I’m grateful to my colleague Rabbi David Wolpe for this insight. This week’s Torah reading brings us to the plague of darkness, a darkness so thick that – Vayamesh – it could be felt. No Egyptian could see their fellow, “but there was light in the dwellings for the Israelites.” Rabbi Wolpe asks why no-one lit a candle.
There is nothing to be done about locusts and the
frustrations of a pandemic disease we understand all too well. But if it’s
dark, all you need to do is light a candle. No?
The Or Hahayim (17th century Morocco) picks up a very
precise ambiguity in the Hebrew. The phrase “but there was light in the
dwellings for the Israelites,” allows the understanding that there was light,
even in the dwellings of the Egyptians, but it was only the Israelites who
availed themselves of it. Our ability to see, religiously, emotionally and even
biologically, isn’t a function of the availability of natural light, or candlelight, or even electricity. It’s a function of processes inside our own body.
The British poet, John Heywood, was correct to remark that
those who “will” themselves not to see are the blindest of us all. Our ability
to see our neighbour is a function of desire, personality, and will. It’s not a
function of luminosity or biology. The blind Duke of Gloucester, in Shakespeare’s
King Lear, “sees it feelingly,” He understands more of the world than his
sighted fellow players.
I know it’s still dark outside. But there is so much light
to see both in and beyond all of our dwellings. Indeed, in darkness, the sparks
dance and shine more brightly than in a world suffused with light. We have the
possibility to be lifted, and to lift the hearts of others through recognising
and celebrating sparks of kindness and warmth. We lift ourselves and others by
focusing on witnessing the light there is, for light, like love, is one of
those special precious gifts that can be given away without diminishing our own
possession of it.
We are back in-building this Shabbat, with a Bar Mitzvah and
an Aufruf to celebrate – plenty of light at 33 Abbey Road. We’ve tightened our
Covid protocols, increased our physical distancing, but we would love to see
you. Be boosted, take a test before you come. And we can bathe in the light
together.
Shabbat Shalom
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