I’m often in the position of describing Judaism to non-Jews. Over the years, Abe and I have come up with a list of things that we feel are important to teach in these moments. One of those, which folks from Christian backgrounds are often surprised about, is that Judaism empowers each individual to create holiness. You don’t actually need a rabbi to carry out most Jewish rituals or ceremonies. Our tradition encourages each person to feel like they have opportunities at their fingertips to create holiness.
And I was surprised to see that in this week’s parashah, Mishpatim, Moshe has one of these moments. This week’s Torah reading is an extension of last week’s, when Moshe received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. This week, he continues to receive laws of all kinds - civil, ethical, and ritual. When he comes down from the mountain, the Torah describes that he set up an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes. They offer sacrifices, and then Moshe takes blood from the sacrifice and sprinkles some of it on the altar. Then, he reads all of the laws he received from God, and the people agree to abide by the law. Then - this is the part that really gets me - he sprinkles blood from the sacrifice on the people and declares that it is the blood of the covenant.
But the thing that sticks out to me is that for all of the times throughout the Torah that we read, “God spoke to Moses saying…,” in this instance God never told Moshe to carry out this ritual. It’s so rare in the Torah that Moshe acts, especially in a ritual way and in his capacity as leader, independently, without receiving instruction. He rarely acts out of his own initiative, but I’m moved by his leadership here. He saw there was an opportunity; he felt empowered and wanted to infuse the moment with holiness.
Sometimes we don’t even realize we can be empowered to lead our own religious lives, that we don’t have to wait for permission or an invitation. Moshe is a model for us to act, to feel empowered in our Judaism. Today is Rosh Chodesh Adar, and we usher in the month that holds Purim. And in many ways, this is one of the predominant messages of the Purim story. Out of all of our Biblical stories, the Book of Esther is the only one that doesn’t mention God. It’s not predominantly a book of theology or of Divine miracles, it’s a story about human agency and what happens when people act for good.
I hope that we take Moshe’s actions here, paired with the message of Purim, as whatever encouragement we need to feel empowered in our spiritual lives, to be agents of holiness.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Sarit
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