ספר שמות

The Talmud refers to such a concept when it states in ‎‎Avodah Zarah 4 that “King David did not commit the sin ‎with Bat Sheva except in order to teach the people the power of ‎repentance of an individual.” According to the Talmud the same ‎reasoning applies to the Jewish people having committed the sin ‎of the golden calf, in order to teach the people the power of ‎collective repentance.‎Moses had not been able to set such an example for the ‎people as his whole orientation was toward heaven all the time, so ‎that he could not become guilty of what appeared like a sin, ‎‎[resulting from human weakness, cravings. Ed.] ‎He hinted at his preoccupation with the celestial rather than the ‎terrestrial, when he said: ‎אסורה נא ואראה‎, “let me turn away from ‎heavenly concerns and look at earthly concerns and parameters.” ‎He wished to examine the “celestial” element manifested by this ‎bush that refused to be consumed by fire.‎Actually, the words ‎אסורה נא‎, “allow me to turn aside,” ‎confirm what we mentioned earlier, that Moses was totally ‎‎“celestially” oriented. In order to get him to pay attention to ‎events on earth he had to be forced to be diverted from his usual ‎preoccupation. The burning bush of dry thorns and thistles that ‎refused to collapse and turn into ash was the vehicle G’d used to ‎accomplish this. This is why the Torah emphasizes: ‎כי סר לראות‎, ‎‎“he had to force his entire orientation to concentrate on matters ‎terrestrial,” abandoning his normal method of thinking in the ‎process. The material of which the burning bush was constructed ‎certainly did not symbolize something “worthwhile;” on the ‎contrary it reminded him of the negative side of the emanations, ‎commonly known as the ‎סטרא אחרא‎, “the other,” (inferior) side.”‎He now had to concentrate on how to deal successfully with ‎matters that required sublimation, i.e. how to help elevate the ‎mundane, secular, to spiritually higher regions. G’d had to ‎caution him not to approach such an undertaking without ‎proper preparation, hence He warned him that the site of the ‎burning bush was “holy,” not as he might have thought, ‎worthless. Warning Moses to remove his ‎נעלים‎, “shoes,” had a ‎dual meaning. The word ‎נעלים‎ is derived from ‎נעל‎, “locking up,” as ‎in “locking a door.” Moses’ shoes had been an instrument that ‎‎“locked him away” from direct contact with the mundane, the ‎earth underneath his feet. He had to divest himself of this barrier ‎to become an effective leader of people very much connected to ‎earth and what goes on in our part of the universe. Contrary to ‎what he might have thought, the angel informed him, holiness ‎can be found also on earth, the site of the burning bush being one ‎such example. This was a hint that “sparks” from the ‎‎Shechinah can be found in our domain of the universe.‎