BS”D
Strength
through Unity, Prayer in unity and more insights into Parasha KI SISA!
KI SISA –
means to uplift, to lift up and elevate (the head of each other) our sedra uses
the term as part of an instruction by Hashem to count the nation of Israel, but
why to lift up each other through a coin, this is because we do not relegate
people to a number, a person is way too special for this, we see each
individual as a fountain of unique potential with capability to contribute and
uplift the nation as a whole, thus we use coins to count the nation, we don’t count
people, but not a complete coin Hashem instructs us to use a half coin – the symbolism is obvious the nation is only complete when
we contribute our share together with the other half – to make the whole!
The passuk
talks about the giving of the half coin - as an
atonement, (important to know as this sedra also deals with our sin,) we see the
power of charity which ultimately is a move away from self and into the realm
of caring for another, I heard from a friend (may Hashem consider his merits),
about the Hebrew word for give “natan” you can spell it both ways back and
forward in Hebrew, the lesson here is the getter receives, and the giver
receives, both get through the one giving the other! I have seen this is a reality in my own life,
I would argue that often we do not realise how much more we get when we give,
much more than the recipient! (It should be so, and our charity should please
G-d always go to the best and most holy and important places, we need to daven
that this happens.) Rabbi Pinchas Khan taught us that when we do the Mitzvah of
charity the focus should not be on the money, but the focus should be on the recipient,
we should give with heart.
Daniel Sandground, (student at Ohr Somayach
Yeshiva, Jerusalem)
The sedra begins with Hashem commanding Moshe to take a census of the
Jewish people through the giving of a half shekel coin which were then all
counted in order to determine the census. The Torah teaches that it is
forbidden to count Jews in an ordinary way, and that when it is necessary to
conduct a census, it should be done by having the people contribute items,
which would then be counted. The half shekel coin was then used as a charitable
contribution in the construction of the Tabernacle. The Torah states, “This
shall they give” [30:13]... according to Rashi, Hashem showed Moshe a coin of
fire and said to him, 'Like this shall they give'... the mefarshim bring down
some interesting insights on this, among them are... that G-d showed Moshe
through this image that money is like fire, both can be either beneficial or
destructive depending on how they are used. Another insight is that if one
seeks atonement through the giving of funds for charity, the good deed should
be done with fire and enthusiasm. So why a half shekel coin? Many commentators
interpret that the requirement of half a coin alludes to the concept that no
Jew is complete unless he joins with others; as long as we are in isolation,
each of us is only 'half' of our full potential... we are a nation firstly,
then individuals. According to a possuk in Proverbs Tzedakah has the ability to
save one from death, when we break down the word used by the Torah for the half
Shekel... מחצית השקל, we can see illusions to this...
If we take the central letter of the word מחצית.... we have a צ which
represents צדקה/Tzedakah..[CHARITY]
And what is on either side of the צ... the word חי, which means life....
And what is on the outside which the Tzedakah will keep you distant from... מת,
which means death.
Therefore we can bring down that the giving of charity will bring life
closer and distance you from death…
Exodus ch
30:
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12. "When you take the sum of the children of Israel according to
their numbers, let each one give to the L-rd an atonement for his soul when
they are counted; then there will be no plague among them when they are
counted." By giving of ourselves to another we assert it is not about the "I",
but we recognise the collective creation we are all from the cause of all causes, and
thus have responsibilities to each other – this brings atonement for sin!
(We see
during WWII how the enemies of G-d imprisoned us, treating us as unimportant
- like cattle branding us with a number into our skins- each Jew became a
mere statistic – symbolic of how unimportant they wanted to make us, these
evil actions were counter to what G-d tells us about treating each holy soul
in this week’s sedra KI SISA! To them we were just a statistic Chas ve
Shalom, Hashem rather is telling us we, each of us are very important with
our own uniqueness, we are taught each and every Israelite as they gave the
half coin they approached and went through the counting and passed by and were
each recognised by our leader Moshe as a unique valued contributor to the
nation!
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13. This they shall give, everyone who
goes through the counting: half a shekel according to the holy shekel. Twenty
gerahs equal one shekel; half of [such] a shekel shall be an offering to the
L-rd.
