Light of my Life
In the summer of 1992, the Summer Olympic Games were celebrated in Barcelona, Spain, for the first year without boycotts since 1972. In an
exciting opening ceremony, Paralympics’ archer Antonio Rebollo lit the Olympic flame cauldron by shooting a flaming arrow into it. This ceremony
was moving both in who lit the flame and considering that this ceremony, which
we observed last week, has its origins in ancient Greece, where they also had a
flame ignited throughout the ancient Olympiad. Yet the idea of a radiating
light isn't exclusively Green; it exists in many ancient and modern societies, and is incredibly
prevalent in the Torah.
At the conclusion of this week’s parasha, Ki Tisa, we read a peculiar narrative. Moses descends from
Sinai - this time not throwing a fastball aimed at the Golden Calf – and as he
brings down the unbroken, solid tablets, his face is קָרַן עוֹר, it is radiating
light! The Torah continues to describe how Moses would meet with God, that God
would imbue Moses with this קָרַן
עוֹר, this radiating quality, and then Moses would communicate God’s
will to the Israelites, transmitting both the literal words of God’s message
along with the shining radiance of God’s presence.
And after
Moses completed transmitting God’s word, when Moses finished acting as an
intermediary, what would he do? We could imagine Moses walking around the camp
on a sleepless night, when all of a sudden he wakes up the entire neighborhood
from his shining face! No, the Torah relates that when Moses finished
communicating God’s will, he placed a veil on his face. So it seems like Moses
had some type of schedule: he began by meeting with God, then relayed God’s
message and God’s light to the Israelites, and then he placed a veil over his
face until his next meeting with God.
A nineteenth
century Polish rabbi, the Netziv, comments: והיה שמחה לנפש, וטוב לעינים לראות את פניו - it was joyful to the soul, and good for
one’s eyes, to see Moses’ radiating face[1]. The
Netziv mentions the joy, the warmth, the uplifting nature of Moses’ radiance.
The most
prolific example of our amazement with shining light is our ritual use of
candles. We learn in the Shulchan Aruch, a sixteenth century code of Jewish
law, that the reason that we light Shabbat candles is in order to have shalom bayit, or peace in the home.
Shabbat candles are meant to brighten our dining rooms, to brighten our homes,
to brighten our lives. In this very tangible way, we accept God’s commandment
of Shabbat, shape God’s word in the practice of lighting candles, and then we
witness the radiant light of the candles, as if they are the lights of Moses’
face that reflect back on us, and inspire us to enter Shabbat in a peaceful
manner.
It is my hope and prayer that as we do anything from the mundane like
watching the Olympics, or the sacred like observing Shabbat, that we will be
able to shine brightly, to ourselves and others, spreading joy and goodness.
Shabbat Shalom,
