VBM Beit-El By Harav Yaakov Medan

A. BEIT-EL VS. JERUSALEM – ACCORDING TO RASHI The Midrash and Rashi appear to have deliberated at length over the place that Beit-El occupies (or should occupy) in our consciousness. A literal reading of the parasha would seem to justify the actions of Yeravam ben-Nevat, who abandoned Jerusalem and built a new religious center for the nation in Beit-El: "The king took counsel and he made two golden calves, and he said to them: 'It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.' He placed one in Beit-El and the other he placed at Dan… He offered upon the altar that he had made at Beit-El on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had invented on his own, and he made a festival for Bnei Yisrael, and went up to the altar to offer incense." (Melakhim I 12:28-33) In our parasha, we are told explicitly that the House of God that is destined to be built, will be in Beit-El – for there God was revealed to Yaakov; that was the "gateway to heaven," and Yaakov would fulfill his oath by building the house there.