Jewish Speech Writer.com

Ki Sisa 5763

"These, Yisrael, are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”

When Aharon threw the gold into the fire, he hoped it would result in a lumpy mess. Instead, the eirav rav, those Egyptians who left with the Jews and urged Aharon to create this god, used their black arts to create the calf. They were the ones who said these words and led Klal Yisrael astray.

A basic question is why they attributed the Exodus to the calf. It was obvious that this was created after Matan Torah, and that this claim was preposterous. Besides that, they had claimed initially that this was to be a replacement for Moshe whom they believed had died. How could they now say that this was the god who had brought them out of Egypt?

Many meforshim say that the idea behind the calf was to have an intermediary between the Jewish People and HaKadosh Boruch Hu. In reality, then, they were not saying that this calf was a god, but that it was a direct conduit to the G-d Who redeemed them. That Klal Yisrael needed an intermediary was a wrong assumption and the way they went about it had devastating effects.

The Yerushalmi Sanhedrin quotes R' Shimon bar Yochai that there were actually thirteen calves: one for each tribe and one “master” calf that was paired with those to encompass all of them. What is this coming to teach us?

This arrangement was appropriate to the mistake. Those who worshiped at the feet of the golden calf felt that they could not connect to HaShem without some help. They needed a god they could relate to on a human level and so was born the idea of the idol. It was a tangible representation that made sense to them. That is why each tribe had its own calf, to have a god uniquely its own and aligned to its way of thinking and understanding.

That was the error. True, HaShem is a being beyond our comprehension, but we should not even try to comprehend him. If we were to limit HaShem by the bounds of our human minds, then we would indeed be creating a false deity with shortcomings and failures that the Ribono Shel Olam does not possess. If we serve a god of our own making, of which it may be said, “This is your god, Yisrael, of your creation” then it is indeed a grave offense, and a paltry and disappointing concept indeed.

Rather, we must strive to understand HaShem by studying His virtues and attributes and reaching for those lofty planes. We must also understand that despite the fact that we cannot fully comprehend His ways, He wants us to try. We need no outside assistance for He will raise us up. We need mo intermediary for He will speak to us directly. That is the mistake of the eirav rav, and that is the folly of generations who have sought to confine G-d and reduce Him to human perception.

“I have a surprise for you,” said his wife. “I made your mother's chocolate nut cake for dessert!” The man looked forward to the special treat but after one bite he pushed away the plate. “If you don't like it, don't blame me,” said the woman. “It's your mother's recipe.”

”This doesn't taste like hers,” he replied. “Did you change anything?”

“Well,” she answered, “I didn't have four egg whites, so I just used two whole eggs. And I didn't have slivered almonds so I used peanuts. I also didn't have any applesauce so I substituted stewed prunes. Otherwise it's exactly your mother's recipe!”

Is it any wonder that with those changes it was a recipe for disaster?

Site designed by NowSourcing