The parsha this Shabbat, falling in the middle of Sukkot, is not part of the regular cycle of Torah reading. It has a special reading, chosen for its connection to the holiday. Like we might expect, part of this parsha talks about the three pilgrimage holidays, including Sukkot, and the obligation to bring offerings to the Holy Temple in the time that it stood. These holidays are mentioned in several places in the Torah, each time with different elements of their observances. Rereading this text, I wondered – why was this particular listing of the holidays chosen for this moment? Sukkot gets only the smallest mention here, in the same verse as Shavuot.
We might be tempted to say that, with so many holidays, and so many days of the holidays, the rabbis who set the Torah reading schedules had already assigned all the more extensive texts about those days, and this one was left for Shabbat when it falls in the middle of the holiday. (When Shabbat is on the first day, this parsha is not even read.) But I think there is more of an intentional connection to be found here. Since the section on the holidays is short, the parsha necessarily includes a significant section of text that is not directly related to the holiday cycle. Looking at where the text starts and ends gives us a clue to its significance.
The reading starts soon after the incident of the golden calf. God is angry with the Jewish people and Moses is worried that he will be left, leading the people through the desert, abandoned by God. There is an exchange as the parsha begins, where Moses reflects on the enormous task of leading the people and asks God, “Who is going with me?” If he is going to be able to do what God has asked, he needs to know more of God. God promises to be with him, but Moses continues asking for more. God needs to be among the people, present in a way that they can feel. When God agrees to this too, Moses continues, with what can only be described as holy chutzpah, asking God to “show me your Presence”.
Moses seems to be asking to truly see God, and whatever that might mean, God can only go so far. With the gentleness of a parent who sees the need behind her child’s impossible demand, God tells Moses, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim before you the name LORD, and the grace that I grant and the compassion that I show. But you can not see My face, because a human can not see my face and live.” God places Moses in the cleft of a rock, and shields him as God’s Presence passes by, allowing him to feel God’s Presence, see God’s back.
Each of the three pilgrimage holidays has its own character, and its own metaphor for the human-divine relationship. Pesach is about freedom and God is the heroic, powerful savior. Shavuot is about covenant and connection. The metaphor is of a marriage between God and the Jewish people. Sukkot, with it’s reminder of God’s protection as we journeyed through the desert, living in temporary structures, brings us into the day to day relationship of a family – the close connection, the opportunity to see one another and know one another deeply. While the deep gratitude and love of the relationship between God and the Jewish people come about on Pesach, and the dramatic commitment to build the relationship is the entered into of Shavuot, the reality of building that relationship, piece by piece, moment by moment, coming to understand the other as we come to understand ourselves, is saved for Sukkot.
When our parsha begins, past the ecstatic moment of receiving the Torah, past the moment of realization that the people will not always live up to the perfect vision that God has laid out for them, Moses and God are beginning to negotiate how we can live together as a family, with love and connection, despite our flaws. Later in the parsha, after Moses has carved the new set of tablets, he asks God to please walk amongst the people, ki am k’shei oref hu. While many translate the word ki here as “although”, its more common meaning is “because”. Moses is asking God to walk among the people although, or perhaps because, “it is a stiffnecked people”. “Although” fits well; be with us even though we are stubborn. But the other reading, I think, speaks to something deeper, and more parental about the way we understand God. Some commentaries hold that Moses is asking God not only to be with us despite our stubbornness, and not only even if we become stubborn again, which we surely will, but because our stubbornness indicates that we need God’s presence in our midst as we grow into God’s people.
With this metaphor, of the family relationship developing within the people and with the divine, God’s answer to Moses’ request to see God’s presence makes more sense as well. You can’t see God’s face, fully understanding the divine, but what is important you can see. We can see God’s back, the evidence of God’s work in the world of creation. We can feel God’s protective presence, and we can can understand the grace and compassion that characterize both who God is and who God intends for us, God’s family, to be.
The holiday cycle presented in this parsha, is interspersed with commandments about Shabbat and dedicating first born animals to God. The words of this holiday cycle focus on setting aside sacred time, coming into God’s presence, and not coming empty-handed, building the relationship through quality time, presence and presents. The cycle ends with the mitzvah to not boil a kid (goat) in its mother’s milk, the one piece of the laws of kashrut that makes sense from the standpoint of compassion and sensitivity, urging us to live our community’s values even in the way that we eat.
Last week, I mentioned the midrash that describes the most vulnerable in society as God’s family, asking us to bring them joy, and promising that God will bring us joy in return. This week, I’d like to suggest that the Torah reading acknowledges the vulnerability in all of us, and the sense of the Jewish people as one extended family. We are reminded of the imperfection and stubbornness that make up our living with ourselves and with each other day to day, and we are reminded that God saw us in all our flaws, and chose to be with us anyway, showing us the way to care for each other through it all. Perhaps this is at the core of the tradition to open the doors of our sukkah to guests, family, friends and our whole community on this holiday, sharing our home, seeing each other up close and personal, and choosing to be together despite, or even because of the imperfections of who we are.
May you, and your families find joy this shabbat and in the end of this holiday season.
Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach!