We pray to God, right? But…does God pray? And if so, to whom?
The mystics have wrestled with these questions for centuries, and the answer, perhaps unsurprisingly, is layered and fascinating. One beautiful idea, found in numerous sources from Midrash Tehillim to Yalkut Shimoni, is that God, in a sense, prays to… Himself.
But it gets better. According to tradition, from the very beginning, God made a mishkan – a tabernacle, a dwelling place – for Himself. And where did God choose to build this mishkan? In Jerusalem. Or, as the text in Psalms 76:3 puts it, "Shalem became His abode." Shalem, of course, being an ancient name for Jerusalem.
Think about the implications for a moment. God, in this mystical view, established a physical place, a point on Earth, for divine communion. A place for God to… well, talk to God.
Now, I know what you might be thinking. Why would God need a tabernacle? And why would God need to pray? It seems paradoxical, doesn't it? But the tradition suggests that this act of divine prayer isn't about God needing something, but rather about God enacting a cosmic process.
According to Genesis Rabbah 56:1 and Y. Berakhot 4.5, this tabernacle, this place of prayer, is intimately connected to Israel. The Midrash tells us that ever since the destruction of the Temple – the ultimate, earthly mishkan – God Himself prays for something very specific: for His children to do teshuvah – to repent, to return. God prays that we turn back to Him, so that He can hasten the rebuilding of His house, His Temple.
And the ultimate goal? That God may "spread the Tabernacle of peace over all His people Israel, and over Jerusalem," as it says in Yalkut ha-Makhiri on Isaiah 57:6. A vision echoed in B. Berakhot 30a, Song of Songs Rabbah 4:4, and Midrash Shir ha-Shirim 4:4.
So, what does it all mean? Perhaps it means that even God longs for connection, for reconciliation, for peace. Perhaps it means that God's prayer is a constant, unwavering force, working towards the ultimate redemption. And maybe, just maybe, it means that Jerusalem, that ancient city, holds a key to unlocking that divine prayer, a key to bringing God's peace to the world. As the Zohar tells us, everything is connected.