A thought on פשרת כי תשא
"...v'henei koran or panav va'yiru mi'gehes elav..." (34:30)
...and they saw that Moshe's face glowed, and were fearful of being close..."
Moshe Rabeinu glowed. His face shone with luminescence of a rare and transcendent form. When he would turn to his nation to teach the holy words of Torah given to him by HaShem, that light burst from within him so that people were afraid to go near.
The Recanati helps us grasp some of the metaphysical dynamics here. What was the nature of this light which beamed from Moshe Rabeinu?
Moshe acquired the words of HaShem in a transmission unlike that of other prophets. He was able to apprehend the Presence in a waking state, by day, and grasped the Word with a purity, a clarity, which needed no interpretation, no translation, no conversion of the abstract or the symbolic into more concrete or verbal forms. This is known by Chazal as ispaklaria ha'meira, "seeing through the polished glass."
The soul seeks union with that which is sacred. When one devotes himself to sensing that closeness with the Above, and when the soul clings to that quest, it transcends the physical self. It adopts something of the supernal and the numinous. All that we know about light in the physical world is but a metaphor for the light of creation. That higher light attracts the yearning soul, which in turn radiates with it's glow. This is the nature of the "light" which could be sensed emanating from within and around Moshe Rabbeinu.
What was the function of that radiant glow? Part of it was for the sake of the nation. We needed to know that the work of Moshe, the utter devotion of our "faithful shepherd", was unlike that of other leaders who may come and go. His higher plane of apprehending the Presence was made evident to us by way of the illumination which surrounded him as he served as a vehicle for transmitting Toras HaShem.
So, if the light was for our own sake, why did we fear to draw close?
The Recanati writes that it was our vivid recognition that the light came from Above which gave us pause. Grasping the reality that Moshe ascended to such heights that the highest light above remained with him was astounding and not something that we could entirely get used to experiencing. Knowing that the teachings of Moshe were the selfsame teachings of the One Above was powerful, and people were apprehensive about the meaning of such greatness, and the distance which separated each one from reaching that lofty place.
The Recanati adds that many great Torah teachers had the practice, after studying Torah in preparing their lessons, of turning away, sitting down, then covering their faces as they taught their students. They would signify that the experience of listening to words of Torah is like hearing Torah from Moshe Rabbeinu. The students around them would capture a trace of that same feeling, as they heard and looked towards their great teachers sharing and transmitting Dvar HaShem.
Many years ago, not long after obtaining my first ordination, I was invited as a visiting scholar to a number of communities. I remember giving the guest drasha in Beth Jacob, a large shul in Beverly Hills. As I approached the amud, I first faced the Aron Kodesh and kissed the paroches. As I turned to begin my drasha, the rabbi, Rav Maurice Lamm shlit'a came and draped a large talis over me, whispering "Kavod HaTorah, Kavod HaTzibur." I was still single, a yeshiva bachur, and not yet accustomed to wearing a talis!
As the years have gone by, particularly as I learned this Recanati, the depth of that custom has been illuminated for me. We are not prophets, and we are not Moshe Rabbeinu. Yet, when we learn, we are learning Toras Moshe, and Toras Moshe is Toras HaShem. When a person delivers, gives over, the words of Torah, his dvar Torah is in that sense Dvar HaShem. We aim to capture some of that sense by covering our heads, cloaked in a talis.
We are recreating an image of that first sacred transmission of Torah. Kavod HaTorah, Kavod HaTzibur. We must look the part. We must act the part. We are links in a sacred chain, and have a holy mission.
Good Shabbos. D Fox
...and they saw that Moshe's face glowed, and were fearful of being close..."
Moshe Rabeinu glowed. His face shone with luminescence of a rare and transcendent form. When he would turn to his nation to teach the holy words of Torah given to him by HaShem, that light burst from within him so that people were afraid to go near.
The Recanati helps us grasp some of the metaphysical dynamics here. What was the nature of this light which beamed from Moshe Rabeinu?
Moshe acquired the words of HaShem in a transmission unlike that of other prophets. He was able to apprehend the Presence in a waking state, by day, and grasped the Word with a purity, a clarity, which needed no interpretation, no translation, no conversion of the abstract or the symbolic into more concrete or verbal forms. This is known by Chazal as ispaklaria ha'meira, "seeing through the polished glass."
The soul seeks union with that which is sacred. When one devotes himself to sensing that closeness with the Above, and when the soul clings to that quest, it transcends the physical self. It adopts something of the supernal and the numinous. All that we know about light in the physical world is but a metaphor for the light of creation. That higher light attracts the yearning soul, which in turn radiates with it's glow. This is the nature of the "light" which could be sensed emanating from within and around Moshe Rabbeinu.
What was the function of that radiant glow? Part of it was for the sake of the nation. We needed to know that the work of Moshe, the utter devotion of our "faithful shepherd", was unlike that of other leaders who may come and go. His higher plane of apprehending the Presence was made evident to us by way of the illumination which surrounded him as he served as a vehicle for transmitting Toras HaShem.
So, if the light was for our own sake, why did we fear to draw close?
The Recanati writes that it was our vivid recognition that the light came from Above which gave us pause. Grasping the reality that Moshe ascended to such heights that the highest light above remained with him was astounding and not something that we could entirely get used to experiencing. Knowing that the teachings of Moshe were the selfsame teachings of the One Above was powerful, and people were apprehensive about the meaning of such greatness, and the distance which separated each one from reaching that lofty place.
The Recanati adds that many great Torah teachers had the practice, after studying Torah in preparing their lessons, of turning away, sitting down, then covering their faces as they taught their students. They would signify that the experience of listening to words of Torah is like hearing Torah from Moshe Rabbeinu. The students around them would capture a trace of that same feeling, as they heard and looked towards their great teachers sharing and transmitting Dvar HaShem.
Many years ago, not long after obtaining my first ordination, I was invited as a visiting scholar to a number of communities. I remember giving the guest drasha in Beth Jacob, a large shul in Beverly Hills. As I approached the amud, I first faced the Aron Kodesh and kissed the paroches. As I turned to begin my drasha, the rabbi, Rav Maurice Lamm shlit'a came and draped a large talis over me, whispering "Kavod HaTorah, Kavod HaTzibur." I was still single, a yeshiva bachur, and not yet accustomed to wearing a talis!
As the years have gone by, particularly as I learned this Recanati, the depth of that custom has been illuminated for me. We are not prophets, and we are not Moshe Rabbeinu. Yet, when we learn, we are learning Toras Moshe, and Toras Moshe is Toras HaShem. When a person delivers, gives over, the words of Torah, his dvar Torah is in that sense Dvar HaShem. We aim to capture some of that sense by covering our heads, cloaked in a talis.
We are recreating an image of that first sacred transmission of Torah. Kavod HaTorah, Kavod HaTzibur. We must look the part. We must act the part. We are links in a sacred chain, and have a holy mission.
Good Shabbos. D Fox
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 7:17 PM
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