Newsletter February 28, 2013 - 19 Adar 5773
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They rob me of my sleep. Questions and ideas that have congregated over the day use relaxed consciousness to invade my mind, mocking my attempts to sleep. I used to try to emulate my grandfather, who refused to sleep until he found an answer. My father would urge me to "allow the work to proceed underground," a phrase he learned from Bertrand Russel: "I have found that if I have to write upon some rather difficult topic, the best plan is to think about it with very great intensity - the greatest intensity of which I am capable - for a few hours or days, and at the end of that time give orders, so to speak, that the work is to proceed underground (i.e. subconsciously). After some months I return consciously to the topic and find that the work has been done (The Conquest of Happiness p.76)."
It works for me, and I've found, for my students too. I'll leave a question unanswered, hiding the answer, allowing the work to "proceed underground," affording them the joy of finding the answer on their own. This week's portion, famous for the Golden Calf, a tale of frightened people desperate to have something physical to see, hides things too. It begins with the Incense Offering that forms a cloud around the High Priest inside the Holy of Holies, concluding with the mask that hid Moses' face. Moses himself is hidden for a second period of forty days, despite the fact the it was his delay in returning from his heavenly hideaway that confused the people, leading to the Golden Calf.
After allowing the people to see so much during the Exodus, the Splitting of the Sea, and Revelation, God wants the people to learn to see underground, to see what was inside of them, rather than look only for the revealed. The people spent the forty days before the Golden Calf waiting to see the Tablets. They spent the second forty days looking inside of themselves, understanding why God forgave their sin and offered a second set of Tablets, carved by their hands.
Olam haZeh, this World, is derived from H'elem, "that which is hidden." God places us in this world, a place where He is hidden, so that we can learn to work underground and discover all that is hidden. We are not here only to see that which is revealed but to learn to see underground, inside ourselves. People want answers, explanations for their suffering, revealed wisdom in a confusing world. They forget, when things are hidden, to look inside themselves for answers, wisdom that comes from work underground, the accumulated Binah of life experiences and all they have learned and practiced. So much of our relationship with God is hidden deep inside, subtly working underground just waiting to be discovered.
God takes us outside the Temple confines to offer the Red Heifer, the paradigm of hidden things, matters we cannot fully comprehend. He takes us away from the obvious, from the Sanctuary, to a place outside in the Olam, the place of H'elem, for it is there, in the hidden, where we must look to find those answers and explanations. No wonder God refuses to grant Moses' request, "Show me Your Presence," and covers Moses' eyes with His Hand; we won't find the deepest secrets in things revealed, but only in things hidden deep inside of us. Truths living and breathing deep underground.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Simcha L. Weinberg President If you are interested in sponsoring our  winning Newsletter, please email info@thefoundationstone.org Go to our Blog  Follow us on Twitter   Become a Fan  |
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