Our Gemara on Amud Aleph tells us that the Bais HaMikdash is the highest spot in the land of Israel, and Israel is the highest land in the world.

The Maharal (Be’er Hagolah 6) explains that this height is not referring to a physical height but rather a balance point. Maharal explains that a circle actually has no top or bottom, and since the earth is round, it's absurd to discuss a highest point. Rather, just as the top of a slope represents the median of two ends, the Land of Israel and the Beis HaMikdash represent an optimal blend of all the various climates and spiritual powers and vantage points. This is not a mathematical average but rather a state of optimum balance. To illustrate, a person should have balanced traits or Middos. He should know when to be angry and when to be flexible, when to be compassionate and when to be cruel. But it's not a mathematical balance of 50/50 any more than a cake is a mathematical balance of sugar and salt. It's balanced in the sense of a healthy functional proportion. (See Rambam Hilchos Deos, chs. 1-2.)

Similarly, he says the seven different species of foods that Israel is known for also represent a proper balance of spicy, sweet, hot, cold etc. Even the patriarch Yaakov, is a balance and healthy blend of Avraham's Chesed (kindness) and Yitschok's Din (letter of the law), which morphs into Emes. The Hebrew Emes is not by definition truth. It is a borrowed term used to refer to truth, but in Hebrew the connotation is more about appropriate, correct, and balanced. It is similar to the GRA's visual representation of Emes in Hebrew in comparison to Sheker. All three Hebrew letters that form Sheker (ש-ק-ר) all have pointy bases, while the Hebrew letters for Emes (א-מ-ת) all have solid grounded feet. Thus, Emes is balance.

One of my greatest therapy "teachers" and role models, Freida Fromm Reichman, who was famous for the respect she showed all people, even to and especially toward delusional, psychotic, and violent patients. She would adamantly scold her colleagues and students, "The difference between mentally healthy people and those suffering from mental illness is merely a matter of degree." In other words, humans all share maladaptive traits, fears, defenses, aggressions, compulsions, and delusions, certainly in regard to initial internal impulses. The difference is how we balance all parts of ourselves in order to be whole.

The Land of Israel and the Bais HaMikdash, especially in a Messianic sense, will be the proper blending and balancing of the various human qualities and powers, to bring about an optimum human condition, leading to an spiritual recovery and redemption for the world.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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