V’hithalachti b’toch’chem v’hayiti lachem l’Eilohim v’atem ti’h’yu li l’am.
And I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people. (Vayikra 26:12)
From Avraham on, Jews have had a personal and intimate relationship with God. Our matriarchs and patriarchs received direct prophecy, speaking “face to face” with God. But beyond our ancestors and prophets, Midrash teaches us that each of us heard God. We all stood at Sinai, the souls of Jews from previous generations and all Jewish souls to follow. It’s an important midrash in the acceptance of converts. All Jewish souls stood at Sinai, whether born as Jews or choosing Judaism later. Together we heard the lightning; we saw the thunder. Together we stood at Sinai, and God spoke to all of us.
This relationship is not a momentary occurrence. God continues to speak to us. Whether it is direct, as in the case of Moshe or the elders who receive prophecy in the wilderness, through the cloud of visions as our prophets received God’s word, or indirect inspiration as in the Talmud or subsequent centuries, we can all still hear God’s voice. In fact God tells us that the divine presence will be present throughout our lives, “I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people.”
It is however, a covenantal relationship. “I will be your God.” “You will be My people.” One cannot exist without the other. This is, in fact, more important than anything else in Judaism. We are interestingly not commanded to believe in God, but we must exist in relationship with God. This could be best explained with Martin Buber’s “I-Thou” discussions. To merely believe would be to see God as something outside and beyond us, creating an “I-It” relationship. We don’t ask others to believe in our existence. It’s unimportant. We know we exist, and we do not need others to confirm this. Instead, we expect to have relationships, to interact, to share with and care about each other. This is the nature of the “I-Thou” relationship. Each of us relates to the other as we would hope they would relate to us. Our relationship with God is personal and intimate. We continue to speak to God personally, but do we expect God to answer?
God does speak to us. We need to learn to listen. God is in the details. The Shechina is God’s presence dwelling among us. It is presence in the quiet moments, in our joy and in our fear. In Behukotai we are told that our enemies will be pursued by the sound of a driven leaf (Vayikra 26:36). If God will follow our enemies with only the sound of a driven leaf, then, if we truly live in relationship with God, we must listen even more closely for the still, small voice of the Shechina. It is not an easy task. Even Elijah struggled with this. Following the murder of all other prophets by Jezebel in I Kings, Elijah complains to God that he is alone. God instructs him to stand on a mountain to be in God’s presence. God sends wind that breaks the rocks, and earthquake and a fire, but God was not in any of these great feats of nature. After all this noise and business, God speaks to Elijah in the “still, small voice.” If Elijah, one of God’s greatest prophets, who merited being taken straight to heaven without dying, had trouble discerning God’s voice, how much the more so do we need to listen with open minds and hearts.
As our seasons move from winter to spring, and we approach matan Torah, the giving of the Torah, let’s all listen closely for God’s voice in the moments we share with each other and with God.
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