Friday, April 23, 2021

Howard Schwartz on the Keys of the Temple Being Returned to Heaven at the Destruction of the Second Temple

 

 

The Keys of the Temple

 

The Temple in Jerusalem had been set on fire, and the moment of destruction had arrived. The High Priest went up to the roof, the keys of the Temple in his hand. There he called out: “Master of the Universe! The time has come to return these keys to You.” Then he threw the keys high into the air, and at that instant a hand reached down from above and caught them and brought them back into heaven.

 

Babylon: c. Fifth Century (Howard Schwartz, Gabriel’s Palace: Jewish Mystical Tales [New York: Oxford University Press, 1993], 56)

 

The Keys of the Temple (Babylon)

From Pesikta Rabbati 26:6. Other versions of offering the keys to heaven are found in Y. Shekalim 50a and B. Ta’anit 29a. In some versions, not only the High Priest leaps into the flames, but the other priests and Levites as well. A variant is found in 2 Baruch 6:8-9. Here the High Priest offers the temple vessels to the earth, which opens, swallowing them up.

 

The destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem brought an era of Jewish life to an end. All the rituals connected to the Temple could no longer be performed. Therefore this Talmudic legend recounts how the High Priest returns the keys to the Temple to God, and in a strongly anthropomorphic image, a giant hand reaches down form heaven to retrieve them. The theological implications of this legend are considerable. It presumes both that heaven was well aware of the destruction of the Temple and that it was no accident, but rather God’s intention. Of course, it was also a tragic event. From this perspective, the act of the High Priest in returning the keys to heaven is one of great despair. Nevertheless, even at this tragic moment in Jewish history, the link between God and His people, Israel, remains intact in the act of God’s accepting the keys to the Temple. (Ibid., 284-85)