Vayeitzei: Hashem’s Love-Hate Relationship With Stone Monuments

The stone pillar set up by Yaakov is presented by the Torah as a good thing - yet, the Torah subsequently says that Hashem "hates" such pillars. Which is it? Surely He didn't "change His mind"!

Rabbi Matt Schneeweiss

Nov 24, 2023

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This week's Torah Content has been sponsored by Lou Landau in honor of launching his new business.

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Artwork: Adobe Firefly 2.0’s response to the prompt “stout stone in the middle of the desert.“ All my many attempts before this generated images which were too phallic to be appropriate, but once I used the word “stout,” I got it on the first try.

Vayeitzei: Hashem’s Love-Hate Relationship With Stone Monuments

Parashas Vayeitzei begins with Yaakov Avinu’s prophetic dream. The next morning, Yaakov springs into action:

Yaakov rose early in the morning and took the stone which he had put at his head and set it as a matzeivah (stone pillar or monument) and poured oil on its top. He named that place Beit El, though Luz had been the city's name at first. Yaakov took a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and watch over me on this path that I go, and gives me food to eat and clothing to wear, and I return in peace to my father's house, and Hashem will be for me a God, and this stone that I set as a matzeivah will be a house of God, and all that You give me, I will surely tithe to You." (Bereishis 28:18-22)

Rabbi Dr. Zvi Ron (Koren Tanakh of the Land of Israel, Vayikra 26:1) elaborates on the roles played by matzeivah:

Sacred Pillars: Pillars are crude, unshaped stones, made to stand up vertically. Even before God's revelation at Sinai, Yaakov sets up stone pillars in devotion to Him (for ex., Gen. 28:18, 22; 35:14) … Pillars had other functions as well: to memorialize the dead, as legal boundary markers, or to commemorate an event. Sometimes the pillars had both religious and secular functions. Since a stone would not naturally be in an upright position, the simple act of setting up a stone would draw attention to it, making it a relatively simple way to mark a place.

Although the Torah doesn’t clearly provide insight into what compelled Yaakov to set up a matzeivah, his actions are presented in an unambiguously positive light. R’ Avraham ben ha’Rambam (Bereishis 28:18) theorizes that:

setting up a matzeivah and anointing its top with oil was a method of avodah (divine service) that was known at that time, and which persisted [afterwards], and was not prohibited until the Exalted One prohibited it in the Torah. It is also possible that Yaakov, peace be upon him, is the one who initiated this avodah.

The problem, mentioned by R’ Avraham in passing, is that it is forbidden for a Jew to set up a matzeivah! Not only does the Torah prohibit us from doing so, but it does so in the most vehement terms: “Do not set up for yourself a matzeivah, which Hashem, your God, hates” (Devarim 26:22). “Hate” is a strong word, even when used metaphorically about a Being with no emotions (see Rambam, Hilchos Yesodei ha’Torah 1:11).

To be clear: the question is not, “How could Yaakov Avinu violate a Torah prohibition?” This article is predicated on the assumption that the Avos (forefathers) did not keep the 613 mitzvos, which is a dominant view among the classical commentators (see this article on AlHaTorah for a summary of all the approaches). Likewise, this article assumes that Hashem does not change His mind, as was declared by His prophet: “I am Hashem; I do not change” (Malachi 3:6, as explained by Rambam in Hilchos Yesodei ha’Torah 1:12) and by their prophet: “God is not a man such that He lies, nor is He the son of a man that He changes His Mind” (Bamidbar 23:19). Given these two premises, the question is: How can we understand Hashem’s “love-hate relationship” with matzeivah? How did matzeivah go from being favored by God to being hated by Him? We will now consider two fundamentally different approaches.

The first approach is based on Sifrei (Piska 146) which notes that matzeivah was “beloved [by Hashem] for the Avos but hated for their offspring.” Rashi (Devarim 16:22) explains why:

He commanded [us] to make a stone mizbeach (altar) and an earthen mizbeach (Shemos 20:20-21), but He hates this [matzeivah] because it was a religious statute among the Canaanites, and even though it was beloved to Him in the time of the Avos, now He hates it, once these [Canaanites] made it into a religious statute of avodah zarah (idolatry).

