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Towards the end of the book of Genesis, as the time of Joseph’s death draws near, he extracts an important promise from his brothers.  Joseph asks that they, or their descendants, carry his body with them, up into the land that was promised to their forefathers… whenever that day should arrive.  While his father Jacob had asked that he be laid to rest with those who brought him forth, Joseph, whose life was defined by making a home in a foreign land, asks that his memory be honored in much the same way.  The bones of Joseph are literally to be carried forward out of Egypt as the Israelites take their first steps toward freedom.  One midrash – or rabbinic retelling – holds that the sea only split for them when Moses placed that coffin in the water.  As we cherish the memories of those who have gone before us, they continue to shape who we become – accompanying us as we walk forward.

Following their miraculous crossing, with the bones of Joseph in their midst and their memory, the Israelites experience a stunning moment of clarity at the foot of Mount Sinai.  As God reveals and identifies to them what their destiny will be and what the substance of their covenantal relationship will look like.  The people are besotted, transported … transformed.  Na’aseh v’nishmah, they respond to God.  All you have spoken we will do, and we will hear.  The power of Divine revelation was that great.  Suddenly all that they needed to do and to be was completely clear.  The greatest void within them in all their years of slavery, filled.  At long last, the people of Israel had a purpose – a new reason to be.

And then what happened?  Wait for it …

They lose it!  The smoke and fire fades.  The moment of revelation passes.  They are back in the land of day to day, frightened and frustrated with no visible sense of what they had experienced so powerfully in front of them anymore.

They are like all of us in that way.  We’re constantly gaining perspective, only to lose it (and gain it, and lose it…) again.  We discover and rediscover the principles and relationships most essential to us, and find it’s constant work to keep them in our mind’s eye.  We can’t hold revelation inside us all the time, any more than we can stare directly at the sun for more than a few seconds. 

-- The poet Olga Brumas was once asked how she dealt with writer’s block.  “I know that I am still a writer,” she replied, “even when I have not written for a very long time.”  So how do we get there?

-- That’s the role of faith, in part.  And for us as Jews, the role of action as well.  We will act in this world – we will do, and as we do, we will gain the kind of insight and understanding that couldn’t have been arrived at any other way.

And so, the Ten Commandments.  They are our connective tissue … our instructions to act in ways that will help us remember revelation even when it isn’t happening, or doesn’t seem to be.  Cultivate a relationship with God that will allow you to find what faith means to you.  Remember Shabbat.  Don’t murder, or steal, and for God’s sake don’t covet the life someone else has … you’ll only weaken yourself.

Jewish tradition teaches us that we were all there at Sinai.  We all experienced, and lost, that clarity.  And now there is no one but us – we are the ones, who can help each other find it again.  We are the ones who can remind each other what we saw, what we heard … and how Sinai might continue to speak to us when we have responsibilities to fulfill, decisions to make, a world to repair one step at a time.  And we are the ones who can inspire each other to act, so that our legacies, like Joseph’s, will be remembered and borne forward.

Join us for our celebration of Shabbat & Tu B’Shevat tonight at 7:00pm in the Social Hall, led by Larry Levine and Elaine Shapiro.  The blossoms may not be in sight yet, but this new year of the trees is there to remind us they will come.

Shabbat Shalom,