The Tent of Meeting: Central or Marginal?

With Dr. Benjamin Sommer, professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages, JTS
Part the series, The Space In Between: Thresholds and Borders in Jewish Life and Thought
The Tent of Meeting is described at great length in the Torah as the elaborate sacred tent located in the center of the Israelite encampment that traveled through the wilderness for 40 years. But several passages in the Torah describe the Tent of Meeting differently, as a tiny structure located outside the Israelite camp. Why does the Torah include both historical memories of this structure? How does each structure reflect a particular religious worldview, and what does the presence of both in the Torah tell us about Judaism?
ABOUT THE SERIES
The Space In Between: Thresholds and Borders in Jewish Life and Thought
We are living in an undefined time: our daily existence is no longer dominated by the pandemic, yet neither have we settled into a new normal. This sense of being in transition-neither here nor there-can feel destabilizing; but is the time in between really temporary, or are we always living in between moments, identities, and phases of life?
In this series, JTS scholars will delve into the idea of liminality-the time or space in between-which we encounter often in Jewish ritual, identity, law, and life. Join us to consider what these many manifestations of “in-between-ness” can teach us about ourselves and about Judaism, and to explore how we might find strength and meaning in an orientation not of “either/or” but of “both/and.”