Experience
A Message for Parashat BeHa'alotekha 2018
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As Am Yisrael was positioned to begin
its march into the wilderness, Moshe turned to his father-in-law Hobab and
said:
We are journeying to the place of which God said to us, “I
will give it to you.” Come with us and we shall be good to you, for God
has spoken a good thing to Yisrael. (Bemidbar 10:29)
Hobab responded:
I shall not go, but to my land to my birthplace I shall
go. (10:30)
The theme and content of this short dialogue
is eerily similar to God’s initial encounter with Avraham:
Go forth from your land and your birthplace…to the land
I will show you. And I will bless you… (Bereshit
12:1-2)
Urging Avraham to follow His path to an
undefined place, God then promised him blessing as did Moshe to Hobab at this
time. But whereas God demanded that Avraham leave his “land and birthplace,”
which he did, Hobab turned down Moshe’s offer and instead returned to his “land
and birthplace.”
I believe that the Torah’s contrast of
Avraham and Hobab represents an issue that is far more significant than their respective
one-time decisions. It touches upon opposing theologies and different
approaches to our understanding of God.
The great medieval philosopher R. Yehudah
HaLevi famously distinguished between the “God of the philosophers” and the
“God of Avraham.” He explained that the philosophers seek God through the sole
medium of intellect. Their religion is based upon logical proofs and arguments.
They therefore suffer the constant threats of advanced thinking and endure the
setbacks of counter-proofs and rationalizations. Avraham’s perception of God,
however, though similarly engaged with the intellect was instead built upon the
steadier foundations of experience and relationship.
HaLevi pointed to the foundational moment
when God summoned Avraham outside and showed him the heavenly stars (Bereshit
15:5). He cited the Hakhamim’s interpretation of that moment: “God said
to Avraham: Leave your astrology!” (Shabbat 156a). And HaLevi explained: “God
commanded Avraham to leave behind all logical wisdom based upon astrology and
the like, and instead devote himself to serving the God Whom Avraham had
tasted.”[1]
He wrote that this represented the ideal approach of God, citing in this
context the ideal state of “Taste and see that God is good” (Tehilim
34:9).
R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik z”l
similarly noted the Hakhamim’s contrast between Avraham and his society.
Whereas God was traditionally perceived as “the master of the heavens” – an
unfathomably distant being, Avraham crowned Him as “the God of the earth” – the
approachable God of men.[2]
R. Soloveitchik elaborated:
Avraham…sought
and discovered God in the starlit heavens of Mesopotamia. Yet, he felt an
intense loneliness and could not find solace in the silent companionship of
God, whose image was reflected in the boundless stretches of the cosmos. Only
when he met God on earth as Father, Brother, and Friend – not only along the
uncharted astral routes – did he feel redeemed.[3]
Stretching beyond the cold and impersonal
understanding of “God of the heavens,” Avraham experienced the warmth of His
embrace as “God of the earth.”
Am Yisrael’s travels in the
wilderness represented a national experience akin to those of their forefather
Avraham several centuries before. They had no “home base” or familiar grounding
as they followed God’s hidden itinerary to the place which He decreed. But
although they lacked any clear understanding of God’s plans, they were
nonetheless committed to the mysterious and inexplicable mission of
experiencing His embrace. Quite apart from the nation’s commitment to the Avrahamic
search for “the God of the earth,” Hobab was unwilling to endeavor beyond the defined
realm of rational understanding. He instead turned back to his “land and
birthplace,” as he rejected Moshe’s offer of a numinous encounter with the
Almighty for the intellectual apprehension of “the philosophers.”
The biblical imagery for our experience with
God is the cloud. Am Yisrael’s journey was initiated by the
“lifted cloud” (10:11), and following Moshe’s dialogue with his father-in-law,
the pasuk reiterates:
And God’s cloud was over them by day as they journeyed on from
the camp. (10:34)
I believe that this is why the Hakhamim
envisioned Avraham’s ability to locate the place for the Akedah by means
of a cloud that hovered over the mountain, as well.[4]
And it was their intent when they stated:
“After Hashem your God you shall go” (Devarim 13:5) – This is
the cloud.[5]
The Hakhamim described the eternal
command of “following God” as a constant search for “His cloud.” They referred
to the pursuit of “the God of Avraham,” which exists even when we are confused
by His essence and perplexed by His actions.
Parashat BeHa’alotekha reminds
us of our duty to march along the journey which was begun by Avraham and
continued by our ancestors in the midbar. It teaches us that even as we
are limited in our intellectual grasp of the Divine, we must continue to connect
with Him through our shared experience, making sense of His ways in a lasting
relationship.
[1] R. Yehudah HaLevi, Kuzari
IV:17.
[2] Bereshit Rabah 59:8,
cited by Rashi to Bereshit 24:7.
[3] R. Joseph B.
Soloveitchik, The Lonely Man of Faith (New Milford, CT, 2012), pg. 36-7.
See, as well, R. Soloveitchik’s related discussion in Worship of the Heart
(Jersey City, NJ, 2003), pg. 58-9.
[4] Bereshit Rabah 56:2,
cited by Rashi to Bereshit 22:4, s.v. va-yar.
[5] Sifrei, cited by
Ramban to Devarim 13:5.