{"id":72702,"date":"2023-02-24T09:45:09","date_gmt":"2023-02-24T14:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=72702"},"modified":"2023-02-24T09:45:09","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24T14:45:09","slug":"off-the-pulpit-with-open-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/off-the-pulpit-with-open-eyes\/","title":{"rendered":"Off the Pulpit: With Open Eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By RABBI DAVID WOLPE<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WOLPE-e1592568030579.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-55374 size-thumbnail lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WOLPE-e1592568030579-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WOLPE-e1592568030579-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WOLPE-e1592568030579-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WOLPE-e1592568030579-144x144.jpg 144w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 150px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 150\/150;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-55374 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WOLPE-e1592568030579-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WOLPE-e1592568030579-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WOLPE-e1592568030579-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WOLPE-e1592568030579-144x144.jpg 144w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a>The Mai Hashiloah (R. Mordecai Joseph Leiner, d. 1854) points to a fascinating difference between Moses and Isaac. Moses died \u201cwith his eyes undimmed\u201d (<em>Deut.<\/em> 34:7). For Isaac, \u201chis eyes were dim\u201d (<em>Gen.<\/em> 27:1).<\/p>\n<p>The Mei Hashiloah explains that in Isaac\u2019s life, the major events, the Akedah and the reversal of the blessing with Jacob and Esau, God\u2019s hand is not obvious. Isaac is not told and does not know why or how God is involved. On the other hand, Moses is constantly informed of the divine plan \u2013 he is always awake, his eyes never dimmed.<\/p>\n<p>In our lives, sometimes we feel God\u2019s presence and in other times, only in retrospect do we see a pattern. The world moves in our vision between clarity and opacity, and we are part Isaac and part Moses. The Torah comes along to help us see more clearly, to open our eyes.<\/p>\n<p><em>Rabbi David Wolpe is the senior rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles.<\/em><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Off%20the%20Pulpit%3A%20With%20Open%20Eyes\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[8790,8795,8788,608,859],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72702"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72703,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72702\/revisions\/72703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}