How To Read a Zimber-Dvar:
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Parsha Highlights:
Jethro (Yitro), father in law of Moses, brings the family to the Mountain of G-d where Bnei Israel are camping. Jethro is happy to hear the details of the G-d --> Bnei Israel --> Pharoh interaction, and Jethro blesses G-d (or declares that G-d is blessed?). He makes a burnt offering to G-d and a dinner party for the elders of Israel.
Jethro sees how masses of people stand in line, for hours or days, to receive judgement from Moses. Jethro offers Moses a course in business management, resulting in delegation, neighborhood customer service centers, and middle management. (Perhaps Joseph had such knowledge and it was lost in the transition of Israel from traders to serfs?)
Moses thus avoids burnout. The tribe avoids disillusion.
אִ֣ם אֶת־הַדָּבָ֤ר הַזֶּה֙ תַּֽעֲשֶׂ֔ה וְצִוְּךָ֣ אֱלֹהִ֔ים וְיָֽכָלְתָּ֖ עֲמֹ֑ד וְגַם֙ כָּל־הָעָ֣ם הַזֶּ֔ה עַל־מְקֹמ֖וֹ יָבֹ֥א בְשָׁלֽוֹם
-- [Yitro says:] If you do this thing [delegate the administration of justice to an org chart of justices], and the Lord commands you, you will be able to survive, and also, all this people will come upon their place in peace."
Jethro heads home, his mission accomplished. (Leaving a positive model of in-law interaction: Praise recent accomplishments. Observe with closed mouth. Offer advice only after confirming there is interest in such.) G-d speaks to Moses. Moses passes on the words. G-d again speaks to Moses. A sacred time and space is defined. (Or: A space is made sacred for a specific window of time.)
A slightly confused dialog takes place between G-d and Moses. Moses goes up the mountain, then down to relay a message to Israel, then back up. Then back down.
To deliver the Ten Commandments.
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Modification of the material world for holy purposes is addressed four ways in this parsha (translations from sefaria.org):
1) The commandment against graven images:
לֹ֣א תַֽעֲשֶׂה־לְּךָ֣ פֶ֣סֶל | וְכָל־תְּמוּנָ֡ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר בַּשָּׁמַ֣יִם | מִמַּ֡עַל וַֽאֲשֶׁר֩ בָּאָ֨רֶץ מִתַּ֜חַת וַֽאֲשֶׁ֣ר בַּמַּ֣יִם | מִתַּ֣חַת לָאָ֗רֶץ
-- You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth.
2) No images of silver or gold [20:20]
לֹ֥א תַעֲשׂ֖וּן אִתִּ֑י אֱלֹ֤הֵי כֶ֙סֶף֙ וֵאלֹהֵ֣י זָהָ֔ב לֹ֥א תַעֲשׂ֖וּ לָכֶֽם׃
-- With Me, therefore, you shall not make any gods of silver, nor shall you make for yourselves any gods of gold.
3) Altars are not to be made of hewn stone. [20:22]
וְאִם־מִזְבַּ֤ח אֲבָנִים֙ תַּֽעֲשֶׂה־לִּ֔י לֹֽא־תִבְנֶ֥ה אֶתְהֶ֖ן גָּזִ֑ית כִּ֧י חַרְבְּךָ֛ הֵנַ֥פְתָּ עָלֶ֖יהָ וַתְּחַֽלְלֶֽהָ׃
-- And if you make for Me an altar of stones, do not build it of hewn stones; for by wielding your tool upon them you have profaned them.
4) The essence of Shabbat relates to interaction with the material world. G-d ceased the act of creation, and Jews similarly cease for Shabbat.
What is going on here?
The commandment related to graven images:
לא תעשה-לך פסל וכל תמונה
-- You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image,...
The root is what we use to say "sculpture" or "engraving" though the next phrase says something like "any representation." "וכל תמונה". Thus while in the vernacular (and many translations), we discuss the prohibition against "graven" images, the language itself is "sculptured." Such objects may be large or small, and are made with a knife, chisel, or other cutting tool.
