This time, with the readings of both the end and the beginning of the Torah,
is under the sign of the last of the 22 Letters, the Letter Tav. She is a cosmic power
than is concerned with: the beginning, the middle, the end and a the new beginning,
just like the 4 lines of her physical form:
תתתתתתתתתתתתתתתתתתתתתתתתתתתת
the true cyclical nature of life which has no beginning or ending.
Moses, the most dedicated shepherd, is completing his task and leaving the scene.
At the age of 120 years he is still fully conscious and vital. In the last shabbat service
we said kaddish also for him. The cantor was teary-eyed.
But again, as I sat in that morning service and heard people debating over
how Moses was prevented from coming to the Promised Land, I had the same impression as in the past:
this is not a punishment . Our religion is not that childish.
Punished, for what?
Moses, the highest servant of God, a man who saw God “face to face”, simply in a physical body,
can not see it all. No one can.
There are levels of truth which can not be reveled to us as long as we are in a physical body.
Even not to Moses, the highest of all human beings.
The three upper sphirot of the Tree of Life, are known to be simply un graspable to human mind.
The Promise Land will always on some levels be only promised,
and no one can enter her and fully see her.
The bigger picture stays unknowable. This is a mystery we can live with …
It still leaves so much that we can understand and see.
Then, the first chapter of B’reisheet / Genesis was read. I was hoping that, by now,
after all the studies that we have done,
it will be read in any other way than “In the beginning”.
What could be more appropriate than reading it as:1- in a beginning,2- at first, firstly,3- with the “head”.
Anything but “in the beginning”. “The” is a word which has never been written in Hebrew and a mistranslation
which has mislead the world for generations. A whole civilization/ way of thinking was build on this mistake/false notion
(one static perfect God as in the Aristotelian thought, one beginning of creation etc)
and we continue to say “in the beginning”. How long will it take to do what we know is right to do:
eliminate this misleading interpretation. Even when the truth is revealed to us, we still cannot embrace it fully.
Not yet, but it is entering our consciousness slowly.