May 21/05 — Shabbat Behar

Commentary by Chazzan Aníbal Mass

An old Chassidic tale tells about a little boy who was playing in the synagogue's yard. The Rabbi approached him and said: “I will give you 20 coins if you can tell me where God is.” And the boy, who was more astute than the Rabbi thought, replied: “And I will give you 40 coins if can tell me where God is not present.”

In this Parashah, God talks in the present tense: “…When you come to the land that I am giving you…”

“That I am giving”, said God. He could have said “that I will give” or “that I gave”. However God, in this Parashah, wants to show us that He is present, He is not a museum piece. And the present tense in this verse is a warranty that the text will remain immune to the passing of the generations. When we, and our children, and our grandchildren have left this world, the Torah will continue talking in the present tense, and the “today” will continue being “today”.

God wants to teach us that His presence doesn’t know temporal borders. He is not only the God of our ancestors, He is our God and is calling us to be a presence in our lives and our actions.

Many people say: “Yesterday I fulfilled a great Mitzvah. Today I can take a break.” Many others push observance to the future saying: “Today I’m too busy to fulfill a Mitzvah; I will be a better Jew in the future.” The Torah is trying to make us understand that the right moment to fulfill the Mitzvot is now.

Jews are not coming to synagogue to be in contact with our past. We don’t study Torah the way we look at photo albums of our grandparents. Jews are coming to synagogue because we believe that God is part of our lives and He is present Today.

God may not know temporal borders, but He also doesn’t know physical borders. We, with our selfishness and spiritual myopia, are the ones who restrict His presence to certain places, closing doors and preventing His presence from being evident in any aspect of our lives. In that special sense, maybe we can say that although God is everywhere, He really is where we allow Him to be.