Sh'ma Now

God Is Within

Elliot CosgroveMay 31, 2019

It is, without a doubt, an enigmatic exchange. Moses at the burning bush. God has heard the cry of the Israelites and calls on Moses to go before Pharaoh to demand their freedom. Moses inquires of God: “When I come before the Israelites, who shall I tell them sent me?” Moses is desperate for God’s name, a concrete title by which God may be known. Famously, God responds, ” ‘Ehyeh asher ehyeh’, ‘I will be what I will be.’ Thus shall you say to the Israelites: ‘Ehyeh, I will be, sent me to you.’”

Shavuot and the Sacred Process of Becoming

Adina AllenMay 31, 2019

In our sacred texts, God is called by many names: Tzur (Rock), Shomer (Guardian), Rechem (Womb), Melech (King), Adonai (Lord), Magen (Shield) — all our limited approximations of God’s infinite being. In the Torah, we find a moment of intimate exchange between God and Moses in which Moses asks God how he should identify God to the people. In this one-on-one conversation next to the burning bush, God tells Moses that he (Moses) will be the leader to take the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses first asks: Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh? God promises Moses that God will be with him in this process of redemption. Moses then asks God: When I come to the Israelites and say that You sent me, what should I tell them Your name is? God answers: “Tell them ‘Ehyeh asher ehyeh‘sent you.” “Tell them ‘I shall be that which I shall be’ sent you.”

Finding God in Time and Silence

Norman FischerMay 31, 2019

The story of Exodus begins with God’s noticing the suffering of the Children of Israel. God takes the suffering to heart and is moved to relieve it. God calls Moses — a fugitive hiding out in the desert — but Moses resists the impossible task. He says to God, “Who am I to undertake such a thing? Who would I say sent me? And who are you, asking such a thing of me?”