Enter the Torah’s most core book…

The words seem so simple, “The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of meeting, saying: Speak to the Israelite people, and say to them:”

How many times can one sentence say “speak?” God “calls” and “speaks” and “says” to “speak” and to “say.” That a whole lot of speaking and saying. Why the repetition, and why should it matter so much?

The previous books of the Torah, like religious literature the world over, are filled with grand drama, huge breakthroughs in which cosmos is mustered out of chaos, the divine erupts amidst pervasive evil, and a series of history changing miracles birth a new nation who see themselves as called into being to serve the Divine in intimate relationship. Like any young love, there is a maximum of passion and deed, and not a whole lot of room for words.

But the flush heat of passion subsides. If we’re lucky, and if we work hard at it, then the real blossom of love comes in a cooler shade: words, information, shared insights and aspirations. Love is built in the prosaic valleys of life, seeking to hold on to the sparks gleaned on the heights, but at the same time, fashioning a connection more enduring and less dramatic.

Enter the Torah’s most core book. Our ancient rabbis, when they wove midrashim around Leviticus, just called it Sifra, the book. Because it is the book par excellence, of The Book itself. It offers the cool practice that allows the embers of Sinai to remain smoldering, allows the intense bond between God and Israel to simmer in the daily offerings of morning, midday and night. In the waning and waxing of the moon, we see the radiance of God’s love, and in the swirling cycles of the calendar, we act out the seasonal manifestations of our journey toward the Promise.

You can’t stay on the peak forever, can’t remain eternally teenagers in love. But we can speak the words that keep our memories alive and strong, shape our values, and point us toward eternity, one day at a time.

Rabbi Dr Bradley Shavit Artson is the Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and is Vice President of American Jewish University in Los Angeles.