“His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me” (Song of Songs 2:6)
How vital it is to be held in love and supported by love. And when embraced by love, and when borne up by love, is there anything – however mysterious, however terrible – that one cannot face? “For love is strong as death” (Song of Songs 8:6), as we read on this intermediate Sabbath of our Passover festival.
The tale of Passover is a story of liberation, yes; but it is also a story of facing the unknown. “Thus says the Eternal One, I remember of you the love of your youth, the affection of your bridal days, how you followed Me into the wilderness, into a land that was not sown.” (Jeremiah 2:2)
Or take Moses, in our Torah reading on this Sabbath of the holiday, up on Mount Sinai, for the second time (or the third, if you count the earlier episode of the burning bush). The people have strayed – even as Moses was receiving the Law – they have made themselves a golden idol. The God who freed the people from Egypt has become so incensed as to threaten their destruction. And, more than despair, more than bewilderment, Moses feels alone.
If you go with me, says Moses to the Eternal One, then I can bear this journey, and this people – but if I cannot be sure that you are with me, don’t let us take another step. (Exodus 33:12-16) If all there is on God’s part is demand – that Moses lead, that the people obey – then the path is unbearable. But if there is a commitment of God’s presence, then whatever comes on the journey, however hard or incomprehensible it may be, will be alright.
“So the Eternal One said: Here is a place with Me, and you shall stand upon this rock. And it shall be that when My glory passes by, I will place you in the cleft of the rock, and I will shelter you with the palm of My hand until I have passed.” (Exodus 33:21-22)
And although just a few verses earlier, Moses is described as speaking with God “face to face, as a man speaks with his friend” (Exodus 33:11), now God says, “but My face will not be seen” (Exodus 33:23). The point seems to be that intimacy with God, familiarity with God, even love with God, does not mean total comprehension – cannot mean that. But it means not being alone.
“Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm” (Song of Songs 2:6) According to Talmudic legend (Berakhot 6a), what Moses glimpses, there on the mountain, from his shelter in the cleft of the rock – as, mysteriously, we hear that Moses sees God’s “back” (Exodus 33:23) – is the knot of God’s tefillin, phylacteries, worn by the Divine. Just as we are commanded to bind the words of the Torah as a sign upon our hands and a frontlet between our eyes (Deuteronomy 6:8), so God, according to this Talmudic teaching, has us affixed and entwined upon God’s own self, as a sign and a commitment.
Farther along in that same Talmudic discussion, we also learn that God prays. What can the prayer of the Blessed Holy One possibly be? “May it be My will that My love overcome My anger.” (Berakhot 7a)
It is not entirely clear who calls out to whom with the resounding annunciation of the Almighty’s tremendous and terrible aspects, as God and Moses meet together in the cloud atop the mountain (Exodus 34:5-8). But whether it is Moses crying, ‘This is what I need,’ or God declaring ‘This is what I am,’ the moment is covenantal, as a betrothal, in that it says, ‘This is the concept that will exist between us’ – between the human people and the unfathomable Eternal One – a point of contact and articulation, although God be impossible to know.
We will say that God remembers, we will say that God holds to account, we will say that God abounds in truth, that God is compassionate and merciful, and forbearing – and, most of all, we will say that God loves, a thousandfold, such that those who share in love with the Eternal One will never be alone. “The voice of my beloved, here it comes, leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.” (Song of Songs 2:8) And if we are in this together, then the journey will not be a mere odyssey, but will be a shared adventure.
“Come my love, let us go out into the field – let us lodge in the villages, let us wake up to the vineyards, let us see if the vine has blossomed, if the flower has opened, if the pomegranates have budded – there I will give my love to you. The mandrakes have given fragrance, and at our door are all delicious fruits, new ones and vintage ones, my love, that I have saved for you.” (Song of Songs 7:12-14)