Some stories tell us it all started with a division. A grand sorting.
According to tradition, when God created the world, it wasn't a uniform, homogenous blob. No, no. It was divided right from the get-go. One part became habitable, teeming with potential for life. The other? A desolate, unforgiving desert. Two sides of the same coin, forever distinct.
But the story doesn't end there. God, in His infinite wisdom, wasn't finished shaping things. He took that habitable part and re-divided it, forming a circle. And at the very heart of that circle? The Holy Land. It gets even more specific: at the center of the Holy Land is Jerusalem, and at the center of Jerusalem? The Holy of Holies, the most sacred space in the Temple. It's here, tradition tells us, that the Shekhinah, the divine presence, dwells.
Think of it as the ultimate source, the wellspring of all goodness in the world. As the Zohar tells us, everything good that exists in the inhabited world flows from this central point (Zohar 2:157a-b). Everything is sustained by that source. A powerful image, isn't it?
But what about that desert? That desolate other half? Well, that too has a story. It was that desert, the most terrible and sinister, where the Israelites wandered for forty long years. According to tradition, this was the domain of the Sitra Ahra, "the Other Side" – the side of evil.
Imagine the stakes. The Israelites, fresh from slavery, facing not only physical hardship but a spiritual battle as well. The narrative suggests that had they been consistently worthy, had they maintained their faith and avoided provoking God, they might have broken the power of the Other Side forever. But, alas, they stumbled. Each time they angered God, the Sitra Ahra gained ground, tightening its grip. They became subject to its influence.
It wasn't until those long forty years had passed, a period of intense trial and tribulation, that the Israelites finally managed to break the Other Side's hold and reclaim their destiny. That's when they found their way back to the Holy Land.
So, what does it all mean? On one level, it’s a creation myth, explaining how the world, and especially the Holy Land, came to be. Medieval maps often depicted Jerusalem as the "navel of the world," a testament to this belief. You can find more about these myths of the Holy Land in various collections.
But it's also more than just a history lesson or a geographical description. It's a kabbalistic allegory, a symbolic representation of the eternal struggle between good and evil, holiness and impurity. God and the Shekhinah on one side, the Sitra Ahra and figures like Lilith on the other. As Ginzberg retells it in Legends of the Jews, these opposing forces are always active, constantly vying for influence. The world, and perhaps even our own lives, are a stage for this cosmic drama.
The Midrash Rabbah paints a vivid picture of this duality. It's a reminder that the world isn't simply a neutral space. It's a battleground, and we all have a role to play in choosing which side we empower. Are we drawn to the light of the Holy Land, or do we succumb to the allure of the desert and the Sitra Ahra? The choice, it seems, is perpetually ours.