Ben Adam V'Makom

When I was practicing aloud my lesson on the Amida blessing of Slicha – Forgiveness, my husband asked an interesting question: why the sins between man and G-d are called ben adam v’makom – why the term makom was used in this case?  To answer this question requires going back to the blessing of Kedusha – Holiness, and the explanation of the two key phrases in Kedusha:

1.       Kadosh,               kadosh,                kadosh,                Hashem               tzvaot

Holy,                     holy,                      holy                       is the Lord           of hosts:

M’lo                      kol                          ha-aretz               kvodo

Filled is                the whole             earth                     with His glory. 

2.       Baruch                  kevod                    Hashem               mi-m’komo

Blessed is            glory of                the Lord               from His place

 

The first verse is from Isaiah (6:3), when the prophet saw the Master of the Universe in the Temple when the priests performed the service and the Levites sang their song.  It was a time of blessing and success. Everyone could see the resting of Divine Presence, and angels called to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord … the whole world is filled with His glory”

The second verse where G-d is referred to as makom is found in the prophecy of Ezekiel.   The word of G-d came to Ezekiel in exile; he was in mourning, a prisoner of war.  Standing on the banks of the river Chebar, he saw a fierce wind come from the north, a great cloud, and a blazing fire.  Instead of priests and Levites, he beheld war and destruction. He does not declare that “the whole world is filled with His glory”, that every detail bears witness to the Holy One.  Rather, G-d is hidden in the seven firmaments, and Ezekiel hears a voice of a great rushing say: “Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His Place, mi m’komo” (Ezekiel 3:12).  This prophecy was at a time of hester panim, hiding of the divine face.

 Rabbeinu Yonah in Shaarei Teshuvah writes on the principle of shame (first gate), that when the person commits transgression “the Blessed One is far from his consciousness”.  We can compare it to the blessings of Kedusha.   A righteous person’s mind is filled with awareness of G-d’s presence “the whole world is filled with His Glory”.  But when a person is in such state of mind that wrong feels right, then the desire fills his or her world, and G-d’s presence is remote, in His place of a narrow window in the corner of the mind, mi m’komo, this is why ben adam v’makom.