Parashat Vayelekh, Deuteronomy 31:1–30
The Song of Humanity
Song can remind us of our authentic selves and our genuine power.
By Rabbi James Jacobson-Maisels
Provided
by American Jewish World Service, pursuing
global justice through grassroots change.
We often read Parashat Vayelekh on Shabbat Shuvah,
the Shabbat of repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Fittingly, this
parashah deals with sin and repentance, with becoming lost on our way and
returning to our true selves.
In the parashah, God
foretells Israel's future sins and their consequences, how they will turn to
other gods and then be overtaken by suffering, leading God to say, "anokhi haster astir panai--I will surely hide my
face (Deut. 31:16-18)." The hidden face of God, the classic theological
expression of the presence of suffering and evil in the world, here seems to be
a response by God to the sins of Israel, a punishment for their misdeeds.
The Hasidic master, Rebbe Ephraim of Sudylkow,
understands this passage differently. Carefully re-reading the Hebrew, Rebbe Ephraim separates the phrase into two
sections and reinterprets the implications of God's actions. When anokhi haster--the I-ness of God--is hidden through
our entering the slumber of self-deception and idolatry, then astir panai--[God's] face will be hidden.
When we forget our values and our humanity, we
obscure God's holiness from the world; then God's face, God's true presence, is
hidden from us. When we pervert what is just and right through the pursuit of
that which is not the true center, we cause God's presence to disappear, not as
punishment, but as consequence.
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