48.5 F
New York
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Parshat Ki Sisa – Sign: Limited Sight Distance

Related Articles

-Advertisement-

Must read

Rabbi David Bibi is the Rabbi of the Sephardic Congregation of Long Beach and has taught in many community Synagogues. He has written and edited a weekly newsletter “Shabbat Shalom from Cyberspace” for 19 years, and can be reached at DavidBibi@gmail.com.
Rabbi David Bibi is the Rabbi of the Sephardic Congregation of Long Beach and has taught in many community Synagogues. He has written and edited a weekly newsletter “Shabbat Shalom from Cyberspace” for 19 years, and can be reached at [email protected].
I haven’t been sleeping much the last few weeks. At night, I’ll put my book down or my phone aside and pass out from exhaustion. Then two or three hours later I’m up. Is my mind consciously occupied? I don’t know. I’m not thinking of anything in particular. I just can’t sleep. I assume it must be the subconscious playing its tricks. I’m told it’s the underlying emotions I’m probably reluctant to face. The questions I don’t want to ponder. Maybe it’s all the, “would haves”, the, “could haves” and the “should haves” lying dormant in the recesses of my mind. Perhaps it’s the unanswered whys that one refuses to even ask given that no answer is available.

In this week’s portion we read that Moshe after attaining forgiveness for the people decides to press his luck and says to Hashem: “Show me Your Glory”… To which Hashem replied: “You will see My back, but My face cannot be seen.” (33:18,23)

Is Moshe asking to see a face which cannot be seen? Obviously not! Moshe is asking for the answer to all the whys in the world. Why do the righteous appear to suffer while the wicked appear to prosper? Why is there tragedy in the world? What’s the big picture? What’s the entire plan?

G-d says that the answer only comes after the fact. You can see my back but not my face.

Rabbi Abittan would tell us that we might see a black smudge and understand nothing, but stepping back and waiting for the artist to complete his work allows us to see the beauty. From within the painting one has no perspective. It’s only when we see it after completion that we can appreciate it. My daughter would say, “In the end everything is good and if it appears that it’s not good, it must not be the end.”

My dad was a man of tremendous emunah and bitachon – faith and trust in G-d. He took tremendous comfort in knowing, not believing, but knowing that G-d was in charge. My dad was a man who gave everything his 110%. Whatever needed to be done had a system, a time and a place. He exerted every human effort imaginable. But with that he was able to stand back and say, OK, now it’s up to Hashem.

Some people can do this when things are going right, but when things appear to be going wong what happens?

Accepting the fact that we can only do so much, that we don’t understand everything and that we are not privy to G-d’s intricate thoughts allows for a life of incredible nachat ruah, spiritual peace and joie di vivre. This was one of my father’s blessings.

People hear that my dad never hit us, he never yelled at us, never demanded things of us and never denied us wonder how we communicated. We often spoke, but when he would give advice, rebuke or criticism, it was always in the third persona and often couched in parable.

When we had done all we could do, when we had researched and worked and executed he would tell us not to worry. If people could feel good knowing that they were in good hands with Allstat, how much better would they feel if they truly knew and accepted that they we in G-d’s hands.

Ohr Somayach brings a beautiful thought which they attribute to Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, Rabbi Elchanan Wasserman, Rabbi Simcha Wasserman, Rabbi Yaakov Niman, and Rabbi Meir Chadash. It’s a story that my dad told me many years ago when I was dealing with a huge issue overseas. The challenge is taking these stories and making them part of who we are.

Have you ever driven down a country road on a moon-less night and turned your headlights off?

Don’t do it for more than a second because it’s like driving into nothingness!

It’s amazing how those two small pencil-beams of light allow you to navigate a tortuous country road, even on the darkest night. Mind you, you sometimes wonder why the road is making such switch-backs.

“Why can’t they just make this road straight?” you think to yourself.

This world is like night. The World-to-Come is like day. It’s possible to see at night if you turn on your headlights, but there your vision is restricted to what’s illuminated in the beams. It’s local.

By day, however, you can see the whole picture.

In daylight it becomes clear why the road twists and turns so much, why sometimes you go up, and sometimes down: Over here there’s a hill; there, a river; over there is a chasm.

In this world, a person sees but through a glass, darkly. He catches a few brief excerpts of reality, mere flashes of the way the Creator runs His creation.

The rest is night.

With only the few chapters of world history at our disposal we can’t visualize the whole of existence — from where it comes and to where it’s going.

That’s why this world is like night.

In the World-to-Come everything becomes as clear as day. Distance lends perspective and comprehension. We are able to understand the reasons Hashem does what He does: Why the road had to have this bend, why we had to go down there so far…

That’s what Hashem was telling Moshe when he said “My face cannot be seen.”

In this world we cannot see Hashem’s `face’ — Hashem’s direct control of the world; but His `back’ — the tell-tale foot-prints in the snow of History — that’s clear for all to see, if we keep our `head-lamps’ turned on.

My father never operated in the dark. He had his headlights on and always made sure that they were clean as was his windshield. Whatever was in his purvey, whatever was possible that’s where his responsibility lay. Beyond that though, one couldn’t do much but wait for day.

Can I pinpoint why I’m remaining awake at night? No! Perhaps I’m hoping to see the day and get those answers. Instead my dad would probably tell me. David dear, it’s night and at night we can’t get all the answers. Even with the best lighting equipment, it’s still hard to catch everything. It’s still impossible to have complete understanding and perspective. David dear, its night. Some questions have no answers at night, but in the daylight they won’t even need answers because it will be so clear that the questions will no longer be questions. Give it a break. You’ve done your best, now leave it up to Hashem. Close your eyes and go to sleep.

There’s a lot to do in the morning and worrying even subconsciously will accomplish nothing.

OK Dad, I’ll give it a shot! Hope you’re enjoying the daylight!

Shabbat Shalom

balance of natureDonate

Latest article

- Advertisement -