Day 19 - Seeing the Inner Light
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| Photo by Zalman Grossbaum on Unsplash |
Many years ago, when my wife and I were newlyweds, we decided to take a last-minute vacation to Las Vegas, a place neither of us had been. Las Vegas is known by some as “Sin City", but it also has another name: “The City of Lights.” I heard about the city of lights, but obviously, you have to see it to believe it. Las Vegas is filled with billboards and creative signs. The whole city literally lights up at night and her lights can even be seen from outer space! The signs and lights of this city shows what it values: entertainment and gambling. So what are our lights and billboards?
In our Torah portion for the week, Ki Tavo, we see the equivalent of the Las Vegas billboards of ancient Israel.
Deuteronomy Chapter 27:2 states:
“As soon as you have crossed the Jordan into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones. Coat them with plaster and inscribe upon them all the words of this Teaching.”
There are some interesting clues that we can see from this commandment. Setting up these stones must have been important because Moses told the people to put them up as soon as they enter the land, and coating them with plaster ensured that they would last a long time as was an Egyptian custom according to the Etz Chaim commentary. It seems that these large stone “billboards” inscribed with the “words of this Teaching” were to be seen by everyone, Israelite and non-Israelite, and they were a statement, we are here and law, morality, and justice are what we stand for. The Haftarah that accompanies this Torah portion, from Isaiah 60, contains a message of hope and consolation for Israel. It speaks about a future time where Zion will be restored and the author uses the imagery of light to show Israel's success. We read the following:
“No longer shall you need the sun for light by day, nor the shining of the moon for radiance (by night); for the Lord shall be your light everlasting.”
Our people have our own nickname: we are an Or LaGoyim, 'a light unto the nations'. During Elul, we recall the supernal light that was created on the first day of creation. Our tradition believes that the light that God created the world with is hidden inside each one of us. In other words, we are walking billboards of light, but we rarely notice it, and we can be the sun for others. It would be nice if we had partners who pointed out the light that we share with the world, and how much it makes a difference.
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