A Thought on Parshas Ki Tisa

"...ya'yomer HaShem hinae makom Iti..." "...and HaShem, "look, there is a place with Me..." (33:21) The overt meaning of our verse is that HaShem the Al-mighhty assures Moshe that He has a place set aside for Moshe's protection. The literal translation of the words is that "there is a place with Me." This is a difficult expression to make sense of, for the entire world, the universe, the cosmos, eternity and infinity, are His places. He made them and contains them, in a spiritual sense. What is the deeper meaning, then, of the Torah telling us that HaShem "has a place with Him"? Lest it be misperceived as superfluous, there must be a lesson for us about HaShem and His world. The Gan enlightens us. He shares a Midrash Tehillim (90:10). Asks the Midrash - "why is the name of HaShem referred to as "Makom" (Place)? Because He is the Place where the world is. But now we do not know if He is subordinate to His Place or if His place is subordinate to Him. This is why our verse says "behold, I have a place with Me." This teaches us that place, i.e. space, is subordinate to Him." HaShem determines the functions and significance of every place. Now, Rashi quotes a different Midrash, one more familiar to us. The familiar version is that "He is the Place of the world and the world is not His Place", which captures the image of HaShem containing all things but being beyond all things. The image of the Midrash cited by the Gan is different. Both midrashic approaches assert that HaShem is the Place wherein the universe exists. Rashi clarifies that the universe does not contain HaShem, meaning that three dimensional reality does not encompass or limit HaShem. The Gan's version, however, appears to add another facet. According to the Gan, the thought left by Rashi's Midrash about the universe not being HaShem's place would still leave us with the question as to whether or not HaShem is bound to His world, as in the "natural" forces which operate within it. Does the world function because He wills it to be a certain way, and oversees it, and in that sense, it is as if He is subordinate to all things once He has willed them? Or variously, does nothing exist with autonomy or actually even exist, other than His will, which exists because He wills existence itself, and this allows things to be? By stating that "He is the Place of the World but the world is not His place", we would seem to invite the first inquiry, whether there is an autonomous existence that does not contain HaShem yet which is also a "place" or reality. The clarification of the Gan's Midrash is that the "place" known as the universe neither contains HaShem nor does it comprise a "place" in and of itself. It is subordinate to Him without being a "part" of Him. Its existence is only in the sense that He wills its to be. It has no existence or autonomous function. When HaShem tells Moshe that He has a place for Moshe 'with Him', he means that He is the sole determining force as to a place's function. There is a "place" where Moshe can be in order that he have an encounter with the Divine Presence. That place takes on this function only when HaShem wills it so. I think that the Gan furthers this view on a later verse (34:11). The Torah tells us that Moshe's face shone or glowed with rays of light. The Gan focuses on the word "keren" which means "horn." He cites a verse in Chabakuk (3:4) "karnayim mi'yado lo" which refers to the Divine light which emanates from His Presence as "rays from His Hand". The Gan writes that when we come across the expression (see Tehillim 22) ayeles ha'shachar - the deer of the daybreak - the term refers to sunup when the early rays of dawn spread out in lines not unlike the branching antlers of a deer. Thus, the sun is capable of forming rays when the atmosphere permits, and the Supernal light can be perceived as if it too is refracted into select focused rays of light. This is not a natural phenomenon but rather a higher feature of the non-dimensional realm Above. Moshe's face did not glow but rather it reflected some of that focused emanation that demonstrated that he alone had encountered that higher reality, separate from the material and the "natural." HaShem willed that all of the Jewish people could also witness those rays in order to make it clear that they had erred in seeking another leader. No one but Moshe had encountered that closeness; only Moshe had experienced a glimpse of that "place" which HaShem has with Him. Good Shabbos. Purim Sameach. Geula Krova. D Fox The Gan was written by 13th century Rabbeinu Aharon ben Yosi haCohen, Baal Tosfos More pirushim presented by Rabbi Dr. Dovid Fox at http://thoughtonparsha.blogspot.com/