In the first Star Wars movie, Obi Wan Kenobi refers to something called, the “Force,” which he defines as “an energy field created by all living things,” which “surrounds us and penetrates us
and “binds the galaxy together.” While this sounds like an innovative science fiction concept, it actually has a lot in common with a theory that serves as the origins for an important method used in real-life science.
If you have ever read any scientific literature, even from popular science magazine, you may have heard of the concept of the double-blind study. In a typical experiment or trial, there are at least two groups of test subjects, a control group, which will not receive any treatment or change to their status quo, and an experimental group, which will receive a treatment or undergo some change. A single-blind study is where the subjects have no idea whether they are members of the control group or the experimental group, which reduces the likelihood of the subjects affecting the outcome based on what they expect to happen. A double-blind study is where even the people running the experiment do not know how the groups are distributed during the trial to reduce the chance that they would bias the results, too.
The first ever example of a single-blind study took place in late 18th century France. At the time, many people, including physicians, subscribed to a theory known as Mesmerism, a belief that an invisible magnetic-like force was possessed by all living things and could be harnessed to heal the wounded and cure the sick. This sounds uncannily similar to the Force in Star Wars and I wonder whether George Lucas had it in mind when he wrote the movie. In any case, in 1784, scientists skeptical of this theory designed a study where they literally blind-folded volunteers and asked them to point to and identify which objects were infused with “magnetic fluid.” The study showed that the theory of Mesmerism and this magnetic-like healing force, at least in part, could be demonstrated to be false.
The concept of the double-blind study may, in some ways, be relevant to an oft-discussed mystery about a פסוק we read this morning in the Torah. As משה nears the end of his extended set of speeches to the Jewish People before he dies, הקב״ה warns him that after he passes away, the people will eventually sin and be subject to the curses and punishments mentioned in פרשת כי תבוא. When they do so, says ה׳, He will leave them and hide His face from them, which will be followed by terrible consequences:
וְחָרָה אַפִּי בוֹ בַיּוֹם־הַהוּא וַעֲזַבְתִּים וְהִסְתַּרְתִּי פָנַי מֵהֶם וְהָיָה לֶאֱכֹל וּמְצָאֻהוּ רָעוֹת רַבּוֹת וְצָרוֹת וְאָמַר בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא הֲלֹא עַל כִּי־אֵין אֱלֹקי בְּקִרְבִּי מְצָאוּנִי הָרָעוֹת הָאֵלֶּה׃
Then My anger will flare up against them, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them. They shall be ready prey; and many evils and troubles shall befall them. And they shall say on that day, “Surely it is because our G-d is not in our midst that these evils have befallen us.”
The commentators debate what is meant by the idea that הקב״ה will hide from them. Moreover, if He is already abandoning the Jewish People, what purpose is there to hiding Himself, too?
Some מפרשים suggest that it means that ה׳ will remove His השגחה, that he will not interfere to protect the Jewish People anymore. רש״י explains that not only will Hashem no longer interfere on our behalf, but he will no longer even look to see what is happening, will not listen to our prayers or express any type of compassion. Despite the callousness of this approach, רב יוסף בכור שור argues that ה׳’s unwillingness to pay attention is not a reflection of coldness but rather deep care and love. Just like a parent who struggles to watch their child in pain, He cannot bear to watch us suffer and has to turn away, to hide His face.
But Rav Moshe Yitzchak Ashkenazi, a 19th century Italian commentator, offers a profound alternative reading. Hashem is not hiding himself to allow terrible things to happen to us or to refrain from watching them occur. Rather, the רבונו של עולם is explaining that He will hide His face to allow us to have the impression that He left. However, in reality, He is not gone at all – He is right beside us, just out of sight.
Rav Hershel Schachter compares this to the verse from שיר השירים in which the Beloved is peeking from behind the lattice, able to watch and speak to us, just out of view:
דּוֹמֶה דוֹדִי לִצְבִי אוֹ לְעֹפֶר הָאַיָּלִים הִנֵּה־זֶה עוֹמֵד אַחַר כָּתְלֵנוּ מַשְׁגִּיחַ מִן־הַחֲלֹּנוֹת מֵצִיץ מִן־הַחֲרַכִּים׃
My beloved is like a gazelle or like a young stag.
There he stands behind our wall,
Gazing through the window,
Peering through the lattice.
The גמרא in חגיגה discusses the concept of הסתר פנים based on the very next פסוק in our פרשה, where the תורה seems to repeat that ה׳ will Hide himself:
וְאָנֹכִי הַסְתֵּר אַסְתִּיר פָּנַי בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא עַל כׇּל־הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה כִּי פָנָה אֶל־אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים׃
Yet I will keep My countenance hidden on that day, because of all the evil they have done in turning to other gods.
The גמרא says that despite ה׳’s face being hidden:
רַב יוֹסֵף אָמַר: יָדוֹ נְטוּיָה עָלֵינוּ
Rav Yosef says: His hand remains outstretched over us
The גמרא goes on to tell the following story about רבי יהושע.
The תנא named רבי יהושע found himself confronted by a Christian in a debate in the presence of the Roman Caesar. Rather than use words, however, in order to embarrass רבי יהושע, the Christian just used physical gestures, shifting his head away from him. רבי יהושע, in turn, stretched his hands out. The Caesar, confused, asked what these gestures meant. רבי יהושע explained that the Christian had shifted his head away to indicate that G-d had turned his head away from the Jewish People, that they were rejected by הקב״ה. So רבי יהושע responded by stretching his hands out to show that despite His hiding, he continues to provide us with protection, that He has not left us at all, but rather remains out of view.
But there remains one additional question. As I mentioned before, there are two consecutive פסוקים that mention ה׳ hiding from the Jewish People. In fact, not only does the Torah repeat that ה׳ will hide but uses a double language in that second פסוק:
וְאָנֹכִי הַסְתֵּר אַסְתִּיר פָּנַי בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא
What does this doubling up of hiding mean?
Rav Yehudah Amital and the אם הבנים שמחה both suggest that it has to do with insufficient תשובה on the first occasion. Despite ה׳ hiding His face while terrible things happen, the people will continue to fail to perform thorough תשובה. For the אם הבנים שמחה, this failure will be due to the people only changing their behavior temporarily, ביום ההוא, on that day, leading to ה׳ going back into hiding until they make a more sustained change. According Rav Amital, the people will repent fully but only for the more severe violations that led to the harsh consequences, not for the root causes and more minor sins that led to them. They needs a more durable and more thorough process of self-improvement and תשובה before ה׳ can reveal Himself once again.
But Rebbe Nachman of Breslov offers an even more profound understanding of this double hiding. It is not a sequential hiding but rather a hiding within a hiding, a double blindness on the part of the Jewish People. The רבש״ע will hide himself such that we are not even aware that He is missing, such that we are so distant from Him we don’t even know he was there to begin with.
The challenge before us during the עשרת ימי תשובה is to uncover that second hiddenness, or at least to prevent it from happening. We ask ה׳ not only to forgive us but to help us feel the distance, to keep us from falling into a state of no return where we don’t even know there is something to repent for. May ה׳ continue to stretch out His hands toward us in seeking to forgive us and may we be successful in grasping His hand and remembering that He is there if we are ready to change ourselves and make ourselves worthy of His embrace.
דורש לנפשי 