Rabbi DovBer of Mezheritch (second leader of the Chassidic movement, d. 1772) once encountered a weeping child.
“Why are you crying?” he asked.
The child replied that he and a friend had been playing at ‘hide and seek,’ but his friend had run off to some amusement, leaving him curled up in his hiding place, waiting in vain to be searched out.
Rabbi DovBer lifted his eyes to heaven and lamented:
“You, too, have hidden Your face from us only because You want us to seek You. But Your children have tired of the game and have run off…”
During the sixth Hebrew month of Elul, Jewish tradition places much emphasis upon earnestly seeking the face of Almighty God. This theme continues to the seventh month of Tishri through to Yom Kippur.
Why would one then desire to seek Him more in this season than at any other time of the year? Our sages provide various explanations, but they all fall short at some point, because they neglect to acknowledge the hand of our Divine redeemer,
Messiah Jesus. By His grace alone, we can receive forgiveness of sins and embrace a restorative relationship with Him filled with His Holy Spirit and the promise of abundant and eternal life.
Elul is a month when our sages tell us ‘the King is in the field,’ meaning that His presence is most readily available to receive those who sincerely yearn for Him. They say that during this period, He can be encountered ‘panim el panim’ (face to
face) as opposed to ‘achor el achor’ (back to back). This may seem like a crack of light in a dark tunnel, but pales into insignificance in comparison with the promise of God for true disciples of Messiah Jesus:
“So all of us, with faces unveiled, see as in a mirror the glory of the Lord; and we are being changed into his very image, from one degree of glory to the next, by Adonai the Spirit.” (2Corinthians 3:18)
Why then would any person be so easily allured into playing a kind of spiritual ‘Russian Roulette,’ whereby God is reduced to a convenient formula only to be taken out of a box and dusted when needed? Seeking His presence primarily for who He is than for what He can give us, is then considered to be just an inconvenient intrusion. Martin Buber (‘The Ten Rungs’) told the following story:
“A king’s son rebelled against his father and was banished from the sight of his face. After a time, the king was moved to pity for his fate and bade messengers go in search of him. It was long before one of the messengers found him—far from home. He was at a village inn, dancing barefoot and in a torn shirt in the midst of drunken peasants. The courtier bowed and said:
“Your father has sent me to ask you what you desire. Whatever it may be, he is prepared to grant your wish.”
The prince began to weep.
“Oh,” said he, “if only I had warm clothing and a pair of stout shoes!”
See, that is how we whimper for the small needs of the hour and forget that the Glory of God is in exile!
His royal invitation stands and awaits our response:
“Every lock has its key which fits into and opens it. But there are strong thieves who know how to open locks without keys. They break the lock. God loves the thief who breaks the lock open: I mean, the man who breaks his heart for God.”
In the days of Elul, the sixth month of the Jewish calendar, we are challenged again to ‘break our heart’ for God who lavishes His love upon us with the smile and caress of an indulgent father.
“My heart said of you, ‘Seek my face.’ You face, Adonai, I will (constantly) seek.”(Psalm 27: 8)
