A rabbi hears his little daughter crying, and finally finds her hiding in the closet. When he asks the child why she is crying, she tells him that she was playing hide and seek with the other children. “I’ve been hiding in here so long and no one is coming to look for me,” she sobbed.“Now, my dear child” says the father, “you can begin to understand how God, the Kadosh Baruch Hu, who is hidden from us, must feel when no one seeks to find Him.” I first read this story in The Longer Shorter Way by Adin Steinsaltz, and it often comes to mind as I meditate on the words of Psalm 27, the Psalm recited from the beginning of Elul through Sukkot and Shmini Atzeret, about seven weeks later. The days of Elul signal the beginning of my introspection, a time when I look inward and outward to take account of my words and actions, when I search the crevices of my soul to find God, who is “my light and salvation,” in the darkest hiding places.
Rabbi Alvin Mars, Ph.D. is the director of the JCC Association of North America’s Mandel Center for Jewish Education. www.jcca.org
