August 31st: Ki Tavo
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
Our Torah portion begins with an ancient ritual and an ancient prayer. As much as the Torah is “full of religion,” there are very few actual prayer texts, and we have an excellent example here. It is the passage that begins, “My father was a wandering Aramean,” and it continues with a mini-history of the Hebrew/Israelite people: the slavery in Egypt, our redemption by God, and the awarding to us of the Promised Land. The sense of the prayer is the long history between the worshipper and God and the appropriateness of sharing the gifts that God has given us.
The prayer concludes with this plaintive hope: “Look down from Your holy abode, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the soil You have given us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as You swore to our ancestors.” (Deuteronomy 26.15)
This idea of God dwelling above is found throughout the Tradition. In Psalm 150, we sing, “Halleluhu b’kosh’sho! Halleluhu bir’ki’a uzo!
Praise God in the sanctuary! Praise God in the heavenly stronghold.”
In Genesis 28, Jacob dreams a curious dream: “A ladder was set on the ground and its top reached all the way to the heaven, and angels of God were going up and down on it. And the Lord was standing on it…” Where is God? At the top, in heaven.
And, in the Mourner’s Kaddish and the Full Kaddish, we conclude with “Oseh shalom bim’romav hu ya’aseh shalom alaynu… May the One Who makes peace in the highest of heavens make peace (down here) for us…”
The ancient understanding was that God dwells up in the heavens and then occasionally looks down on the earth, or visits it, or sends messengers (angels) to attend to various matters. Thus does God exercise power over everything—while residing in the heavens.
During the days of Greek Philosophy and the Talmud, some thinkers began teaching a more expansive understanding of God. In addition to being omnipotent, they determined that is also omnipresent—present everywhere at the same time. Though such a belief seemed to obviate the role for angels (m’lachim), many people felt a continuing affection for the image of angelic messengers. Perhaps this was (and is) a way of personifying particular manifestations of the omnipresent Divine.
More new ideas emerged in the 16th and 17th Centuries when some mystics began thinking in terms of panentheism, the notion that everything is part of God—that there is no separation between God and the universe. Some would trace this sensibility back to the Kabbalists, but it came to full form in the works of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lliadi, the founder of Chabad Hassidism. Interestingly enough, panentheism in Judaism has come to a greater popularity in the developing feminist movement of the last fifty year. Feminist thinkers rejected the hierarchical notion that God is above humanity and embraced the notion of an immanent God—a God Who dwells within.
In the following prayer—found in both our prayer book, Siddur B’rit Shalom, and our High Holy Day prayer book, Machzor Ki Anitani, we approach the Divine in a multi-valent fashion, seeking healing from the Divine in a variety of the ways that God can be present in our lives:
“Heal us, O Lord, and we shall be healed. Save us, and we shall be saved.” (Jeremiah 17.14)
The power of God—the healing and saving power of God—can be present for us in many ways. At some moments, God is a heavenly majesty to Which we pray for blessing and from Which we receive a healing touch. At some moments, God is an enlivening presence, emanating from within and filling us with health and new possibilities. At some moments, God exists in the touch and gaze of those around us, human vessels of love who spread the godliness they hold within. For each of us who suffers—whether in body or in soul—we pray that the healing, strengthening, enlivening power of God be present in our lives. May it surge both toward us and within us, filling us with the spirit, holiness, and continuing possibilities of life. We praise You, O Lord, Who heals the sick.
Though my human mind tries to think about God in concrete terms and philosophical consistency, I try to remember that God is infinite—beyond our categories and logic. So, when approaching and invoking the Infinite, I look up to heaven and down to earth and to my fellow creatures and within myself. Blessings flow in many streams