The Burning Bush
As a kid I often thought of the miraculous burning bush from only one perspective. There was a bush on fire, and yet it was not being consumed. Looking at it from that angle, I perceived the fact that it was not burning up as a good thing.
Despite the fire, the bush could not be destroyed.
Despite all the pain, the Jewish people forever live on!
However, although the bush was not burning up, it was still on fire. As such, we can also view it from another perspective. There was a fire burning, and it would not go out. From this angle we see constant suffering and distress; endless burning that does not cease.
Indeed, life can sometimes be an endless struggle of pain, shame, and guilt; and we can sometimes feel like the suffering goes on forever — like galus will never end.
This reality bothered Moshe deeply, as the Torah already tells us earlier, that Moshe saw the plight of the Jewish people and was deeply troubled.
In Egypt, Moshe had struggled to understand how it was that such a reality of endless suffering existed for the Jews.
As the Midrash says:
היה משה מהרהר בלבו ואומר מה חטאו ישראל שנשתעבדו מכל האומות. כיוון ששמע דבריו אמר לשון הרע יש ביניהן היאך יהיו רואין לגאולה. לכך אמר “אכן נודע הדבר”, עתה ידעתי באיזה דבר הם משתעבדים.
Moshe would contemplate how it could be that the Jewish people were enslaved? Once he heard the man’s words he understood that there were Jews who spoke לשון הרע, and he thought to himself, for that alone they are not worthy of redemption. Thus the verse says, “Now the thing is known” aka. Now I understand why they are enslaved.
When Moshe looked at the suffering of the Jewish people in Egypt it seemed justified to him; as such, he didn’t dig deeper to understand its true spiritual significance. Yet here in the desert he saw the same reality within a bush and realized that there is a deeper spiritual reality to it all. There is a reality that goes beyond the fact that someone “deserves” to suffer. Moshe then started contemplating this level of reality and discovered that the דין is really חסד. (Thus it was from the left side that Moshe tapped into the power of redemption.) That realization brought Moshe to the knowledge of ה׳ אחד, and once he transcended duality he was able to actually hear the voice of Hashem speak to him.
These two perspectives, of the bush not burning up and the fire not being extinguished, are represented by the two opinions in the מדרש as to which angel appeared to Moshe. “Rabbi Yochanan says it was the angel Michael and Rabbi Chanina says it was the angel Gabriel.” One saw the love of God in the bush not being consumed and one saw the judgment of God in it endlessly burning. In the very same situation two opposites are apparent. On the one hand the Jewish people have survived throughout all the years despite everything they’ve been through; on the other hand they have suffered throughout all the years seemingly without end.
If we take the time to turn aside and look, if we take the time to analyze this seeming contradiction, we can transcend the paradox and hear the voice of God.
We can go beyond thoughts and discover the truth.
From between the two Cherubs we can communicate with The Divine.
May Hashem help us all turn aside to see, and may we all hear the voice of redemption!!!
