Special Torah Portion
Exodus 33:12 - 34:26, Numbers 28:19 - 25
Special Haftara: Ezekiel 37: 1-14
22 April, 2000
17 Nisan, 5760
Dear Friends:
May you have a wonderful Passover celebration. Let us remind ourselves that freedom may well be an illusion if it is not "won" every day. Please give my best to your family.
MITZVAH SHEBA'AH LEYADEKHA AL TAHAMITZENA
It is a request that we have all made more than once. If we begin a new task at work or at home, we want to know. If we are to begin a vacation and are traveling along an unfamiliar route, we want to know. Our children, while not necessarily asking us outright, want to know. What is that quest? What is that question? As did Moses, we ask of G-d. "Let me know Your ways."
Based upon the close relationship that Moses maintained with G-d, Moses pled with G-d for additional assurance. It is not clear whether was asking specifically to know who would go with them as a guide or whether he was seeking indirectly for an assurance that G-d would go with them. " . . . let me know Your ways" (v.13) could have been simply a request for a road map. More likely, it was a request for an additional revelation of the purpose of G-d.
Whatever Moses was asking for, G-d assured him of two things, his "presence" and G-d's "rest." Again, Moses' intercession had laid hold of G-d's willingness. The "rest" of G-d was a sense of security and peace rather than a cessation from labor. It was basically an inner peace rather than an outer experience.
For Moses, the assurance of G-d's presence was that which would make Israel distinct from all her neighbors. He never questioned that they should be distinct. But he plainly knew that ultimate distinctiveness rested upon their relation with G-d. If that were gone, all other distinctives would have been superficial.
Following this assurance, Moses prayed for a special, unique vision of G-d. The word "glory" as used here, referred to the actual presence of G-d. Moses was first given an inner revelation of G-d, that G-d's real; nature was that of favor/grace (a good Jewish term, before Christianity "borrowed" it), mercy, and the Law. The real glory of G-d is seen not in a form but in the experience of obedience to G-d's Law. Moses was assured that the holiness of G-d was such that no one could really see G-d and live. Men and women can only see where G-d has been. The description of looking upon G-d's "back" was a picturesque way of describing the fact that our best view of G-d is found in seeing what G-d has done, where G-d has been, and obedience to G-d's Torah (Law). It is in the actions of G-d as expressed in the Tanach, and the actions that G-d requires of us, that we really discover G-d's nature.
How can we "know G-d's ways"? By adherence to, and obedience to, the Torah of G-d.
"Judaism has a central, unique and tremendous idea that is utterly original - the idea that G-d and man are partners in the world and that, for the realization of His plan and the complete articulation of this glory upon the earth, G-d needs a committed, dedicated group of men and women." -T.H. Gaster, at American Council for Judaism, April 20th, 1954
Shalom U'Vracha (peace and blessings),
Thomas
