Dancing is All That's Left to Do

“I’ve been thinking about David, King David, dancing before

his God, before the ark as they carried it through the

streets. Can you imagine the scene? The body released in

ecstatic worship, letting go all restraint, all inhibition lost,

the wild abandon of pure homage. What poetry of

movement, what mane-flinging audacities, what rapturous

expressions were born in that moment of boundless

prostration– that divine dance whose erotic surrender was

so palpable that his wife, watching from a distance, grew

jealous.”

Naftali Ungar-Sargon

Translated literally, the parsha's initial phrase is: "If you will

walk with my decrees" -- an unusual turn of phrase. Below

I cite Rabbi Leiffʼs commentary on the Sfas Emes:

The Sfas Emes [1] cites the first Medrash Rabba on the

parsha, which tells us one way (out of several) with which

Chazal reacted to the unusual turn of phrase: "If you will

walk ... ". The Midrash handles this problem by referring

us to another pasuk in the Torah in which "walking" is

involved. That pasuk is: Tehilim, (119, 59).

The pasuk there says: "Chishavti dera'chai, ve'ahshiva

raglai el eidoseh'cha". "Chishaviti -- I thought long and

hard -- dera'chai -- my ways, in the sense of which way to

go -- and I returned my feet to Your testimonies".

Midrash: "Amar David. Ribono shel olam! Bechol yohm

vayohm, hah'yisi mechashev ve'omeir: le'makohm peloni

ul'bais dira pelonis ahni ho'laych. Ve'hayu rag'lai

moh'lichos osi le'batei ke'neisiyos u'lebatei medrashos."

Dovid Hamelech said: "Master of the Universe! Every day,

I would think things over, and decide to go to such and

such place ... But my feet led me to synagogues and to

Houses of Study (Batei Midrash)."

Sfas Emes presents his reading of Dovid Hamelech's

experience. He sees Dovid saying the following.

HaShem's chiyus (life-giving power) is present in every

thing and in every place. The chiyus is there in different

ways and in different forms; but the inner reality is the

same all over. Thus Dovid Hamelech could say: Wherever

I go, I encounter HaShem's Presence. For in fact, the

world's inner reality is identical everywhere.

Sfas Emes is reading the Midrash in a radically innovative

way. Most people would understand this Midrash as

saying: "I decided I was going to Wall Street. But my feet

took me to Lakewood instead". By contrast, the Sfas Emes

is reading the Midrash as saying: "I decided to go to Wall

Street, and I went to Wall Street. And there I encountered

the exact same Presence of HaShem -- albeit in different

guise -- that I would experience in Lakewood!"

Sfas Emes then comments on the pasuk quoted earlier

from Tehilim (119, 59). "Chishavti derachai" ("I considered

my ways ... ") The Sfas Emes uses the perspective gained

from this pasuk to comment on Chazal's dictum that

danger lurks on the roads. He notes that the pasuk tells us

how to avoid such danger. How? By thinking things

through (i.e., "Chishavti") beforehand.

Thus the Sfas Emes is telling us that to travel safely along

life's highways requires intellectual activity. By thinking

ahead and anticipating the problems he/she is likely to

encounter, a person can indeed find HaShem's Presence

everywhere and in every thing.

The Sfas Emes concludes this paragraph of his notes by

presenting his perspective on Learning. The Sfas Emes's

view here is complex. On the one hand, he feels very

strongly that we should subordinate our intelligence and

knowledge totally to the service of HaShem; that is, to His

will. On the other hand, the Sfas Emes recognizes that to

reach that state, one must start with intellectual activity.

Thus, the pasuk in Tehilim begins with "Chishavti".

The Sfas Emes attempts to resolve this inconsistency by

saying that, at any rate, the goal of our cogitation should

be non-intellectual, but rather to subordinate our

intelligence to HaShem. But true to his intellect, the Sfas

Emes recognizes that reaching that objective requires

"da'as ve'cheshbon" (knowledge and analysis); i.e.,

intellectual activity.

In meditating on King Davidʼs mind/heart versus his feet

I thought as follows:

Dancing is all thatʼs left with the feet, I mean as far as

possible from the head, the mind, the left hemisphere

Like those Polish rebbes emerging from the cattle cars

Menegele signals them to dance in a hassidic circle and

when they get too carried away he becomes enraged and

sends them immediately to the crematorium.

As if rebbe Nachman knew that davening was insufficient

that the “shefa” needed descent into the legs that even

torah needed mythic tales and fables sippurim “once upon

a time...” “in a faraway land...” about kings and daughters

and cruelty.

And what of today where we swim in a bath of lies and

deceipts and a sea of self-deception?

We inhabit these texts like old ruins, where the moss

makes movement treacherous and see stone masonry

rising from unexpected locations with wild bushes covering

delicate ancient inscriptions and we pretend

as if the cathedral is still with its virginal choir and the

organ plays at full volume. As if we could reconstruct Vilna

and Volozhyn in Lakewood and Bnei Brak.

Mouthing off the Daf Hayomi like soldiers in a roll call 5:30

each morning.

No, all we have left today is our feet... those fungoid

infected toes a putrid inventory.

And we run hither and thither searching for momentary

relief from the agony of self-loathing a moment without the

inner kritik in designer sneekers of course.

Why must I suffer further the shockling and pious swaying

for a few minutes of dancing like crumbs they throw my

way like a pidgeon in Hyde park.

Why must I pretend to like Carlebach davening the kids

singing just for a moment of bliss?

in this post-Hassidic post attempt-at-authenticity what is

left? after all has been stripped away?

Only to focus on the feet! for david...they took him to the

Beit Hamidrash for me.......I fear they will shlepp me to

le'makohm peloni ul'bais dira pelonis.

[1] Sfas Emes, Parshas Bechukosai, 5632