Maureena’s Torah Reflections
Parashat Tetzaveh. Exodus 27:20-30:10
And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God (Ex. 29:46).
The Torah devotes between 250 to 300 verses to the construction of the sanctuary and its vessels. As opposed to this, the Torah devotes only 31 verses to the creation of the universe and all in it. What could be the reason for this?
It’s a sign that we humans have come of age, and are ready to enter into a personal relationship with God. A proof text is Ex. 25:22, “There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you…” (Ex. 25:22).
God down-sizes to our size, similar to what parents do when they take small steps to walk with their child. If God didn’t reduce the divine Self to our size we could not fulfill the divine commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind.
The Jewish concept of tsimtsum so fired my imagination that I wrote an article, entitled, “A Midrash: The Self-Limitation of God”, in The Journal of Ecumenical Studies, Vol 22, Fall 1985, Temple University, Number 4. Among the examples there of God’s Self-Limitation, are the following:
- The rabbis said Moses received the word of God “from the mouth of the Omnipotent,” the gevura (mi-pi-ha-Gevura). It was not through some intermediary that God’s word came to Moses but directly from the mouth of God. This could not have happened if God had not contained the power of God’s own world. Without such a restriction Moses would have been too overwhelmed with the sheer force and power of the word to receive it. Hence, God spoke to Moses in human words. Not only did God confine the power of the divine word to a human word, God also confined the space of the Divine Presence while speaking with Moses: “The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of the meeting…”(Lev.1:1).
- God said to Moses: “Do you not realize that I live in trouble just as Israel lives in trouble? Know from the place whence I speak on to you— from a thornbush — that I am as it were, a partner in their trouble”….
- Rabbi Jannai said: “Just as in the case of twins (te-omin), if one has a pain in his head the other feels it also, so God said, as it were: ‘I will be with him in trouble’” (Ps. 91:15).
Amazing! The Ark of the Covenant, a symbol of tsimtsum, of God’s loving self-abasement, an invitation to partner with God.
My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me (Ps. 63:8)
Prepared by Prof. Sr. Maureena Frits nds
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“Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so great, this sacred synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies.”
Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions: Nostra Aetate, No. 4