Do Not Make Yourself a Pesel, Lest Torah Become an Idol
By Rabbi Shira Milgrom
In the next parashah, Moses will tell the Israelite people: “Thereupon the Eternal One said to me, ‘Carve out two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain; and make an ark of wood. I will inscribe on the tablets the commandments that were on the first tablets that you smashed, and you shall deposit them in the ark.’ . . . . After inscribing on the tablets the same text as on the first—the Ten Commandments that the Eternal addressed to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the Assembly—the Eternal gave them to me” (Deuteronomy 10:1-4).
Our parashah, Va-et’chanan, contains this second text of the Ten Commandments. One would expect a perfect replica of the first set, an exact repetition, as Moses and God both promise. It is startling and wonderful to see that the texts are not identical. Traditional commentary, encoded in L’cha Dodi, tells us that both versions of the commandment to observe the Shabbat are uttered in the same instant by God (shamor v’zachor b’dibur echad); the single Divine word shatters into countless sparks as when a hammer strikes the anvil. Biblical criticism teaches that the (edited) text we have before us is made up of different versions of our sacred narratives. Either way, the Torah pushes back against the notion that there could ever be a singular version of Divine truth. Divine truth is always beyond human grasp; the pure light of the Divine is necessarily refracted by human experience into countless colors.
Were we to imagine that God’s truth could be concretized into any form—two tablets, a Torah scroll, a dogma, or text—that would be idolatry. It would trivialize Divine wisdom and limit God’s infinite Presence to the specific letters we see in front of us. In that spirit of “pushing back against singular truth,” this week I would like to share a few challenging, sometimes playful, always important insights from the Chasidic anthology, Iturei Torah. The translations are mine as are any mistakes. These commentaries are drawn from both the Exodus and Deuteronomy versions of the Ten Commandments.
V’zot haTorah asher sam Moshe lifnei b’nei Yisrael, “ This is the Teaching that Moses set before the Israelites” (Deuteronomy 4:44). When we lift the sefer Torah after the Torah reading, it is our custom to recite this verse and to add: al pi Adonai b’yad Moshe,“from the mouth of God through the hand of Moses.” This is astonishing, because these two verses were combined from two stories that have nothing to do with each other . . . (R. Baruch Epstein)
“I stood before the Eternal and you at that time to convey the Eternal’s words to you, for you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain” (Deuteronomy 5:5). The “I” of a person, this is the cause of the separation between a person and his Creator. As long as we are thinking about the “I,” it is difficult to get closer to holiness. (Sifrei Chasidim)
“Do not make for yourself an idol (pesel)” (Exodus 20:4). Don’t make yourself into someone who invalidates (posel) the ideas of others. Do not separate yourself from the community nor distance yourself from its burdens and needs. (R. Aharon of Karlin)
“Do not use the name of God for falsehood” (Exodus 20:7). Do not attach God’s name to things that are false and lies. Do not put the stamp of holiness on things that are completely invalid, that may look like mitzvot but are instead serious sins. It is the way of the yetzer (evil impulse) to deceive human beings, to paint a picture of righteousness that really is dreadful sin. And that is why the world was shocked when God stated, “Do not use the name of God for falsehood,” for indeed the most serious crimes and sins and all the horrible and cruel murders are committed with the veil of truth, uprightness, and justice. (R. Reuven Katz)
“You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13). Here tirtzach is written with the vowel patach; in Deuteronomy, it is written with a kamatz. This is to teach that there are two kinds of murder: the physical one—and the one about which our Sages spoke (Talmud, Bava Metzia 58): “Whoever whitens (humiliates) the face of another in public as if spilled his blood.” (R. Noah Mindes)
“You shall love” (Deuteronomy 6:5). This phrase occurs three times in the entire Tanach (Jewish Bible): “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), “you shall love him as yourself,” (Leviticus 19:34) and “you shall love the Eternal” [here]. Even though we have the principal that “there is no early or late in the Torah,” there is a hint here nonetheless. The reason that the Torah commands the love of people before the love of God is to teach us that it is not possible to achieve love of God except through loving human beings. And this is what the Ari (Isaac Luria) taught: “Before praying, a person should take upon oneself the mitzvah/commandment of loving one’s neighbor as oneself—to love each and every one.” (Ben Yair HaCohen)
“And these words which I command you shall be upon your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:6). Why not in the heart? The Kotzker Rebbe taught: “Sometimes these words lie upon your heart like a stone. And when the heart opens, in a special moment, they will enter it.” Most of the time our hearts are closed and things don’t enter it. But this is no reason to slacken from or forsake the worship of God. Let these things lie upon your heart, on the outside, like a stone. And some day, in a moment of awakening, when your heart opens (Rabbi Milgrom: heartbreak?), these words will enter into it and be inside. (Shem MiShmuel)
These commentaries play at the edge between reverence and rebellion: they know and treasure each word; at the same time, no single word, no single interpretation can ever capture the whole. Torah should never become a static idol. In the ever-expanding universe of Torah, each glimpse of Divine wisdom gives birth to infinitely more.
Milgrom, Shira. "Do Not Make Yourself a Pesel, Lest Torah Become an Idol." ReformJudaism.org. (Viewed August 9, 2014). http://www.reformjudaism.org/learning/torah-study/va-etchanan/do-not-make-yourself-pesel-lest-torah-become-idol
And I pleaded…
By Deborah Masel Miller
Comfort, comfort My crushed, My desolate people; bring them into the room beyond comfort, where I am prayer and I am pain.
Listen Israel as My servant Moses leads you to My crying rooms; hear him plead, Oh Lord open my lips …Lord let me cross over… let my teachings fall like rain…
Generation to generation…Ears that heard God speak from fire now hear His rain fall gently on their future fields. Eyes that saw the mountain burn to the heart of heaven see the goodly land across the river; but no one hears the breaking of a heart; they do not see the face that once saw face to Face look back in wonder and ahead in anguish.
This man Moses, born to be apart, pleading for his people. I will fill the world with prayer, said he upon that other peak, before I let You flood it with Your pain. You will show mercy upon whom You show mercy, and I shall never know Your ways, yet will I not choose the cloistered Eden-comfort of a drunken Noah, nor will I let You make of me a great nation. Blot me from the book You have written. I will forge a different comfort. If they would but listen I would teach them the comfort of carving You a highway through the desert stone, of loving You with all their heart and being and might in pain and sickness, in longing and defeat…
O that I had wings like a dove, I would fly away, and be at rest, then I would wander off, I would lodge in the wilderness…I would haste me to a shelter from the stormy wind and tempest…
Enough, said the Lord to His friend Moses. Let your longing be enough; let it hover here upon the blindness of My dark night. Let your longing sing My praise from here, My wounded dove, until your people learn to carry you across upon the eagle’s wings of prayer.
Masel Miller, Deborah. "'And I Pleaded,' Wings of Prayer." Limmud on One Leg. (Viewed on August 10, 2014). http://limmud.org/publications/limmudononeleg/5769/vaetchanan/
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