Friday, March 29, 2024 -
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At the precise moment

Historians have long observed that it was no accident that the first time an entire people apprehended the one G-d was in the the desert, where nothing moves, nothing happens. There is only sand and sky and utter aloneness. Here the flight of the alone to the Alone was given its nurture at the foot of a mountain, Mount Sinai. Here G-d could reveal Himself in a way that He would be apprehended as one, not as multiple.

This moment was singular in history, never again to be repeated. Yet it is relived, most directly on the festival of Shavuos, which marks the anniversary of the revelation of the Ten Commandments, and which we celebrated last week.

There are other ways that the revelation can be reimagined, albeit not as directly as on Shavuos. Once, in the middle of summer I found myself, together with a friend, high in the Colorado mountains, above timberline, also where nothing moves. Although there was no sand, the land was barren beneath the sky.

We had come to G-d’s country, where we would be far from civilization, where no technology would reign, where a still lake rested at the bottom of the sloping mountain on which we camped, and another lake, unseen, we knew rested over the top of the mountain, on its other side. Seeing this lake’s utter stillness, distant from any trail, we named this lake “Quiet Lake.”

We had decided to arise early the next morning — very early, as this was before daylight savings time. The sun would rise, we knew, at roughly 4 a.m.

There is something especially holy about praying in the morning at the time of neitz, of sunrise; specifically, beginning the Silent Prayer, the Shemoneh Esrei, at the precise moment of sunrise.

This is calculated, based on the astronomical conditions in any given location. This is calculated to the minute, and the leader of the prayers is cognizant of the clock in order to coordinate the pace of the the prayers with neitz, the desired moment to begin Shemoneh Esrei.

‘Tis a pity.

Would it not be more in the spirit of Jewish law to know exactly when neitz arrived without the filter of technology, without peering down at a watch, without distracting oneself from praying — but with precision that was even more accurate than the technology?

We arose early, before 4 a.m. Light gradually shifted the darkness on the horizon. The stars ever so slowly dimmed. We knew that it would continue to lighten, but I could not possibly have imagined what was soon to roll over us. I had begun to wind the tefilin straps and begun to pray. Suddenly.

A blinding flash.

A radical change swept across the horizon, illuminating everything all around us.

A strong shaft of light streamed over the tip of the mountain. It was a blazing beam, at once laser sharp and broadening like a trail of white flowing behind a fighter jet, except that the widening beam was coming at us, not moving away from us. With no warning:

Neitz!

An instant.

The sun blazing into the naked eye.

Precision. More than any timepiece could ever provide.

No item measured this beam, no prism refracted it, no filter diluted it, no yell went up upon its appearance, no shrub moved, nor any animal. Nothing changed — except in our consciousness.

Revelation.

Copyright © 2020 by the Intermountain Jewish News



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