Rabbi Hillel Skolnik’s Torah Spark for Parashat Ki Tissa 5778 – Weekend of March 2-3, 2018

01 Mar Rabbi Hillel Skolnik’s Torah Spark for Parashat Ki Tissa 5778 – Weekend of March 2-3, 2018

This Shabbat we read from Parashat Ki Tissa, a weekly portion whose narrative sections serve as a welcome break from the detailed instruction on the building of the Tabernacle. Within said narrative is an intimate moment between God and Moshe when God places Moshe in the cleft of a rock at which point God’s presence passes by and Moshe is allowed to see the back of this presence. It is as close as any human comes, and likely will ever come, to truly beholding God’s presence. There is no question that our inability to actually see God makes the entire concept of belief a challenging one. In our world today, when we all crave tangible proof for everything, the idea of believing in a God that no one can see is hard. But what this story reminds us is that there are other ways to feel God’s presence in the world, namely through the miracles we all experience every day. The challenge for us is to recognize those miracles and to realize that through them we can, in fact, see God.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Hillel Skolnik