And God spoke to Moses and said: “Come up to me on the mountain and just be there.”
I am struck by this invitation. How rare it is to simply “be,” and how noticeable this small, quiet moment is. We find this within Parashat Mishpatim, which we read this Shabbat. After the cacophony of Sinai and the delivery of the Ten Commandments in last week’s portion, Yitro, this portion follows in a more grounded way, detailing legal rules and the people’s enthusiastic response. With alacrity, they agreed to join this endeavor, this faith, and this relationship.
וַיִּקַּח֙ סֵ֣פֶר הַבְּרִ֔ית וַיִּקְרָ֖א בְּאׇזְנֵ֣י הָעָ֑ם וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ כֹּ֛ל אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּ֥ר יְהֹוָ֖ה נַעֲשֶׂ֥ה וְנִשְׁמָֽע׃
Then he took the book of the covenant and read it aloud to the people. And they said, “All that GOD has spoken we will do and heed!” (24:7)
It is a clear-eyed commitment to a way of life and it brings a sense of calm. At the end of the portion, God shares a moment with Moses, calling him and Joshua to the summit of the mountain to “just be there.”
וֶהְיֵה־שָׁ֑ם
(The Hebrew word (ve-hyeh – “and be”) is an anagram of the Divine Name, יהוה. Whatever that name signifies to you, it serves as an invitation to go deep into the silence to find the sacred – the necessary pause in our lives.
The world is heavy right now. There is so much that demands our response. As Jews, we know it is our task to speak out against injustice, from the streets of Tehran to the cities of Minnesota. We’re proud at FPS to host a weekly group of women who are Iranian dissidents. And from the debates over immigration in the UK (the Reform party is currently creating a rather worrying Jewish Alliance) to the daily support of and leadership in our own synagogues. There is always something to do. Yet, in order to sustain that doing, we must occasionally shut out the cacophony of voices and information, sitting quietly with ourselves to be fully present to recoup energy.
Wendell Berry’s Sabbath poem captures this feeling perfectly:
I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
around me like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
where I left them, asleep like cattle.
Take a moment for this invitation.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
*this was also written for MPJ Thought for the Week found on https://progressivejudaism.org.uk/
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