{"id":50918,"date":"2019-03-07T11:33:24","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T09:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=50918"},"modified":"2022-06-07T23:11:57","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T20:11:57","slug":"distant-presence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/distant-presence\/","title":{"rendered":"Distant Presence"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[442,368,410],"acf":{"old_id":"50918","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36663,"related_cahpter":"1034","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Their journeys \u2013 and ours\u00a0","content":"

\u201cThe cloud covered the tent of meeting and the presence of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.\u00a0 Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it and the presence of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.\u201d (Exodus 40:34-35)<\/p>\n

I am reading these words from a Torah scroll that is pinned and mounted, a specimen of text under glass.\u00a0No one is expecting these words to be able to fly free, roam away from their display case.\u00a0But oddly enough, the Torah in this library at St John\u2019s<\/a> in Collegeville Minnesota happens to be rolled to the three Torah portions that Jews around the world will read during the three weeks I am in residence here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But maybe that is the point.\u00a0Someone sees this as a text that is over 200 years old, a sample of something from a long vanished culture, written in Syria where Jews no longer live<\/a>.\u00a0 But I can and do read and find meaning in it, animating the scroll.\u00a0I can\u2019t enter the glass case to caress it like I did when I was honored with carrying the Torah at Darchei Noam<\/a> in Minneapolis last Shabbat morning.\u00a0By sheer coincidence, the scroll is rolled to these portions while I am here at the Collegeville Institute<\/a>.\u00a0As these verses say, the presence of God is here, even when we can\u2019t enter into it completely.<\/p>\n

These penultimate verses of the book of Exodus encapsulate much of the action in it.\u00a0God reaches out to the people, shows the divine presence but the people cannot fully enter into the experience.\u00a0God is divine and\u00a0we are mortal, we can\u2019t comprehend God. When Moses wants to be shown God\u2019s presence earlier in the text (33:18), even though we know he has spoken \u201cface to face as one man speaks to another” (33:11) all Moses is shown is \u201cachorei<\/em>\u201d (33:23) God\u2019s “back.”<\/p>\n

Now, all has been constructed according to the blueprint; God\u2019s presence is among them though entry while it hovers is not granted. In the Talmud (Yoma 4b), Rabbi Eliezer asks why if Moses can enter the cloud in Exodus 24:18 he is unable to do so here. The answer is that God literally grabs <\/em>Moses in order to bring him into the cloud, which harmonizes the two texts.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

God may not be grabbing most of us any time soon.\u00a0 And yet, for us today the presence of God can often be found through Torah study. \u00a0By reading and trying to comprehend the messages of the text, we can perceive the divine though we can never be fully part of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I imagine the Torah in the library was stolen from its community by corrupt antiquities dealer like Moses Wilhelm Shapira<\/a>, and made its way to this library at a university run by Benedictine monks.\u00a0The ink on the parchment is clear, the letters distinct. I wonder when the last time someone has been here who could read it. But it does not matter: this Torah is signaling its message.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The last word of Exodus is mas’eihem<\/em>, “their journeys.”\u00a0As modern Jews, our journey now is with the text of the Torah, one of the clearest ways we have to discern the presence of God.\u00a0Writing parsha pieces each week has been a powerful experience for me, finding messages and meaning in the text.\u00a0Thank you for reading thus far; I look forward to continuing the journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":41919,"id":41919,"title":"ex16-Torah-Unrolled","filename":"ex16-Torah-Unrolled.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/ex16-Torah-Unrolled.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/milimilim-the-hebrew-corner-exodus-16\/ex16-torah-unrolled\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ex16-torah-unrolled","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":41918,"date":"2018-10-12 13:58:52","modified":"2022-06-07 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