Jewish tradition understands that feeling, and offers a powerful image to overcome it: God leaping over mountains.
We find this image in Shir HaShirim Rabbah, the commentary on the Song of Songs. The verse "He leaps over the mountains and bounds over the hills" (Song of Songs 2:8) isn’t taken literally. Instead, the mountains become metaphors.
What kind of mountains? Well, sometimes they represent legal hurdles. The text equates "mountains" with courts, referencing the story of Yiftach’s daughter in Judges 11:37. Remember her? Yiftach made a rash vow, and his daughter sought a way out, a legal loophole – she sought to "descend upon the mountains," meaning she looked for a court to annul her father’s vow. So, the leaping over mountains can mean overcoming legal obstacles, finding a way through seemingly impossible rules.
But the mountains can also represent something far more profound: our own failings. The Rabbis connect this verse to the coming of Moses. When Moses told the Israelites they would be redeemed in the month of Nissan – "This month is for you the beginning of the months" (Exodus 12:2) – they were skeptical. How could they be redeemed when all of Egypt was "contaminated with their idol worship"? Their sins felt like insurmountable mountains.
Moses, however, assures them that God "leaps over the mountains." In this interpretation, the mountains are the idol worship, echoing Hosea 4:13: "On the mountaintops they slaughter and on the hills they burn incense." Because God desires their redemption, He doesn’t dwell on their past mistakes. He transcends them.
And it doesn't stop there. Shir HaShirim Rabbah also connects this verse to the coming of the Messiah. Rabbi Yudan and Rabbi Ḥunya, citing Rabbi Eliezer son of Rabbi Yosei HaGelili and Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov, see the verse as a prophecy. When the Messiah tells Israel, "This month you will be redeemed," they will raise a similar objection. "How can we be redeemed? Didn't God swear to subjugate us to seventy nations?" They worry they haven’t fulfilled the prophecy, haven't suffered enough.
The Messiah, however, offers two answers. First, he suggests that even if only some of them were exiled to distant lands like Barbary or Smatrya, it is "as though all of you were exiled there." Second, he points to the Roman Empire, which imposes levies on the entire world. If even a "Cuthean" (Samaritan) or "Barbarian" employed by Rome exerts authority over them, "it is as though you were subjugated to their entire nation, and thus it is as though you were subjugated to seventy nations." Thus, the condition has been met. Redemption is possible! Again, God leaps over the mountains.
What does this all mean for us today? Perhaps it's a reminder that the obstacles in our lives – whether legal, spiritual, or historical – are not necessarily insurmountable. God's desire for connection, for redemption, is powerful enough to overcome even the highest mountains. And maybe, just maybe, that gives us the strength to start climbing, too.