Wednesday, September 19, 2012

September 22, 2012


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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