This week’s Torah portion is Ki Tissa, which means.” when you take.” It begins with the taking of a census, goes on to appoint two people to oversee the work of the Tabernacle and holy vestments, and reiterates that Shabbat observance supersedes work for God on the tabernacle. Later in the portion, while Moses is gone, the people make and worship a golden calf. Moses wins forgiveness for them and has an intimate encounter with God, in which he hears a description of God’s attributes: that God is compassionate and gracious; slow to anger, forgiving, and great in kindness and truth. At the end of the portion, Moses’ face shines with divine light.
Ki Tissa is one of the few Torah portions that speaks about relationship: specifically Moses’ intimate relationship with God. While Moses is on Mt. Sinai, with the Eternal, receiving the tablet of the Ten Commandments, the people long for him to return so they can feel connected to their Divine Protector. When Moses does not return on time, they demand an idol, the Golden Calf, thus breaking their promise to God. The prophet Hosea likens the relationship of God to the Jewish people to a marriage, where God is the groom and Israel the bride. “And I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you to me in righteousness, and judgment, and in loving kindness and compassion, I will betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know God. (2:21-2)
Most of Ki Tissa traces the development of Moses’ relationship to God. As in a human relationship, there is testing. God offers to kill the people and create a new nation, beginning with Moses. Moses passes the test, refusing to abandon the people and hence, refusing to abandon God. Then it is Moses’ turn to seek a deeper relationship. He repeatedly seeks out God, speaking to the Divine at the entrance to a special tent outside the camp, which Moses calls tent of meeting. At one of these encounters, Moses says, in Rashi’s translation, “If I have indeed found favor in your eyes, make you ways known to me, so that I may know you, so that I shall find favor in your eyes.” Knowing someone, in the Torah, when applied to humans, means sexual relations. Here, it describes the great longing we have for completion, for perfect union, that we occasionally find in human relationships, usually only for a short while. But we are really seeking something more universal and profound. We are all looking for the Other in which we can find the Self. Only we can’t usually distinguish romantic love from spiritual love. It all feels the same and one gets mixed up with the other. We don’t have the words to describe the feeling of love, no less the difference between the two kinds. Love is one of our highest human functions.
We literally mint the spiritual currency of the universe when we love. The whole universe works on the principle of love, the more we love the more love we experience in return. Moses, like us, wants more of the good stuff – spiritual fulfillment, through love. And he finds it, by going one step further, asking God, “Show me your glory.” God grants him a close spiritual encounter, cautioning him by saying that he must not come too close, “for no human can see me and live,” which reminds us of what we all know: the flame of love, whether romantic or spiritual, can warm or burn us. This is stated in Song of Songs: “Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a sign upon your arm; for love is strong as death, Its passion as cruel as the grave. Its sparks become a raging fire. Great seas cannot extinguish love. No river can wash it away, If a man offered all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned. I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.”(Chap 7)
In Moses’ close encounter, God calls out with the attributes of the essence of who God is: compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, truthful, and forgiving. Like the song by Lieber and Stoller recorded by Peggy Lee, Is that all there is? We feel let down. To us it sounds good, but not great; not good enough to satisfy us. However we have to put ourselves into Moses’ experience. For him it is communion or even union, for in experiencing this intense love for the other, he has lost himself in God and found himself; not only the self he knows, but his best, highest self, which, really is what love is all about. When we find that completion, those spiritual riches in ourself, we have found peace and contentment, which can then be shared. We have enough, we’re less needy, able to give more than receive. In a paraphrase of the W.B. Yeats’ poem of 1919, the center holds, the journey is more placid, we are at home in our own skin. The love we give can bring about the peace we seek. May we give it to each other, and experience that peace.
Showing posts with label love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label love. Show all posts
Friday, February 21, 2014
Friday, June 14, 2013
The Vessels of God's Love
This week’s Torah portions are Vayakhel, which means and he assembled, and refers to Moses assembling the people, and Pekudei, which means reckonings. Moses called together the people to remind them that no work on the Tabernacle may be done on Shabbat. He tells them that they may being free will donations of all the materials needed to build the Tabernacle, to God; and that the work to build it will soon commence. The people brought more than enough and had to be asked to stop donating. The Tabernacle and its furniture is completed in this portion, overseen by Bezalel and Oholiab, who God endowed with the knowledge, insight, and skill to do it. The second portion contains an accounting of the free will offerings that were brought, the completion of the priests’ garments, the setting up of the Tabernacle. God’s approval was shown to the people by the miracle of the Cloud of God’s Presence filling the Tabernacle.
There is an interesting idea expressed three times in this portion. The text says, “Every person whose heart inspired him came and everyone whose spirit was willing brought the portion of God for the work of the Tent of Meeting.” Later it says, “All the women whose hearts inspired them with wisdom.” And the third example is: “Moses called for every wise hearted person, everyone whose heart inspired him to approach the work to do it.” The word, inspired, is not really the true translation, in the Hebrew. The Hebrew word, nasa, is literally carried or lifted. The verses really say, everyone whose heart carried them, all whose hearts lifted them came forward, to donate their possessions, their time, and their skill.