15. The rich shall give no more, and the
poor shall give no less than half a shekel, with which to give the offering to
the L-rd, to atone for your souls.
The lesson here
I believe is we need each other to be complete, rich and poor – all contributed
the same affordable amount, emphasizing no one was more important than the
other despite the earthly perspective of status and ability to give!
Another insight we learn is the washing of hands prior to conducting
service (prayer):
Exodus Ch 30
17. The
L-rd spoke to Moses, saying:
18. "You
shall make a washstand of copper and its base of copper for washing, and you shall
place it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and you shall put water
therein.
19. Aaron
and his sons shall wash their hands and feet from it.
Washing prior to Praying
The laver was a large, copper water-filled utensil
from which the Kohanim were required to wash their hands and feet before
performing the service. Rashi informs us that it was a basin which had two
spouts at the bottom through which the water would flow. According to Ramban
the hands and feet represent the upper and lower extremities of the human body
[PICTURE A MAN WITH HIS HANDS HELD HIGH ABOVE HIS HEAD], and by sanctifying
them, the Kohanim symbolise their total devotion to the service they are about
to perform. For this same reason, it was instituted that we wash our hands
before prayer. Whereas the anointment oil and incense were products to be used
in the Mishkan, the laver was an actual vessel... so an obvious question to ask
is, why wasn't it mentioned with the other ones which were described in Parasha
Terumah? Sforno answers this question by stating that the laver was not
mentioned with the other utensils in previous chapters because its function was
different from theirs. The other parts and vessels caused the Divine Presence
to rest on the Tabernacle, whereas the laver merely served to prepare the
Kohanim to undertake their mission.
SPICES USED – Also symbolic of the
nation as a collective:
Exodus ch 30
34. And the L-rd said to Moses: "Take for yourself aromatics,
[namely] balsam sap, onycha and galbanum,
aromatics and pure frankincense; they shall be of equal weight.
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Galbanum – is actually foul smelling?!
Rashi teaches us a lesson, foul and sweet smelling spices were mixed together to
teach us when we come together some have good deeds other less so, but when we
come together as one, we the unit are endeared to Hashem as a beautiful
smelling whole – riding the dovetails of the righteous has merit, which is why
being part of true and righteous community is so important, we thus find when
we pray together calling out in the merits of the entire congregation our
requests are more likely to find favour before G-d Almighty blessed is he. Also
only Hashem knows the true merits of a person, the Yetzer Horah may tell us how
righteous we are, it will tell us we are so full of good deeds, but to rely on
our individual righteousness, is not the Jewish way, we learn from our teachers
that the best way to pray is in a congregation of ten (we learn this number
from the 12 Meraglim spies of which 10 of the tribe’s leaders came back and gave an evil account of
Canaan, the word used in scripture at this event describing the group is “Congregation”
– this is where we learn the minimum number of 10 people is the best way to pray, we only
conduct certain special prayers of holiness amongst a group, a congregation of 10.)
Numbers 14:27 We see from here that ten men
are considered a congregation.
"How long shall I bear this evil congregation?" G-d is referring to the 10 spies who slandered the promised
Land.
You will also notice when reading the standing prayer we say in Shul,
called the Amidah the entire prayer is written in the plural, we daven as a
nation, not as individuals! An important lesson in caring for the whole.
Daniel Sandground, (student at Ohr Somayach
Yeshiva, Jerusalem)
The anointment oil and the incense were made by Moshe himself who had
the list of superior spices, their heights and weights dictated to him by
Hashem. The sages derive that there were eleven ingredients in the incense and
they were offered twice a day, morning and night on the Golden Altar which was
inside the Tabernacle. The fragrance of the incense was a representation of Israel's
responsibility and desire to serve G-d in a manner pleasing to Him. We learn
from a Midrash that one of the spices, Galbanum, emitted an offensive odour...
if we are told that the Incense was representative of the Jewish people serving
him then why have a foul smelling spice in the mixture? With the help of our
Sages (as quoted by Rashi) we learn from this that sinners should be included
with the community in its fasts and prayers. The incense therefore also
expresses the idea of Jewish unity, that everyone from the righteous to the
Arsenal fans has a share in the service of G-d.
