These days, I have more questions than answers. I have more pain than a way out of the pain. I’ve never been one for lip service. Stating obvious truths because they sound good has always bothered me. Such utterances seem like symbolic tokens, ways to avoid the real work. And sometimes, such speech is meant to placate—or rile up—the mob. To show, “I get it, I feel you.”

The Torah says Moses is not allowed to see God’s face. In fact, none of us are. But the description of God in this week’s Torah portion as an almost Wizard-of-Oz-like hidden figure is striking. Perhaps it’s a test of Moses’s belief, or perhaps it’s a reminder to us all that sometimes faith means believing without having all the answers.