Parshat Ki Tissa; Exodus 30:11-34:35 by Rabbi Denise L. Eger
This week we read Parshat Ki Tissa and it is also known as Shabbat Parah. This is because we read of the grievous sin of the Israelites at the base of Mt. Sinai. The torah tells us that they doubt that Moses will return from atop Mt. Sinai and they build a golden cow and worship at its feet. Their lack of faith is surprising given the miracles they have witnessed. They practice idolatry even as they just recently witnessed and heard God’s presence and voice from Mt. Sinai and agreed to enter the covenant.
Idol worship is one of the most grievous sins in Jewish tradition. Idol worship denies the existence of the one God. It denies the basic concept of the Jewish view that any imagery used to depict God is in itself a sin. Idol worship is insidious. It can creep into our lives at a moments notice and pervert our faith and our thinking.
There is a famous midrash about Abraham, the father of Judaism who when was left to mind his father, Terach’s idol store. But Abraham had already experienced the connection to the Holy One of Being—the one God. Already at a young age, Abraham knew that idols were merely statues created by his father in the back room. A woman came carrying a bowl of fine flour and said: Here offer it to the Gods. Abraham seized a stick and smashed the idols. He placed the stick in the hand of the biggest one. When his father returned to the store, Terach asked “Who did this to the gods?”
Abraham answered: “Would I hide anything from my father? A woman came with a bowl of fine flours and said: “Here, offer it up to them. When I offered it, one god said, “I will eat first, and another said, “No, I will eat first. “ Then the biggest of them rose up and smashed all the others. His father replied: Are you making sport of me? They cannot do anything! Abraham answered: “You say they cannot. Let your ears hear what your mouth is saying!
The rabbis use this tale to help us understand that we know full well that the idols can do nothing. Just as Terach knew that the idols were incapable of really smashing one another—we know in our own hearts that the idols we worship today—literally and figuratively don’t really support us and help us and give us life. Whether money or fame or perfect bodies, or golden calves, idol worship perverts our sense of the spirit and our connection with the true Divine Presence. Idol worship gives us a false sense of security. It feeds our denial of the Holy One. It is sometimes hard to believe in and have faith in a God you cannot see or even name, since we don’t pronounce the four letter holy name of God. So we build statues and substitute other ‘gods’ that we can touch. We try to bring to this realm something, some force that is really from another realm—the divine realm. But it doesn’t work so well. For just like Abraham who smashed the idols—money can be lost, bodies can be broken, and statues smashed. But our God’s divine energy remains.
Through prayer and tzedakah and just action we can bring God’s holy presence into our own lives. That is the best way to smash the idols that surround us. Hopefully, we can rise to the task.
Posted by Lee at March 13, 2006 09:27 AM
