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Kee Tisah 5764-2004
"Limitless
Leadership"
Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald
In
this coming week's parasha, parashat Kee Tisah, we read
of the fateful sin of the people of Israel with the Golden
Calf. While the Torah states (Exodus 32:14) that G-d forgave
the People of Israel for the sin of worshiping the Golden
Calf, tradition maintains that the sin was not entirely
forgiven. In fact, after the sin of the scouts (spies),
it was G-d‘s recollection of the sin of the Golden
Calf that tipped the scale and resulted in the decree
that the men of the generation of the Exodus would not
be allowed to enter the land of Israel.
In
Exodus 31:18, the bible states that G-d gave Moses two
Tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of G-d to deliver
to the People of Israel. However, when Moses delayed descending
the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron and demanded
of him (Exodus 32:1), "Koom ah'say lah'noo eh'loh'him
ah'sher yayl'choo le'fah'nay'noo..." Get up and
make for us a god that will go before us, for the man
Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don't
know what has become of him!
Perhaps as a stall tactic, Aaron tells the people to remove
the rings of gold that were in the ears of their wives,
their sons and their daughters, and to bring them to him.
Aaron collects the precious jewels from them, binds them
in a cloth, ignites them, and the jewels turn into a molten
calf. The People of Israel call out to the calf (Exodus
32:4) "Ayleh eh'lo'heh'chah Yisroel," This
is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land
of Egypt.
Again,
perhaps stalling, Aaron builds an altar and announces
plans for a festival tomorrow. The next day, the people
rise up early, offer sacrifices to the calf, eat and become
intoxicated. When Moses descends with the two Tablets
from the mountain and sees and hears the people reveling
before the calf, he throws the Tablets and shatters them
at the foot of the mountain. He then takes the calf, burns
it in fire, grinds the remains into fine powder, which
he sprinkles into water, and makes the people drink the
water. At Moses's direction, the Levites then attack the
leaders of this idolatrous action, killing about 3,000
men.
Moses
begs G-d to forgive the people for the grievous sin that
they had committed, and presents G-d with an ultimatum.
(Exodus 32:32) "V'ah'tah im tee'sah chah'tah'tahm.
Ve'im ah'yin, me'chay'nee nah mee'sif'reh'chah ah'sher
kah'tav'tah," and now, if You G-d will forgive
their sin, [good]. But, if not, erase me now from Your
book, that You have written! Rejecting Moses's threat,
the Al-mighty pronounces that only those who are sinful
shall be erased. G-d then strikes the people with a plague
and seems bent on destroying them. Moses once again pleads
for G-d's forgiveness. The Al-mighty then tells Moses
to carve out two new stone Tablets like the first ones.
At that point, the Al-mighty pronounces His "Thirteen
Attributes of Mercy," and grants forgiveness.
The
Midrash relates that Moses was chosen to be the leader
of Israel because G-d had watched Moses shepherd Jethro's
flocks in Midian. On a particular occasion, one of the
sheep had separated from the flock to find water. After
an arduous search, Moses finds the sheep at the water
hole. Moses lifts up the tired and thirsty animal and
says to the little lamb, "Had I known that you were
thirsty, I would have brought the water to you."
Looking down from heaven, G-d says, "If this is the
way Moses treats the animals, he is certainly qualified
to be the shepherd of My people.
But
the people of Israel are far different from gentle lambs.
The freed slaves of Egypt are a people who had endured
the tortures and beatings of their cruel taskmasters.
They are a people who for decades had been exposed to
the decadence of Egypt--orgies of blood and alcohol. They
had been reduced to the 49th level of impurity, and had
become a "stiff-necked" people.
The
gentle former-shepherd Moses now confronts this hardened
and frustrated people, who haven't the slightest idea
how to deal with freedom. They demand that their meals
to be served on time. They want their meat and their bread.
They're not much into prayer or theology, and poor Moses
is put to the test again and again.
Worse
perhaps, is that Moses is entirely alone. Even Aaron appears
to have defected to the other side. And yet, in this period
of intense existential loneliness, Moses somehow finds
the strength to defend the people "who are bent on
evil," before G-d's anger. Moses puts his own life
on the line for Israel's sake, and proves persuasive enough
to convince even G-d.
The
Zohar-- the mystical interpretation of the bible, when
comparing the merits of the various early Jewish leaders,
notes that Noah did not intercede with G-d for his fellow
humans when he was informed of their impending destruction.
Abraham, however, repeatedly pleads on behalf of the wicked
people of Sodom. But, says the Zohar, Moses exceeded even
Abraham, for he refused to budge until G-d had pardoned
Israel. There was none who equaled Moses in his people's
defense. He was indeed the faithful shepherd.
The
Midrashic interpretations portray Moses's defense of the
Jewish people as even more self-effacing. Stating that
Moses did not shatter the Tablets entirely out of anger
and frustration, the Midrash suggests that Moses really
had a hidden agenda. When Moses breaks the Tablets, the
Midrash quotes him as saying to the Al-mighty, "They
sinned, and I sinned--after all, I broke the Tablets!
If You forgive them, forgive me too. If You do not forgive
them, do not forgive me, but rather erase me from the
book that You have written."
Despite
all his heroic accomplishments--including the Exodus from
Egypt and the splitting of the Red Sea, Moses's life had
been most difficult. From the moment that he first intervened
on
behalf of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt, the Israelites
scorned and berated him, claiming that his intervention
had only made life worse for them. Moses's pre-occupation
with the Jewish people was total, almost to the point
of breaking, and his lonely personal life is stark evidence
of his total commitment to the People. Yet Moses always
rises to the occasion, and convinces G-d to forgive His
people. The life of Moses is simply a paradigm of total
selflessness.
While
the Jewish people have been blessed with many extraordinary
leaders over the centuries and millennia, no one has risen
to the heights of Moses. This exceptional servant of the
Al-mighty has been the extraordinary servant of the Jewish
people. It is his leadership and his love that still resonate
with his people more than 3300 years after his death,
and encourage them to remain hopeful in the face of their
many adversities and challenges.
May
you be blessed.
.
Copyright 2007 National Jewish Outreach Program www.njop.org