One thing this teaches us is to lead with our hearts. In other words, in our lives, let your heart do the heavy lifting. Judaism teaches that God guides the world with justice tempered by mercy. We pray that God’s mercy will prevail over strict justice. Our sages taught that the world could not survive without mercy. Rashi wrote, about the first verse in Genesis, that “the world could not last” with the attribute of strict judgment, so God “gave precedence to the Attribute of Mercy and joined it to the Attribute of strict judgment.” This applies to us slightly differently. We are not asked to judge others. God is the judge. In fact, the less we judge others, the better off we are. Rather, we are asked to use our reason to make determinations. But reason without compassion, logic without love would be the human version of justice without mercy.
Rebbe Aaron of Karlin said, “Wisdom of the mind alone without wisdom of the heart is worthless.” We need the teaching about leading with our hearts because God has structured the world in such a counter-intuitive way. The way the world truly works is not logical. The more we give, the more we receive. The more we keep, the less we will have. More for me means less for all. More for you means more for all. We don’t always understand it, but it appears to be true, and this is what the Torah tries to teach us. As I like to say: love is the spiritual currency of the world. Reality works on the same principle as love: the more we give the more we receive.
The S’fat Emet quotes the Song of Songs: “Vast floods cannot quench love nor rivers drown it” He comments,….”The love and attachment to God that Israel received at Mt. Sinai remain alive in them forever, even when sin prevents them from bringing this hidden love out into the open…By the act of giving they brought forth their own inner generosity, their longing, and attachment so that they were able to draw the Shechina into their midst.” Here the S’fat Emet equates a closed heart with wrongdoing and says that giving brings God’s presence into our midst.
There is an interesting detail in this portion. It says, “They brought to Moses additional free willed gifts every morning” (36:3). This tells us that letting go of our judgment and selfishness is a process, perhaps it is a life-long process, but one that brings contentment, well being, peace, blessing and great reward. The Apter Rebbe said, God’s love needs vessels, and he asks, where are the vessels for the blessings that God want to give us? The Apter answers, “The main resting place is in the human being.” May we be the vessels of God’s love. May we allow our hearts of carry us and to lift us, acting with compassion and generosity, being the givers who help each other and enrich all of life.
There is an interesting idea expressed three times in this portion. The text says, “Every person whose heart inspired him came and everyone whose spirit was willing brought the portion of God for the work of the Tent of Meeting.” Later it says, “All the women whose hearts inspired them with wisdom.” And the third example is: “Moses called for every wise hearted person, everyone whose heart inspired him to approach the work to do it.” The word, inspired, is not really the true translation, in the Hebrew. The Hebrew word, nasa, is literally carried or lifted. The verses really say, everyone whose heart carried them, all whose hearts lifted them came forward, to donate their possessions, their time, and their skill.
One thing this teaches us is to lead with our hearts. In other words, in our lives, let your heart do the heavy lifting. Judaism teaches that God guides the world with justice tempered by mercy. We pray that God’s mercy will prevail over strict justice. Our sages taught that the world could not survive without mercy. Rashi wrote, about the first verse in Genesis, that “the world could not last” with the attribute of strict judgment, so God “gave precedence to the Attribute of Mercy and joined it to the Attribute of strict judgment.” This applies to us slightly differently. We are not asked to judge others. God is the judge. In fact, the less we judge others, the better off we are. Rather, we are asked to use our reason to make determinations. But reason without compassion, logic without love would be the human version of justice without mercy.
Rebbe Aaron of Karlin said, “Wisdom of the mind alone without wisdom of the heart is worthless.” We need the teaching about leading with our hearts because God has structured the world in such a counter-intuitive way. The way the world truly works is not logical. The more we give, the more we receive. The more we keep, the less we will have. More for me means less for all. More for you means more for all. We don’t always understand it, but it appears to be true, and this is what the Torah tries to teach us. As I like to say: love is the spiritual currency of the world. Reality works on the same principle as love: the more we give the more we receive.
The S’fat Emet quotes the Song of Songs: “Vast floods cannot quench love nor rivers drown it” He comments,….”The love and attachment to God that Israel received at Mt. Sinai remain alive in them forever, even when sin prevents them from bringing this hidden love out into the open…By the act of giving they brought forth their own inner generosity, their longing, and attachment so that they were able to draw the Shechina into their midst.” Here the S’fat Emet equates a closed heart with wrongdoing and says that giving brings God’s presence into our midst.
There is an interesting detail in this portion. It says, “They brought to Moses additional free willed gifts every morning” (36:3). This tells us that letting go of our judgment and selfishness is a process, perhaps it is a life-long process, but one that brings contentment, well being, peace, blessing and great reward. The Apter Rebbe said, God’s love needs vessels, and he asks, where are the vessels for the blessings that God want to give us? The Apter answers, “The main resting place is in the human being.” May we be the vessels of God’s love. May we allow our hearts of carry us and to lift us, acting with compassion and generosity, being the givers who help each other and enrich all of life.
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