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The Burning Question

Writer's picture: Rabbi Raffi BilekRabbi Raffi Bilek

Let me ask you a question.


If you were G-d, and you wanted to make an impressive first appearance, how would you do it?


Let’s contextualize this within the ancient world, so a massive fireworks display or other pyrotechnical wonders would be out. Ostensibly you’d want to use some kind of natural wonder. An earthquake? Solar eclipse? Maybe a giant beanstalk growing out of the ground?


That is not what G-d chooses, though.


One of the most famous visual scenes in the Torah reveals G-d’s choice: a burning bush.


Not quite a beanstalk, or a splitting sea, or ten terrifying plagues. It’s far more modest, pithy even. Yet it has endured as a classic image of traditional Jewish lore.


What is so powerful about this moment?



A Thorny Question


Let us answer this question, in true Jewish form, with another question.


Why a bush?


This is the moment when the Lord formally charges his closest disciple with the mandate to take the Jewish people out of slavery and into a covenant with Him. It is the prologue to a new chapter in Jewish history. And for this moment, G-d found no vessel better than a thornbush to house His presence?


Why is it that G-d, Master of the entire universe, chose a simple, lowly bramble out of all His options in creation?




A New Beginning


In fact, the Sages teach us that nothing could have been a more appropriate choice for G-d’s appearance to his loyal servant at this moment in history.


When G-d brought us out from slavery, he did not bust open our chains and set us loose to frolic in the desert. No, the exodus from Egypt was for a very clear and specific purpose, and spring break wasn’t it.


G-d wanted His beloved people back.


After centuries of being spiritually crushed and subdued in Egypt, the lessons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were nearly forgotten; the Israelites had become mired in idol worship and their connection to G-d nearly severed.


G-d wanted a relationship with his people. With us.




Communication and Empathy


In the first moments of calling us home, G-d wanted to deliver a critical message to us: “I am with you.”


G-d did not appear in a regal cedar nor an ornate floral display, because his children were suffering – and so He was suffering as well. He therefore revealed himself in a humble bush studded with thorns, demonstrating His identifying with our anguish – as the verse says in Psalms 91:15, “imo anochi b’tzarah” – I am with my people in their pain.


In the opening chapter of building a relationship with His people, G-d chose to tell us first and foremost of His empathy.


G-d is teaching us that the beginning of our relationship, and the beginning of any relationship, is empathy. There is no relationship without empathy as its foundation. The relationship between G-d and the Jewish people is compared to a marriage; in fact, it is a model for a marriage. G-d is patient, He is forgiving, He is generous, but first and foremost He is empathic towards us.


And so should we be towards our spouses, indeed towards everyone with whom we wish to have a meaningful relationship.



Empathy means I care about you and what you are going through, whether or not I agree with you, understand fully the situation you’re in, or would feel the same way you feel if it were me. It means I offer love and compassion even when I think you’re wrong (and even when you in fact are). I means the relationship is about us, and not about me.


One of the broadest mitzvos G-d gave us is “vehalachta bidrachav” – you shall walk in His ways. Having empathy for the others in our lives, and communicating that to them, is the starting point.


From there, of course, the possibilities for growth are endless. We need to learn how to convey our needs to each other (as G-d did at Mount Sinai), and how to listen to each other’s needs (as G-d does every time we pray). We need to develop all those G-dly characteristics of patience, forgiveness, generosity, and more.


The world is built for connection. G-d wants to connect with us. He wants us to connect with each other. It’s up to us to learn how to do that to the best of our abilities.





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