Torah Thought
God’s essence
“N
o human can see me and live,” said God to Moses. Why might that be? When the Torah was revealed at Mount Sinai and the presence of God descended upon the mountain, the Israelites were repeatedly warned to stay away lest somehow the incredible force of God’s presence should end their lives. Indeed, at many other points in the Hebrew Bible, including an early vision of the prophet Isaiah and a lampoon of Samson’s father, this belief— that a human being cannot see God and continue to live—is expressed. Why? I believe that an answer is presented in the fifth century midrash Pesikta De-Rav Kahana, as interpreted by Rabbi Harold Schulweiss. The midrash states that “at Mount Sinai, the Holy One appeared to the Israelites as a mirror, a thousand people might look into it, but it will reflect the face of each back.” Perhaps we should take the idea that
we are each created in the image of God a little more seriously? Perhaps, if we truly looked into the face of God, we would see our own. Perhaps that simple certainty of our own divine nature would sever our ties with our mortal existence, because we could no longer pretend to be separate from God? “The madman claims he is God. The enlightened man claims that he is God— but so is everyone else.” If we truly absorbed this sentiment and put it into action in our daily lives—seeing every person we meet as a fragment of the divine—imagine what a compassionate world we could build! This week we read in the Torah of how Aaron’s sons Nadav and Avihu, in their religious zeal to serve God, offered incense without permission, and died. Perhaps what they encountered was not so much God’s anger as God’s essence. Perhaps, in getting too close to the divine, they realized their true divine nature with a certainty that blazed like fire. In that moment, they could no longer live an earthly existence, and so were forced to depart it. Hence the explanation: “Those drawing near to Me shall unmask My sanctity, for by the face of each person I am honored.” —Rabbi Marc Kraus, Temple Emanuel
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Report: Israel world’s 11th happiest country
I
srael is the 11th happiest place in the world and happier than the United States, according to a new study. Among the 156 countries ranked in the World Happiness Report conducted by University of British Columbia researchers, Israel placed 11th, two spots ahead of the United States. Denmark was the happiest, followed by Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden. Interestingly, half the countries in the top 10 are Scandinavian and exposed to little daylight during the winter, a factor generally associated with depression. The report, based on an analysis of
data from the Gallup World Poll, showed Syria, Afghanistan and eight sub-Saharan countries as the 10 least happy places on earth to live. Most of these countries are confronting war and extreme poverty. The report is based on such as factors as per-capita gross domestic product, social support, healthy life expectancy and freedom from corruption in government and business. It also factors in levels of inequality, with countries experiencing greater levels of inequality deemed less happy than more egalitarian ones. It is also based on respondents’ assessments, on a scale of 0 to 10, of the quality of their lives. (JTA)
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jewishnewsva.org | March 28, 2016 | Jewish News | 5