Deuteronomy Ekev 2015

Ekev 2015

 

 

“So that you may know that not on bread alone does a man live, but on all that comes forth from the mouth of Hashem does a man live.” Devarim 8:3

This line is powerful. Yoma 74b interprets it literally. In other words, the manna would leave the people feeling physically hungry.  In Berachot 48b we read that Moses composed the text of the Birchot Hamazon (the blessing after the meal) when the manna was given to the Israelites.

Through both interpretations, the rabbis are clearly inferring that there is more to sustenance than the physical. I want to add that there is more to sustenance than what we know of the spiritual and of our intimacy with God. In other words, all the myths we follow and the constructs we create and the words we use can’t possibly reflect even our spiritual intimacy and faith in God. That is, if it’s God to Whom we are reaching.

What do I mean? Knowledge creates boundaries. That which we know is always going to be one step from God. When I say this I am referring to all religions. The Sufi path (as far as I know) places aside constructs but in that very action we find a (seeming) inference of divine knowledge. The Jewish path clearly replaces constructs with more constructs in order to seek the same divine knowledge. If we move away from the construct of the actual Torah story (in other words) we create another construct involving the sefirot and the Shechinah. 

With construct though or without we are still trying to wrap our minds around God and as soon as we think we are doing this, we step away from the very flow of God. As soon as we try to place God in a box, whether it’s a physical box of knowledge or an invisible one and therefore construct-less…we are rejecting the impossible beauty of God through the limits of ego and forced definition.

Prayer, study,  community, the mitzvoth and even love therefore can’t be seen as a finished product, as the inoculation of Divine Intimacy. There isn’t a finished product, simply our openness, our faith and our flexibility. It’s our continual work to keep our ears open, our arms outstretched and our inner eye towards the heavens, to remain open to the prophecy of the moment, the whispers in the trees, the fresh slap of the wind, the wake-up call in an unknown voice with a gift we don’t know. To replace God with any of our own constructs...or pretense of knowledge...is itself idolatry. And it won't get us very far.

In quotidian terms, these days we  are experiencing huge fluctuations in our physical security. How do we pay the rent, pay for gas, continue in the same rhythm of physical survival? Jobs are changing. Industries are changing. The economy is thin ice and the future is beyond our knowledge. How do we continue day to day? Torah instructs us to reach out to the unknown with creative intent, faith, hope.

So too with our spiritual survival.  We would be wise therefore to adapt our physical selves to this spiritual message thousands of years in the making.

Here's a metaphor. We tend to follow the light of a flashlight as it shines for us in the dark…but we cannot hold this round spot of light in our hands whatever myth or non-myth we take to heart. Once we think we have caught the beacon we replace God with  the  easy One we (feel we can) grasp and define. At the same moment we lose sight.