Parshas Ki Sisa (Rebroadcast)

0:00Parsha's Kiseza has 139 verses, 9 myths false, and arguably the most shocking and troubling episode in the Holtora, the episode of the Golden Caff. 40 days after Sinai, after the most momentous event in all of human history, the Jewish people collectively as a nation, experienced prophecy at the front of mountain, and 40 days later, Moshe returns from heaven to find the Jewish people celebrating the Golden Caff. In the majority of the Parsha is going to be dealing with the Golden Caff episode and its aftermath, but the Parsha is going to begin with wrapping up the instructions related to the Mishkan, to the tapenacrel, the material that we covered over the last two Parshaos. Now, the Parsha begins with another instruction of fundraising to raise funds needed for the Mishkan and for its ongoing operations, but also we get an interesting twist on that, and that is Gatel's Moshe, that when you count the Jewish people and you want to do a census to count the Jewish people, you do it in the way of fundraising for the Mishkan and eventually

1:06for the Temple House, so there's a prohibition against counting the Jewish people individually by people. Instead, what you do is each individual, each male above the age of 20, donates a half-shock royal coin to the temple coffers, and then you count the coins, the coins serve as a proxy for the amount of people, you know how many coins you have, you know how many people you have. And Arashi points out that it talks about the truma, the donation three times because there's three different donations that are given, two of them are compulsory on every male, one of them that was done once and that was used for the silver sockets at the base of the tapenacrel. One was done annually and that was done for all the public sacrifices needed for that year, and the third donation was also one time for the materials needed for the Mishkan and that was non-compulsory, each individual wanted to do it as much as they wanted if they choose, if they wanted to do nothing, that's also their prerogatives.

2:09Now what's the problem with counting people by the head? Why can't you count people, you have to count the coins? So the verse tells us when you take a sense of the children of Israel, according to the numbers, every man shall give Hashem an atonement for a soul when counting them so that there will not be a plague amongst them when counting them. This shall they give everyone who passes through the census, a half-shackle of the sacred shackle, the shackle is 20 gay-ras, half a shackle as a portion to God, everyone who passes through the census from age 20 and up shall give the portion of Hashem here, we're told that if we count them individually, it's going to be a disaster, there's going to be a plague. Rashi tells us that this is the idea of Ein Harada, the idea of the evil eye, meaning that if you flaunt something like the amount of people in your nation and the wealth that you have or whatever it may be, if something's in a very public way, it's promoted, so everyone could see that the eye of the onlookers can cast a negative influence on the thing that they're looking at and therefore if they're looking at the Jewish people and the individuals

3:10and someone sees that, then that could convey a negative influence, a negative effect onto those people and therefore you don't count the people, you'd count instead the coins and through that you know how many people they are and this is interesting because this is the first time of two in the parasha that we see a sensitivity against promotion, against flaunting, against doing things in a very public fashion which could lead to potential harm. Now, why is the counting, why is the census when there is a census to be done, why is there a census done only from the age of 20 and up? Rashi tells us that at the age of 20, someone could be part of the military, someone could be a soldier in the army and therefore the only reason why you would even need to count the people is to know how many soldiers you have in your fighting forest and therefore if someone is younger than 20 or if they're not a male, then there's no need to count them. Sustuni, one of the other commentaries, tells us something interesting, he says that this counting a census is a method of atonement and when someone is counted, when someone is

4:14included amongst the greater populace, then they are granted a degree of heavenly atonement and he quotes the Talmud, the Talmud says that up to the age of 20, someone is not liable for heavenly punishment, even though a earth-based, a terra firer-based court punishes from age of 13 from when someone is by Metsvah. The heavenly court only punishes from the age of 20 and on and therefore if someone's not liable for heavenly punishment, then there is no need for them to have an atonement. Now, according to Rashi, he says that the counting was just a way to know the amount of soldiers, the whole focus of the verse where it talks about that there should be an atonement, that's not referring to an atonement for a sin, so to speak, rather it's a way of saying that they won't be destroyed by the counting, you count them in this circuitous way, you count the coins and via the coins you know how many people there are and that way you'll avoid having the catastrophe of the plague and therefore that is considered like an atonement

5:16because the result is the same, the people will be okay. This is really interesting that according to the Chastunian other commentaries merely by someone being counted amongst the Jewish people that provides them an atonement, so maybe the simple answer is that after all, this census was another way of saying let's have everyone give a coin and that will be used towards the purchasing of the public sacrifices and this is like we said a fundraise and drive that repeated each year, each year of a census and each year you have this drive for all the materials needed for the ongoing operation of the temple and maybe that's what it's referred to by an atonement because when someone is counted and they pledge their yearly adieu, their yearly donation by doing that they're contributing towards the collective benefit of the atonement of the sacrifices and therefore that provides them an atonement. I want to maybe suggest an alternative answer that when someone is counted amongst the Jewish people it's in a form of atonement because it transforms the individual from being an

6:21individual to being part of the collective. There's a theme that we see especially during the high holidays but generally speaking that when someone is part of a collective whole, they're judged not as an individual because all of us after all are fallible individuals but instead they get judged as a member of the public, as a member of the Jewish people and by doing that because we know the Jewish people will always survive therefore they will likely survive, they'll be granted an atonement whereas if they're judged individually, it's quite likely that they may not be able to withstand the scrutiny and the judgment will not be in their favor. Since the first idea of the parsha, the idea of fundraising and using that to do a census then we go back to other materials and other vessels needed for the tabernacle and the first thing we read about is the tiar which is a washing basin wherein the chrohanem, the priests would wash their hands and their feet before they walked into the tabernacle.

