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Orchard of Delights
God: “He is the place of the world, but the world is not His place”
(Bereishit Rabbah 68:9).
Moses spent forty days on Mount Sinai praying for forgiveness
after the Jewish people sinned by worshipping the Golden Calf. In
the course of this process, God revealed the thirteen principles of
compassion, and he also told Moses that no one can see God’s face
and live: “And God said, Behold! There is a place with Me, you may
stand on the rock. When My glory passes by I shall place you in a
cleft of the rock; I will shield you with My hand until I have passed
by. Then I will remove My hand and you will see my back, but My
face will not be seen” (Exodus 33:21-23). Rashi comments that the
text states that “there is a place with Me” and not that I am in this
place, for God is the place of the world, but the world is not His
place.
Seeing the face of God would imply direct revelation, a form of
revelation beyond the grasp of any finite being. A human being can
only see God’s back, His essence is concealed in nature, in the reality
of time and space. The Arizal taught that all matter, animate or
seemingly inanimate, large or small, exists because a spark of God
animates it. Jacob who had spent his entire life cloistered in the tents
of Torah was now encountering the world for the first time, as it
were. He suddenly realized that God is truly everywhere, permeating
every aspect of existence. This revelation is crucial, for it is the first
step Jacob must take in assuming his life’s work and mission, the
process of uniting the physical and the spiritual.
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Toldot
concepts; however, since God knew the type of world that would
follow from His giving humanity free will, this reality too became
part and parcel of the Torah itself, and was ultimately – if, somewhat
paradoxically – reflected in the world. Since the Torah provides the
path to the world’s rectification, it addresses the nitty-gritty reality
of a non-rectified world in need of much repair. The Torah is full
of stories of war, murder, jealousy, incest, theft, political intrigue,
rebellion, and so forth. The basest of human emotions parade across
its pages because these are part and parcel of the world we live in. Of
course, the Torah does not advocate giving in to our darker sides, but
it accepts the world as it is, as humanity has shaped it, and provides
both the individual and the world with an instruction manual and a
pathway to rectification.
God knew that in order for Jacob to rectify such a world, leading
it to its purpose, he would have to learn to survive in a far from ideal
reality. God tested him, as he had tested Abraham, to teach him
how to overcome the pitfalls of an imperfect world. Jacob received
the name “Israel” after he defeated the angel in battle because this
name signifies that he had “contended with God and with man and
had prevailed” (Genesis 32:29). Jacob’s inherent love of truth and
honesty were constantly challenged by the tests life threw at him.
And like all of us he did his best to balance the means and the ends
of each situation.
Despite all these challenges, Jacob not only survived but
established the resilient nation of Israel. Even today, the State of
Israel is constantly forced to deal with situations and circumstances
that threaten its very existence. Like Jacob, Israel is sometimes
forced to act in ways that defy the world’s hypocritical definition
of what is irreproachable behavior. Once again Jacob’s descendants
have the awesome challenge of existing in a less than ideal world,
trying to hold fast to what is true, moral, and ethical.
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