Moriah? What is Moriah? … Where is Moriah? Is it just a geographic dot on a map and
nothing more? Why Moriah and not any
other place?
If we comb
the legends of the antiquity of Israel we find that Moriah has a familiar ring
to its name. We first hear of it as the
place where both Cain and Abel, Adam’s sons, offered their sacrifices to
God. Some generations later, Moriah is
the scene of Noah’s thanksgiving offering after alighting from the Ark. In a much later period we read that Moriah
was the mountain upon which Solomon erected the Bet Hamikdash, the Sanctuary.
And it was on this same Moriah that Abraham must offer up his son,
Isaac.
What
common bond connects all of these historical events? What is the central theme in Moriah?
In the Talmud Rabbi Levi ben Hama defines Mount Moriah as, Har she-yatza mimennu hora-a le-yisrael,
“the mountain from which emanated teachings to Israel.” The various historical happenings that took
place on this mountain served to present great teachings to Israel. Moriah is to be read as Hora-a – learning education.”
-Morris Halpern
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