Dvar Torah for an Eclipse of the Sun

A free rendition of Likutey Halakhot, Hilkhot M'Onein u'M'nacheish 1

In the Dark

"No Jew should be a soothsayer or a foreteller... Be tamim (wholehearted) with God your Lord."
(Deuteronomy 18:10, 13)

Everyone knows that one of Rebbe Nachman's motto is: "The world is a very, very narrow bridge. The most important thing is to not become frightened" (Likutey MoHaran II, 48). But when you don't know what to do, when your decision will affect not only your life, but the life of others, of generations to come, it's hard to not be afraid. Where to look for advice? How to make the future "come out right"?

The Torah beseeches us to overcome our fears and trust in God, her author. Soothsaying, divining, consulting spirits and the like can be effective in informing about the future and even in shaping it (Ramban on v. 9). Nonetheless, this is not the way to traverse the bridge. If we trust in God, then more often than not consulting the Torah - on our own or through those more intimate with her - yields the advice we need. And when she doesn't, when the bridge is an unlit tunnel, we have to rachet up our t'mimut and trust in God to bring us safely through.

Using heavenly portents - eclipses, falling stars, etc. - to divine the future is not so in vogue as once it was, but "even in our more enlightened [sic] times an eclipse can cause unease. People fear the darkness 'will let chaos in somehow'" (Time, August 9, p.47).

"It is forbidden to soothsay or divine, to say 'This day is a good time to start the venture, this day is not.' By saying something like this one is actually increasing and empowering the negative energy in Creation, God forbid. That's why the verse outlawing soothsaying is followed by the invitation to trust God implicity.

"What does tamim mean? It means to be chaste, as Avraham our forefather was told, 'Walk before Me and be tamim' (Genesis 17:1). Chastity weakens the negative energy of time, the domain of the foreteller.

"This is what 'Lord your God' is meant to imply. The perception of these aspects of the Creator as one, operating in confluence, is a semblance of the World to Come wherein "bad times" will cease to exist because it is a realm that is beyond time.

"'Don't be frightened by the portents of heaven even though the nations fear them' (Jeremiah 10:2; see Sukkah 29a that this refers to solar eclipses). When a Jew is chaste she places herself above time, beyond the reach of the heavenly timepieces."