalem in Eretz Acheret:
A heavenly city as a system that moderates attitudes toward the earthly is perhaps an idea that was chiefly developed in apocalyptic literature and later in kabbalistic literature; however, the Torah itself contains aggressive legal systems aimed at moderating attitudes toward this world as the most important thing. For instance, there is the commandment to remember that we were strangers in the land of Egypt. Or, for instance, there are the laws governing shmita (sabbatical of the land, when it is lain fallow for an entire year) and yovel (the Jubilee year): “For unto me the children of Israel are servants” (Leviticus 25:55) and “The land shall not be sold for ever” (Lev. 25:23).

In fact, it could even be said the heavenly Jerusalem is meant to remind all individuals that they are only temporary dwellers in this world: “I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me” (Psalms 119:19). The heavenly Jerusalem is the homeland of souls.

The perception of the divine expanses as the homeland of the soul is an idea that can be found in Philo of Alexandria and in Plotinus. For religious people with the kind of emotional-religious structure that Philo and Plotinus had there is no need for wandering or actual removal in order to experience existence in this world as exile.

We require both an earthly Jerusalem, the realm of logistics or practical politics, and a heavenly Jerusalem, the realm of the ideal or meta-politics. Herzl said, "If you will it, it is no dream." The messianic age will come when the will (settlement of the physical land) and the dream (fealty to the metaphysical land) are perfectly aligned.

On a personal level, I have supplemented my reading habits (excursions into the metaphysical) with time spent at the gym (excursions into the physical). The body is a temple, to be fortified in honour of the indwelling Divine Presence. Auto-emancipation from exile is a personal as well as communal, spiritual as well as physical ideal.

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