TorahParsha

How does my small life matter?

 

(for Parshat Yitro)

 

i

God says:

Remember the Sabbath day. Work for six days and on the seventh you shall rest

because God worked for six days and on the seventh He rested.

*

But it is unclear what we must remember:

if we must remember God’s rest,

or we must simply recall that we must rest each week

with God’s long-ago rest only as background

for what we do now.

 

ii

This lack of clarity

this permeable line between your week and God’s

points to how your week is part of God’s week:

how within the long coursing endless history

of all of God’s work, since the beginning of Time,

your week is there.

 

iii

And to delve deeply into your week

to become deeply aware of your week

to remember your week

is to know this,

is to remember this:

that all along your weeks have been holy,

that all along your life has been holy,

that all that you’ve lived,

day in and day out

week in and week out

has been tied to God.

 

 

_____

Shabbat shalom,

Abe

 

Please pray for Neshama Emunah bat Batya

www.TorahParsha.com / @TorahParsha

 

 

We seek God. Does God seek?

(for Parshat Yitro)

i

Moses goes out to the desert alone. He comes to the Mountain of God. He turns aside to see a great sight: a fiery bush that does not burn.

God reveals Himself to him.  

*

Much later, God tells the people (through Moses): Wait for Me at the base of the Mountain. And the people wait together for God at the base of the Mountain. And HaShem came down to the Mountain, toward the people.

 

ii

Moses seeks out the great sight. He is a lone traveler on the Mountain. He finds God on the Mountain.

*
But when all the people are together, God does not just meet the people on the Mountain.

He comes down toward them.

He seeks them out.

When we are together, it is God Who seeks us.

 

 

With indebtedness to both Rav Joseph Soloveitchik and Abraham Joshua Heschel

 

                                                                     

____

Shabbat Shalom, Abe

 

Please pray for the premature infants Kalev Ezra and Baer Yakov bnei Emunah, and particularly for Kalev Ezra ben Emunah. Please pray for Fievel ben Chaya.  Please continue to pray for  Ahuvah Rachel bat Orah and for Rachel Tovah bat Yehudit Esther.

 

 

 

Coming to God

i
Moses is atop the Mountain with God as God is about to reveal the Law of the Covenant to Israel.

The people Israel are at the base of the mountain, below.

*
God tells Moses to descend the mountain, to warn the people not to rush up.

And it is when Moses has descended to the base of the mountain that God begins to reveal the Law.

(And Moses is down below, with the people.)

*
The people are terrified.

The people tell Moses: You speak with us…but let God not speak with us, lest we die.

So Moses ascends the mountain--ascending to God--to receive the Law.

ii
On the one hand this is a story of people who are frightened of God, who beg for an intercessor.

But God has made Moses stand with the people. He has made Moses become one of them. So when the people send Moses up, they are sending one of their own up.

So this is also a story of God teaching the people to reach up to Him, to come close.

~~~~~~~~
The idea expressed here may have been taken from the writings of Avivah Zornberg.
~~~~~~~~

The Infinite is a Binding Force

i
Moses leaves his wife and his sons behind him, when he goes to serve God to free the Children of Israel from Egypt.

And in the Desert, all through the day, Moses sits before the people who come seeking God's Law.

He is a holy man on a hilltop.

He is alone with the Truth.

*
Then Moses' father-in-law comes to the camp in the Desert. He brings Moses' wife and two sons with him.

And his' father-in-law creates a system of judges and courts.

So that all the people (and not only Moses) will participate in the Law.

*
Then God gives the Torah.

ii
First, Moses is alone with the Truth.

Then, when his father-in-law comes, he becomes bound to his family.

Through his bond with his family, the people Israel become participants in the court system.

Through a court system, a whole people becomes bound to Truth, and becomes bound to one another through the Truth.

*
Then the Torah comes.

iii
So that the Torah arrives to a world where the Infinite is something to be shared, and is a way of sharing life.

So that the Torah cannot be our path to depart from each other, seeking the Infinite.

It is our path of arriving, through the Infinite, towards togetherness.

~~~~

The Law Must Join the People

Just before God gives the Law, Moses’ father-in-law, Yitro, comes to visit the people in the Desert. Yitro brings Moses’ wife and Moses’ sons with him. 

Where had this wife and these sons been? When he went to struggle with Pharoah, Moses had left them behind. But now the struggle is over and Yitro is bringing Moses’ family back.

*
Then the next day Moses’ father-in-law sees Moses sitting in judgment, from the morning to the evening. Moses sees every case that comes before the court. There is no squabble that is too small for him to see.

Yitro tells Moses: This approach will will not go well. It is too much for one person. The people will tire out. It is not good.

Yitro tells Moses that it would be far better (if God approves) to set up a whole system of courts. Then the people and Moses will carry Justice together.

Then Yitro leaves, and we learn of how God delivers the Law. 

*
Moses is alone before Yitro comes. He is famililess and he is the judge and the people are beneath him. He is a lawgiver who has no peers.

Then Yitro brings Moses his family. Yitro shifts Moses’ position in the nation from judge over the people, to judge with the people. Yitro ties Moses the Lawgiver back into life.

And Yitro has brought the people who are around Moses to be closer to Moses, and to be more like him.

*
Moses the Lawgiver has joined the people. The people of God have risen up to the level of Moses. Now everyone is ready to receive the Law. And then the Law comes.