Miracles on the Mount
Good Shabbos,
In this week’s Torah reading, we encounter the experience of Mount Sinai and the giving of the Ten Commandments (a wildly unfair misnomer – ten statements, actually, which included 14 commandments!). While there are oodles to be said, I’ll pick only one quick detail which probably wasn’t covered in Hebrew school. When Moshe came down with the luchos (tablets – which, by the way, weren’t curved on top to “look like tablets” but were rather square), all the Aseres HaDibros (10 “statements”) were engraved into the stone – all the way through to the other side! This would seem no remarkable feat except for two miracles: first, no matter which side you perceived, you could read them perfectly (get it? It was engraved through to the other side, where it should have read the same thing backwards, but somehow, miraculously it wasn’t – think about it), second, the Hebrew letters for M sofit and samach are circular (ם and ס) – so how was the little piece of stone in the middle held in place? Miraculously, of course. And judging by the weight (literal, not figurative) the Talmud ascribes to these tablets, they basically carried themselves (only through the merit of Moshe). If Vendyl Jones (wikipedia him, or try www.vendyljones.org.il) gets his way and finds the ark he’s been looking for, all will be revealed.
The Midrash says that everything stood still when God revealed Himself. No leaf rustled, no cloud budged, no bird chirped, not a millipede’s leg twitched. Nothing in the created universe gave any individual expression at the point of God’s infusion of the infinite into the finite, for nothing finite could thus exist. We’re taught that our souls left our bodies when He spoke – in a sense we died and were resurrected – because, once again, nothing physical could exist – only the soul could interact. Our experience was nothing short of the highest prophesy – a 100% clarity of God’s existence and purpose and Moshe’s infallibility as transmitter/intermediary – not to mention the Aseres HaDibros. God created the world with Ten statements, there are ten corresponding expressions and definitions of love/joy in the world (simcha, sasson, gila, rina, ditzh, chedva, ahava, achva, shalom, reiyus), Ten Commandments, and ten emanations of His essence (ask Madonna about that one). In these Aseres HaDibros, all was revealed, all was understood – the entirety of Torah is encapsulated within them, and at our deepest point of self – our soul – this was momentarily crystal clear. Our tradition informs us that we were all present at Sinai. Each and every soul. With this we are eternally bound (yes, I appreciate the resistance to such a statement), and yet with this we are promised to find within us, at the end of our search and discovery of self – there in the pockets of our own spiritual core – a resounding oneness and love for God, His creation, our mission and the Jewish people.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Lynn and the minstrels of MLF
In this week’s Torah reading, we encounter the experience of Mount Sinai and the giving of the Ten Commandments (a wildly unfair misnomer – ten statements, actually, which included 14 commandments!). While there are oodles to be said, I’ll pick only one quick detail which probably wasn’t covered in Hebrew school. When Moshe came down with the luchos (tablets – which, by the way, weren’t curved on top to “look like tablets” but were rather square), all the Aseres HaDibros (10 “statements”) were engraved into the stone – all the way through to the other side! This would seem no remarkable feat except for two miracles: first, no matter which side you perceived, you could read them perfectly (get it? It was engraved through to the other side, where it should have read the same thing backwards, but somehow, miraculously it wasn’t – think about it), second, the Hebrew letters for M sofit and samach are circular (ם and ס) – so how was the little piece of stone in the middle held in place? Miraculously, of course. And judging by the weight (literal, not figurative) the Talmud ascribes to these tablets, they basically carried themselves (only through the merit of Moshe). If Vendyl Jones (wikipedia him, or try www.vendyljones.org.il) gets his way and finds the ark he’s been looking for, all will be revealed.
The Midrash says that everything stood still when God revealed Himself. No leaf rustled, no cloud budged, no bird chirped, not a millipede’s leg twitched. Nothing in the created universe gave any individual expression at the point of God’s infusion of the infinite into the finite, for nothing finite could thus exist. We’re taught that our souls left our bodies when He spoke – in a sense we died and were resurrected – because, once again, nothing physical could exist – only the soul could interact. Our experience was nothing short of the highest prophesy – a 100% clarity of God’s existence and purpose and Moshe’s infallibility as transmitter/intermediary – not to mention the Aseres HaDibros. God created the world with Ten statements, there are ten corresponding expressions and definitions of love/joy in the world (simcha, sasson, gila, rina, ditzh, chedva, ahava, achva, shalom, reiyus), Ten Commandments, and ten emanations of His essence (ask Madonna about that one). In these Aseres HaDibros, all was revealed, all was understood – the entirety of Torah is encapsulated within them, and at our deepest point of self – our soul – this was momentarily crystal clear. Our tradition informs us that we were all present at Sinai. Each and every soul. With this we are eternally bound (yes, I appreciate the resistance to such a statement), and yet with this we are promised to find within us, at the end of our search and discovery of self – there in the pockets of our own spiritual core – a resounding oneness and love for God, His creation, our mission and the Jewish people.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Lynn and the minstrels of MLF
posted by Rabbi Lynn at
1:14 AM
1 Comments:
Good words.
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