Shabbat Blast

Friday, February 18, 2022

From: Rebekah Alpert - Miller
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​​​​​​​Dear CBO Family,

In this Parsha, we learn more about the complicated relationship between God and Moses.  Moses ascends Mt. Sinai  and has an encounter with God. While Moses is on Mt. Sinai, God gives him two tablets inscribed with the finger of God that contain God’s commandments.  The Israelite people are fearful because Moses has been gone for so long, and create and begin to worship a golden calf. As Moses descends the mountain, he sees his people dancing before the golden calf, and is so angry that he shatters the tablets God has given him.  Moses must then intercede with God not to destroy the Israelite people. Moses orders the Levites to punish those who worshipped the golden calf, and three thousand Israelites are killed. Moses also requests to see God’s face, but God says “Man may not see my face and live”.  God hides Moses in the cleft of the rock, and shields him.  Moses sees God’s back as God passes by. Moses then  goes back up the mountain to receive the Law again.
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This is a parsha full of amazing events.  One of the most interesting of the events is Moses not being allowed to see God’s face.  What might we imagine God’s face to look like?  Is it a male face with a beard, or a female face, or a face we would not be able to identify?   What color is God’s skin and hair?  If we saw God’s face, would we be able to relate to God, or would God seem too different and not what we had imagined. If we are created in the image of God, would we recognize the features of humanity in God’s face?  Rabbi Heschel states “We live and act according to the image of humanity we cherish.”  What if God’s face was that image—the image of humanity?

There are others, such as Rabbi David Cooper who do not see God as having a human form or any form at all.   He states that “God is a verb” or a process. Have we described God in human terms in order to be better able to relate to God?

King David in the Psalms beseeches God: “Hide your face from me and I am terrified”.(Psalm 30, verse 7).  In 1 Chronicles , 16:11, we are told to seek God’s presence continually. Do we need to see God’s face?  Or is it the seeking of God’s face through prayer that will bring us closer to God?

In these times, when we often wear masks to protect ourselves from illness, our faces and the faces of others are only partially visible.  How different are human relations when we cannot fully see each others’ faces?  Let us hope that whatever is seen or unseen, we can cherish humanity and live and act accordingly. 

Shabbat Shalom,

Rebekah Alpert Miller

CANDLE LIGHTING
Friday, February 18th at  5:14 PM

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Saturday, February 19th at 6:19 PM

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