d’var torah
F TAY-SACHS
REE Looking Through
God’s Eyes
BY RABBI GREGORY MARX
T Sukkot
he holiday of Sukkot is with-
out a doubt one of my favorite
festivals. Th e moon is full, the
weather is, more oft en than not, cool
in the evenings. Th e leaves are turning
from their verdant green of the sum-
mer to the reds, yellows and oranges of
fall. It is a wondrous time.

As for me, I am coming “down,”
if you will, from the pressures of the
High Holy Days. I love Sukkot.

Where else can we look for a critical
lesson about appreciation and wonder-
ment for the times of our lives than
the Torah reading for the Shabbat of
Sukkot? In it, we learn about Moses approach-
ing God and asking to see “God’s face.”
Th is is actually not a particularly
unusual request. It says elsewhere in
Torah that Moses knew God “face to
face.” Most religious teachings focus on
its founder “knowing God.”
But here, during the intermedi-
ate days of Sukkot, God pushes back
against Moses’ request. God says, “I
will make all my goodness pass before
you, and I will proclaim before you the
name Eternal and the grace that I grant
and the compassion that I show… But
you cannot see my face, for no human
being may not see me and live … See,
there is a place near me. Station your-
self on the rock. And as My Presence
passes by, I will … shield you with My
hand until I have passed by. Th en I will
take My hand away and you will see My
back, but My face must not be seen.”
What actually transpired at that
moment? Th ere are some who say that Moses
was only allowed to see traces of God.

It has been compared to seeing the
wake of a boat but not the actual vessel.

Or, perhaps, human wisdom, compas-
sion or generosity are the traces of God
that we can “see,” while not actually
knowing God. Others believe that it is
a teaching about life aft er death. Moses
would be able to see God face-to-face
upon his demise but not during life.

I would like to suggest a fourth
option. Moses was allowed to see what
truly mattered in life. He could see
in an instant when God revealed His
back, the sacred not the profane. If
Moses was seeing only God’s back,
then Moses was looking in the same
direction, theoretically, as God. Moses
was allowed to perceive what God was
seeing. It is the diff erence between
looking into God’s eyes and looking
through God’s eyes.

Imagine for just a moment that
Moses could see what truly mattered
in life. Rudolph Otto, the theologian,
called this the Mysterium Tremendum,
the great mystery of being. For that
brief moment, perhaps it was just an
instance, Moses had that “aha” moment
where he could see and realize the pro-
fundity of life as opposed to the small
annoyances of everyday living.

Too oft en we get distracted or aggra-
vated by the little things of life. Having
to wait on the phone for a customer
representative who “values my time,”
but makes me wait for 45 minutes,
the dripping kitchen faucet that we’ve
been meaning to fi x which consistently
annoys. Too oft en, the little things in life dis-
tract us from the beauty and the won-
derment of life. A friend of mine once
called it “the missing tiles syndrome.”
If we look up at a magnifi cent fresco
or mosaic, we, too, oft en gravitate to
the missing tiles, the fl aws, the imper-
fections, rather than marveling at the
wonderment. Th ere are some faiths that will tell
us that the essence of life is to look
into God’s eyes, to have a personal
relationship with God. All we can hope
for, according to the Torah, is to look
through God’s eyes and to see what
truly matters in life. And what does
our tradition value? All the intangi-
ble things that cannot be qualifi ed
or quantifi ed. Life is made meaning-
ful with wonderment, gratitude, love,
hope, faith, courage and integrity.

As we celebrate this glorious season,
& CANAVAN
SCREENING may we “look through God’s eyes”
as Moses briefl y did and give thanks
for the splendor and majesty of the
moment. JE
CALL (215)887-0877
FOR DETAILS
Rabbi Gregory Marx is the senior rabbi
at Congregation Beth Or in Maple
Glen. Th e Board of Rabbis of Greater
Philadelphia is proud to provide diverse
perspectives on Torah commentary
for the Jewish Exponent. Th e opin-
ions expressed in this column are the
author’s own and do not refl ect the view
of the Board of Rabbis.

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