On Betzalel
– A community should utilise those bestowed with Divine grace!
Ch
31 v 3 : And I have imbued him with the spirit of G-d, with wisdom, with insight, with knowledge,
Rashi
of blessed memory teaches us the meaning of the above terms in verse 3:
Wisdom
– what you are able to learn from
people around you.
Insight
– what you are able to work out with your own faculties and intelligence.
Knowledge
– A divine gift and holy spirit bestowed on an individual;
We see in the above qualities the import of attaching ourselves to
learned people who have been blessed with good minds and those with experience
and knowledge, (how blessed we are in Johannesburg!) It is important to come
close to those who have spent many years toiling in Torah, those who have been
blessed with different talents and abilities, and harness their power to unite with those of lesser capabilities and knowledge in
service to our Creator G-d Almighty.
Daniel Sandground, (student at Ohr Somayach
Yeshiva, Jerusalem)
The sages expounded that Betzalel knew the art of combining the sacred
letters with which the heaven and earth were created, and that he possessed a
degree of wisdom similar to that with which G-d created the universe vessels used
for the preparation of a meal-offering. In fact, if we de-construct the name,
Betzalel/בצלאל... we get the words בצל which means shadow and א-ל which is one
of Hashem's names. We therefore see that his name actually meant, 'he who was
in the shadow of the almighty' as his abilities were so great.
Sourced Ohr articles from Ohr
Somayach Institutions www.ohr.edu:
“See, I
have called by name: Betzalel…” (31:2)" — "And behold I have
appointed with him Oholiav…" (31:6)
A shadow
on the ground.
Itself
without substance, ephemeral, yet it reveals the existence of something
somewhere else.
Nothing
is as insubstantial as a shadow, and yet the shadow is the silhouette of
something that is beyond.
Faith is
like a shadow.
The
essence of a succa is its shade, its shadow, if you like; a succa that has more
sun than shadow is invalid. Our Sages teach that when we sit in the succa we
are sitting in “the shadow of faith.” The spiritual masters derived this
phrase from a verse in the Song of Songs, “In His shadow I delighted and
there I sat, and the fruit of His Torah was sweet to my palate.” (2:4)
We can
experience closeness to G-d through tasting “the fruit of His Torah.” We can
experience the sweetness of that Existence that is beyond, but, for the very
reason that He is beyond, we can never see that Existence. When Moshe asked G-d
to show him a revelation of that Existence, G-d replied, “You cannot see My
face, for man cannot see Me and live.”
The name
Betzalel means, “In the shadow of G-d.”
It was
Betzalel who was responsible for the building of the Mishkan — the Ohel Mo’ed
(Tent of Meeting). G-d used the letters of the aleph bet to create the heavens
and the earth, and Betzalel's particular gift was that he knew how to combine
the letters of the aleph bet, the DNA of creation, and create a microcosm of
the universe. Interestingly, if you look at the name of Betzalel's partner in
the building of the Mishkan, Oholiav, you will see that it comprises the words Oheli
— "My tent" — and "aleph Bet." Oheli – aleph beit.
It was as though G-d placed into Oholiav's name "My tent, My Mishkan, is
made of the aleph bet."
This is
why the Mishkan and the Beit HaMikdash were beautiful.
The
Talmud says “if you never saw the Second Beit HaMikdash (HolyTemple), you
never saw a beautiful building in your life.” The Beit HaMikdash was called
the “eye of the world.” The eye is a physical organ but it receives something
that is about as non-physical as you can get: Light. The Beit Hamikdash was
called “the eye of the world” because it was the portal for the Light.
The Beit HaMikdash was the most beautiful building not because of its
dimensions and proportions or its finishes but because it revealed the resting
of the Divine Presence in this world.
Faith is
like a shadow. Faith is the knowledge of something that you cannot see.
The
nation that dwells in the shadow of faith proclaims that existence extends
beyond the here-and-now, beyond what can be perceived by the five senses of
man. Faith is something that takes place in the shade. In the shadow.
