Dust of the Rabbi
There is a specific practice my freshman year of softball I will not forget. It was the practice that we learned how to slide. We were inside on the sliding mat taking turns learning how to slide into a base. Most of the team was timid about having to do this exercise. I, on the other hand, think bumps and bruises made for a great story. I kept cutting the line in front of the timid folk. One of the times I went up to the mat, I put my left elbow down a little too far. The thing I learned that day - unless you want to endure the sensation of brush burn - don’t put your arms down while sliding.
My elbow instantly bruised and was oozing. My teammates stared at it in awe.
The next day practice was held outside. Not too long into practice, Coach put us in a line at first base. “I want each of you to steal second. Remember the catcher is throwing the ball in hopes to beat you to the base, so you WILL have to slide.”
Oh the gasps in that line! My teammates were standing there in horror in their shorts. They worried about how dirty they would get or if they were going to get cut (and will those cuts heal before prom). “Who wants to go first?”
I rose to the challenge with my still open-wound. I took my lead when the coach pretended to pitch and then took off. I pushed my body with my left leg and quickly tucked it under me. I surfed the surface of the freshly raked infield. I heard the ball reach the shortstops glove. But couldn’t see it with the dirt flying around me. I heard Coach yell, “SAFE!” and motion his arms to the side. As he did the big dust cloud settled.
I took inventory of my body. Nothing hurt. My elbow was safely above the ground yet tight to my chest. But man was I covered in dirt!
I wasn’t fast by any meaning of the word, but my dust cloud could inhibit any fielder in my way!
My next lesson would be how as a catcher I could see past that dust when someone was sliding into me. And from there, my favorite “battle marks” weren’t the bruises from being hit by a pitch or the brush burns from forgetting to pick my elbow off the ground (I never fully learned my lesson there). My favorite “battle marks” was how much dust was covering my catcher’s gear.
There is an old Jewish proverb that says “be covered in the dust of your rabbi.”
I use the word “proverb” loosely. In what we read today (and maybe what you have heard before) it says “be covered in the dust of your rabbi”. That is likely a little out of the original context, but still serves this important image that I want to start with.
In this context of the proverb, we start with the character of the Rabbi. A rabbi (lower case) is a Jewish scholar or teacher. There are still rabbis today in that culture and they have this same core role. What made them a little different before paper was a prevalent resource, is that they were really the only ones with access to the Jewish teachings.
We know from Exodus, that Moses wrote the Ten Commandments on stone. We read, again, in Acts when Philip encounters the Eunuch about the worth of paper (or a scroll). I’ve seen a video before about why the Greek letters (language used in New Testament) were so pointed like the below was because they used a stick to write in clay. In the summer, the clay would be warm and easy to write in, but in the winter, they clay would be harder to write in. They could work faster with the more pointed letters than a Rho (which is a “P”) would have a triangle creating the curve of the P-shape.
It was such a foreign concept to grab a piece of paper and write down the laws and associated teachings. What happened was these stories were passed down and we believe Moses was the first to write them down for the masses.
The temples probably had copies on scrolls or other mediums, but these were expensive and hence few and far between. This is why rabbis were so important. They had access to the law and could provide those teachings for others.
So back to the proverb. It was every “good” Jewish boys’ dream to endear himself to his rabbi. And so there is this image of endearing yourself to your rabbi that you are walking so closely that the dust he kicks up covers you.
I’ve learned this the hard way in marriage. My husband is NOT allowed to walk behind me because he steps on the back of my shoes all the time. So I let him go first. Besides the fact that I’m basically running to catch up to him, there is another problem. The issue is he kicks dirt back at me!
As I mentioned, as an athlete being covered in dust has a sense of pride. As a wife - it’s just plain annoying.
But back to the story of the rabbi….from the Christian lens (or Lenten context), the desire is to be covered in the dust of the Rabbi (capitol). The Rabbi or Teacher (as referred to in the New Testament) that we want to be covered in the dust of is Jesus.
We want to follow so closely behind Him, that His dust covers us.
But remember the part where “proverb” is a loose term? Here is where that comes in. That image of walking so in line with your Rabbi that His dust covers you (and you are the “athlete” of the analogy, where there is a thing of pride and honor) is actually a misinterpretation of the actual Jewish context. That image is GREAT! I think that image still has meaning and is a moving picture that has some level of biblical context to it.
But the actual Jewish context translates to “and powder thyself in the dust of their feet”. It doesn’t say “walk so close that they cover you.” It says - you take that dust in your hands and cover yourself with it.
With that bit of detail, it has caused the debate of are you walking closely or sitting at their feet?
Again, there is something to be said about walking closely in their footsteps or rather in His footsteps. But when you look at the other side of the coin of the sitting - there is this image that instantly comes to mind.
It’s from the story of Luke:
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Luke 10:39-42 (emphasis mine)
Mary and Martha didn’t have wood floors. Their floors were that of dust. And that’s where Mary sat. She sat in the dirt and she sat close to the Lord’s feet.
Martha is running about making sure Jesus is comfy, as a cup of coffee and maybe a snack. I side with Martha here - get in some good hospitality when Jesus is near. But He calls Martha out of the kitchen and into the living room. And the words He speaks to her are that Mary is doing the “better” thing (some translations call it the “one thing”) by sitting at His feet in the dust.
The things spoken into Mary’s heart, Jesus affirms, will not be taken away from her. She sits in the dust just in front of the Rabbi and is covered by His dust - not just of His feet but powders herself with the dust of His teachings.
No matter if you decide to walk so closely behind the Rabbi that His dust spray up on you or you sit at His feet and are dusted by His teachings, I think we can all agree that we just want to be dusted by Jesus.
