Pekudei – The Cloud Descending

Theology

34 The cloud covered the Tent of Meeting so the presence of YHWH filled the Mishkan. 35 Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting when the cloud enveloped it and the presence of YHWH filled the Miskan.

Exodus 40

Wouldn’t we all like to witness to that cloud descending and settling on the ancient transportable shrine – Mishkan. That fantastic cloud wasn’t actually present; it was all an illusion – only our ancestors’ perceptions altered from time to time, not the reality of God.

Although, we are limited by our own physical form, we are free to let our thoughts flow out and around us. If we were to be aware of each breath, we could not function. Yet each breath is real whether or not we are mindful of it.

When our thoughts surge and expand, we can be where God abides: EVERYWHERE – past, present and future – full circle within the cosmos.

1 YHWH is ascendant, the world rejoices, many islands are happy. 2 the cloud and the mist are around it: righteousness and justice are the foundation of God’s eminence.

Psalm 97

God cannot be contained in a space or a measure of time, for the very surface, structure and internal workings of the smallest particle in an atom contain as much of God as fills the entire universe.

22 Solomon stood before the altar of the YHWH in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread out his hands toward the heavens; … 27 Can God actually dwell in the world? For the heavens above cannot contain God, how much the more so this house that I have built.

I Kings 8

We can let our thoughts roam free to perceive the essence of the force that shapes the cosmos: colorless neither seen nor heard, but tangible as any thought can be.

Breathe in – where can God be found?
Breathe out – above and below, anywhere, everywhere in your next breath.

Oxygen finding cells
Thoughts surging, waning
Synapses alive

Have you seen the cloud descending?
Do you know where that presence is?

All the generations stand before the Mishkan
We see the cloud descending
Light waves and sound waves connect to us
We feel compelled to react and even to sing

Midrash Harabah and English translations by Rabbi Gail Shuster-Bouskila ©2021

Laugh, yes laugh at all my dreaming

This do I the dreamer say

Laugh at my belief in people

For I still have faith in you…

I Believe by Shaul Tchernichovsky – translated by Rabbi Reena Spicehandler, 1999