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Moses, the protagonist of our story, is ordained from birth to be the savior of the enslaved Jewish people, but Moses doesn’t know this until he encounters a bizarre, indeed miraculous, phenomenon in the wilderness. As Moses wanders through the desert herding his sheep, God plants a thorn bush in Moses' path. The text describes the incident in this way: "[Moses] gazed, and there was a bush all aflame, yet the bush was not consumed. Moses said, 'I must turn aside to look at this marvelous sight; why doesn't the bush burn up?'" (Exodus 3:2-3). By startling Moses in this way, God succeeds in stopping him in his tracks in order to engage him in a dialogue about the future role he will play as the leader of the Jews.
While Moses readily takes note of the wondrous sight before him, I wonder if a 21st century Jew in that same situation would miss the marvelous bush altogether. How would we contemporary Jews interpret the dramatic image of the bush that burns but is not consumed? Rabbi Carole B. Balin, assistant professor of history at New York’s Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion says “On the one hand, we might dismiss it as an unrealistic and thus unreasonable element that functions merely as a literary device in this story. On the other hand, it might serve as a reminder to us that miracles can and do, in fact, occur in our daily lives if we, like Moses, ‘turn aside to look’ at these marvelous sights.”
At BAJC, I have noticed many wondrous sights this past month. I have seen our members volunteer to help at the Overflow Shelter. I have seen our members set up for services without being asked. I have seen members work to prepare space for a BAJC library in the cottage behind the shul. I have seen parents prepare snacks and help clean up after our religious school day. I have seen visits to folks who are in the hospital or a care facility. I have seen our members help each other out with food, showers, or a warm place to stay during the power outages of the recent epic ice storm. We hope to continue to see “marvelous sights” like these in the future, beginning this month with a series of informal meetings in members’ homes to share our vision for what our congregation can be over the next few years. I urge you to attend at least one of these meetings so that you too can see “the bush that burns but is not consumed” at BAJC. After all, seeing is believing if we choose to notice and acknowledge what we see.
B’shalom,
Marty
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