For the week of October 11, 2025 / 19 Tishrei 5786
Sukkot
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 33:12 – 34:26; B’midbar/Numbers 29:23-31
Haftarah: Ezekiel 38:18 – 39:16
Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” (Shemot/Exodus 33:18)
The weekly TorahBytes message follows this reflection on the October 7 second anniversary:
I was preparing this a few days prior to the second anniversary of the most devastating day in Jewish history since the Holocaust. On October 7, 2023, Gazan terrorists broke into Israel and murdered about 1200 people, including the elderly, young people, babies, and foreign nationals. They also took about 250 hostages. Since then about 150 have been released, several have been killed, and about twenty are alive among those who are still being held. What many have been oblivious to is that dark day also unleashed a wave of worldwide antisemitism that has rarely, if ever, been seen, as cries of “Death to the Jews!” have been heard around the world, and unprovoked attacks on Jewish individuals have occurred, including where I live in Canada’s federal capital.
While October 7th and the specter of Jew-hatred constantly weigh heavily on our hearts, the grief is especially great as we approach the two-year mark. Too many people continue to victimize the victims of terror instead of sharing God’s perspective and standing with God’s covenant people (Genesis 12:3; Romans 9 –11).
As we are currently in the High Holy Day season, a time of reflection, restoration, and thanksgiving, we grapple with the tension between God’s faithfulness and ongoing suffering. The October 7 attack occurred on Simchat Torah (English: rejoicing over the Torah), one of the most joyous days of the year, as the Jewish world marks the end of the fall festivals and celebrates the restarting of the annual Torah reading cycle. While we struggle through these dark days, God’s Word continues to give us hope. Not only does it foretell better days ahead for those who submit themselves to the God of Israel, it does so in a way that accurately reflects the complexities and challenges of living in our broken world. Am Yisrael Chai! The people of Israel live!
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This week’s TorahBytes message:
This week’s parsha (weekly Torah reading) is special for the intermediate days of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles/Booths). It was likely chosen due to its mention of the festival (see (Shemot/Exodus 34:22), where it is called Chag Ha-Asif, the Feast of Ingathering, most likely referencing its function as a harvest festival.
The reading also contains one of the most intense interactions between Moses and God. Israel was in a precarious state due to the incident of the Golden Calf. Moses had been on Mount Sinai, receiving God’s Holy Word, while the people were cavorting with idols below. In response, God was preparing to wipe out the people completely and continue his mission by making Moses a new nation. Yet Moses prevailed upon God to relent by appealing to God’s own reputation and faithfulness. As Moses continued to intercede for the people, he earnestly sought greater and greater assurances from God that he would not abandon them, eventually asking him: “Har-eni na et-k’vodecha” (English: “Let me see your glory!”). Moses was asking for a revelation of God even greater than anything he had already experienced. He wanted to see a completely unobscured manifestation of God’s honor and character.
God’s response was a “yes and no”:
“I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (Shemot/Exodus 33:19–20).
God was willing to grant Moses a partial revelation of his glory, knowing that he would not survive the fullness of what he was asking for.
This moment captures the overarching tension between God and human beings ever since he went looking for Adam in the Garden (see Bereshit/Genesis 3:9). Ever since our first parents’ rebellion against God, the whole creation has suffered within a cursed brokenness. What Moses experienced with God that day illustrates this tension. The God of all, the God of Israel, wants to fully connect with his beloved human creatures, but sin has created an impenetrable barrier so that we can never get too close. That is, until the coming of the Messiah.
In the midst of the High Holy Days is Yom Kippur, the Day of the Atonement, which occurred this year on October 2nd. In the days of the Mishkan (English: the Tabernacle) and the later Temple, this day—just as we see with Moses—illustrates our alienation from God. He wants us near, but our sin prevents it. Year after year, the rituals of this day maintained the Temple’s purity in the midst of a sinful world as manifested through the Chosen People. But the enactments of that day were temporary until the permanent resolution occurred, the arrival of Yeshua the Messiah, “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
Year after year, on Yom Kippur, the high priest would confess the sins of the people upon the head of one of the two special sacrificial goats and send it off into the wilderness to demonstrate the carrying away of the nation’s sin (see Vayikra/Leviticus 16:21–22). Yet, he had to repeat it year after year, reminding us of its long-term ineffectiveness, unlike Yeshua’s sacrifice that truly “takes away the sin of the world.”
As a result, we have what Moses wanted, unfettered access to God: “We have confidence to use the way into the Holiest Place opened by the blood of Yeshua” (Hebrews 10:19; Complete Jewish Bible).
Because of what Yeshua has done, we have unobstructed access to God’s presence. Our sin, which alienated us from God, has been dealt with, allowing us to engage God in a way that Moses could only have dreamt of.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version unless otherwise indicated
