The Torah tells us to be holy. It even explains to us, in a roundabout way, what holiness is. But what is not widely understood is that the text actually lays out the steps that must be taken to bring us from a state of nature into a state of holiness. These steps are:

1: Start with a clean slate, with elements separated.

2: Connect with water.

3: A positive act, perhaps assisted with imagination (incense plays a role, perhaps in this way or that).

4: Holiness, through one or more of elevation (altar), creation (showbread), illumination (menorah), or unification (ark).

This is the standard pattern, and it is found throughout Judaism. For example, the laws of ritual purity in a marriage apply the same process: separation, immersion in the ritual bath (mikvah), unification, and holiness.

Similarly, when the priests went into the tabernacle to serve, they first had to be ritually capable of elevation – they had to separate from the aspects of their lives that are most primal (physical emissions, death, low animals, etc.). They then immersed their hands and feet in the water of the laver. And then, under cover of incense, their service created holiness and connection.

And all of these are given to us in the text itself. But in order to see how comprehensively and thoroughly the text explains the process to us, we need to follow the connections found within the text itself.

In this essay, I’ll focus on the earliest step, creating a “clean slate” through an act of resetting that makes the entire process of holiness possible.

The first step, that of starting with a clean slate with elements separated, is symbolized in the text by the word that usually translates (in noun form) as a “rift” or “valley” – the word transliterates as bekaa (the famous Bekaa Valley in Lebanon is a redundancy). And when we look at it in the text, it is found as the very first step in the road to change.

The Flood

The very first time the word bekaa is mentioned, it is as a verb: opening up the fountains of the deep:

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that same day were all the fountains of the great deep riven (bekaa), and the windows of heaven were opened.

Before the Flood, mankind had filled the world with evil and violence.

The flood rinsed the world clean, making it possible for the world to start anew, and try, once again, to create a world that is able to create holy relationships. Bekaa accessed the water, which is the second stage in the road to holiness.

The Binding of Isaac

And Avraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and split (bekaa) the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went to the place of which God had told him.

Bekaa is shown clearly as a preparatory step: take the wood, split it, and make it ready to be used to fulfill G-d’s command. The natural wood had to be improved (split) by mankind before it could be used for holiness.

Rivka’s Earring

And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden earring of half (bekaa) a shekel, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels of gold.

There is an element of “beginning” here as well – Rivkah is coming from a home that, although it had connections to Avraham’s family, had serious moral failings. Her father and brother were avaricious and scheming, strongly echoing of the pre-flood world. Using bekaa in this story links to its use in the flood: it symbolizes a break, a reset that is necessary before Rivka can be ready for higher and better things.

If you recall the steps to holiness, separation precedes holiness. Marriage is a form of holiness – and so separation before a marriage is a necessary step! So this earring, which forms part of an engagement gift, symbolically links Rivka to her future husband. The separation, bekaa, between Isaac and Rivka is part of that pathway to the sacrament of marriage.

Similarly, the use as an earring tells us that the key for Rivka’s continuing growth is to change what Rivka hears. If a person’s environment changes, then they are more able to change as well.

The Splitting of the Sea

Bekaa is also found in the story of the splitting of the sea – a mirrored echo of the flood, where the water withdraws to preserve the life of the people, but drowns the Egyptians just as the Flood had drowned the world. So in the splitting of the sea, the waters are caused to selectively act in direct response to the commandment of G-d.

but lift up thy rod, and stretch out thy hand over the sea, and divide (bekaa) it: and the children of Yisrael shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.

…

And Moshe stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided (bekaa).

This was the national birth of the people – the people come through the split waters, much as the world was reborn in the Flood. The splitting of the sea was only the first step toward holiness, but it was a necessary preparatory step for the covenant at Sinai (and the rest of Jewish history) to follow.

Bekaa as National Identity

The Jewish people by ourselves are not necessarily or inherently holy: we are defined and valued by our choices, not our DNA or circumstances of birth. When the people are counted (each with half a shekel), the word for half is not bekaa – another word (chatzi) is used. But there is one time bekaa is used with the half a shekel contributed for a specific purpose:

a bekaa for every man, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for everyone that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty men.

This is not the census! It is instead when the people contribute silver for the building of the tabernacle! The bekaa of silver is a preparatory step for creating the ultimate symbolic home of holiness – the tabernacle (mikdash, literally meaning “from holiness.”)

Also note the parallels to the marriage of the people with G-d with the engagement of Rivka to Isaac symbolized by her bekaa earrings. We, too, despite our circumstances, are given the opportunity to form holy connections when we contribute to the building of G-d’s house.

Bekaas in the Land of Israel

The last three examples of bekaa in the text are found praising the land of Israel, the land in which people are meant to grow – both in ourselves, in forming a holy society, and in connection with G-d:

For the Lord thy God brings thee into a good land, a land of water courses, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys (bekaa) and hills;

…

but the land, into which you go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys (bekaa), and drinks water of the rain of heaven:

…

and the Negev, and the plain; the valley (bekaa) of Jericho, city of the palm trees, as far as Zoar. 

Note that the valleys are again connected with water – but not the waters of flood or death, but the sustaining waters of life.  This is the ultimate blessing and purpose of the concept of a bekaa – instead of taking life, the ideal bekaa nurtures all who dwell within it.

P.S. There are two other places in the Torah that the word bekaa is found. They form the exceptions that prove the rule: bekaa as a preparation does not necessarily lead to a positive result. Not all resets lead to good outcomes.

A bekaa, a valley, is a place that naturally attracts something to fill it: valleys are where water flows, where life is at its most concentrated. Valleys are where people come together, for good or ill. And the first bekaa in the text after the Flood is when the people come together to build the Tower of Babel.

And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a valley (bekaa) in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.

Note that without guidance, a valley is merely a petri dish – things will happen in valleys, and change will occur, but without the Torah, there is no telling whether the change will be in a positive direction – or, as in the case of the Tower of Babel, a dead end in the eyes of G-d.

Holiness is not created accidentally. It needs a template. Merely having a valley does not get you the rest of the way.

And the other example is found with Korach – the end of his rebellion:

And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground split (bekaa) beneath them:

Korach HAD the Torah. But he refused to internalize it and use it for holiness. And so Korach was reset – just as the Flood generation was. Bekaa was deployed, and Korach and his followers were swallowed up.

Ironically, while this was the end for Korach, the bekaa in this case still allowed for holiness – but in and for the rest of the people!

[an @iwe, @susanquinn, @blessedblacksmith and @eliyahumasinter work]