Dear Friends,
Arguably, the most compelling and difficult concern of all of religious thought is that of God’s presence. Is there God? Where is God? Yom Kippur, and now Sukkot, vitally stir those themes.
I would imagine that every reader of this D’Var Torah – and writer, too – has pondered these questions at some time. Doubt is normal. Certainty is an oddity, especially in our more rational, scientific age.
Thus, it is not surprising when we find the same consideration appear in our Torah reading for this special Shabbat of the festival of Sukkot. The text is found in Exodus, immediately following the Golden Calf incident, when Moses descended Mt. Sinai to find the Israelites dancing around their idol, and promptly destroyed the first set of Ten Commandments and the calf. Upon returning to the mountain, Moses implored God to be present with the Israelites, likely to obviate the potential of another idolatrous revolt by the people. That is when Moses begged, “Oh let me behold Your presence!” (Exodus 33:18)
Haven’t we all asked the same? And, isn’t it likely that we have asked for God’s presence when we feel most apart, yearning and needing? We ask for certainty when doubt becomes too troubling.
It is somewhat comforting to read that moses pleaded for the same. He was, according to Torah, the only Human to commune with God panim el panim, face to face, and yet, even he begged for some sureness of the Holy Presence.
Thus, it is reassuring that we, as well, might feel comparably. Demands in the world, unexpected trauma, mysteries around life and death, the worrisome loneliness of illness and the impatience of healing, and environmental calamities, all stir a need for a Divine certainty. Yet, it commonly is most absent when it seems most needed.
Such is part of the delight of the festival of Sukkot. It follows only days after the most urgent day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, when souls are balancing on reinscription in the Book of Life, and we implore God’s nearness and benign judgment. Sukkot, however, comes to affirm that very need. We are charged to experience the harvest, to take in the life-giving rains, and to appreciate the renewal of the earth, itself. Each of these encounters are reinforcement of the nearness and concern of God for life and the continuity of life.
Sukkot comes to reassure our worries, to temper our doubt. Let’s look around and appreciate God’s earth!
Shabbat Shalom, and Hag Sameach,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
Arguably, the most compelling and difficult concern of all of religious thought is that of God’s presence. Is there God? Where is God? Yom Kippur, and now Sukkot, vitally stir those themes.
I would imagine that every reader of this D’Var Torah – and writer, too – has pondered these questions at some time. Doubt is normal. Certainty is an oddity, especially in our more rational, scientific age.
Thus, it is not surprising when we find the same consideration appear in our Torah reading for this special Shabbat of the festival of Sukkot. The text is found in Exodus, immediately following the Golden Calf incident, when Moses descended Mt. Sinai to find the Israelites dancing around their idol, and promptly destroyed the first set of Ten Commandments and the calf. Upon returning to the mountain, Moses implored God to be present with the Israelites, likely to obviate the potential of another idolatrous revolt by the people. That is when Moses begged, “Oh let me behold Your presence!” (Exodus 33:18)
Haven’t we all asked the same? And, isn’t it likely that we have asked for God’s presence when we feel most apart, yearning and needing? We ask for certainty when doubt becomes too troubling.
It is somewhat comforting to read that moses pleaded for the same. He was, according to Torah, the only Human to commune with God panim el panim, face to face, and yet, even he begged for some sureness of the Holy Presence.
Thus, it is reassuring that we, as well, might feel comparably. Demands in the world, unexpected trauma, mysteries around life and death, the worrisome loneliness of illness and the impatience of healing, and environmental calamities, all stir a need for a Divine certainty. Yet, it commonly is most absent when it seems most needed.
Such is part of the delight of the festival of Sukkot. It follows only days after the most urgent day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, when souls are balancing on reinscription in the Book of Life, and we implore God’s nearness and benign judgment. Sukkot, however, comes to affirm that very need. We are charged to experience the harvest, to take in the life-giving rains, and to appreciate the renewal of the earth, itself. Each of these encounters are reinforcement of the nearness and concern of God for life and the continuity of life.
Sukkot comes to reassure our worries, to temper our doubt. Let’s look around and appreciate God’s earth!
Shabbat Shalom, and Hag Sameach,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
