This Week In The Torah



Parsha Ki Siso Shemos/Exodus Ch.30/11 - 34/35

Unequal But Fair
by Rabbi Yechezkel Fox

By Oral Tradtion the Torah is divided into five Books, and these Books are split into weekly Parshas. Each Parsha is then split into seven sections. The use of chapters and verses, although used for convenience, is of gentile origin.

On Shabbat, the weekly Parsha is read and seven men are called up to read/hear a section each. These seven sections are usually of fairly equal proportions, so it is quite a surprise when we see in this week's Parsha, that the first two sections out of a Parsha of 139 verses, take up 92 of those verses, approximately two thirds.

It is a Kohein (a descendant of Aaron, the High Priest) and a Levi who are called up for the first two sections. After them, follow five Yisraelim (regular rank-and-file Jews). By stretching out the first two sections, only the Koheinim and members of the Tribe of Levi are called up during that part of the Parsha which deals with the Sin of the Golden Calf. Since they were the only ones who remained steadfastly loyal to Moshe during this tragic incident (see Ch.32/26), they suffer no embarassment. Had the sections been divided normally, the Yisraelim that would have been called up would have been shamed, since it was their ancestors who participated in the Sin of the Golden Calf.

Sources: The Vilna Gaon

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Moses at the Golden Calf: Not A Man To Tango With

And it came to pass, when he came near to the camp and saw the calf and the dancing---then Moshe's anger waxed hot and he cast the tablets out of his joined hands and smashed them beneath the Mount. CH.32/19

Since Moshe had already been told by G-d that the people were worshipping the Golden Calf (see 32/8), why did he wait until he actually saw them doing it before he broke the tablets?

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch answers that if their serving of the idol was based merely on a mistaken theory, then there was still hope for the tablets. He could convince them of their mistake and bring them back to their senses. However, when he saw the kind of dancing that accompanied the idol worship, he realized that they had descended to a level of depravity unprecedented in the nation's history. Moshe now knew that the nation would have to be rebuilt on new foundations---and these tablets had to be destroyed.

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Church and State

Separation of church and state is one of the cherished ideals of Western democratic society. Security, roads, health, education and welfare, are the responsibility of government; belief or disbelief in G-d is a personal matter. But the Jewish view is that you cannot have a truly good and moral society unless that society is devoted to G-d.

There is an interesting hint to this in the Parsha:

It happened as he drew near the camp and saw the calf and the dances, that Moshe's anger flared up. He threw down the Tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain. Ch.32/18-19

His hands is a translation of the way we read the verse in the Sefer Torah; but what is actually written in the Torah is his hand, in the singular.

Rabbi Yisrael Salanter explains what the Torah is hinting at. When Moshe saw the people sinning with the Golden Calf, he thought to throw just one of the Tablets---the first one, which contained the mitzvot (commandments) between man and G-d. The people were no longer worthy of it, since they were transgressing You shall not recognize the gods of others in My presence. But he thought that he could still give them the Tablet with the miztvot between man and man. Hence, it is written in the Torah his hand, reflecting this stage of Moshe's decision-making process. However, on further reflection, Moshe realised that the remaining Tablet also had to go, because the mitzvot between man and man are inseparable from those between man and G-d. Therefore, we read it as his hands.



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