Parashat Kee-Teessa, Exodus 30:11-34:35

What a portion! This week’s portion – Kee Teessa (literally, “when you take [the number of]”) – contains several mega-issues, each of which would suffice for several blogs. But my space – and your patience – is limited, so I would restrict myself to only two, seemingly unrelated, issues: The story of the Golden Calf, and Moses’ incredible dialogue with God.

The Golden Calf and Notion of Holiness

In the past two weeks we discusses the issue of holiness, in particular as it erroneously attaches itself to earthly “things,” such as certain locations, man-made artifacts, and special buildings. This week, Moshe himself – the true “slave of God” and the only one to know Him face-to-face (as we shall see shortly) – pushes this idea (that there is nothing “holy” but God himself) to the very extreme. Moshe comes down from the Mountain with two stone tablets in his hands, both “inscribed with the finger of God.” (Ex. 32:18). To eliminate any doubt, the text repeats this point, emphasizing the fact that the tablets are God-made: “And Moshe turned over and went down the Mountain, and the two Tablets of the Testimony in his hand . . . . And the tablets are made by God, and the writing is the writing of God, inscribed unto the tablets.” (Ex. 32:15-16). In other words, nothing can be “holier” than these two tablets: hand-made, written, and prescribed by God Himself.

But what is the first thing that Moshe does with these “holy tablets” when he sees his People dancing around the Golden Calf? “And Moshe became enraged; and he hurled the tablets off his hands and he broke them underneath the Mountain.” (Ex. 32:19). Indeed, Moshe – the greatest believer of all times – knew full well that without faith, without obedience, without acceptance, the two stone tablets he is holding are just that – two stone-made tablets. So he breaks them. He breaks the holiest of holy objects. Since he realizes that holiness lies only at the heart of people; when it is no longer there – when people stop believing in God – not even God Himself can save it. More than 3,000 years later, one of America’s greatest judges, Judge Learned Hand (what a wonderful name for a Judge!), expressed this very same idea (although about liberty) when he said: “Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it.”

The story of the Golden Calf, to be sure, is considered one of the greatest sins-of-faith of all times. One commentator has equated the act of creating such an idol just below the Mountain of God to “a bride who is committing adultery inside her chuppa” [during her wedding ceremony]. It led to the first-ever documented civil war (or civil massacre, more accurately), where Moshe instructed the Levites to “Put your swords on your thighs, and pass along and back from one gate to another in our camp, and you shall kill – man would kill his brother, man would kill his friend, and man would kill his kin.” (Ex. 32:27) And indeed, the Levites did not hesitate to kill 3,000 of their brethren. To complete the punishment – for those who stayed alive – Moshe burns the calf, grinds it to powder, spreads it over the water (commentators are not sure where was this water found in the middle of the desert) and then makes the people of Israel drink it – gold and all. (Ex. 32:20).

This response – killing, admonishing, and forced-drinking – seems quite harsh, even for such a sin, especially if one takes into account the “mitigating circumstances”: First, people were concerned that Moshe simply disappeared – the person who led them each and every day suddenly was gone for forty days. But second, and most importantly, they wanted to actually see the “Israeli God who has brought us out of the land of Egypt” (Ex. 32:4); they didn’t mean to replace their God, just to actualize him.

But Moshe would have none of that; as we shall see later in the story of Korah, Moshe despises even the slightest notion of opposition. [Much like the Founding Fathers of this nation, btw.] 3,000 deaths were supposed to deliver that message; when they didn’t, Moshe made the earth “open its mouth” and actually “swallow” the opposition. More on that in the coming weeks.

Moshe’s Incredible Dialogue with God

Completely exhausted emotionally after the ordering of killing 3,000 men of his own people, Moshe turns to the only entity he can trust now, God Himself, for reassurance. And God does not let him down. In one of the fascinating descriptions ever to appear in writing, the text reports: “And the Lord spoke to Moshe face to face, as one person speaks to another.” (Ex. 33:11) But at a time like this, even that is not enough for Moshe. He wants more. In an amazing feat of early chutzpa, Moshe dares to ask God for the ultimate prize:

“And he [Moshe] said: Please let me see Your glory . . . . And God said: You will not be able to see My face, as no man may see Me and live.” (Ex. 33:18-20).

And so God proposes an amazing “compromise,” which I am not sure I’d be able to translate properly: “And God said [to Moshe]: Here is a place with Me; and you shall stand on the edge of the cliff; and as my Presence passes by, I shall put you in the cleft of that cliff; and I shall cover over you with my hand until I have completely passed; and then I shall take off my hand, and you shall see My rear end, but My face shall not be seen.” (Ex. 33:21-23)

Aside from the astonishing fact that this is the most human description of God ever to appear in writing – a description completely at odds with Mimonidas’ notion of “no form, no shape, no title” of God – this extremely difficult-to-explain passage is disturbing to me in a much deeper sense: Moshe (following God’s orders, obviously) just completed sanctioning his own people with the ultimate capital punishment – killing 3,000 of their members – for one sin: Their undying desire to actualize their God. For them – an assortment of former slaves who has been walking in the desert for months, and now are without a leader for nearly 40 days – the idea of a transcendent God, which has no form and cannot be comprehended by any of the senses, was just a bit too much. They wanted something they can see, feel, and touch. And for that they were punished. Severely. But what about Moshe himself? How exactly is his request from God – to actually see Him – that different from his People’s? True, Moshe never built an image of God, and thus did not violate the first, second, and third Commandments as his People did. But I am sure that had the People have the same direct line of communication with God as Moshe had they would not need to actually build a God, but rather simply ask God to show Himself, much like Moshe did.

And the lesson for today? It is not uncommon for today’s leaders to save their fiercest critique – and harshest words – to “sins” of others that, alas, they too are very likely to commit. So the next time you hear someone of authority telling you “you should never, ever, even think of doing something of that sort,” rest assured that they already have…

Shabbat Shalom,

Doron