Now What? (Simchat Torah)
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven. Exodus 20:22 NASB
Now What? (Simchat Torah)
Seen that I have spoken– God speaks to the people at Sinai. They see the lightning and hear the thunder. They are afraid. According to rabbinic tradition, each person in the assembly heard God’s word. From this the rabbis derive the following: there were 1,200,000 adults at Sinai. Each of these 1,200,000 heard the words of God in their full PaRDeS form. That means they heard 345,000,000 ways of individually understanding the words. And none of these ways was incorrect. Each of the 345,000,000 ways requires the person to incorporate the text into life. So, “Whenever . . . the Torah speaks of the imperative la’asot, usually translated ‘to fulfill, to obey,’ the words of the Torah, the Netziv of Volozhin, author of He’amek Davar, consistently translates ‘to construct the meaning of the words of the Torah.’ La’asot indicates the ‘making,’ the creation of Torah in the mind of the reader.”[1] The Torah is both communal and personal, and both are necessary if the words of the Lord are to be fulfilled in the lives of His people. Torah is not “one right way” of doing things. Torah is God’s way of impressing the hearer to act on the basis of creating meaning in the world and creating meaning in the world is the ultimate expression of being in God’s image.
Torah is the clay from which human beings complete the open-ended creation. It is the material that God provides for us to work into meaningful substance so that chaos is overcome with construction. This is precisely what God does in Genesis 1, and it is what we are called to do as His image-bearers. Make meaning! Make the world into a place where His glory shines forth. Construct the world according to the directions given by Torah.
For example, many of you are involve with our project, Children Under the Bridge (if you aren’t and you want to be, go to the home page of the web site—skipmoen.com—and click the link in the bottom right hand corner). This project is about restoring human worth to women and their children who are caught in the sex trade business in Jakarta. These women live in terrible poverty in a nearly totally Muslim country. They have no “rights.” They are prime examples of victims of sex trafficking. Their children are the innocent casualties of horrific circumstances. We are bringing meaning back to these lives. We teach. We provide medical care. We feed. We provide clean water. But most of all, we give them a friend, someone who cares about them. Someone who wants to lift them up and tell them, “You are worthwhile.” We are making meaning in a world of utter evil and chaos. It is very hard. There are lots of reasons to walk away. But there is an indescribable joy when one woman comes out, when one child isn’t pushed into sex work, when one mother and daughter find a new life.
Torah isn’t rules to keep. It is clay to use. Go shape the world.
Topical Index: Torah, meaning, Children Under the Bridge, Exodus 20:22
[1]Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Beginning of Desire: Reflections on Genesis, p. xvi.
Thank you Skip. You are not just His words in our ears, you are our hands and feet in a far away land.
There is so much beauty in this message. Thank you.
Thanks Skip. Excellent teaching. Enlarging, stretching, challenging Truth.
So glad to be a very small part of Children UnderThe Bridge. Hoping to be able to increase my giving shortly. Blessings on you! The generous soul will prosper, he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed!
Best freakin’ blog EVER.
Period.
Skip sorry just rereading the last 10 TW and now I am left with a calculation problem…
1 200 000 adults hear ten words and using 4 interpretation possibilities for each word gets me to 48 000 000 understandings. How do we get to the 345 000 000 grand total for that would mean each individual could have 287.5 different ways to understand the message.
That is nearly 42 different views for every day of the week or 48 different views before the sabbath… This then also implies considering each word at least twice every of the 24 hours or 4 times every hour of assumed daytime… this is major consideration going on.
I maybe get around to 3 times a day reading up on a specific view not even a remote possibility of 10 different researches or discussions… trying it now just is mind boggling to say the least…
With that out of the way and considering such a possibility… then why would one view of a man Moses be deemed the correct view for now close to 6 000 years later. Remember the people consulted Moses to mediate a correct view on Godly instruction and it is argued that the rabbi or priest must play the role of manning Moses chair today…
This will result in over a trillion views being provided every single day… I think a direct discussion as Job requested is justified if a single intent or purpose was ever required from mankind… by God.
Or is it more seek and live out your own view and faith for this may just be one of the 144 000 saving ways that results in connection with God. The righteous souls in Revelation… although I connect this to the 12 tribes each having 12 000 devoted members which I know is an incorrect interpretation as it is a very closed paradigm with no room for adaptations…
Skip, No need to answer just doing some personal reality check here. And find myself unfit…
Limiting ourselves to adults we are told that 600,000 men were present; double that to include women. So 1,200,000 meanings were given. Add to that the “fact” that each Torah has 72 faces and each face has four dimensions PaRDeS, and we have 345,600,000 legitimate interpretations of any given letter, word,
See: https://bethaverim.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/black-fire-on-white-fire.pdf
I thought there were only 70 facets of the Torah. Talmud: Bamidbar Rabbah 13:15
Skip snd George Thank you for thr response. I now have the explanation or background cleared up. Thank you for this.
What are these 72 facets of the Torah. Are these the different fields covered in the 613 laws or are they derived from other sources? No worry, I found an online source which is in English and as George said it also only refers to 70 facets.
I understand the maths behind the 1 200 000 adults and 345 600 000 interpretations. This is still very serious consideration going on…
If I understand the source correct 70 facets is just a reference to many different and not a possibility of 70 specific aspects of interpretation.
This view arose in 1167 so not a biblical correct assertion but based on an opened discussion based on the same term used to explain different things. The source I have was compiled by Allen S Maller… A Torah with 70 different faces.
You are correct. The number, 345,600,000, is a rabbinic view. But that doesn’t make it incorrect, does it? The point is that all exegesis is a matter of interpretation, and there are apparently a very large number of ways of reading the Bible.
Thank you Skip. All that is left is to do what and how we understand.
Two typos: 1. Someone who wants to life them up.
2. Isn’t push into
‘Creating meaning in the world is the ultimate expression of being in God’s image.’ ‘Make meaning.’
Dispelling lies is something I never thought would be a part of my life. Lies kill. Lies destroy. Lies cause us to make poor decisions. So much suffering. Confusion is created by the lies we have been brought up believing as the truth. Getting through to us in our brainwashed state is no easy task! That is why Skip’s book and teaching ‘Guardian Angel’ is so important. There are other resources that touch on the truth but the detail and the depth is out of this world! (There are so many other ways we have been lied to!)