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March 12, 2004/Adar 19 5764, Vol. 56, No. 25
How to be a God-seeker
Torah study
RABBI ANDREW STRAUS
Ki Tisa/Exodus 30:11-34:35
Torah portion overview (excerpted from http://urj.org/torah/index.shtml)
- The Israelites are instructed to keep the Shabbat as a sign of the covenant. God gives Moses the two tablets of the pact.
- The Israelites ask Aaron to build them a golden calf. Moses implores God not to destroy the people and then breaks the two tablets of the pact on which the Ten Commandments are written when he sees the idol. God punishes the Israelites by means of a plague.
- Moses goes up the mountain with a blank set of tablets for another 40 days so that God will again inscribe the Ten Commandments. Other laws, including the edict to observe the pilgrimage festivals, are also revealed.
- Moses comes down from the mountain with a radiant face.
The poets speak of it. The lovers speak of it. To see someone's face is to truly know them. If you can look into someone's eyes, it is as if you can look into their heart. If we speak to social scientists, they will tell us that the vast majority of communication is non-verbal - communication that involves seeing the other's face.
This brings us to this week's Torah portion. The events of the golden calf have just happened. Is God still committed to them? Will God still be their God? Moses wants reassurances from God that God will still be with them and will lead them. Moses wants to know that God will not forsake them. "Oh let me behold Your Presence," Moses says to God.
We would expect that God would say "yes," but instead God says, "I will make all of my goodness pass before ... but you cannot see my face, for man may not see Me and live."
Why would God make such a statement? Is it not the goal of religion to know God?
God is trying to teach Moses and us a very important lesson. We cannot know God. No matter how much we meditate, no matter how much we pray, no matter how much we philosophize as human beings, we are limited. We can only know a small "portion" of God. God teaches us this lesson in so many different ways. Throughout the Book of Exodus, whenever God appears in a "physical" form it is not really a "physical" form. God appears at the burning bush; God appears as a cloud; God shows Moses His "back." Each one of these symbols presents the view with only a broad outline.
Think of the image of a fire: you cannot really see into it; it is constantly changing; you cannot really hold on to it; it is dynamic. So it is with our relationship with God. We cannot really see God, we cannot really know God, we cannot really touch God. All we can do is see the broad outlines and know where God has been.
Our rabbis understood this too. According to our tradition there are more than 70 different names for God. Each one of these names represents a different aspect and a different relationship that each of us might have with God. For the soldier God is ish milchamah, a man of war. For the healer God is ropeh, the healer. For the child God is avenu, our parent. God is also the rock, the shield of Abraham, the shechinah, the in-dwelling presence. On and on the imagery goes. Each name describes a different aspect of God, a different relationship that we might have with God. Yet, none of these names fully describes God.
As we read this week's portion, may we continue to be God-seekers, may we continue to be Yisrael.
Rabbi Andrew Straus is the spiritual leader of Temple Emanuel of Tempe.
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