Every talent has a place in Judaism. Every talent is a gift of G-dly spirit:
A beautiful voice, a brilliant mind, the skill of an artist. Every talent is a
gift and a responsibility.
"By His breath the Heavens are spread (shifra)" (Iyov 26:13).
G-d spreads aside the curtain of cloud to reveal that which is beyond. He
disperses the clouds that conceal so we can see past the obstruction, past the
surface. The word "spread," "shifra," has the same
root as "shapir" which means "to beautify."
In Jewish thought, beauty means seeing past the surface to the essence. That
which is beautiful is that which takes us beneath the surface, beyond the
clouds, to reveal the endless blue heavens to reveal the truth.
Similarly, the word for "ugly" and "opaque" in Hebrew
are the same "achur." Something that conceals essence
is ugly, however "beautiful" it might seem.
"Art for Art's sake" can never be a Jewish concept. For, if the
definition of beauty is that which reveals, something that reveals nothing but
itself can never be beautiful.
The true beauty of the Tabernacle and the Temples was that it was the place
of the greatest revelation in this world. It revealed that existence is not
bounded by the physical constraints of space and time. It demonstrated that
this world is connected to that which is beyond this world.
It was a Work of Craft.
I found this above article truly inspiring, so many including myself fall into this trap of looking to the physical, how quick we are to judge others, we look at the outside of a person, instead of taking time to understand what lies beneath! Media throw at us images of the physical all the time, we need to guard against it, it is just a limited surface image, however the spirit of each individual is infinite and deep, yet how quick we are to judge another based on the outward limited appearance. G-d is hidden we need to search deep, when we do this wow what true beauty we find understanding and depth, we reveal the true beauty in this world!
Shabbat
Ch 31
Rashi teaches us scripture then
moves on to the theme of Shabbat to teach us to stop building the Mishkan as
the Sabbath approached, in our service we must never lose sight of who we are
serving and why and what is his will:
The L-rd spoke to Moses, saying:
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13. "And
you, speak to the children of Israel and say: 'Only keep My Sabbaths! For it
is a sign between Me and you for your generations, to know that I, the L-rd,
make you holy.
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14. Therefore, keep the Sabbath, for it is a sacred thing for you. Those
who desecrate it shall be put to death, for whoever performs work on it, that
soul will be cut off from the midst of its people.
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15. Six
days work may be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest,
holy to the L-rd; whoever performs work on the Sabbath day shall be put to
death.'
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16. Thus shall the children of Israel observe the Sabbath, to make the
Sabbath throughout their generations as an everlasting
covenant.
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17. Between Me and the children of
Israel, it is forever a sign that [in] six days The L-rd created the heaven
and the earth, and on the seventh day He ceased and rested."
Daniel Sandground, (student at Ohr Somayach
Yeshiva, Jerusalem)
Having told us what is to be created for the Mishkan and by who, the
Torah is ready to jump back into the narrative on the giving of the Luchos
(or Two Tablets of Testimony for the more poetic amongst us) but before we do
so the Torah gives us yet another reminder of the importance of keeping
Shabbat. This seems like a random place for the Torah to start discussing how
we should guard and sanctify the Shabbat considering we already had the laws
given over in the giving of the Ten Commandments, only a few parashot ago.
The placement here is of course no accident however and it is written just
after our completion on the blueprints for the Mishkan as a caution to the
nation that the construction of the Tabernacle, however important this
mission is, does not override the commandment to keep Shabbat. The Jewish
nation are being told here that they must observe Shabbat even while they are
fashioning the resting place for G-d's presence.
Our sin Exodus CH 32
THE CHEIT HAEGEL – Be careful of the negative influences around you!
1. When the people saw that Moses was
late in coming down from the mountain, the people gathered against Aaron, and
they said to him: "Come on! Make
us gods that will go before us, because this man Moses, who brought
us up from the land of Egypt we don't know what has become of him."
How could we forget the first
two commandments given to us by G-d directly:
Know the L-rd you G-d
Have no other G-d’s but me!
“…and fashioned it into a molten calf.”(32:4)
There’s something uncanny about a statue.