Next, there is the commandment to not make "gods of silver or gods of gold" [20:20] seems simple. On its surface it is a reiteration not to make idols. But most such objects are small (as the metal is valuable), and these are typically not carved. They may be cast, or fashioned with hand tools. So in a sense, this is a necessary commandment to complete the picture. Were the text to leave this line out, one might conclude that only carved items are prohibited. Why? Because in 20:22 hewn (cut) stones are prohibited from altar-making:
-- And if you make for Me an altar of stones, do not build it of hewn stones;
Now this mitzva has a reason attached:
כִּ֧י חַרְבְּךָ֛ הֵנַ֥פְתָּ עָלֶ֖יהָ וַתְּחַֽלְלֶֽהָ׃ ...
-- for by wielding your tool upon them you have profaned them.
-- because you would cut stones with your sword and make it "חלל"
חלל is a rich shoresh. It means "to desecrate" and also "hollow" (as in a hollow void or outer space) and it extends to mean "secular" (hollow of spirit or spirituality?). It also is the root for the word "beginning" (one begins with nothing). The prohibition on cutting stones is often interpreted as precluding a metal cutting tool, a weapon (or potential weapon) of war, building an altar where we pray for peace. Perhaps another layer is that when we cut stones, we make patterns. We make mosaics. And just as we don't worship statues, perhaps we should also not worship (or appear to worship) a mosaic.
Shabbat is essentially a material-world-interaction-restricted time-zone. Shabbat is a time-space for a spiritual focus that requires using the material world as it is, without modification.
Summary of everything so far: No worship of drawings, pictures, carvings or amulets.
In a word: Don't pray to art.
What is art?
Art is the encoding of a feeling. Or an experience. Or the gestalt of a moment in time. A lived moment. An imagined moment. A synthesized moment. It may, in the viewing, take minutes or hours (or days) to experience what is encoded. The received experience may feel instant or protracted.
But art is artifact. While we inevitably bring our interpretive lens to the experience, what goes in the eye was put there by a hand (or foot).
And when we observe art we feel things. Feelings are created in us. Our conscience (or subconscious) may be (should be?) transported. A narrative arises unbidden.
This is the message of the commandments: When you enter a holy frame of mind (to pray, to make an offering), do not allow that state of mind to be influenced or constrained by imagery (yours or that of others). Your job in this space is to connect to yourself. Without prompt or limit. Deeply. What you should face in prayer is yourself standing at the edge of an abyss.
What do you feel?
How do you connect that with existence?
This is the heaviness of spiritual freedom. In the parshiot of Exodus up until Yitro the focus has been on political and economic freedom. In Mitzrayim the framing was "allow us some spiritual freedom." But the mechanics of Litziat Mitzraim were a mire of political, physical and economic forces.
Now G-d delivers what may be the most challenging layer: Spiritual freedom.
No prompts. No cues. No effigy to mirror. You have to find it yourself on the inside.
No wonder there are so many complaints about desert food and water.
Spiritual work, like an afternoon at a museum, is hard work. Not done on an empty stomach. Or when you are anxious about cooking for Shabbat. Yiddishkeit is not ascetic. We accept, service and seek to understand the needs of the body. This is the Jewish way. Some (non-Jewish) traditions demand mastery over the body as a prerequisite to connect to self. Such an approach is individualistic. Some will master. Some will not. On such a path, connection to self is a pinnacle sought via a formula of body and mind manipulation. The spiritual status of that one person does not connect others.
The Jewish mesorah is different. It is national. Built on the shoulders of Litziat Mitzraim -- a collective event. It then proposes a structure of life based on individual election: Do right, and you are rightous. Be right and you are connected.
Neither G-d nor Moses said it would be easy. In fact, if we feel the sentiment under the words, the message appears to be: The crutches of the past, be they icon or ascetics, are not for Israel. Choice is free. And heavy. And made each day.
----
Don Mclean, Vincent
Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and gray
Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul
Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land
Now I understand what you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now
Starry, starry night
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue
Colors changing hue
Morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand
Now I understand what you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now
For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left inside
On that starry, starry night
You took your life as lovers often do
But I could have told you, Vincent
This world was never meant
For one as beautiful as you
Starry, starry night
Portraits hung in empty halls
Frameless heads on nameless walls
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget
Like the strangers that you've met
The ragged men in ragged clothes
A silver thorn, a bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow
Now I think I know what you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they're not listening still
Perhaps they never will
--end--