Scriptures and the Royal Arch Ritual

by

Rabbi David P. Alpert

One of our subscribers, Rabbi Alpert, of Boston, very kindly supplies us with a copy of a recent address which he delivered before the Grand Chapter of Massachusetts. Coming, as it does, from a Hebrew scholar, it bears the air of authenticity.

“The stone which the builders refused is become the head of the corner. Did ye never read in Scriptures, the stone that which the builders rejected has become the head stone of the corner?”

Several variations of the same theme are used in the chapter ritual. They incorporate the quotations from various parts of the Bible, Old Testament and New. All the verses together emphasize how central the thought is.

Difficult as it may be to indicate in English, we should recognize that all the variant verses trace to one source, to the Hebrew in Psalm 118. The impression that the original gives is something jubilant, ever triumphant.

“I shall not die but live and declare the works of God. . . . Open to me the gates of righteousness. . . . The stone which the builder refused is become the chief cornerstone.”

English readers have sometimes suggested that the cornerstone assumes merely a decorative and ornamental place in the building. Hebrew traditions looked on the cornerstone as strategic, fundamental, and cohesive to the structure. In the realm of personal experience for each one of us, though gives special place to the cornerstone.