Chol Ha-moeid Pesach (Exodus 33:12-34:26)
This Week’s Torah Portion: Chol Ha-moeid Pesach (Exodus 33:12-34:26)
This week’s Passover Torah portion carries within it one of the most luminous and awe inspiring moments in all of the Torah. Moses, cradled gently in the hand of God, emerges from the cleft of the rock to glimpse a sight of the Divine Presence just as the glory of God passes by.
But, what exactly did Moses see? What can we learn from this vision of God’s back which Moses glimpses as God passes by? My favorite response to this question is found in the Talmud where Rabbi Shimon Hasida explains that what Moses saw was the knot of the leather strapped tefillin which encircled God’s head. (Berachot 7a)
Wait a minute! God wears tefillin, the traditional prayer garb of a Jew in prayer? Does this mean that God prays? To whom, and for what? The answer, I believe, can only be that God prays for us.
May we be sheltered in God’s protective hands, may we be in God’s prayers, now and always.