The Rock or Not?

Cantor Lauren Bandman led our class as we read forward all the way to Deuteronomy 32:31

She pointed out the interesting coincidence that while we are studying the Song of Moses, in the annual cycle of reading Torah they are about to reach the Song of the Sea. We read the Song of Moses at the Jewish New Year and The Song of the Sea falls this year on the secular New Year.

We talked about the nature of God and the power of God. Many interesting thoughts . . .

Amy mentioned the terrific midrash: “What does God pray about? That God’s capacity for mercy outweighs that for judgment.
(good start)

Saul reminded us that this poem is older and is indicative of the evolution of the image of God.

We spoke of the image of God as a ROCK or Tzur which is repeated again three times in this part. Victor suggests that it is more a literary device while others note that repetition is considered the way Torah stresses importance of an image. Nevertheless, the image of the rock is one that indicates permanence, solidity, unmoving, and both comforting and frightening.

Jeff told us how the word Tzur is used in the founding documents of the State of Israel to help the potential conflict between the secular Zionists and the religious founders.

Thus much of the class was centered on the image and re-occurrence of “Rock” in our tradition.

Antoinette ended the class with a conflicting image, “God is everything that both is and is not the Rock”.