Ki Tisa, Exodus 30:11-34:35
Ki Tisa, what an action-packed special Parsha with so much to offer:
Half shekel census in which the participants have to pony-up a half shekel each.
Betzalel from the Tribe of Judah and Aholiav, אָהֳלִיאָב, from the Tribe of Dan take charge of the construction of the Mishkan sanctuary.
We are emphatically commanded to keep the Sabbath.
Moses ascends the mountain to be schooled in the Torah.
Aaron makes the Golden Calf, oh boy, and we start dancing around it.
Moses descends; he carries the stone tablets; he sees us worshiping the calf, and he smashes the tablets.
Hashem is disgusted with us and wants to start over with Moses’ family.
Moses tells Hashem, if you do not forgive us Jews, blot me out; we are forgiven.
Moses insists that Hashem and not an Angel accompany us to our Land; Hashem desists.
Moses ascends once more and prepares a second set of tablets.
When Moses rejoins us, his face is so radiant that it must be covered with a veil.
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Hashem instructs Moshe (30:12-16 ) as to how to take a census of the B’nai Yisrael. The census serves as a poll tax of males, aged 20 and up where each male contributes a half shekel weight (about 6 grams) of solid silver to be used in the construction of the Mishkan. It is not a simple head count; Hashem says that taking a census in any other manner will result in a plague.
"When you take the sum of the children of Israel according to their numbers, let each one give to the Lord an atonement for his soul when they are counted; then there will be no plague among them when they are counted. This they shall give, everyone who goes through the counting: half a shekel according to the holy shekel..."
The weight of a half-shekel was non-negotiable. Not only were people not allowed to give less, they weren’t allowed to give more. The money collected was to be used for building the Mishkan.
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What does it mean: ... let each one give to the Lord an atonement for his soul when they are counted; then there will be no plague among them when they are counted.
It seems possible that that the half shekel count was conducted in part to know the size of our army. In giving a half shekel a soldier is giving Hashem a ransom for his soul. Perhaps he would then receive His Divine help and protection in battle.
According to Rashi: for the evil eye has power over numbered things, and pestilence comes upon them, as we find in David’s time (II Sam. 24).
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At 32:1-14 we learn about the sin of the Golden Calf.
We have learned, 24:12 that Moses at Hashem's command ascended the mountain. Before going up, accompanied by Joshua, Moses tells the Elders to wait for him and Joshua. If there are matters to decide, Aaron and Chur will deal with them. Rashi assumes that Joshua only went part way up.
After 40 days and nights when Moses had not returned the people had Aaron make a golden calf to which they offered sacrifices and sang and danced.
This raises some questions:
Where was our leadership? I am thinking about Aaron, Chur, the Elders, Aaron's sons and the Tribe of Levi?
Was it foreseeable that if Moses stayed away too long that there may be a problem? Are we talking about poor planning?
Did Hashem have any responsibility?
Some say that Chur was killed resisting the mob because his name is no longer mentioned. But if you look hard in the Book of Numbers at 31:8 the name Chur comes up again as one of the slain Midianite kings. This is when the expedition of a 1000 from each tribe, led by Pinchas, wiped out the Midianites and Bilaam.
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In Parshat Ki Tisa at 32:19 we learn abut Moses destroying the two leukot, the tablets written by Hashem that contained the Ten Commandments:
וַיַּרְא אֶת-הָעֵגֶל, וּמְחֹלֹת; וַיִּחַר-אַף מֹשֶׁה, וַיַּשְׁלֵךְ מִיָּדָו אֶת-הַלֻּחֹת, וַיְשַׁבֵּר אֹתָם, תַּחַת הָהָר
“…he saw the calf and the dances, and Moses burned with anger, and he sent the tablets from his hands, and he shattered them at the foot of the mountain”.
Destroying something a holy object written by Hashem takes Chutzpah.
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Somehow or other the Patriarchs had learned to read and write in Ivrit, a language with a written alphabet that contains 22 letters.
However their family connection or roots was Babylonia, in the cities of Charan and Ur where the people used cuneiform, a non-alphabetic written language that called for 100's of symbols.
What do you think the leukot would have looked like had Avraham Avinu not made Aliyah?
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Let's look at the Sin of the Golden Calf from Hashem's point of view:
Was it a betrayal? Betrayal of trust? treachery?
Perhaps the lowest point in the history of the Jewish people occurred shortly after the Torah’s revelation at Mount Sinai. Without Moses’ leadership and guidance, the people turned to idolatry, worshipping a golden calf.
Divine justice demanded that this terrible betrayal be punished severely, but at 32:11 Moses “pleaded before God” on their behalf.
The gravity of the Sin of the Golden Calf should not be underestimated. It was not a foregone conclusion that God would forgive the Israelites. Divine justice dictated that the Jewish nation deserved to be destroyed for this calamitous breach of faith.
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At 33:17-23, one of the more enigmatic passages in the Torah describes a mysterious encounter that took place following the Sin of the Golden Calf.
“Please let me have a vision of Your Glory!”
God replied that it is impossible for mortal man “to have a vision of Me and live.” However, God agreed to protect Moses in a mountain crevice as He “passed by.”
“You will then have a vision of My back. My face, however, will not be seen.”
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This week's haftorah, is taken from 1 Kings 18:1-39 (Sephardi Jews begin at verse 20). On Mt. Carmel, a one hour drive from my home, Elijah the Prophet confronts idolatry in an effort to restore worship of of Hashem. Elijah has a successful face off confrontation with 850 prophets of Baal.
However in addition to the main account that link to the Parsha, there is some background before and after the Haftarah portion worth mentioning:
The account takes place in the northern Kingdom of Israel ruled by King Ahab (אַחְאָב) and his Queen Jezebel (אִיזֶבֶל) in the 9th century BCE. Jezebel has been killing Prophets of Hashem. Ahab has an Administrator whose name is Ovadiah. He has hidden 100 of these Prophets, perhaps the first of what we call since the Holocaust a "righteous Gentile".
Ovadiah sets up a meeting between Ahab and Elijah, and we get into the heart of the confrontation. Elijah puts on quite a show and is successful. He then has the 850 Prophets of Baal taken down to the river where they are slain. Jezebel does not take these events lying down and Elijah has to run for his life. He goes South to the Kingdom of Judah and hides out in a cave in the wilderness, near Beersheva.
It is no easy thing to be a Prophet of Hashem.
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