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This week, we read the portion of Valeyech. The parshah does speak of many things, one of which is a description how Israel may come to stray from the path of God and become immersed in idolatry, therefore bringing great fury to Hashem (God). The sins that are committed create a great chasm between the Jewish people and Hashem as will be discussed. We find ourselves presently in the period between Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur; a period in which we are expected to examine our ways and immerse ourselves in repentance for our past sins. It is therefore very fitting for us to explore and come to an understanding of how our sins distance us from God.

About halfway through the parsha, God speaks of how He will “behave” in the times where Israel negates Him. The verses state:

“…I will conceal my face from them…it (the Jewish nation) will say on that day ‘Is it not because my God is not in my midst that these evils have come upon me?’ But I will surely have concealed my face on that day because of all the evil that it did…” [Deuteronomy: 31: 17-18]

When the Jewish people sin they are, so to speak, turning their faces away from God. In return, God will treat us the same and, so to speak, turn His face from us. This is what the verse means the first time when God says “I will conceal my face from them”. However, the second “concealment” in the verse is described a bit differently. The above words say “I will surely have concealed my face” but the English translation isn’t always accurate. The way these words are written in Hebrew is “Haster Aseer”. This literally means: “Hide, I will hide” (because of the double use of the verb “hide”, the English translation just adds in the word “surely”, which is not the precise translation). Now, what does this mean? How does one hide, and then hide again? If, for example, children are playing hide-and-go-seek and one of them is in his hiding place; that makes sense. But how could you hide more than that? Once you’re hidden, that’s it! End of story! What does it means to hide twice!?

One answer to this question is given by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (the founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement) and the answer is astounding. Rabbi Nachman says that at first God will hide His face from us, and we will feel that His presence has become diminished among us. When evil will befall us we will be able to say that “God has turned his face from us”. In this stage, we are cognizant that He is still there and watching over us constantly, however He has chosen to “look away” because we ourselves have “looked away” through our sinful actions.

An even deeper and harsher “hiding” that we may come to experience is when God hides His face from us, and we would never even realize. The first kind of hiding, as we said, was one where we know that God is before us but is looking away. However, this second degree of hiding is one where God is hiding the fact that He is hiding! In this stage, we wouldn’t be able to say that God is still watching over us and is merely “looking away”; we would come to believe that God decided to “pack up and go” and completely leave us, never to return. This is what it means “hide, I will hide”; God is hiding the hiding!

Furthermore, this idea is seen so clearly in the verse. What does the verse tell us immediately before God goes into this second degree of hiding? “It (the Jewish nation) will say on that day ‘Is it not because my God is not in my midst that these evils have come upon me?’ ” The verse didn’t say that we would say “Is it not that God is hiding?” or “Is it not that God is looking away?” Rather, we will say “Is it not that God is not in my midst”! Meaning, we will believe that He will have left completely and is not watching over us anymore. Because of this attitude, God says “Hide, I will hide my face on that day”! Again, because we said that He had gone completely, He will in fact hide in such a way that will actually seem like He has actually left!

Nowadays, so many of us are completely unaware of all that God does for us; we honestly believe that everything we have is from our own doings. And when terrible things happen, all too often, many of us think that God simply doesn’t care about us anymore. The days between Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur are a time for us to peel away the layers of this misconception. The first stage of this process is to come to the realization that God is always watching over us no matter how far we’ve fallen in life. We must understand that He is there, but has chosen to hide His face. Then we must come to understand that the only reason He has placed Himself in hiding is because we choose to hide ourselves from Him and go against his commandments. May these ensuing days, and ultimately Yom Kippur, be a time for us to discover how close Hashem really is to us, and how we are to mend that relationship for the coming year.

Good Shabbos,

NZL