Parshat Ki Tisa; Exodus 30:11 -34:35 By: Rabbi Denise L. Eger
After weeks of miraculous interactions with the Divine the Israelites faith wavers. Although they had direct experiences with God at the foot of Sinai the Israelites are quick to forget. When Moses who led them out of Egypt remains for forty days and nights on the mountain they worried that he had disappeared. These slaves are used to taking directions from a prince. But in this case the prince of Egypt, Moses, has gone from before them and Aaron left in charge can not control them. He doesn’t have the force of leadership to inspire the people or to calm them. And he caves in to the Israelites’ demands to make a god for them. Have they forgotten already? The God they experienced with smoke and thunder and blasts of the shofar, the God they experienced who brought plagues upon Egypt and split the Red Sea for them can not be contained in any molten image. Their fears however are only comforted by something they can see and touch. Perhaps Aaron too has doubts about whether Moses will return. And so Aaron makes a statue of a calf and Aaron announces, “These are your gods, O Israel who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” (32:4). In what seems like in an instance the Ten Commandments that were given to the Children of Israel that stressed the ideas of no other gods and no graven images are abrogated by both Aaron and the people. Aaron, who will become the high priest, is now the high priest of idolatry, complicit in this sin against God and he shatters the covenant by his actions as do the people.
Faith wanes at many layers in this Torah portion not only on the people’s part, not only on Aaron’s part but even God has moments of doubt in this portion. In speaking with Moses, God tells him, “Hurray down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have acted basely.”(Ex. 32:7). All of a sudden the Israelites are no longer God’s treasured people as they were in Exodus 19 but the people Moses’ brought forth. God told the children of Israel in the first commandment that God brought them from Egypt –but their act that breaks the covenant so immediately causes God to reject Israel too. They are now Moses’ people not God’s people. God’s faith in Israel is quickly dissipated. God’s anger rises and is ready not only to reject them but to destroy them and put Moses’ at the core of the covenantal promise. “…That I may destroy them and make of you a great nation.” (Ex.32:9).
But it is Moses’ who becomes the great fixer and the great faith builder of God, Aaron and the Israelites. Moses’ appeals to God and calms God’s anger at the sins of the people. Reminding God of the love God had for the ancestors of this people, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the great covenantal promises made to them. “And God renounced the punishment that was planned upon God’s people.” (Ex. 32:14). Moses’ helps to restore God’s faith by reminding God of the eternal promise that is the covenant and not to be deterred by a momentary lapse on the Israelites part. Moses will seek forgiveness for the Israelite’s sin and become the intermediary between God and the Children of Israel.
Yet, when Moses encounters the sins of Aaron and the people first hand his own anger rises and his own disappointment rises. Perhaps his faith in the future took a leave of absence. In his own anger he destroys God’s own words by shattering the tablets of the Pact. The smashing of the tablets with God’s words upon them in effect shatters the covenant mirroring exactly what the Israelites did by building and celebrating at the base of the idol.
The covenant between God and the Jewish people is shattered physically and spiritually at this moment. But not eternally. And that is the beauty of this Torah portion because it sets in motion a powerful notion of forgiveness and renewal that is an important thread in Jewish life. Moses goes to God a second time and asks for forgiveness for the people when encountering God face to face. As God passes by Moses proclaims “Adonai, Adonai a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity of fathers upon children and children’s children upon the third and fourth generations (Ex.34:6-7).” Moses reminds God of the ideals of compassion and forgiveness. Moses in essence teaches God’s to pardon the people and start anew.
What a lesson! What chutzpah on Moses’ part! And that should help all of us too to remember that we not only have the strength to ask for forgiveness and pardon when we sin whether against God or another person but we must also reach deep within ourselves to the place of holiness within our own being to grant pardon and forgiveness to those who have wronged us. This is will not only help to restore others faith in the world and in God but will help restore our own faith as well. Moses’ great leadership helps us imagine a covenant reborn even though it was broken so resoundingly by the Israelites. This should help each one of us imagine too that we can rebuild trust and promises in our own relationships through forgiveness, pardon and time. But we have to remember to ask.
Posted by Aaron at February 19, 2008 09:27 AM
