“Theophany,” Rabbi Elaine Zecher’s Shabbat Awakenings

May 22, 2026 | 6 Sivan 5786

Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection as we move toward Shabbat on this holiday of Shavuot, actually happening today! You can also listen to it as a podcast.

Tonight at Qabbalat Shabbat we will finish the holiday and also celebrate Confirmation. Here are some thoughts for this day when we celebrate the moment of receiving the Torah from the Divine on Mt. Sinai.

That encounter between Moses and God is a theophany, the experience between a human being and the Divine.

In the Book of Exodus, there are certain times when Moses and God engaged with one another. Moses, as a shepherd, discovered something unusual and it made him turn toward a burning bush that did not get consumed by the fire. His curiosity made him stop. It was there that God first spoke to him to inform him that he should return to Pharaoh to demand the release of the Israelite people, his people. God also shared God’s name that represented numerous possibilities of understanding. Eheyeh asher Eheyeh אהיה אשר אהיה I will be what I will be. Notice how the letters are all vowels. Aleph, hey, yud, hey. With vowels, our mouth opens just as another name of the divine causes the same reaction: yud, hey, vav, hey יהוה. I see this as a message for understanding the experience of the encounter with the Divine. Moses turned because his curiosity opened him to the discovery of the sacred. At the same time, God appeared in a way that Moses could comprehend.

There are many midrashim that speak to the idea of how God appears in ways that draw us in. This midrash from Exodus Rabbah 3:1 shows us how.

Rabbi Yehoshua Ha-Kohen bar Neḥemya said:

At the moment that The Holy One of Blessing appeared to Moses, Moses was a novice at prophecy. The Holy One of Blessing said: ‘If I appear to him in a loud voice, I will terrify him; in a soft voice, he will take prophecy lightly.’ What did God do? God appeared to him with the voice of his parent. Moses said: ‘Here I am; what does [the Parent] want?’ The Holy One of Blessing said: ‘I am not your parent [Amram], but rather the God of your parent. I have come to you with inducements so you will not be afraid.’”

This particular theophanic moment drew Moses in to experience God in a loving rather than frightful way. Though Moses hesitated and challenged his own ability, God swayed him toward his destiny.

We may not end up standing by any burning bush that is not consumed on this holiday, or any day for that matter, yet our tradition teaches us through the study of Torah, we may become enticed by the idea that we, too, might experience the divine if we are only willing to allow the possibility.

As the Hasidic story reminds us. The disciples asked:

Where does God dwell? The response? Wherever we let God in.

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Shavuot! חג שמח ושבת שלום

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Rabbi Elaine Zecher