I was looking at the cover of Harry Potter 7 (Hebrew edition) - it seems to always be lying around just where I'll have to encounter it. Th e freakishly drawn, bony hands are unnerving, poised at strange angles and, of course, shooting off fiery energy bolts. Not too original, that. That was lifted directly from Star Wars, and the battles between Jedi and Siths. Which in turn was lifted from probably every human culture and myth since time immemorial. The hands are the instruments of action and accomplishment, they are so.... handy! Yet so limited. Perhaps Par'oh's daughter could extend her arm and bring baby Moshe safe to shore, but for us, both our reach and our grasp are so badly circumscribed. Would that we could project our power, amplified millions of times, and move mountains! For certainly our dreams and visions demand no less. If only we could return to the days of hands as powerful as Moshe's
Throughout the previous two parashiyot, Moshe wreaks havoc on the Egyptians via his hands. Oh, alright, it's actually Hashem, as demonstrated by the staff of G-d he holds in his hand. But the people, certainly the Egyptians and maybe not a few of the Jews, must think of it as a wand, a magic wand, exerting control over forces unimaginable, extended over Nile, earth, heaven and sea, splitting rocks so that water gushes forth, pointed heavenward as the people battle Amalek at the end of our parashah.
But wait a minute! No staff!! While Yehoshua leads the ragtag slave band into battle against the Amalekite raiders, a take-no-quarter enemy if ever there was one, Moshe tells Yehoshua that he will ascend the mountain with staff in hand, but when he raises his hands heavenward, there is no staff there!!
What is Moshe doing? Why does he raise his hands without the divine rod? Or, as the Mishnah in Rosh Hashanah asks: Can Moshe's hands make war or break war? The question there is rhetorical, and the answer follows: When Moshe's hands are raised, the people gaze toward heaven, are filled with faith, and are victorious; The opposite when he lets them down.
And why did the people need to be inspired? Because, despite all the miracles performed by Moshe and his staff on their behalf, they STILL did not believe that Hashem was with them. In the preceding passage, they at first lay into Moshe about the lack of water, and then they reveal their real complaint: Hayesh Hashem b'kirbeynu im ayin - "Is there Hashem in our midst; perhaps NOTHING". And, as is well known, the enemy, Amalek, is the equivalent in gematria of SAFEK - doubt. And doubt, this kind of deep existential doubt, is worse than atheism. Atheism is based on the capacity to believe - the atheist is absolutely convinced that there is no supernatural realm, and anyone who believes this is just comforting and deluding himself. He cannot KNOW this, but he believes it ever so firmly. He's a believer - of sorts - but the existential doubter has no notion of what could possibly constitute belief. The people desperately need to be inspired. Seeing their leader atop the hill with hands raised to heaven somehow wrings from them that extra effort to stand firm against the aggressor.
So why does he let them down? Because he got tired? Wait a second, these are the same hands that carried solid stone tablets weighing perhaps a ton down a mountainside!! Ah, but that was different, you say, since according to the midrash, the tablets weighed practically nothing, born aloft by the divinely carved letters and words of the covenant. Here, he had nothing except his hands to hold up, nothing except hiimself, and there's nothing that's heavier than that.
So what happens? You know the story - Aharon and Hur who accompanied him to the hilltop took a stone, and Moshe sat upon it, and each of them supported his hands - - - "And it was - his hands - faith - until the sunset". That's the literal translation, but Emunah means also ( and in a sense, primarily) "steady". So his hands were steady, and thus they were a source of faith. But now the people see Aharon and Hur, like puppetmasters, manipulating Moshe!! How is faith wrought of such a situation.
Listen up. Moshe told Yehoshua, "Tomorrow I am stationed atop the hill, and the staff of G-d IN MY HAND". "IN", dayka (as the Zohar loves to say) - the staff of G-d is no longer an inanimate implement, but has become assimilated into Moshe himself - HE is the conduit of divine energy. Notice - Moshe lifts his hands to heaven this time - no one who sees him this time could think that he is trying to manipulated forces or objects. Rather, he is plugging in. The mystical texts tell us that Moshe held his ten fingers separated as independent channels for each of the divine sephirot. When his hands are raised, he becomes a living embodiment of faith - faith not as a concept but as a being. And this miracle, a human being, dust and ashes, shot through with transcendent faith in Hashem penetrating every fiber of his being, is the greatest miracle of all, perhaps greater even than the splitting of the sea.
But there's a greater miracle than that. For when Moshe's hands became heavy, HE TOOK A STONE! Look at the Hebrew: "Videi Moshe Kevadim Vayikchu even" only later in the verse does it mention Aharon and Hur. Moshe steadied his hands by taking a rock! But not any rock - it was the rock that became the two tablets of the covenant (my midrash) - and that rock, that stone, itself saturated with Torah, stabilized Moshe's hands and allowed other's to participate in the faith-generating vision on the mountain top. Think of it: a man's faith begins to falter AND HE DOESN"T GIVE UP!! He reaches for seemingly the hardest and heaviest thing and wonder of wonder, he is strong, and Aharon and Hur gravitate to him, draw strength from him even as they radiate it onwards to the people.
