Shabbat Shuvah. The Shabbat of Return.
This Shabbat that falls in the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is a unique opportunity to take stock of where we’ve been, where we are, and where we are going.
Our High Holiday liturgy is truly beautiful. We call God Our Father. We link our name to His in the medieval Unetaneh Tokeif prayer, where despite our frailty we are made eternal through His Name. We plead to be inscribed in the Book of Life. There is a continual and active conversation with the Divine, one might go as far as to say an intimacy.
But. The truth is, no matter how hard we try, no matter our effort, it can be hard to experience and encounter God. We look around the world, we see pain, poverty, and suffering. We can’t help but ask, where is God? Where was God for the last two thousand years of our people?
This is the idea of the Hidden God or the Hiding God, the concept of Hester Panim.
We find it in this week’s portion, Haazinu. This is a poetic recap of the entire history of Israel, a warning and most importantly a prophecy. It’s also called the Song of Moses — his last attempt to give the people of Israel something to hold onto as he foresaw their eventual faithlessness, exile, and ultimate redemption. They were to write it down and keep on their lips. In fact, the command to write down these verses led to the mitzvah to write an entire Torah because of the fact that we do not write just one section. But that’s another section…
In the previous portion, Vayelech, we read from Deuteronomy 31:16
And they will forsake Me and violate My covenant which I made with them. And My fury will rage against them on that day, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, and they will be consumed, and many evils and troubles will befall them, and they will say on that day, “Is it not because our God is no longer among us, that these evils have befallen us?” And I will hide My face on that day, because of all the evil they have committed, when they turned to other deities. And now, write for yourselves this song, and teach it to the Children of Israel. Place it into their mouths, in order that this song will be for Me as a witness for the children of Israel.
This Song is the one thing, a talisman, a remembering, that will keep them going when the inevitable exile and punishment comes to fruition. It will give them difficult answers. And yet, how can this possibly be the end of the entire Torah?
The idea of God hiding His face occurs again in the poem itself in 32:20:
וַיֹּ֗אמֶר אַסְתִּ֤ירָה פָנַי֙ מֵהֶ֔ם אֶרְאֶ֖ה מָ֣ה אַחֲרִיתָ֑ם
And He said, I will hide my face from them, and I will see what will befall them.
Let’s try to think of it this way. Israel has been faithless. They have actively rejected YHVH and turned to other gods that even their fathers didn’t know. God says ok, you think you can get along without me? I will hide from you, I will leave you to these other so-called gods. Let’s see how you do. You’re going to be exiled and almost annihilated. I’m still here—I’m always here. Even though I’m hiding, I’m still watching. And in the end, I will take vengeance against those enemies and cleanse the Land.
God isn’t really hidden, he is turning his face—perhaps we have turned ours—but he is still very much involved and watching.
Think of it like raising a teenager. They rebel. They argue. They think they know best. Those of you with teenagers, you know this, I see you. It’s frustrating, isn’t it? So you give them space. You don’t remind them to do their homework. Don’t tell them when to go to bed. You walk away if things get heated. You give them space, but—and this is key—you’re still watching and listening. Maybe from behind a closed door, but you’re there, you’re aware, you’re ready to catch them when they fall.
God takes a step back, and the people of Israel suffer the consequences of their choices. It doesn’t mean He is no longer omnipotent, He can intervene and save, and He eventually will. He loves us so much, he can’t watch the suffering.
A chassidic teaching uses the idea of sunlight to understand the animating energy from the Eternal, how it can be all around us yet invisible. Can we see sunlight? Occasionally, we may see shafts of it piercing clouds. Sometimes—though I don’t advise it—we might accidentally look directly at the sun. It blinds us for a moment—we can’t see, but we know it’s still there. Most of the time, it’s just… all around us during the day. We can feel it on our skin, but we can’t touch it, smell it, see it. It just is.
A key idea is that there is an energy flow which descends from On High, from the Holy One of Blessing, and this energy permeates everything, even you and me. If this energy were detectable, if we could physically feel it or touch it, the power, the force of it would be overwhelming, we would be destroyed by it. Think of Superman shaking your hand and forgetting his strength for a moment.
God specifically mediates and hides this shefa, this flow, so that we will not be annihilated.
Clark Kent loosens his grip.
Let me finish with a chassidic parable.
A King wanted to test his children, to see which of them loved him with a true and absolute love. He arranged to have walls constructed all around his palace, walls of wind, walls of fire and moats full of water. In reality, the walls were a deception, an optical illusion. In essence, the walls were a hiding place for the King. Would his children come to seek him? One son had a great desire to enter the palace to be with his father, he was able to discern that the walls were only an illusion. He understood that it just could not be possible that his father would create such a division between them and reasoned correctly that it must be a trick to test them. He understood that each wall represented a deeper level of love between him and his father. Another son, more fool than sage, perceived the walls only as obstacles and turned back, believing that his father had indeed abandoned them.
So. As we look back, as we reflect in the present, and as we move forward through prayer and reflection, let us climb over what can feel like impenetrable walls. Let us feel the warmth of the sun, let us see its light around us, and let us remember it’s still there. Just, you know, without looking directly at it.
It may seem as though God is hiding, but if we know Him to be there, if we can perceive His presence, feel his warmth even when blinded…is He really hiding at all?
Shabbat Shalom and G’mar Chatimah tovah.