Friday was the second one of the month, and thus we had another lay-led service. My friend Mark led it and asked me to give the drash or discussion of the parasha of the week. It is Ki Tisa, mostly known for the story of the golden calf. As with all sections, it contains much more, and this is that I said:
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When we last
met, it was for Yitro, full of events of which the main one people remember is
standing at the foot of Mt. Sinai to receive the ten rules or commandments. This echoes in today’s portion, Ki Tisa,
when Moses goes up the mountain – twice – to receive the written version
of the Pact with G-d.
G-d says to
Moses, in 19:5, “Now then, if you will obey Me faithfully and keep My convent,
you shall be My treasured possession among all the people.” This is the essential bargain that G-d makes
with the Israelites: Follow the rules I give to you, and you will be my
treasure; I will make of you “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (19:6)
In
the weeks since then we have read Mishpatim, wherein we receive
additional rules about how to conduct ourselves and our community; Trumah,
wherein G-d asks for the gifts that will be used to build the Ark wherein the
written version of the Pact will be stored; and T’tzaveh, more
rules about how to prepare for worship, including the vestments of the priests
and how to perform sacrifices.
All
of this happens since the end of Yitro, when the people were
afraid and asked Moses to be their intermediary and speak to G-d for them, in
20:15-18. Moses agrees and goes up the
mountain to have the discussion, and learn details about the Pact.
So
for all this time, Moses has been in the “thick cloud where G-d was” and the
people do not see him. It goes on for
four weeks of our time, although it’s not clear how long it takes to the
Israelites, although clearly it’s also a long time for them. We know what happens: based upon their
experiences in Egypt, they take some of the items that G-d wanted them to use
for the Ark, their gold jewelry, and make a statue in the shape of a calf –
familiar from some of the animistic gods of Egypt* – and perform worship acts
to it, even though they were told in 20:45:
“You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of
what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the
earth. You shall not bow down to them or
serve them.”
So
we finally get to this week’s portion, which is much longer than Yitro
although just as eventful, and halfway through in 31:18, we learn that “Upon
finishing speaking with him on Mt. Sinai, [G-d] gave Moses the two tablets of
the Pact, stone tablets inscribed with the finger of G-d.” These will go into the Ark that we learned
about two weeks ago.
In
effect, we’re at the end of a long, long meeting between G-d and Moses and they
finally realize what everybody else has been doing for all this time. As we know, G-d is angry and wants to destroy
the people; Moses talks Him out of it and takes the tablets down the
mountain. Then Moses sees what the
people are doing, which is contrary to what they were told, and which is against
the first item on the tablets he holds.
So Moses breaks the tablets, and we know the rest of the scene. He asks G-d to destroy the people, and since
Moses wouldn’t let him do it a few paragraphs ago, G-d won’t do it now. There is retribution and punishment, but not
complete destruction of the people. Then
there is a reconciliation, and Moses carves new tablets, goes back up the
mountain, and G-d tells him how to inscribe the new tablets.
He
also gives Moses some additional rules for the people, including – very
specifically – “You shall not make molten gods for yourselves” in 34:17. He also describes festivals, possibly to let
the people know how they should be celebrating, so they don’t feel they have to
again imitate the religion of Egypt or others they see which have celebratory
events.
Moses
is up there another forty days and nights doing all this, and this time the
people waited for him, and when he comes down “the skin of his face was
radiant, since he had spoken with G-d.” [34:29] Any time that Moses speaks to G-d after this,
his face will again be radiant, as a sign to the people that these discussions
really are happening, and the words that Moses speaks are divine ones.
Some
people say that this radiance is the first of the “wonders [such] as have not
been wrought on all the earth or in any nation” [34:10], although many of the
wonders described are taking over the lands of others as long as the people
“tear down their altars, smash their pillars, and cut down their sacred posts”
– specific instructions in 34:13 to prevent idol-worship such as occurred
earlier in this parasha. I think
differently. The first wonder is that
the people are not overall destroyed – we don’t have a repeat of the flood, or
the destruction of Sodom. Some people
are sickened by a plague, but others survive to continue forward. Moses asked in 34:8 that G-d “Pardon our
iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your own!” After giving the additional instructions
about how to worship, and cooking, and so on, G-d orders Moses to “Write down
these commandments, for in accordance with these commandments I make a covenant
with you and with Israel.” [34:27]
That
is what I think is the real wonder: the forgiveness. The second chance. Or, if you keep reading through all the
destructions, and the exceptions, the nth chance. This is the real wonder of our G-d: Not the
endless destructions, but that we have a chance to learn, and to get another
chance to follow the Pact, or renew our dedication to the covenant, and to
serve G-d to the best of our ability. We
may find yet more rules to follow as we do so, which makes it more difficult to
continue. After all, according to the
rabbis there are 613 rules to follow, which is a lot, especially since some
conflict with others. Yet if we do our
best, avoid worshipping graven images, honor our parents, and otherwise follow
the rules of the Pact and of comportment, we too will be closer to G-d, and may
receive some of the divine radiance ourselves.
* There are also discussions that it is based upon a god of Cannaan, which means it is not just a disregard of the Second Commandment, but directly the cause of the directive to destroy physical manifestations of the local religions, to avoid being absorbed by them.
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