Don't You Know?

Dear friends,

Certain mystical moments happened this week.

In the Niggunim chevrutah one of the singers described a moment of cognition, or awareness to a different realm, that was induced by the physical aspects of singing, the air moving through her diaphragm, the sound vibrations through her throat and out. “Did that happen to any of you,” she asked.

In the Vayetze chevrutah a question arose: are angels to be understood as creatures internal to our individual psyches, or as people we encounter in the world? In the ensuing conversation the angels wouldn’t stop moving, until it became clear that they were now the other faces on the screen. “How scary is this place,” the text cried. “What was that,” we asked, and the angels answered: “God’s here, don't you know?”

In a Talmud chevrutah we learned about the wall of iron between us and God that was established when the temple was destroyed. “Iron rusts when touched by water,” one said. “Like water is one person’s face to another,” quoted another. “So seeing your faces rusts away that wall,” concluded the third.

I’m sitting with a bar mitzvah student at an outdoor café to discuss the Ten Commandments. He orders a grilled cheese with bacon.
“In front of your rabbi?” I ask.
“Yes,” he answers proudly.
“Then say the blessing.”
“Hamotzi!“
“What’s religion for,” I ask.
“To give hope to the hopeless,” he says.
“The rivers all flow to the sea and the sea is never filled,” I quote, “there is no purpose to anything under the sun.”
“Well that’s liberating.”
“Maybe, but if it’s true,” I ask, “then why not murder?”
“Because your insignificant life is just as significant as theirs.”

Each of these experiences were moments of transcendence, produced by coming together with others around, well… Torah.

The Zohar’s expounding of this week’s parasha includes the following:
“Within Torah abide all supernal, sealed mysteries, ungraspable. Within Torah abide all supernal matters, revealed and unrevealed. Within Torah abide all things above and below. All things of this world, all things of the world that is coming abide within Torah – yet no one perceives or knows them, so it is written: Who can express the mighty acts of YHVH or declare all his praise?”

One of the greatest unknowables is how interactions between different human beings can produce such extraordinary experiences. I hope you’ll join us this evening at our Shabbat service for some human interaction. We’ll have some Torah, some Hafiz, some music and a very special guest from Afghanistan. Maybe it’ll turn mystical. Who knows?

Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Misha