I’m not talking about an agglomeration of scrap metal that passes for
sculpture in many art galleries today, but a beautifully executed and
accurate model of an earthly form. A sculpture can be amazingly real — a
single moment frozen for eternity.
It’s no secret that Judaism gives sculpture short shrift. The second of
the Ten Commandments prohibits the making or owning of any likeness of any
earthly form, and the Oral Torah explains that (with the exception of the
celestial bodies) this prohibition is aimed specifically at three-dimensional
forms.
Why is sculpture so repugnant to Torah that it earns second place in the
Ten Commandments? What is so terrible about a statue?
Another question. We tend to trivialize idol worship as puerile. Yet the
Talmud tells us that had the Sages not prayed that the desire for idol
worship be removed from the world, we would find idolatry as compelling as
physical attraction.
What could be so gripping about genuflecting to an oversize dolly? And
don’t think that idolatry appealed merely to the simple and the gullible; the
intelligentsia were no less smitten by the overwhelming urge to prostrate
themselves.
How should this be understood?
There are three parts to man: thought, speech and action.
The highest, most spiritual part of a person is thought. Thought’s
defining characteristic is its evanescence; no sooner has a thought entered
our mind than it has already ceased to exist.
Speech, on the other hand, exists only in time. With the exception of
G-d’s utterance of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai nothing can be
understood in a single moment. Speech takes time. To understand what someone
is saying cannot be grasped in a single moment. Nevertheless speech is still
ephemeral. It ceases with the silence of the speaker
Actions, the creation of things, persist independently of the one who
created them. Actions seem to have a life of their own
And herein lies the problem.
At the root of all atheism is the belief that there is something called
“concrete reality” — that because things exist, they have
to exist. The seeming immutability of a physical object seems to demand its
existence.
A statue is a moment frozen in time. It seems to say “I exist by myself; I
am divorced from the moment of creation; Because I exist – I must exist.”
When G-d created this world, He created it through the power of speech.
Why didn’t he create it through writing, or through physical construction?
This world is virtually no more than G-d speaking, as we say in the
blessing, “…for everything exists through His Word.”
Every statue in the world tries to convince that there is such a thing as
“concrete reality”, but in reality we live in a world of words that exists
just as long as the Speaker continues to speak.
(A lesson again against treating life situations at surface value instead of with deeper understanding!)
Let us
look at the text that follows:
Ch 32 v 2. Aaron said to them, "Remove
the golden earrings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your
daughters and bring them [those earrings] to me."
Notice Aaron says take the
jewels off your wives and kids, Rashi teaches us it must be that this was
done in the hope that the kids and wives would be upset and refuse, thus causing a
delay to buy time for Moshe to return.
Now note the next line carefully
3. And all the people stripped
themselves of the golden earrings that were on their ears and brought them to
Aaron.
They did not listen to Aaron
and took the earrings off themselves!
4. He took [them] from their hand[s], ….
"These are your gods, O Israel, who have brought you up from the land of
Egypt!"
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Rashi highlights the language is not that of Israel themselves otherwise
the verse would have stated “These are our…, O Israel” Rashi says the
Israelites were influenced into misguided worship by the Erav Rav (the mixed
multitude that left Egypt with Israel) this is a dire warning of Israelites to
be faithful to scripture and the teachings handed down from Sinai lest pagan
practices infiltrate our methods of worship. This is what the Medianite women
did to the Israelites too when we fell later on in scripture.
7. And the L-rd said to Moses: "Go, descend, for your people that you have brought up from the land of
Egypt have acted corruptly
Notice here, that Hashem ties the people's sins with Moshe their leader and holds him as leader responsible for the
people performing Idol worship. We learn from here too, a great leader can
only be great if he has great followers, otherwise he and his leadership
qualities are relegated to being meaningless… again a theme of the importance of
the collective. But what follows is another key message - the leaders love for his followers:
10. Now leave Me alone, and My anger will be kindled against
them so that I will annihilate them, and I will make you into a great
nation."
