Torah Portion - February 21, 2008
Ki Tisa , Exodus 30:11 -34:35
This week's Torah portion, Ki Tisa introduces a conflict that will continue through the entirety of Biblical history: idolatry, driven by anxiety and/or materialism vs. monotheism, driven by spirituality; a desire to live in the Divine Presence.
And all the people took off their gold ear rings and brought them to Aaron. He took them and, with a graving tool, shaped a molten calf. Then they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt." (Exodus 32:3-4)
How could the Israelites possibly have believed that the sculpture, made by Aaron’s own hands from the very gold that they’d brought with them from Egypt, be a god? How could such a statue, created before their eyes, have brought them out of Egypt? And yet, by the time Moses arrives back at the camp, the people have worked themselves into a frenzy around the calf. So much so, that he loses his temper and smashes the tablets engraved with the holy commandments.
Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, a modern Jewish mystic, offers insight into the incident of the Golden Calf, called in the above passage from Exodus a “molten calf.”
One explanation may come from a closer look at the word "molten." It has come to mean "idolatrously forbidden." But the Hebrew…. connotes liquidity or plasticity—more like children's modeling clay… "Molten" seems to mean more accurately "capable of retaining any shape you give it, never frozen, perpetually malleable." … .For this reason, an idol makes an ideal godlet—ever ready to sanction your latest fantasy, ever willing to tell you just what you want to hear. …. And, if you can manipulate it, then it's no longer a god—you are!
In other words, the Golden Calf did not represent an Egyptian style God for the people to worship. Rather, it signified the constant human craving for power and control, driven by ego and greed. That is the opposite of being in the Divine Presence.
When Moses smashes the tablets, het too is driven by the need to control. The people do not do as God (and he) would like. Eventually, however, Moses is able to simply turn his back on scene with the Golden Calf. He gives up trying to control the people. He then becomes able once again to bask in the simple Presence of God.
Parashat Ki Tisa challenges us to give up the need to own things and control other people and time. If we choose the province of ego, greed, and power, then we will never truly discover the Divine Presence. We will simply be grasping on to our own golden calves. On the other hand, if focus more on being and less on craving and owning, we can learn to experience holiness in our everyday lives.
It is no coincidence, then, that this Torah portion reiterates the importance of brings Shabbat into our lives. Each week, we are reminded that our be-ing has nothing to do with what we make or do or achieve or own. On Shabbat, we simply “let it be.”