Ki Tissa
It is somewhat overwhelming this portion this week. There is so much to digest, from the beginning of the portion’s call for census through the drama of the Golden Calf and on to the second tablets and the text that has been mistranslated on the radiance of Moses’s face being horns. (34:30). Moses complains to God and yet lists the famous attributes (34:6) and earlier wishes to “see” God but, while placed in the cleft in the rock, sees only God’s back. (33:21). All of this makes for a powerful portion.
But, as we often do in this space, there is one text, rarely discussed, that completes the reading. “Whenever Moses went in before God to speak with Him, he would leave the veil off until he came out, and when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, the Israelites would see how radiant the skin of Moses’ face was. Moses would then put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with God. According to the commentary in the Plaut Torah (p. 662), the word for veil in the text, “masveh”, appears only in this story? Moses veils when he speaks with the Israelites, unveils, when speaking with God. How very strange?
I began to think about this image and how it may relate to us. We sometimes refer to people who experience a change in life, as glowing. Moses is radiant after his encounter with God and the second set of tablets. This is after the Golden Calf. Has he reached a new level of relationship with God? Has Moses, as many of us do, undergone some sort of transformation? Is this experience so powerful that Moses has the courage, in these one-on-one moments, to speak his truth? Does the veil, when speaking with the Israelites, symbolize some sort of barrier? How many of us, in the privacy of our own hearts and souls, speak one way; when we face others, often in social situations, our speech is guarded as we worry more about what people may say or think? Are we afraid to speak about our innermost thoughts, fears, dreams and desires? Is our public speech guarded for fear of repercussions? We face some of this now with the explosion of antisemitism and the need to publicly protest and rebuke the offenders. But yet some remain silent. Why?
For others, this symbol of the veil may go deeper. Could it be a veil of the soul? We still experience in our post Covid world, an explosion of isolation. How many people have just retreated into their own self, cutting themselves off from the world, either by choice or due to circumstances beyond their control? Our tradition speaks to the hope that we live our life engaged with the world and in relationship with others. As we grow older this becomes more meaningful, yet too many, for a variety of reasons, retreat from this. It is as if they find more comfort behind a symbolic veil that covers their own soul.
Does this veil represent inhibitions to speak our own truth or engage with the world? What do we hide? With so much happening now, much of which represents a shift from traditional Jewish values, do we hesitate to speak out? So much is contained within this small word.
Shabbat shalom
Rabbi Richard F Address
Rabbi Richard F. Address, D.Min, is the Founder and Director of www.jewishsacredaging.com. Rabbi Address served for over three decades on staff of the Union for Reform Judaism; first as a Regional Director and then, beginning in 1997, as Founder and Director of the URJ’s Department of Jewish Family Concerns and served as a specialist and consultant for the North American Reform Movement in the areas of family related programming. Rabbi Address was ordained from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1972 and began his rabbinic career in Los Angeles congregations. He also served as a part time rabbi for Beth Hillel in Carmel, NJ while regional director and, after his URJ tenure, served as senior rabbi of Congregation M’kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, NJ from 2011-2014.
Eugene Borowitz z”l wrote “The masks Jews wear.” The veil of Moses takes away from his face to make the words more important. He is not speaking as Moses. The radiance allows him to speak for the BIG BOSS. As a stuttering person when confronted by a crowd of more than three, I get worse. I get more confused. I get more agitated or excited. The mask prevents that situation.