Reflections on the Parshah
The Thornbush

With the Book of Exodus we encounter the people of Israel -- not individuals like the Patriarchs, unique if not lonely in their faith, but an entire community, a nation. Throughout the rest of the Pentateuch, the dominant figure is Moses, who in today's Torah portion is charged with taking his people from slavery to G-d's service.

G-d's first revelation to Moses was at the burning bush. "An angel of G-d appeared to him in a flame of fire from a thorn-bush; the thorn-bush was burning with fire but was not consumed." The details of this revelation are an intriguing and inexhaustible source of interpretations. There is obviously a symbolic besides a literal significance to the account.

G-d does not reveal Himself to the arrogant, the self-styled importantThe thorn-bush is a lowly, inconspicuous plant, and it was chosen rather than the impressive cedar for the revelation. In terms of the individual, G-d does not reveal Himself to the arrogant, the self-styled important. And this arrogance is not necessarily the extreme and repulsive kind. It can seem quite innocent and still be fatal to the spirit. It is complacency, a serene feeling of contentedness with what one is, the assurance that one has done his duty by G-d and can with equanimity await an appropriate and generous reward from a grateful Creator.

"I must turn aside (from here to approach there)," says Moses when he sees the burning bush.1 For one to deserve and appreciate a revelation, a feeling of G-dliness, a taste of what religion and faith can really be -- for this the requisite is discontent, a turning, an urge to growth, a dissatisfaction with one's spiritual status quo.

This might be a definition of humility -- awareness that one has not achieved what he can, that the unachieved overshadows the accomplished.