WHY DO WE STUDY TORAH?
The purpose of studying the Bible is not just to better understand the Bible, but to better understand our own lives. The Torah invites us into its text, and only when we enter its depths are we able to fully absorb its profound spiritual message for our lives. Our interaction with the text is what makes the Torah sacred and alive. We interact with the Torah by identifying with the characters in the text and becoming them. We immerse ourselves in the characters' struggles – those of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and the others – as the navigate their own spiritual journeys through a developing relationship with the Divine. And at the end of the process, when it is time to suspend our study – if only temporarily – we leave the characters, resurfacing into our own lives. But in this process, we leave a little bit of ourselves in the ongoing story of our people, and the text becomes embedded in our soul.
Here are two different examples of Jewish study that both exemplify the power of this process. The first example draws on a nineteenth-century commentary to explain the verse and give us insight into the text. The second example explores what is called midrash – a uniquely Jewish way to interpret the Bible.
Let Me See Your Face
The following scene is described in Exodus 33:17-23. It is a conversation between Moses and God that occurs after the making of the golden calf. God is angry with the people and threatens to remove the Divine Presence from the Jewish people. Moses ascends Mount Sinai and pleads with God to remain with the people, The text continues:
And the Lord said to Moses, "I will do this that you have asked; for you have truly gained My favor and I have singled you out by name." He [Moses] said, "Oh, let me behold Your Presence!" And God answered, "I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim before you the name Adonai and the grace that I grant and the compassion that I show. But," God continues, "you cannot see My face, for humans may not see My face and live." Then God tells Moses, "See, there is a place near Me. Station yourself on the rock and as My Presence passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock and shield you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away and you will see My back; but My face must not be seen."The Jewish way of studying often begins by raising questions about the text, and there are certainly a lot of questions that emerge from this story: Why would you die from seeing God's face? Why can Moses only see God's back? What does it mean for "God's goodness" to pass before Moses? Why does Moses wish to see God's presence?
This last question seems to be crucial in understanding of the text. Moses has already seen the power of God on Mount Sinai. He has already spent forty days and nights on top of Sinai scribing the Torah. But he still wants more. He desperately wants to see God, to be intimate with God, to know God in a way that no one else ever has. You can almost hear the plaintive longing in Moses's voice. Perhaps the impact of this story is felt so powerfully because we have the same desire to see God.
There is one commentator whose words speak powerfully to Bible readers as they review this passage. Moses Sofer, also known as the Chatam Sofer, was the leader of Hungarian Orthodox Jewry at the turn of the nineteenth century. The Chatam Sofer tries to understand what the Torah means when it refers to God's back. He says, "We are only able to comprehend God's ways and recognize how God works in the world in retrospect. Only then is it possible to fathom even a little of what God does. But at the time the event itself is happening, our understanding is unable to grasp God's doing... And this is the real meaning of 'You will see My back." [It is not referring to God's body but to our perspective on time itself.]1 According to the Chatam Sofer, God is telling Moses that God can only be seen after the fact. God's fingerprints can be seen but never God's fingers. We may be able to see the aftereffects of God, but although we may yearn for it, we can never see God in the moment.
Secret Signs
In another example of Jewish Torah study, we focus on the biblical scene where Jacob intends to marry Rachel, but is tricked into marrying her sister Leah. To explore this scene we utilize midrash. This tool of Jewish commentators seeks to fill in apparent gaps in the biblical text by extending the story. The classic works of midrash were written in the first millennium, but people continue to write midrashim (plural of midrash) today.
In the biblical text, Jacob makes a deal with Rachel's father, Laban, that he will work for Laban for seven years, and at the end of that time, Laban will give Rachel to him as a wife. But Laban tricks Jacob on their wedding night and sends Leah, the elder sister, to the wedding bed instead of Rachel. In the morning, Jacob wakes up and is surprised to see Leah beside him instead of Rachel. Jacob complains to Laban, who replies that it is the practice to marry the older before the younger, and if Jacob wants to marry Rachel he must work another seven years. And Jacob does so.
As we did with the previous text, we begin our study by asking questions. How could it possibly be that Jacob did not know that it was Leah and not Rachel with him in the wedding bed? Further, what were the sisters Rachel and Leah thinking during all of this?
The following midrash gives a partial answer to these questions:
As you can see, a midrash is a story that extends the biblical text. It can also be understood as a form of commentary. The first goal of the midrash is to resolve some of the questions in the biblical text, so this midrash claims that Jacob did not see that it was Leah because she used secret signs that he had worked out with Rachel. This still may not be a fully satisfactory explanation. Nevertheless, we find in the midrash a deeper message – an implied relationship between sisters not mentioned in the biblical text. In the midrash we see that Rachel knows what her father is going to do and finds a way to foil his plan, but at the last moment she cannot go along with it because of her loyalty to Leah. The midrash brings to the fore the dynamic tension of the moment. Rachel is caught between the desire for her beloved and her loyalty to her family. She longs to be married to Jacob, but she also feels compelled to help her sister.When Jacob explained to Rachel that he wanted to marry her, he asked her, "Do you wish to marry me?""Yes," he answered, "but my father is a swindler, and he will surely manage to cheat you.""Do not worry. I know how to trick him back!" Jacob said."I have an older sister. He will not allow me to get married before her but will give you my sister [Leah] instead of me.""If so, let us now arrange secret signs by which I shall recognize you." Jacob then instructed Rachel in secret signs so that he would know it was her on their wedding night when she was dressed as a bride.[When the night of the wedding came] Leah was brought out dressed as a bride. But at that moment, Rachel felt terrible for her sister and did not want her to be shamed. So she instructed her sister in the secret signs, so she could fool Jacob.2
The midrash gives us a human lens on a biblical story, expressing a classic literary theme: a young person facing the dilemma of sacrificing her own desire in order to keep her family's honor. Another midrash makes Rachel's sacrifice seem even more difficult. In the style of Cyrano de Bergerac, this second midrash says that Rachel hid in the closet on the wedding night. When Jacob spoke to Leah, Rachel answered back. This midrash gives voice to the underlying biblical tension. It also attempts to show us that Rachel's decision of self-sacrifice is a noble one. We are meant to understand the great value she places on family loyalty even in the face of her father's trickery.
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1. Translation from Lawrence Kushner and Kerry Olitzky, Sparks beneath the Surface: A Spiritual Commentary on the Torah (Jason Aronson, 1993), 107-108.
2. Megillah 13b and Genesis Rabbah 71:18.
