Waning, Waxing: Parashat Vayiqra/Shabbat Ha-Chodesh/Rosh Chodesh

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Parashat Vayiqra/Shabbat Ha-Hodesh/Rosh Hodesh
Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26

“To you my heart has said: ‘Seek my face’;
Your Face, Eternal One, shall I seek.”
(Psalm 27:8)

The Psalmist hears his own heart calling. But from his response we learn that his own heart is none other than The Eternal One, calling out to him to reach out and seek God’s Face. Just two weeks ago we read in the Torah that God has refused Moses permission to see God ‘s Face. Yet, the Psalmist hears God calling, through the beating of his own heart, begging the psalmist to seek God’s Face. The Psalmist refuses to hear God’s refusal and hears God’s summoning, instead.

Moses has stopped at the threshold of the Tabernacle, unable to enter it. This is the house that Moses had Israel build for God. Moses had it built at God’s bidding. Yet, now that the work was done, now that the house was built, Moses could not seem to enter it. Until he heard God calling: “And He called to Moses, and the Eternal spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting…” (Lev. 1:1)

Like the repetitious cycles of the moon, waxing and becoming full of light and then waning and ceasing to illumine, so does the heart go about its continuous cycle of pumping and resting, beating and pausing. But sometimes it happens that a person’s heart stops beating and does not immediately resume. If that condition continues the person will be dead. But then, sometimes, the heart starts up again, and the person miraculously returns to life. Sometimes the regular pulsing of God’s call to a person may stop. If that condition continues, that person will die spiritually. But sometimes the heart starts beating anew and the calls resumes: ”Seek My Face!” And then the person returns to spiritual life.

Sometimes a heart stops beating because it is starved for blood. And sometimes it stops because the heart is overcome and awash in blood that it cannot contain and control. Moses stopped before the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the home he constructed to be the heart of the Israelite encampment. After accomplishing this astounding task, was his heart exhausted or flooded with feeling? Momentarily, it stopped, its beating silenced. But then this heart, implanted within the bosom of Israel, began to beat again and Moses heard a call. And he resumed seeking after God’s Face.

So begins this third book of the Five Books of Moses, the heart of the Torah.

Shabbat Shalom, Hodesh Tov
Rabbi David Greenstein


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image:  “Solstice Moon” © Mark Gunn altered and used with permission via Creative Commons License

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