The Sifrei’s view is likely based on the fact that the phrase “Hashem hates” only appears in one other occasion in Chumash (Devarim 12:29-31):

When Hashem, your God, will cut down the nations … beware for yourself lest you be attracted after them after they have been destroyed before you – lest you seek out their gods, saying, “How did these nations worship their gods, and even I will do the same.” You shall not do so to Hashem, your God, for everything that is an abomination of Hashem, that He hates, have they done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters have they burned in the fire for their gods.

Ramban (Devarim 16:22) echoes Rashi’s answer and explicitly notes why Yaakov’s matzeivah was not hated:

The explanation of the reason for “which [Hashem] hates” is that Hashem commanded, “an earthen altar you shall make for Me, etc. … And if you make for me a stone altar, etc.” (Shemos 20:20-21). Moshe explained that His desire is in these, to the exclusion of the matzeviah, which He hates, for all the actions [of the Canaanites] are hated before Him, and He [therefore] commanded Israel to not copy their actions. But in the days of Yaakov, [the mitzvah of] “do not follow the statutes [of the idolaters]” (Vayikra 18:3) was not yet given; therefore, [Yaakov] utilized the matzeivah for the sake of heaven, in accordance with the custom of those who worshipped [at that time].

Rav Hirsch offers a radically different explanation – one that doesn’t have anything to do with avodah zarah, but instead, accounts for the transition of “Divine preference” from matzeivah to mizbeach on a purely philosophical basis. Here are two key excerpts from his lengthier exposition, beginning with his commentary on Bereishis 28:18:

Matzeivah consists of a single stone; mizbeach is an elevation made of many stones. Matzeivah is presented by nature; mizbeach is made by man. Before the Giving of the Torah, God’s providence revealed itself primarily in the ways of nature and in the destiny of man; that is to say, in what man receives from God. Correspondingly, a matzeivah is a stone taken from creation, to commemorate a Divine deed. After the Giving of the Torah, God wished to be revealed not in what He bestows upon man, but in what man does with this blessing. That is the purpose of the Giving of the Torah: man’s deeds are to attest to God’s glory. Hence, after the Giving of the Torah, the matzeivah was prohibited.

On Devarim 16:22, Rav Hirsch explains why matzeivah was “beloved for the Avos” but “hated for their offspring”:

Before the Giving of the Torah it was necessary to make man aware that God alone rules nature and history, and it was not yet possible to subordinate the whole life of the individual and of the people to God’s Torah; homage to God could not be manifested in the life of the individual and of the people. Hence, there was still a place for the matzeivah beside the mizbeach. With the Giving of the Torah, not only has [the role of] the matzeivah been completely absorbed by the mizbeach, but matzeivah has become a sin. Worshipping God in His power and might alone is not only no longer pleasing to God; it is hateful to Him. As our verse puts it, God “hates” any adoration of His power and might that does not express itself in the person's moral subordination to God's Torah. Our recognition of God and our homage to God must come to expression in our obedience to Him. He measures our recognition of His power and might by the extent of our devotion to His Will, and He rejects all homage to Him in nature and history that places heaven and earth under God's sovereignty, but denies His sovereignty over the person himself: his heart, thoughts, desires, and actions. Not recognition of God, but acknowledgement of [the authority of] God, is the Jewish mission, and it alone is the way to Jewish salvation; the mizbeach, not the matzeivah, is the symbol of the Jewish mission. Matzeivah-devoutness is deadening to the Jewish spirit.

To sum it up: the Sifrei and Rav Hirsch both aim to answer a seemingly insurmountable question: How can an unchanging God change His mind? How can He Who transcends emotion “hate” something He once did not hate? R’ Avraham, Rashi, and Ramban understand the Sifrei to mean that the ubiquity of Canaanite rituals rendered an otherwise acceptable form of Divine service unfit for the Jewish nation, which rejects avodah zarah and anything associated with its rites. Rav Hirsch maintains that the philosophical message needed by humanity which the matzeivah symbolized became eclipsed by the Giving of the Torah, which provided the means through which humanity could reach a higher level of divine service, as symbolized by the mizbeach. Thus, answer to this question about how God can change is the same as it always is: the change stems from us, not from Him.

Which answer do you prefer? Do you know of other answers? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

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