Today, as the Gemara continues its discussion of the various locations of pre-Temple shrines, we read the following:
When Rav Dimi came from the land of Israel to Babylonia, he said that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said: The divine presence rested upon the Jewish people in three places: In Shiloh, and Nov and Gibeon, and the Eternal House (i.e., the Temple). And in all of those the divine presence rested only in the portion of the tribe of Benjamin, as it is stated: “He protects him always and he dwells (shachen) between his shoulders” (Deuteronomy 33:12), meaning: All protections shall be only in the portion of Benjamin.
The word for the divine presence is the Shekhinah, a word etymologically linked to the Hebrew word shachen, dwell. It’s also derived from the same root as the Hebrew word mishkan, tabernacle, which served as the temporary home for God and a place for worship in the wilderness, the precursor to the Temple. The Temple was ultimately located in Jerusalem, a city which was largely within the purview of the tribe of Judah, but also, according to this interpretation, included territory from the tribe of Benjamin. So when God’s presence descended to dwell in the Temple, it actually rested in territory belonging to Benjamin. Rav Dimi, using a verse from Deuteronomy in which Moses blesses the tribe of Benjamin, explains how we know this: God’s promise that Benjamin will dwell (shachen) between the divine shoulders (or, perhaps, since the pronouns are ambiguous, that God will dwell between Benjamin’s shoulders) is a signal that the Shekhinah dwells in the territory of Benjamin.
Immediately, the Talmud raises an objection:
When Abaye went (to study Torah with Rav Yosef), he said (the statement of Rav Dimi) before Rav Yosef. Rav Yosef said in response: Kaylil (Abaye’s father) had one son, and he is not proper. But isn’t it written: “And He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh” (Psalms 78:60); and it is written: “Moreover He abhorred the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim” (Psalms 78:67)?
When Abaye shares this teaching with Rav Yosef, not only does Rav Yosef disagree, citing his own competing verses to prove that the tabernacle was in the territory of Ephraim (not Benjamin), he insults Abaye in the process, opining that his father, who died while Abaye’s mother was pregnant with him, would be ashamed of him. Yikes!
Later on, the anonymous voice of the Gemara suggests that this debate between amoraim (talmudic era sages), about whether the tabernacle at Shiloh occupied land from Benjamin or Ephraim, is parallel to a debate we find among their predecessors, the tannaim (sages from the mishnaic period). In that case, the first interpretation of that verse from Deuteronomy reads:
“He protects him” is a reference to the First Temple. “Always” is a reference to the Second Temple. “And he dwells between his shoulders” is a reference to the messianic era.
Here, the rabbis use this verse of blessing for Benjamin to argue that God dwelled in territory belonging to that tribe only from the first Temple onward — meaning not during the period the tabernacle rested in Shiloh, which preceded the building of the Temple. But, of course, there is a competing interpretation — this one from Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi:
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi says: “He protects him” is a reference to this world. “Always” is a reference to the messianic era. “And he dwells between his shoulders” is a reference to the World to Come.
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s view is that God always dwelled in territory belonging to the tribe of Benjamin, including when the tabernacle rested at Shiloh.
Of course, today there is no territory specifically marked out for the tribe of Benjamin, or Ephraim, for that matter. Where, then, can the divine presence dwell?
The rabbis, who also lived in a period without tabernacle or Temple, have an answer for that as well. Back at the very beginning of our Daf Yomi learning, on Berachot 6, we learned that God dwells in the synagogue when it is filled with people engaged in prayer. And in Pirkei Avot 3:2, Rabbi Hananiah ben Teradion teaches:
If two sit together and there are words of Torah spoken between them, then the Shekhinah abides among them.
If that’s not encouraging enough, more recently on Bava Batra 25, several sages in turn bring verses that prove that:
The divine presence is found in every place.
The tribe of Benjamin may once have had the exclusive privilege of hosting the divine presence — at least according to some sources on today’s daf. But rabbinic theology is not so limited. The rabbis tell us: There may be no Temple, but God is still here among us as long as we make room for the divine presence, ideally through Torah study and prayer. Or, as Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk simply and profoundly put it more than a millennium later, “God is found wherever we let God in.”
Read all of Zevachim 118 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on January 10, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
