In this week’s Torah reading, God warns the Israelites about the sorrows that will befall them if they forsake His commandments. The text explains this punishment with a peculiar, and resonant, phrase, “And I will surely hide My face on that day, because of all the evil they have done in turning to other gods” (Deuteronomy 31:18). David Wolpe discusses the meaning of this imagery, and how Jewish commentators have understood it:
In the Bible, seeing God’s face is an expression of support or endorsement. Thus, the priestly blessing promises that God will turn God’s face to the Israelites, and they will prosper: “May the Lord shine his face upon you, and be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift up his face upon you, and give you peace” (Numbers 6 25–26). . . . In contrast, the book of Psalms places the phrase in the mouths of speakers complaining about their suffering. For example: “How long, O Lord, will You ignore me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?” (Psalms 13:2).
Perhaps the most surprising reading of this phrase comes from the Talmud itself:
In a remarkable emotional inversion, the Talmud records that the [sage known as] Rav (3rd century CE) saw God’s hiddenness as a sign of divine favor: “All who are not the object of ‘hidden of face’ are not of them (i.e., of the people of Israel).” What might be thought of as a purely negative action, God’s turning away, becomes instead an affirmation of relationship: if God does not trouble to ignore you, you are not close to God.
Ultimately, Wolpe concludes:
While God warns Israel that, in the future, the divine face will be hidden, even so, throughout history believers have held fast to the conviction that if we continue to hope for that hidden face to appear, we will catch glimpses of the divine through the interstices of existence, a bitahon, “trust” that brings a promise of both comfort and salvation.
More about: Deuteronomy, Hebrew Bible, Judaism