Where is God today? In the beginning of last week’s parsha, the Torah says that God appeared to Avraham. Why doesn’t God appear to us?
Maybe He does and we don’t notice. Look again at the beginning of last week’s parsha – It says that God appears to Avraham and immediately afterward Avraham lifts up his eyes and sees three “men” and runs to bring them into his house. Avraham feels God’s presence through his interactions with fellow humans. The narrative switches back and forth between Avraham’s interactions with those “men” and his interactions with God, as if to indicate that they are of a piece; it is through Avraham’s acts of hesed (loving-kindness) toward these people – bringing them in, feeding them and attending to them – that God’s Presence in the world becomes manifest.
We learn the same thing from Avraham’s servant in this week’s parsha. He is concerned before going that the task – to bring back a wife for Isaac -- will be hard, but Avraham assures him that God will send “His angel” to help. Where is this angel? Avraham’s servant makes a deal with God when he gets to the well outside of the town, to the effect that God will make it clear which young woman to choose. Where do we see God’s hand, where do we see this “angel” in the story that ensues? In Rivka’s acts of hesed, in the water she so kindly and unstintingly offers the servant and his camels. Here are the signs of God’s Presence in the world, these acts of gracious caring, these expressions of a sense of higher purpose, of a belief that we are not just individual selves looking out for our own good. What could be more divine than that?
This week, in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, there have been so many acts of caring and giving that it is suddenly difficult not to see God’s Presence in the world. The Sefat Emet says that Avraham was a channel through which hesed from above was able to be pulled into this world below. All around us are such angels, such channels of divine hesed. We are lost and someone helps us find our way. Someone reaches out, says the thing we need to hear just at the right moment. All around us are angels. The challenge is not just to try to be such channels of good for others, but to recognize, in the people around us, the presence of God.
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Beautiful...thank you.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. Along similar lines, Moshe says in Devarim, don't say that "my strength and the power of my hands made for me this greatness" but instead think of G-d, who "gives you strength to make greatness" (hanosen l'cha koach lasos choyil) - not that G-d provides for us, but that he enables us. Perhaps your point crosses many dimensions; not just love and chesed but truth and justice and fairness and power.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm still puzzled. As I understand it, the G-d of the Jews exists separately from the world, and has the power to intervene and act upon it - as he did with the plagues and the Exodus. To what extent is this aspect of G-d manifest in our lives?
Anyway, thanks for a great d'var Torah.