Rabbi Avi Weiss, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale
God protects His people. This is the message of this week's portion which proclaims that God can be compared to an eagle stirring it's nest, hovering over it's young (Deuteronomy 32:11) The biblical term for hovering is merahefet. What is the precise meaning of this term? An essay penned by the late Rabbi Milton Steinberg several decades ago sheds some light.
Writing after a long illness, Rabbi Steinberg stresses the importance of holding on to what one has. Hold on to the sunlight he urges, hold on to those who are close to you. Having survived a life threatening disease he had come to realize the importance of the everyday.
But then, Rabbi Steinberg beautifully begins to preach a different message. When you hold, he suggests, don't hold too tight. Because, in his words, "nothing could be more grotesque and more undignified than a futile attempt at holding on. Let us think of the men and women who cannot grow old gracefully because they cling too hard to a youth which is escaping them. Of parents who can not let their children go free to live their own lives. This is the great truth of human existence, one must not hold life too precious, one must always be prepared to let it go."
How can this tension between holding on and letting go be resolved? Here, Rabbi Steinberg suggests, that belief in God is the answer. Bearing in mind that God created the world, everything in it is infinitely precious. However, when considering that whatever is in the world, ultimately belongs to God, it is easier to let go because these things do not belong to us.
Rabbi Steinberg's analysis may explain the meaning of merahefet. God hovers over us like a mother bird over its nest. Protecting but not suffocating, shielding but not crushing.
A message to be considered on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. As God hovers over us, caring, while giving us the space to participate with Him in redeeming the Jewish people and the world, we, in the spirit of God, should reach out to those who are closest to us, to life itself, and "embrace it, with open arms."
SHABBAT SHALOM
© 5757/1997. Rabbi Avi Weiss, Hebrew
Institute of Riverdale
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