It is said that the Jewish people are a people of memory. We cherish good memories, but even more so, almost fanatically remember bad events in our history.
We see these bad memories reflected in our customs, even at the happiest of times. We break a glass at the end of a wedding, and when building a new house, leave one small section incomplete.
This week's parsha, Ki Titze, exemplifies this tradition, as we recall the story of the Golden Calf - not one of our brighter moments. It is especially painful because this wound was totally self-inflicted, and occurred with such terrible timing. How could we lose faith in Moses and God so quickly after experiencing divine revelation?
Upon further investigation, the Golden Calf incident turns out to be just another example of seemingly bad event creating amazingly positive results further down the road.
First off, the Golden Calf incident provides Moses with an unprecedented opportunity to shine. True, in Egypt brought down the 10 plagues (with Aaron's help), engineered his people's escape and even split the Sea of Reeds. However, in all these cases, he was following God's direct orders, and not acting on his own accord.
In this week's Parsha, Moses takes it to a new level - starting with arguing with God and winning. God is threatening to destroy the entire Jewish people and make Moses that head of a new nation, but Moses isn't having any of it. He appeals to God's moral/parental sense - 'how could you do this to your people that you so recently brought out of Egypt', God's reputation - 'the Egyptians will say that you are cruel and evil,' and finally to the memory of God's covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
God is convinced and spares Jewish people. You could even say that Moses bests Abraham here, because God destroyed Sodom and Gemorrah despite Abraham's pleas.
Next up, Moses needs to make a strong statement to the people condemning their idolatrous behavior. So he takes matters into his own hands, and WITHOUT GOD's PERMISSION, breaks the tablets that God himself had written!
If this isn't chutzpah, I'm not sure what is. Moses is truly tempting fate - he knows that God is not in the best mood, to say the least, and now he goes and breaks his tablets?!? It's too bad we don't have leaders these days willing to take a tough stance with so much confidence.
Of course, it turns out that breaking the tablets worked out very well - we eventually received another set and there rest is history. Rashi even says that God gives his retro active approval to Moses's actions.
Chapter 34, Verse 1
. וַיֹּאמֶר יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֶל מֹשֶׁה פְּסָל לְךָ שְׁנֵי לֻחֹת אֲבָנִים כָּרִאשֹׁנִים וְכָתַבְתִּי עַל הַלֻּחֹת אֶת הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר הָיוּ עַל הַלֻּחֹת הָרִאשֹׁנִים אֲשֶׁר שִׁבַּרְתָּ:
And the Lord said to Moses: "Hew for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones. And I will inscribe upon the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
Rashi concentrates on the last two words of this passage. In Hebrew - אשר שברת. . He says the word אשר is not necessary, and could have been written as ש שברת. . So what is the meaning of אשר in this sentence? Rashi says it should be read as אישור permission - God's permission to Moses.
Personally, I think this explanation is a stretch, because אשר is a very common word that frequently serves as a substitute for "that" in the exact same way as the above example- are we to find "permission" in every occurrence? Nonetheless, it is a very elegant observation.
More than that, our sages say that the second set of commandments actually contained something the first set did not - the Oral Law - Mishnah, Talmud and Aggadah. Because the people were ready to truly repent and come back to God, we received the ultimate expression on God's love, an eternal partnership in which we are constantly engaged in dialogue with the almighty - a Torah that we can take a part of.
The story of the Golden calf also teaches us another lesson - one that is more challenging, especially these days.
After destroying the Golden Calf, Moses calls out, saying, "Whoever is for the Lord, [let him come] to me!" And all the sons of Levi gathered around him.
וַיַּעֲמֹד מֹשֶׁה בְּשַׁעַר הַמַּחֲנֶה וַיֹּאמֶר מִי לַי־הֹוָ־ה אֵלָי וַיֵּאָסְפוּ אֵלָיו כָּל בְּנֵי לֵוִי:
He then instructed the Levis to take up their swords and kill the leaders of the rebellion. Again, Moses takes this action without consulting God. 3,000 people are killed.
This is eerily reminiscent of another incident in our people's history - albeit some 3,000 years later. In June 1948, the British Mandate was coming to an end. There was great excitement about the cruel British rule finally ending, but perhaps an even greater fear of the Arabs who could now attack with impunity. The nascent Jewish State, always outnumbered, faced an acute shortage of weapons. Against this worrisome backdrop , the "official" political leadership of the Jewish settlement, headed by David Ben-Gurion, was locked in a power and influence struggle with Menachem Begin's underground army, known as the Irgun.
The Altalena affair to this day generates an enormous amount of controversy, and it's possible to see it different ways. The bare bones facts are these - the Begin's Irgun had negotiated a large and sorely-needed arms shipment from France, that was set to arrive on a ship known as the Altalena.
There was disagreement on what would happen when the arms reached the shore. Begin claimed he would give them to Ben Gurion's Israel Defense Forces, but only after he outfitted his own troops, which were technically a part of the IDF. Additionally, there was concern that certain Irgun members were in fact planning a coup. In any case, they were not following IDF orders and wanted to unload the weapons their way.
Ben Gurion faced a devastating decision. He needed the guns, but no one could predict what would happen when the guns were taken off the ship- there was a very real possibility of civil war or a coup attempt breaking out if the Irgun were able to shift the balance of power with these arms.
After a series of warnings to not dock in the Irgun controlled Tel Aviv port, the IDF was ordered to fire on the Altalena. The ship was hit and sank. Six Irgun members were killed on the ship, and another 10 the beach. Begin barely escaped with his life.
The fallout of this incident was intense and bitter, but there was no mutiny in the ranks. This was at least partially due to Begin's legendary and unbreakable sense of patriotism and unity within the Jewish people. He later claimed "My greatest accomplishment was not retaliating and causing civil war."
Just like Moses in the desert, Ben Gurion was faced with a situation where he thought the only solution was violence. In both cases, the Jewish people ended up surviving intact, not withholding the loss of life.
These two events reinforce a difficult but crucial lesson - sometimes the situation is so dire that violence is the only possible response. Judaism is certainly not a pacifist religion.
Of course, this is a very slippery and dangerous slope. In addition to the many heroic and courageous examples of this kind of behavior, history is strewn with the stories of those who try to take God's will into their own hands and commit terrible atrocities. It is not always easy to draw the line - but we cannot ignore the fact that violence is sometimes necessary.
We are extremely lucky today live in a Jewish State with a strong army that is backed by a superpower. Precisely because of this, we must be extra careful when even calling for the use of violence in the media, let alone actually using it.
These days a lot of rhetoric is being thrown around - let us pray that our current conflicts can be resolved peacefully. May ours be the days when bloodshed cease.
via - aish.com
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