{"id":182121,"date":"2022-10-12T14:16:50","date_gmt":"2022-10-12T18:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/?p=182121"},"modified":"2022-10-12T14:16:50","modified_gmt":"2022-10-12T18:16:50","slug":"looking-through-gods-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking Through God’s Eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Rabbi Gregory Marx<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Rabbi Gregory Marx<\/p>\n

Sukkot<\/p>\n

The holiday of Sukkot is without a doubt one of my favorite festivals. The moon is full, the weather is, more often than not, cool in the evenings. The leaves are turning from their verdant green of the summer to the reds, yellows and oranges of fall. It is a wondrous time.<\/p>\n

As for me, I am coming \u201cdown,\u201d if you will, from the pressures of the High Holy Days. I love Sukkot.<\/p>\n

Where else can we look for a critical lesson about appreciation and wonderment for the times of our lives than the Torah reading for the Shabbat of Sukkot?
\nIn it, we learn about Moses approaching God and asking to see \u201cGod\u2019s face.\u201d This is actually not a particularly unusual request. It says elsewhere in Torah that Moses knew God \u201cface to face.\u201d Most religious teachings focus on its founder \u201cknowing God.\u201d<\/p>\n

But here, during the intermediate days of Sukkot, God pushes back against Moses\u2019 request. God says, \u201cI will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim before you the name Eternal and the grace that I grant and the compassion that I show\u2026 But you cannot see my face, for no human being may not see me and live \u2026 See, there is a place near me. Station yourself on the rock. And as My Presence passes by, I will \u2026 shield you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away and you will see My back, but My face must not be seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

What actually transpired at that moment?<\/p>\n

There are some who say that Moses was only allowed to see traces of God. It has been compared to seeing the wake of a boat but not the actual vessel. Or, perhaps, human wisdom, compassion or generosity are the traces of God that we can \u201csee,\u201d while not actually knowing God. Others believe that it is a teaching about life after death. Moses would be able to see God face-to-face upon his demise but not during life.<\/p>\n

I would like to suggest a fourth option. Moses was allowed to see what truly mattered in life. He could see in an instant when God revealed His back, the sacred not the profane. If Moses was seeing only God\u2019s back, then Moses was looking in the same direction, theoretically, as God. Moses was allowed to perceive what God was seeing. It is the difference between looking into God\u2019s eyes and looking through God\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n

Imagine for just a moment that Moses could see what truly mattered in life. Rudolph Otto, the theologian, called this the Mysterium Tremendum, the great mystery of being. For that brief moment, perhaps it was just an instance, Moses had that \u201caha\u201d moment where he could see and realize the profundity of life as opposed to the small annoyances of everyday living.<\/p>\n

Too often we get distracted or aggravated by the little things of life. Having to wait on the phone for a customer representative who \u201cvalues my time,\u201d but makes me wait for 45 minutes, the dripping kitchen faucet that we\u2019ve been meaning to fix which consistently annoys.<\/p>\n

Too often, the little things in life distract us from the beauty and the wonderment of life. A friend of mine once called it \u201cthe missing tiles syndrome.\u201d If we look up at a magnificent fresco or mosaic, we, too, often gravitate to the missing tiles, the flaws, the imperfections, rather than marveling at the wonderment.<\/p>\n

There are some faiths that will tell us that the essence of life is to look into God\u2019s eyes, to have a personal relationship with God. All we can hope for, according to the Torah, is to look through God\u2019s eyes and to see what truly matters in life. And what does our tradition value? All the intangible things that cannot be qualified or quantified. Life is made meaningful with wonderment, gratitude, love, hope, faith, courage and integrity.<\/p>\n

As we celebrate this glorious season, may we \u201clook through God\u2019s eyes\u201d as Moses briefly did and give thanks for the splendor and majesty of the moment.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Gregory Marx is the senior rabbi at Congregation Beth Or in Maple Glen. The Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia is proud to provide diverse perspectives on Torah commentary for the Jewish Exponent. The opinions expressed in this column are the author\u2019s own and do not reflect the view of the Board of Rabbis.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The holiday of Sukkot is without a doubt one of my favorite festivals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13119,"featured_media":182125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,39],"tags":[],"section":[14014],"coauthors":[3545],"yoast_head":"\nLooking Through God's Eyes - Jewish Exponent<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Looking Through God's Eyes - Jewish Exponent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The holiday of Sukkot is without a doubt one of my favorite festivals.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jewish Exponent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jewishexponent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-10-12T18:16:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Rabbi-Gregory-Marx.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"240\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"303\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"- -\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jewishexponent\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@jewishexponent\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"- -\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"- -\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2b4dcb6e7c4cff9f4475dac4c089f655\"},\"headline\":\"Looking Through God’s Eyes\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-10-12T18:16:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-12T18:16:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/\"},\"wordCount\":768,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Rabbi-Gregory-Marx.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Judaism\",\"Torah Portion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/\",\"name\":\"Looking Through God's Eyes - Jewish Exponent\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Rabbi-Gregory-Marx.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-10-12T18:16:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-12T18:16:50+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Rabbi-Gregory-Marx.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Rabbi-Gregory-Marx.jpg\",\"width\":240,\"height\":303,\"caption\":\"Rabbi Gregory Marx\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Looking Through God’s Eyes\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/\",\"name\":\"Jewish Exponent\",\"description\":\"What It Means To Be Jewish In Philadelphia\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Jewish Exponent\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/JE-Logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/JE-Logo.png\",\"width\":700,\"height\":86,\"caption\":\"Jewish Exponent\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jewishexponent\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/jewishexponent\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jewishexponent\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2b4dcb6e7c4cff9f4475dac4c089f655\",\"name\":\"- -\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Looking Through God's Eyes - Jewish Exponent","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Looking Through God's Eyes - Jewish Exponent","og_description":"The holiday of Sukkot is without a doubt one of my favorite festivals.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/","og_site_name":"Jewish Exponent","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jewishexponent","article_published_time":"2022-10-12T18:16:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":240,"height":303,"url":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Rabbi-Gregory-Marx.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"- -","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jewishexponent","twitter_site":"@jewishexponent","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"- -","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/"},"author":{"name":"- -","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2b4dcb6e7c4cff9f4475dac4c089f655"},"headline":"Looking Through God’s Eyes","datePublished":"2022-10-12T18:16:50+00:00","dateModified":"2022-10-12T18:16:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/"},"wordCount":768,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Rabbi-Gregory-Marx.jpg","articleSection":["Judaism","Torah Portion"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/","url":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/","name":"Looking Through God's Eyes - Jewish Exponent","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Rabbi-Gregory-Marx.jpg","datePublished":"2022-10-12T18:16:50+00:00","dateModified":"2022-10-12T18:16:50+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Rabbi-Gregory-Marx.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Rabbi-Gregory-Marx.jpg","width":240,"height":303,"caption":"Rabbi Gregory Marx"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/looking-through-gods-eyes\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Looking Through God’s Eyes"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/","name":"Jewish Exponent","description":"What It Means To Be Jewish In Philadelphia","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#organization","name":"Jewish Exponent","url":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/JE-Logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/JE-Logo.png","width":700,"height":86,"caption":"Jewish Exponent"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jewishexponent","https:\/\/x.com\/jewishexponent","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jewishexponent\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2b4dcb6e7c4cff9f4475dac4c089f655","name":"- -"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182121"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182121"},{"taxonomy":"section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/section?post=182121"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=182121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}