Moses stands on several edges at once in this week’s parsha,
Dvarim. It’s the first in the book of
Deuteronomy. He stands on Mount Pisgah,
the Promised Land arrayed at his feet.
He stands on the river bank, preparing to cross over. He stands “in the fortieth year, on the first
day of the eleventh month,” the generation-long wandering about to conclude
(1:3). He stands, therefore, a month
away from death.
The edge is a place of both opportunity and danger, since
one thing must end so that another can begin.
It is a place of great energy: recall
the flush of new love, waves crashing at the sea shore, a hang glider poised on
a cliff, the first day of school. These
moments, along with life cycle events like b’nei mitzvah, weddings,
conversions, and funerals are called “liminal.”
The word comes from the Latin for “threshold” – that place of transition
from inside to outside, from single to married life. When you cross over the edge, anything can
happen.
As a closing thought, this poem by Guillaume Appolinaire.
My boss at my first real job kept it pinned over her desk, and I’ve
never forgotten it:
Come to the edge, He said. They said, We are afraid.
Come to the edge, He said.
They came. He pushed them... and they flew.
When have you stood on the edge? Were you exhilarated or terrified? How did it work out?
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