Exodus Cycle 6 Shemot

Moses is herding sheep. He suddenly sees a bush on fire. The bush is not being destroyed by the fire. In fact it remains and it’s so powerful Moses wants to look away. He does brave the visual though. He rises to the moment.

Rising to the moment is not always easy. We move through life and we look around. Suddenly, our lives are different, our plans our different, our God might have transformed over night and our dreams are new.  Messages come to us. Messages seem out of reach. Doubt is everywhere and our foundation is pulled out from under our feet. Everything we think to be true is suddenly revised. The drummer has changed the beat. The expectation, at its very essence, is in the middle of dissipating.

What do we do? 

First, we need to see beyond the present reality that we call foundation. We need to realize that what we know is really the mask and God is really the core of Being.

Next we need to respond and ask questions of ourselves and our conventions. 

Third, we need to act.

This isn’t easy. The reality we know is the one we trust. We love to analyze, look at facts closely. We depend on directions from the internet, safe food in restaurants, and decent education in public schools. We know that up is up and down is down. We figure that great scientists are correct and we invest in the latest technological toy.

When the basics become transformed therefore we are forced to reevaluate our very position. We might suddenly need to rise to the moment or stand up to see.

This happened to me this evening. I had the opportunity to watch a performance of Handel’s Messiah in San Francisco. It was great. I was mesmerized. Then, when the well known prayer began…the Hallelujah piece from Revelations…the whole audience stood. This was a secular institution. This was Davies Symphony Hall. Of course, I figured that many people there were used to standing for this prayer in church. I figured that Christians stand for this prayer as we Jews stand for the Amidah. 

 I, of course, was a Jewish woman with her two teens in the second tier balcony.

Guess what? If I wanted to see the stage I had to stand as well.  When my son looked at me eyes wild with question  marks I stood and he did too.

This was a complete break in my reality.  And yet, at the same time, we did it to maintain a vision of the reality that I had paid for at the box office.

I must say that I am still quite Jewish and I am even more convinced that when we stand high enough what we realize is that there is one God and one people.  We are forced sometimes to stand not so we can see God but so we won’t be blocked from seeing Him as the basic foundation for all.

When we get a shock therefore and need to transform  the very reason for it could be our need for a reminder. 

Moses had to rise above his own expected reality to see it beyond the burning bush.   He faced God who was in the burning bush so he could continue with his life and act according to his true self.  It was that simple.

May the message  be that direct for all of us.