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I wrote in a previous post a teaching I heard from Rabbi Aurbach, that
the fact the G-d tells Moshe to leave him alone, (can G-d be held – of course
not, but G-d would be held from destroying the nation through the Prayers of
the righteous Moses, he was hinting to Moses to pray for them in his merits and
those of our ancestors) this is a clear
indication that when the righteous pray for the wicked to return, G-d may
listen or at least we can buy time so to speak until they rectify the wrongs
they have done, and thus we see our collective responsibility for each other
and towards our children the future generation, as hinted to Moses by G-d, pray
for them or I will destroy them - Rashi.
We see Moses got the hint from the next verse
11. Moses pleaded before the L-rd, his G-d, and said: "Why,
O L-rd, should Your anger be kindled against Your people whom You have brought
up from the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand?
12.
Why should the Egyptians say: 'He brought them out
with evil [intent] to kill them in the mountains and to annihilate them from
upon the face of the earth'? Retreat from the heat of Your anger and reconsider
the evil [intended] for Your people
13.
Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your
servants, to whom You swore by Your very Self, and to whom You said: 'I will
multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens, and all this land which I
said that I would give to your seed, they shall keep it as their possession
forever.' "
We see here the merits of the forefathers used in the Prayer of Moses to
save their children. He pulls out all the stops. We learn out how important merits
are in this world, so start accumulating as many as you can, we or our descendants
may need them one day!
14.
The L-rd [then] reconsidered the evil He had said
He would do to His people.
We also see the danger of a negative influences around us - the entire nation
was almost destroyed on the account of a minority of people, good needs to
stand up and face those who wish to perpetuate wrongs:
28. The sons of Levi did according to Moses' word; on that day
some three thousand men fell from among the people.
After this all transpires G-d
returns his divine presence to the Israelite camp !
How powerful is repentance and prayer!
Daniel Sandground, (student at Ohr Somayach
Yeshiva, Jerusalem)
When Hashem finished giving over the instructions and the additional
reminder on the observation of Shabbat, we are told that he gave Moshe the two
Luchos which the Torah tells us were made of stone. The Luchos were a physical
reminder that Moshe had communication with Hashem... now we just have the
narrative in the Torah but originally we had a 'souvenir' from the event which
removed any doubts about the revelation at Sinai. Stone is permanent and this
choice of material represented the eternalism of the Torah... in fact if we
outline the fact that two stones, hit together, create fire we can begin to
understand the deeper meaning behind the Luchos. Torah is likened to fire and
is mentioned throughout our writings as having the ability to 'burn' the Yatsa
Horra or even more colloquially, 'give us that spark'. If we dissect the first
word in the Torah, 'בראשית', we get the words אש and ברית which translates as
the covenant of fire, Torah is fire... the Luchos were the physical creation of
this. Unfortunately as we all know, the first Luchos (which were inscribed by
G-d) didn't last long with Moshe famously smashing them following the incident
of the sin of the Golden Calf which takes up the rest of the Parasha.
When analysing the incident of the sin of the Golden Calf it seems on
the surface to be an almost inconceivable act from the fact that the Jewish
nation undertook such mass idol worship after the height of the revelation to
the fact that Aaron appears to be the ring leader of it all... the brother of
Moshe and G-d's chosen anointed Kohen Gadol. We learn that a Jew is required to
give up his life rather than worship idols so how can it be that Aaron failed
the test that countless amounts of Jews have withstood over the centuries. What
appears to be the strange truth is that instead of being liable to the death
penalty, he was virtually whitewashed of the apparent sin and went on to serve
in the Tabernacle for the next forty years, not to mention the fact that he was
Moshe's partner in leading the nation and receiving many of the commandments
from Hashem. In fact we learn that the only sin Aaron was charged for was when
he joined with Moshe in striking the stone to draw water in Parasha Chukas. So
what is going on?
