Two Cities, Two States of Being There are two locations in the land of Israel discussed in this week’s Torah portion. In the opening verses of the portion, we read about the ceremony that the Jewish people were to perform as soon as they entered the land: the declaration of the blessings and the curses between the two mountains Gerizim and Abal: Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing, that you will heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today; and the curse, if you will not heed the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn away from the way I command you this day, to follow other gods, which you did not know. And it will be, when the Lord, your God, will bring you to the land to which you come, to possess it, that you shall place those blessing upon Mount Gerizim, and those cursing upon Mount Ebal. (Deuteronomy 11:26-29) Gerizim and Ebal surround the city of Shechem, which has a problematic history for the Jewish people. The outskirts of Shechem was the place where the sons of Jacob kidnapped and sold their brother as a slave. Quoting the Talmud, Rashi comments on the word Shechem and states: “A place destined for misfortune. There the tribes sinned, there Dinah was violated, there the kingdom of the house of David was divided”. Later in the portion, the Torah describes another place, “the place G-d will choose”; a place where the Jewish people will go to celebrate the three annual pilgrim holidays and the place where they will gather to celebrate and consume the tithings of their produce: You shall tithe all the seed crop that the field gives forth, year by year. And you shall eat before the Lord, your God, in the place He chooses to establish His Name therein, the tithes of your grain, your wine, and your oil, and the firstborn of your cattle and of your sheep, so that you may learn to fear the Lord, your God, all the days. (Deuteronomy 14:22-23) These two places, Shechem and Jerusalem, represent two stages in the spiritual development of the collective Jewish people as well as every individual Jew. When we first enter the land of Israel, when we first begin our journey to reach a state of meaning, holiness, and closeness to G-d, we encounter the two mountains of Gerizim and Ebal, where we have to exercise our free choice to decide between good and evil, between the blessing and the curse. At the beginning of our spiritual development, we are pulled between the power of the holy and the seductive lure of negativity. When we first enter Israel, we are in Shechem, the place where struggle, failure, and ultimately correction are possible. And then we reach Jerusalem. Historically, Jerusalem was selected as “the place G-d will choose”, more than four centuries after the people entered the land. Jerusalem represents the deeper place in our soul and psyche where there is no inner struggle, only a wholesome experience of awareness and celebration of our connection to G-d. In Jerusalem, there is no struggle between the positive and the negative, between the physical and the spiritual. In Jerusalem, celebrating and consuming our grain and wine and eating the meat of the offerings is, in fact, a holy experience. In Jerusalem, our deepest core emerges. In Jerusalem the physical and spiritual parts of our life are integrated with one desire to serve and celebrate our connection to G-d.