December 31, 2015

Parashat Shemot
Exodus 3:4-6
God called to him out of the bush: "Moses! Moses!" He answered, "Here I am." And He said, "Do not come closer. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. I am," He said, "the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

The first prayer of the Amidah, the Standing Prayer, the most important set of prayers in the siddur, opens with a reference to this quotation, by invoking "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." By using this citation, the entire section is brought to mind. To what end?

The entire Amidah is intended to replace the daily sacrifice, which according to the Torah is the linchpin between God and God's people. The daily sacrifice maintains the covenant. (Numbers 28:3-8) Rabban Gamaliel had these prayers composed to substitute for the daily sacrifice. Why did the Rabbis cite this particular section of Torah?

This story is the call of Moses to prophecy, to redeem his people, to represent God before Pharaoh. Just as Moses was called, so we invoke our relationship with God. But we do it by reminding God that our ancestors had a special relationship in service to God.

Moses is told to remove his sandals. In Palestine 2,000 years ago, sandals -- shoes -- defiled the place. They were made from a dead animal. As in Islam today, in approaching a holy God we should do so in a holy state, in this case without shoes. But it broaches the question: "How might we approach God in this prayer?" How do we prepare ourselves to approach the holy God prepared for holiness ourselves?

The prayer causes us to look back and remind ourselves that we stand before God as members of the Jewish people, as a people in covenant to perform God's will. We take a moment to remove ourselves from the daily grind to ask, "How do I make my life holy?" This calls us to an ethical imperative in the manner in which we treat others, particularly the stranger, that we treat the other as though the other were the prophet Elijah in disguise, as an embodiment of holiness. As Abraham welcomed the 3 angels in Genesis 18 with sacrificial hospitality, so we, Abraham's descendants, become worthy of a holy relationship when we act similarly. The Holy God calls God's people to holiness (Leviticus 19:2).

Do we invoke our ancestors to call exclusively on their merit which is absent in us, or to remind ourselves of the relationship that exists and the possibilities of holiness to which we are called? I pray that as we remind God that we have a covenant between us, we acknowledge that the covenant binds us as well as God, and that we are called to act as our higher selves. We decide, because it is an act of will, not to cave in to the demons of self involvement that plague us. But we remember the examples whom we invoke, Abraham and Sarah; Isaac and Rebecca; and Jacob, Leah and Rachel, and thereby search for their holy qualities in ourselves and thereby rise to the relationship God meant for us. That relationship with God is actualized in our actions with people. As Abraham and Sarah served the angels; as Isaac loved Rebecca and chose God above life itself; as Jacob, Leah and Rachel raised children to be God's people in the world, so we should accept the implications and the responsibilities of our history to be what the prophet Isaiah called, "A light to the nations." (Isaiah 42:6)

Now the question, as we prepare for shabbat: what does God ask of us to raise ourselves to a holy relationship with God?

Shabbat shalom.