According to the mefarshim the people did not deny Hashem, and
specifically stated that they needed a replacement for Moshe following a tragic
error in calculating his descent down from Mount Sinai. With this
miscalculation and the thought that Moshe had died, they attempted to produce a
replacement for Moshe by thinking that G-d assigns powers and responsibilities
to subordinate powers which they saw Moshe as (along with the pillars of smoke
and fire according to Ramban). We therefore learn that though such a
misconception could lead to idolatry, their goal was not to worship an idol at
all! More evidence to suggest such a conclusion is found in the fact that they
would not have fled the scene when Moshe returned, and they certainly would not
have let him destroy their 'idol', rather the enthusiasm for the Golden Calf
was merely because it was a substitute for their vanished leader... once Moshe
was back, they recognised that their allegiance to the new 'god' had been a
terrible and foolish mistake. According to Midrashim, even the Jews who truly
worshipped it as an idol were a tiny minority of about one half of one percent
of the grown male population, and even they were the Egyptian rabble that
flocked to join the Hebrews when they left Egypt. In fact in the Torah it
states... “This is your god, O Israel” [32:8], they didn't refer to it as 'our
god' because they were outsiders who were addressing the Jews.
So what about Aaron? Aaron agreed with them though he knew they were
wrong, because their sin did not involve idolatry. Having seen Hur (the person
Moshe had assigned to share the leadership in his absence with Aaron) be
murdered in his efforts to try and stop the desperate gang, Aaron attempted an
approach of appeasement after calculating that they would kill him if he defied
them. In this approach he hoped to stall for time until he hoped he could wean
them from their mistake. By asking for the gold jewellery of the women and
children, he was certain that they would refuse to surrender it immediately,
and by the time the rebels succeeded in seizing the gold, Moshe would probably
be back. Rashi tells us that he was not correct with this however and the
people were so enamoured of the prospect of the Golden Calf that they had the
gold in hand without delay. This provides us a classic example of crowd
psychology, in which a mob is capable of excesses beyond the imagination of any
of its individual members.
Towards the end of the Sedra G-d tells Moshe to make new tablets, this
time hewn directly by Moses, these man made tablets would last, when we put in the effort the results become sustainable - Hashem then reveals
to Moses the formula to invoke mercy that we use on the holy days of repentance
culminating in Yom Kippur.
We are warned from all this to be highly sensitive to negative forces
around us i.e. the external environment we face, to guard against the forces that
detract from service of the creator that of Idol worship, intermarriage to outside beliefs, and
also the law forbidding the combination of eating milk and meat together, (maybe teaching us to
be sensitive to eating the meat of the dead cow together with the milk meant
for the calf (milk is a gift to give life to a new born). Hashem then confirms
his love for us, and a want for us to come close to him by teaching us the laws
of the festivals of Pesach, the laws of the first-born, the first-fruits,
Shabbat, Shavuot and Succot.
When Moshe descends with the second set of
tablets, his face is luminous as a result of contact with Hashem!
To conclude we see in the Parsha in many places the power of the
collective for both good and G-d forbid it, bad that we can pick up from the
external forces around us! Our thoughts
actions and deeds should always, despite our challenges be please G-d be for
the good, done with depth and understanding to bring us all closer to the revelation of the cause of all causes G-D Amighty!
In Exodus Ch33 we again see the importance of building a relationship with great scholars and those faithful, who are close to Hashem, as they will enhance your bond and relationship through their knowledge and learning - Chapter 33 v:
11. Then the L-rd would speak to Moses face to face, as a man would speak to his companion, and he would return to the camp, but his attendant, Joshua, the son of Nun, a lad, would not depart from the tent.
Through this close relationship Joshua would enventually merit to be the successor of Moses!
I’ll end off with some poetic
license on a paper I prepared for my team on a project on strategic
implementation, what they may not have known was the principles, the insight I
used were sourced from our Holy Torah
We are a group of people with ideas and values we know what
is right we share these virtues, together we will make it happen – like coals
on a fire together we converge to enhance each other’s potential.
Wishing all a great and restful Sabbath
And good health to all who need it!
Amen (for those who do not know Amen is an acronym for Ke’l Melech Neehman
–it means G-d King who is faithful!)
Shabbat Shalom
Michael.
I dedicate this week’s entry for a Refuah Shalaima to all my family and friends
who need some help and guidance from above they should please G-d
see the signs and it should be for the good! Soon and speedily... AMEN!
