"THE HIDDEN FACE" By Pastor Dick Kenney
Posted by: Shalomyshua <Shalomyshua@...>
As Moses contemplates his approaching death, he assures the Children of Israel that Joshua will lead them ably, under the guidance of their G-d. He then lays hands on and anoints Joshua and appoints him his successor. Moses writes down his teaching and then hands it over to the priests, instructing them to read it to the people every sabbatical year, during the Feast of Sukkot.
Then G-d appears to Moses and Joshua at the Tent of Meeting in a pillar of cloud. G-d tells Moses that after his death, the Children of Israel will forsake the Torah, and G-d's face will then be hidden from them. G-d instructs Moses to recite a poem before the people to bear witness to their fate, their perfidy, and their ultimate redemption.
G-d's face is often hidden from us just as the Torah predicts: "I WILL KEEP MY COUNTENANCE HIDDEN ON THAT DAY, BECAUSE OF ALL THE EVIL THEY HAVE DONE IN TURNING TO OTHER GODS," {31:18}. How then we can we find G-d at such times?
When G-d withholds favor from us, our Jewish tradition speaks of hester panim, the hiding of G-d's face......Which is a form of the Jewish Queen Esther and a form of her own name, Esther means " I will hide", for you are the One-Who-Hid-In -The-Palace in order to save your people, the Jews, from destruction.
Yes, that tells us that hiding sometimes is as much a sign of love as revelation. When G-d shows us favor, we say that His divine face shines upon the people. The Aaronic Benediction, or known as the "Priestly Blessing" from Numbers 6, which says, May the Lord Bless you and keep you, may the Lord make "His Face" to shine upon you, channels divine favor to the people through the kohen's outstretched fingers and it invokes the radiance of G-d's face as a sign of grace and peace.
When we look back after Auschwitz many of our Jewish brothers and sisters reject as indefensible any effort to justify -G-d's silence as "hester panim." As Adolf Hitler marched 6 million of us into the ovens of Auschwitz, a G-d whose face remained hidden when the world was so dark no longer deserves our allegiance. Martin Buber characterizes G-d's hidenness during this period as an "eclipse." Richard Rubenstein call is the "death of G-d."
But truly G-d Himself suffered and entered those ovens with each and every Jew , His chosen ones, suffering with all of these victims, waiting until humanity turns it's own face back toward G-d. Listen to this: at the height of her suffering, Etty Hillesum, a young Dutch Jew who perished in Auschwitz, reached out toward G-d, declaring, "We must help You in order to help ourselves.......to safeguard that little piece of you, G-d in ourselves." And Kalonymus Kalmon Shapiro, rabbi of the Warsaw ghetto, who likewise lost his life in the holocaust affirms: "The weeping that a person does together with G-d~~~~is what strengthens him......It is hard to rise, time and again,above the sufferings and mass murder; but when one summons the courage~~~stretching the mind to engage in Torah and divine service~~~~then he enters the inner chambers where G-d's face is to be found."
Here I go on the subject of G-dly women again and how they are truly ordained by G-d to be His catalysts: For women,G-d's face has often been hidden by those who jealously veiled the secrets of the Torah from their gaze! Nevertheless they have continued to seek G-d's face and His countenance throughout the centuries and have felt His face shining upon them. Occasionally and I could name a number of them, woman have been especially "gifted" in such holy quests, who have inspired us and taught us how to seek G-ds face for ourselves.
In ancient times, such women served as matriarchs and judges, prophets and healers, and, occasionally, scholars and mystics. In more recent times they have all also become rabbinical leaders and decisors. One of the first of this rare breed was Hannah Rachel Werbermacher, known widely as the "Maid of Ludomir", the female Hasidic Rabbi in Europe.
Rabbi Hannah Rachel recounts, " I was an only child, the apple of my parent's eyes. Everyone in Ludomir knew my strange ways, how I would daven { rock in prayer} with such fervor that some claimed that I was possessed by a dybbuk or the spirit of the she-demon Lilith. But it was only my love for
G-d that filled me, like a seedpod ready to burst My father, may his name be for a blessing, taught from his holy books~~~~not gemara, of course, but midrash, aggadah, and musar. I know that in his hear he had prayed for a son, but he never made me feel second best. And my beloved mother, may she find eternal rest in the arms of She-kin-ah~~~~How I ached when the Holy One took her from me. So deep was my grief that I became gravely ill~~~~but then G-d healed my broken heart with a vision, and I received a new and sublime soul. From that very moment on a took upon myself the mitzvos of a man~~~tallis, tefillin,even reciting kaddish for my holy father when he passed on. Rather than mock me, the dear Jews of Ludomir, G-d bless them, honored me as their rebbe, building me a shul with my own apartment, from which I taught them Torah every shalus sheudis~~~~through a doorway so the men shouldn't see my face. But it proved too much for the rabbis that I should, as a women, be so respected and so free~~~~so when the zaddik of Chernobyl proposed a good match, I had no choice but to agree. From that moment on, I was no longer the rebbe of Ludomir, but just a scholar's wife. So I left for the Holy Land to study kabbalah and hasten the coming of Mashiakh, praying and seeking G-d for a time when women like me could study and teach Torah with pride and honor. So what do we derive from this incredible account of Hannah Rachel? Here it is: Let us honor Hannah Rachel Werbermacher and all the hidden seekers who came before her,,let us all strive to recognize G-d's Face wherever it shines!
I am so blessed by G-d's face shining this morning, and He has given me my own "Hannah Rachel," but her name Is Jo-ann! And what has she been doing since I have been writing this message? She is studying Torah! What else, already?
In His Shalom, Pastor Dick & Jo-ann