Yesterday was day 41 of the counting of the omer. This whole period of the omer, the fifty days between the second night of Passover and Shavuot is a period of preparing, preparing to receive Torah. Yesterday I went to the Chicago Board of Rabbis meeting. Rabbi Arthur Green who is the dean of the rabbinical school at Hebrew College was the speaker. He is excellent lecturer and teacher. He is a renown expert of Hasidim. He was teaching a Hasidic text about the receiving of the Torah. I, however, did not receive the handout so some of this is foggy.
And that was the point. The Torah was given to Moses and the people in a fog, a heavy cloud as the text says. The text we were studying (name of text at a latter date, remember I was in a fog) made the point that Moses could have received the Torah without the cloud, but because he would have to transmit it to the people it needed to be shrouded in stories and fables and parables. Some even think that the Torah was a blueprint for creation and existed before. Rabbi Larry Kushner in his book, The Book of Miracles, talks about this idea coming from Pirke de Rabbi Elizer 3. “I will use the Torah as a blueprint of creation and that way all the parts of the world will fit together and I and the Torah will be inside everything.”
People can only hear so much. Even the Israelites standing at the foot of Mount Sinai said to Moses, “You go up. You do this for us. It is too hard. It is too scary for us.” They even said “We will do and then we will hear.” How do you know what to do before you hear the commands, before you hear the instructions?” The midrash teaches that the voice of G-d was so powerful (see Psalm 29) that G-d created a voice for each person, even a special voice for young children. (Exodus Rabbah 5:9)
Some people are seekers. They want to draw close to G-d. They have a deep spiritual sense and a deep thirst. They want to understand. Some people are intellectual. They love to wrestle with text. To understand the nuance of every letter. To delve deeply into the halacha or the ritual. Some people are invested in the community. They like to gather. To have a glass of schnapps. To take care of one another. Any of these points can be entry points into the deeper meaning of life.
Some people just seem to drift a little. They are working very hard to stay ahead. There is little time to reflect, to meditate, to read, to join. They may draw comfort from the familiar, from the way we’ve always done things. They don’t want to be surprised or to have the Rock of their foundation rocked. They are happiest doing things they have always done without questioning. Recreating the Judaism of their youth or of their bubbe and zayde is what motivates them. They want us to be their Moses, doing Judaism for them.
Sometimes we are each all of these. Like the four children at Pesach. There is a place for each of them, for each of us.
Another interesting piece of the discussion with Rabbi Green was how we as rabbis teach this tradition. Do we set ourselves up as the only purveyors of truth? Is there only one truth? We have very knowledgeable congregants, highly educated and very aware. Do we “dumb down” the tradition? To what purpose? I know I try not to but I may be guilty with some.Do we prepare or use notes or do we make it look seamless. Do we risk being arrogant? Or like the Israelites do our congregants want us to be Moses, dealing directly with G-d. Do we risk carrying this metaphor too far? Do we take the veil off? Do our congregants want us to? What if some do and some don’t? How do we reach everyone’s needs?
Rabbi Green told a Hasidic story about a rebbe’s tisch, table, where he solicited a verse from each person and interpretted it. Each person felt heard and appreciated. It looked seamless. It looked like a continuation of the direct revelation of G-d.
Pirke Avot teaches, “Every assembly whose purpose is to serve G-d will, in the end be established. But every assembly whose purpose is not for G-d’s sake, will not in the end be established. This is the week in the counting of the omer is about bonding, about foundation. For all of us, even Moses, the Torah is veiled, but together we will receive it.