When my eldest son, Mac, was four years old, he was very into everything outer-space: rockets & planets, martians & the moon. One night, as we were reading one of his space books, in mid-sentence he stopped me with some urgency.
“Papa, outer space is above the sky?”
“Yes,” I told him.
“But what is above ‘outer space’?”
“More space,” I told him, “and stars, and suns and planets.”
“Yes,” he said getting frustrated,
“BUT what is beyond all of that?”
What is beyond all of that...?
I did not (and still don’t) have an answer for him; but this week’s parshah gives some insight as to why he felt the need to ask this type of question. It is a need that, some would argue, every person in the world who has ever lived desires to fulfill. Some compare it to bird migration, or the compass needle seeking to find North, or even the ability to love. Torah tells us (Gen 1:27) that man & woman were made B’zelem Elohim, in God’s image. Judaism tells us that this refers to our very soul, a piece of God inside each of us that yearns to connect to its source.
Indeed, the desire to know what is ‘out there’ and to know our relationship to it, is the backbone of religion.
Mac’s question, “what is beyond all of that?” has acted as a catalyst for civilization itself, always reaching up; as well the human drive to journey deep within.
This week’s parshah, Eikev, in the book of Deuteronomy puts our ancestors in the desert ready to enter Canaan. Moses, who knows that he soon will die, gives his people final words of wisdom-certain prophetic truths. One of them, a maxim that might be familiar to you, is:
Key Lo Al HaLechem L’Vah-do Yich-yeh HaAdam,
key Al-Col-Motzae Phi-Adonai Yich-yeh HaAdam.
Not by bread alone does a person live,
rather by everything that emanates from the mouth of God…” (Deut 8:3)
Our Sages cling to this verse, because it struck them as being so true. Just as we need to eat in order to live, so too do we need to find and seek God. Some of our rabbis are convinced that the ‘finding’ is the key, and the only thing which allows us to fully live up to our human potential.
Others say most important is the ‘seeking,’ that driven purpose which, if we are open to it, can permeate every aspect of our lives. This is, perhaps, the state of holiness to which Torah tells us we should aspire, and in doing so, perhaps we can be open to our least talked about basic human instinct, an instinct for God.
This instinct for God is the boy staring up at the moon, straining with his entire being.
“Hey, I know that you are out there,” he cries.
“Help me find You. Help me seek You.”
I look forward to seeing you at Shabbat services tomorrow night.
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Spike
