"To be a teacher in the right sense is to be a learner.  I am not a teacher, only a fellow student."  (Soren Kierkegaard)

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A FEW PRE-SHABBAT WORDS FROM RABBI AARON

Face to Face - The Lingering Image
In this parasha, Moshe and God work through the crisis of faith and the sense of betrayal represented by the Golden Calf incident. Moshe wrestles with his anger: "Aaron, what has this people done to you, that you've made a molten image for them!" Despite the painful recriminations, the people must move forward. The breach in trust cannot be wished away, but God is forgiving. Moshe wants the impossible from God: "Show me Your Glory!” While he can't be granted all that he desires (as the Rolling Stones have taught: you can't always get what you want...), Moshe, at great personal cost, will continue to show us the Art of the Possible...

The Conversation

Moses: "You have been telling me, 'Lead these people,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, 'I know you by name and you have found favor with me.' If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people." 

God: "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."

Moses:, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?" 

God: "I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name."

Moses: "Now show me your glory." 

God: "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live. There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen." 

Commentary of Sorts - Let Poetry Speak to Poetry
Often, I offer up words from the great teachers from centuries, like Rashi, Rambam,  Ramban, Sefat Emet, or Hirsch. Sometimes I choose modern masters, like Zornberg, Sacks, Leibovitz, or Kushner. For this particular Biblical text - a moment of transformational encounter beyond words - I suggest we listen to a poem by Yehuda Amichai, my all-time favorite poet, and soak in the mysterious sacred imagery of passion and yearning... 

Moses saw the face of God just once and then
forgot. He didn't want to see the desert,
not even the Promised Land, only the face of God.
In the fury of his longing he struck the rock,
climbed Mount Sinai and came down again, broke
the Tablets of the Law, made a golden calf, searched through
fire and smoke, but he could remember only
the strong hand of God and His outstretched arm,
not His face. Moses was like a man to tries to recall
the face of someone he loved, but tries in vain.
He composed a police sketch of God's face
and the face of the burning bush and the face of Pharaoh's daughter
leaning over him, a baby in the ark of bulrushes.
He sent that picture to all the tribes of Israel,
up and down the desert, but no one had seen,
no one knew. Only at the end of his life,
on Mount Nebo, did Moses see and die, kissing
the face of God.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Aaron