Tonight all the kids are home. Five heads will present themselves for blessing as we sit down to the Shabbat meal. I will place my hands upon their all-too-Harry Potter filled-heads, but no lightening bolts will emerge from my fingers, only words of a blessing that fathers and kohanim have been conveying ever since Moshe first taught us how to plug in, and a prayer for the faith of Moshe, who knew that his young charge, Yehoshua, would be filled with the faith necessary to carry the day and the morrow even when his faltering hands would grasp for the support of a staff and strike stones in frustration.
May our hands, ever raised, teach us that faith, and may we be a source of faith and blessing to a doubt-ridden world waiting to believe.
Throughout the previous two parashiyot, Moshe wreaks havoc on the Egyptians via his hands. Oh, alright, it's actually Hashem, as demonstrated by the staff of G-d he holds in his hand. But the people, certainly the Egyptians and maybe not a few of the Jews, must think of it as a wand, a magic wand, exerting control over forces unimaginable, extended over Nile, earth, heaven and sea, splitting rocks so that water gushes forth, pointed heavenward as the people battle Amalek at the end of our parashah.
But wait a minute! No staff!! While Yehoshua leads the ragtag slave band into battle against the Amalekite raiders, a take-no-quarter enemy if ever there was one, Moshe tells Yehoshua that he will ascend the mountain with staff in hand, but when he raises his hands heavenward, there is no staff there!!
What is Moshe doing? Why does he raise his hands without the divine rod? Or, as the Mishnah in Rosh Hashanah asks: Can Moshe's hands make war or break war? The question there is rhetorical, and the answer follows: When Moshe's hands are raised, the people gaze toward heaven, are filled with faith, and are victorious; The opposite when he lets them down.
And why did the people need to be inspired? Because, despite all the miracles performed by Moshe and his staff on their behalf, they STILL did not believe that Hashem was with them. In the preceding passage, they at first lay into Moshe about the lack of water, and then they reveal their real complaint: Hayesh Hashem b'kirbeynu im ayin - "Is there Hashem in our midst; perhaps NOTHING". And, as is well known, the enemy, Amalek, is the equivalent in gematria of SAFEK - doubt. And doubt, this kind of deep existential doubt, is worse than atheism. Atheism is based on the capacity to believe - the atheist is absolutely convinced that there is no supernatural realm, and anyone who believes this is just comforting and deluding himself. He cannot KNOW this, but he believes it ever so firmly. He's a believer - of sorts - but the existential doubter has no notion of what could possibly constitute belief. The people desperately need to be inspired. Seeing their leader atop the hill with hands raised to heaven somehow wrings from them that extra effort to stand firm against the aggressor.
So why does he let them down? Because he got tired? Wait a second, these are the same hands that carried solid stone tablets weighing perhaps a ton down a mountainside!! Ah, but that was different, you say, since according to the midrash, the tablets weighed practically nothing, born aloft by the divinely carved letters and words of the covenant. Here, he had nothing except his hands to hold up, nothing except hiimself, and there's nothing that's heavier than that.
So what happens? You know the story - Aharon and Hur who accompanied him to the hilltop took a stone, and Moshe sat upon it, and each of them supported his hands - - - "And it was - his hands - faith - until the sunset". That's the literal translation, but Emunah means also ( and in a sense, primarily) "steady". So his hands were steady, and thus they were a source of faith. But now the people see Aharon and Hur, like puppetmasters, manipulating Moshe!! How is faith wrought of such a situation.
Listen up. Moshe told Yehoshua, "Tomorrow I am stationed atop the hill, and the staff of G-d IN MY HAND". "IN", dayka (as the Zohar loves to say) - the staff of G-d is no longer an inanimate implement, but has become assimilated into Moshe himself - HE is the conduit of divine energy. Notice - Moshe lifts his hands to heaven this time - no one who sees him this time could think that he is trying to manipulated forces or objects. Rather, he is plugging in. The mystical texts tell us that Moshe held his ten fingers separated as independent channels for each of the divine sephirot. When his hands are raised, he becomes a living embodiment of faith - faith not as a concept but as a being. And this miracle, a human being, dust and ashes, shot through with transcendent faith in Hashem penetrating every fiber of his being, is the greatest miracle of all, perhaps greater even than the splitting of the sea.
But there's a greater miracle than that. For when Moshe's hands became heavy, HE TOOK A STONE! Look at the Hebrew: "Videi Moshe Kevadim Vayikchu even" only later in the verse does it mention Aharon and Hur. Moshe steadied his hands by taking a rock! But not any rock - it was the rock that became the two tablets of the covenant (my midrash) - and that rock, that stone, itself saturated with Torah, stabilized Moshe's hands and allowed other's to participate in the faith-generating vision on the mountain top. Think of it: a man's faith begins to falter AND HE DOESN"T GIVE UP!! He reaches for seemingly the hardest and heaviest thing and wonder of wonder, he is strong, and Aharon and Hur gravitate to him, draw strength from him even as they radiate it onwards to the people.
Tonight all the kids are home. Five heads will present themselves for blessing as we sit down to the Shabbat meal. I will place my hands upon their all-too-Harry Potter filled-heads, but no lightening bolts will emerge from my fingers, only words of a blessing that fathers and kohanim have been conveying ever since Moshe first taught us how to plug in, and a prayer for the faith of Moshe, who knew that his young charge, Yehoshua, would be filled with the faith necessary to carry the day and the morrow even when his faltering hands would grasp for the support of a staff and strike stones in frustration.
May our hands, ever raised, teach us that faith, and may we be a source of faith and blessing to a doubt-ridden world waiting to believe.
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