Judaism
Parashah of the week: Shabbat Chol Hamo’ed Succot
“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Sovereign, Hashem, the God of Israel” Exodus 34:23
October 15, 2024 11:07
“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Sovereign, Hashem, the God of Israel” Exodus 34:23
October 15, 2024 11:07The Chasidic master, Rabbi Mordechai Yosef Leiner of Izbica (1801-1854) offers a fascinating teaching on this verse. To appreciate it, we need to familiarise ourselves with some Hebrew.
The Hebrew for “before” in the verse is above et-penei, which can be translated as “to the face”. And the Hebrew verb for “appear” shares its root with the verb “to see”.
Rabbi Leiner therefore suggests that the verse can be reread as: “Three times a year all your males shall see the face of the Sovereign, Hashem, the God of Israel”.
Of course, we do not believe that God has a face like yours or mine. The Kabbalists call God the Ein Sof – the Infinite One, and it is understood that the Divine does not have a physical body.
Rather, this teaching is pointing us towards a certain kind of experience of the Divine Mystery, which we might call intimacy.
To help explain himself, Rabbi Leiner cites the Talmud: “Anyone who resides in the Land of Israel is considered as one who has a God, and anyone who resides outside of the Land of Israel is considered as one who does not have a God” (Ketubot 110b).
This statement might seem quite shocking at first glance; surely we believe in a Deity who is omnipresent and who we can relate to anywhere?
The short answer is yes, we do. And yet, our ancient rabbis wanted us to know that location does matter. As we may know from our own lives, some places are simply more conducive to certain experiences.
However, before we conclude that location is the primary factor in this relationship, we should bear in mind another Chasidic teaching, from the founder of Chasidic Judaism, the Ba'al Shem Tov.
The Ba'al Shem Tov rereads the talmudic statement above to mean: If someone thinks that they “live in the Land” ie have an intimate relationship with God, they actually do not. And if someone thinks that they have not yet attained such a relationship, then they have actually done so.
In other words, our physical location isn't as important as our inner lives. If we think that “we have arrived,” then in truth, we have not even started yet. And if we see ourselves as perpetual beginners, then we are on the right track.
Rabbi Silverstein runs Applied Jewish Spirituality