{"id":42526,"date":"2018-10-21T20:55:42","date_gmt":"2018-10-21T17:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=42526"},"modified":"2022-05-18T06:38:46","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T03:38:46","slug":"we-have-seen-the-place-from-afar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/we-have-seen-the-place-from-afar\/","title":{"rendered":"We Have Seen The Place From Afar"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cRemember, then, to magnify His work, of which people have sung, which all people have beheld, people have seen from a distance.\u201d (Job 36:24-25)<\/span><\/p>\n

Why would the children of Israel accept the Torah upon themselves on the basis of Moses\u2019 words? Why were they to stand from afar, witnessing only the bellows of thunder and eruptions of fire, while their leader departed for forty days? <\/span><\/p>\n

We learn from the example of Abraham. Arising early in the morning, distressed and confused, he perceives the mountain upon which he is meant to murder his beloved son. Yet he also sees \u201cthe Place\u201d from afar, he locates a sense of security and consolation from an isolation, an expanse. Abraham builds his altar whilst trusting in the hint of a promise that the Creator once made, a precious pledge kept close to his heart despite doubt and despair.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Torah is indeed a sacrifice. Its laws regulate our choices, its obligations define our lives, its expectations restrict our behaviour. And we hear no word from God commanding us.<\/span><\/p>\n

All we have is the \u201cafar\u201d: the distant reassurance, the echo of a shared set of practices, the traces of our tradition in the veins of history.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet from this separation, we build the altar on which to base our lives, we participate in the unitary voice of our community, we stand at the foot of the mountain and answer: \u201cAll the words that the Lord has uttered, we will do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":49608,"id":49608,"title":"Dt4-MountSinai1723","filename":"Dt4-MountSinai1723.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt4-MountSinai1723.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-challenge-of-an-invisible-god\/dt4-mountsinai1723\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"dt4-mountsinai1723","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":49607,"date":"2019-02-17 12:10:30","modified":"2022-06-21 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