What does it mean to cleave to God?
Table for Five: Re’eh
In partnership with the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles
Edited by Nina Litvak & Salvador Litvak, the Accidental Talmudist
You shall follow the Lord, your God, fear Him, keep His commandments, heed His voice, worship Him, and cleave to Him. -Deut. 13:5
Rabbi Tal Sessler
Temple Beth Zion
What does it mean to cleave to God? This mystical query stands at the core of Jewish theology. For Rashi and the rationalists, cleaving to God means cleaving to Torah scholars, thereby emulating their virtuous qualities and prodigious intellects. For the Chassidic masters however, cleaving to God is the seminal vocation of the Jew and the zenith of the Jewish religious experience. To cleave to God, teach us the mystics, entails an ecstatic rupture in consciousness in which we experience bitul hayesh (the nullification of self/being), and unite with the infinite oneness of God. This cleaving to the intrinsic oneness of God was apprehended by Freud despite his staunch atheism. For Freud, this cleaving to the core of the universe is captured in the term “oceanic feeling.” For the Chassidic sages, the very concept of “mitzvah” derives from the Hebrew term “tzavta “ – which means “togetherness.” A mitzvah, thus conceived, is an ethical or spiritual deed whose end result is the establishment of a cosmic bridge in consciousness which empowers the soul to ascend on high and cleave to God. The Hebrew word for cleaving is dvekut, which literally means “glue-ness.” The zenith of the Jewish religious experience is thus about being utmostly attached to God, superglued to God. This can only be achieved ephemerally, in privileged moments of ecstatic prayer and contemplative inwardness. Cleaving to God is thus essentially the achieving of cosmic mindfulness in which we are steeped in the divine and utterly immersed in and absorbed by God.
Rabbi Yoni Dahlen
Spiritual Leader / Congregation Shaarey Zedek, Southfield, MI
One of my rabbis and teachers (Rabbi Danny Nevins – thank you for being the amazing person you are!) forever changed the way I think about life’s journey as a Jew.
It is easy to get caught up in the shakta v’taria, the back and forth that comes with our tradition. Commentary, hermeneutics, legal exercise and theory.
All of it is worthwhile, meaningful, and profound. But it is critical to remember, through our drashing and wrestling, that the heartbeat of who we are comes down to one word, a variation of which we see in the passage above.
Halacha.
We usually translate this word as “Jewish law,” but as Rabbi Nevins taught me, doing so leaves behind the poetry.
The Hebrew root is not a judicial word. It is something far more powerful. The root is l’lachet, and it means to walk.
What is the purpose of the Jewish journey? It is trying with all of our heart, soul, and might to walk with God.
Embracing this understanding allows our learning, our decision making, our prayer and our actions to come alive in such a way that its power, its magic cannot be overstated.
It is the rejection of obedience for obedience’s sake, the rejection of fear and insignificance, that we are simply tiny stitches in the grand tapestry of existence.
To walk with God is to matter more than we can ever know. It is a towering responsibility. But it is a gift, one that we should cherish.
Reb. Miriam Yerushalmi
CEO SANE; Author, Reaching New Heights Series
“The splendor of the Torah is wisdom, the splendor of wisdom is humility, the splendor of humility is awe, the splendor of awe is a mitzvah, and the splendor of a mitzvah is its modesty.” (Derech Eretz Zuta 5) Moshe gives over to the Jewish People their mandate: to follow G-d, be in awe of Him, obey Him, worship Him. Those instructions are relatively straightforward to comprehend and to act on. But to “cleave to Him” is not so simple—until we consider that the root of “mitzvah” is “tzavah,”—“attachment” or “connection.” Through the mitzvos, we grow closer to Hashem. And we grow closer to mitzvos through modesty.
The prophet Micah later clarified this injunction: “He has told you, O man, what is good, … to walk in a modest manner with your God.”
Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg teaches that modesty in thought is just as important an aspect of cleaving to Hashem and walking with Him as modesty in dress and behavior. Being modest in thought entails clearing ourselves of ego and obsessive self-consciousness, which leads us to doubt our worth and constantly find fault with ourselves, putting us at risk of depression and derailing us from our true purpose: developing G-d-consciousness. The more we consider and meditate on G-d’s greatness, the greater our love for Him. Focusing our thoughts more on G-d also prevents us from thinking negatively about ourselves and others and judging unfavorably.Through a positive, modest, G-d-conscious mindset, we can cleave to Hashem and walk with Him.
Rabbi Chaim Tureff
Rav Beit Sefer at Pressman Academy and author of “Recovery in the Torah”
What does it mean to cleave unto God? This feels like an amorphous request. If you were to ask a poll of the over 8 billion people in the world, they might have very different interpretations of cleaving to God. According to Rashi, it means to do kind actions such as visiting the sick and burying the dead. The Ibn Ezra notes these are things that we do with our heart. The Shulchan Arukh, the code of Jewish Law states, “we’re commanded to emulate God’s positive actions and righteous traits to the best of our ability.” These suggestions help guide us to what is needed to cleave to God but are there other suggestions? Some of the explanations are things that are applicable but still up to interpretation. How can we see this play out on a day to day basis? Through my work with recovering addicts and those in the 12 Steps, I see people cleaving to God on a daily basis. The 12th Step of Alcoholics Anonymous, is for those in recovery to share the message of recovery to others. They’re also imbued with living the first 11 Steps. This involves having a spiritual awakening and being of continual service to others. Basically, we could all live by the principle of being of service to other people. Helping other people on their timeline, not our timeline. Imagine wanting people to succeed in their endeavors and actually truly caring for another human without an ulterior motive. What a world!
Michael Milgraum
Ph.D. Psychologist and Author
It is a well-known principle in psychology that changes in behavior lead to changes in internal states and attitudes. This pasuk is a powerful example of that principle. It is well known that being God-fearing is a good thing, but also a very challenging state to truly obtain. How does one begin? This pasuk gives us the answer. Don’t worry so much about the internal state, just act like someone who fears God by following Him and Him alone. Wherever He tells us to go, there we shall go. And where he draws a boundary, there we dare not cross.
It’s a process of setting Hashem’s will above our own in all things, which constantly gives us the reminder that His will is primary. This awareness leads us to a deeper understanding of things and of our true purpose in this world. As it says in Mishlei “The beginning of wisdom is fear of Hashem.”
The end of our pasuk makes reference to cleaving to Hashem. Actually, the setting of His limits upon ourselves is a prerequisite for us learning how to cleave to Him. We could, perhaps, put it this way: The beginning of love is placing limits on oneself. As long as my ego, my agenda, my needs are the only consideration, love of another is impossible. By making His will primary, we plant seeds that will eventually blossom into a true learning to cleave to and love Hashem.
With thanks to Rabbi Tal Sessler, Rabbi Yoni Dahlen, Reb. Miriam Yerushalmi, Rabbi Chaim Tureff and Dr. Michael Milgraum.
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