7:24This will be included in the courtyard, this will not be inside the tabernacle, inside the tabernacle you have the menorah, the inner altar, the golden altar and the shulchan and then of course past the partition in the holy of holies you have the ark but outside of the 30 by 10 qubit miston, tabernacle you have the large copper altar and you also have next to it you have the tiar which is like we said a basin in which you wash your hands and the commentary tell us that actually there really isn't a need to have a basin what we really need is to have a place where you wash your hands if they wash their hands in some other way that would also be ok and interestingly we're told that the way they would wash their hands and their feet it would be done simultaneously put your right hand on your right foot, left hand on your left foot, you wash them under the spigots of the tiar and by doing that you are now able to walk into the mistron interestingly what happens

8:25if they don't do it, whenever they come into the tent of meaning they shall wash with water and not die or when they approach the altar to serve to raise up a smoke and fire offering to Hashem they shall wash their hands and feet and not die and of course Rashi points out what's implied from this that if they don't wash their feet then they will die it's a capital offense if someone neglects of a coin and neglects to wash their hands and feet before they go into the tabernacle or before they offer sacrifices that is something that they can die for important to note this is not a capital offense that's meted out in a court of law that exists over here either means that they're guilty for a capital offense in the eyes of God in the heavenly court and this is kind of similar to what we saw last week where the high priest very specific garments he needs to wear and if he's missing some of the bells or pomegranates on the bottom of his meal of one of the garments that would be a transgression worthy of capital punishment why is it so important for someone to have

9:31for a coin to have clean hands clean feet when they walk into the tabernacle so the rambun offers two reasons the first one is a cabalistic reason that I read several times and I still don't understand and then he adds that you cannot walk into the presence of a teen with dirty hands and or foul smelling feet which is why according to some of the commentaries we must wash our hands in the morning the nithilati time in the morning after all our life as Jews are service of God we wake up in the morning we're embarking on our service of God and just like the Cohen watched into the tabernacle has to have clean hands so too we must have clean hands the next item discussed in the parasha again the almighty instructs Moses to create the anointment oil that is going to be used to anoint all the vessels of the tabernacle the structure of the tabernacle itself and the priests and the garments the vestments of the priests this is a special

10:32anointment oil that is going to be used to consecrate the priests and the tabernacle and asham instructs Moses to take a very specific mix of ingredients 500 check awaits of mirror cinnamon all these various different ingredients and you create an oil out of that a blended compound it should have the hand you work of a perfumer and this is the oil that you use for sacred anointment a with it you shall anoint a tent of meeting which is another name for the tabernacle and the art of the covenant and the table and all the vessels and the menorah and the altar and the inner altar the outer altar all the utensils including the tea or the water basin the washing basin that we just read about now you should sanctify them and they show them in holy of holies whatever touches them shall become holy so this is the instruction to make the anointment oil we saw about it a little bit briefly last week when there was the instructions of the inauguration

11:34that we give inauguration when the cohanum when the priests the sons of Aaron and Aaron are going to be elevated from being regular elevates to being priests we mentioned briefly last week that they need to have this anointment oil placed upon them and here is the instruction to actually do it and like we mentioned in the past so far we have not yet had any implementation of any of these instructions these are just the instructions to make the tabernacle and its vessels and the vestiments etc and soon soon enough in the end of the book we're going to read about the actualization the implementation of this now really interesting we read verse 31 you shall speak to the children of Israel saying this shall remain for me oil of sacred anointment for your generations there's prohibitions related to this oil it should not be smeared on human flesh and you shall not duplicate it in this formulation it is holy it shall remain holy to you anyone who shall compound its light or who shall put it upon an alien meaning a non-cohan

12:38shall be caught off from his people this is one of the most severe punishments that we have in the Torah when someone gets excised when someone gets disenfranchised when someone gets caught off in the Jewish people they did something so egregious it removes them from their people they're on their own they're disenfranchised they are excommunicated and not part of the people if someone either duplicates this anointment oil or if someone uses it for something which is not the correct purpose have they used it to smear a regular alien a regular individual not someone who is a priest or who's becoming the high priest or someone who is a king as we read in the commentaries that is something that is anathema and it's a very severe sin and it's also interesting Rashi points out this shall remain for me oil of sacred anointment for your generations meaning Rashi says that this same jar of oil that Moses made was used not just once the same

13:43collection of oil was used for generations for hundreds of years afterwards whenever there was a high priest who was elevated to the status of the high priest they would be anointed with the same oil and whenever there was a king who ascended to the monarchy not via inheritance that king was also anointed with the same jar of oil no matter how much you poured out of it it did not diminish and then Rashi tells us that in the future when there is a need for us to anoint the king Messiah or the upcoming Kohanga doll when we rebuild the third temple what are we going to use we're going to find somehow this very same vile this very same jug of anointment oil and that is going to be to anoint the king Messiah and the high priest the next item that Moshe has instructed to create is the katorest the incense asham tells Moshe take this very complicated array of spices all

14:44the commentaries try to figure out what they are a list of 11 spices and you create a compound out of it again the hand do work of a perfume or you mix it very thoroughly and you grind it very finely and this is going to be used like we read about last week the katorest offering twice a day morning and evening a total of 368 times in a solar year this 365 days and there's two per day plus there's three additional times that we do it on yom kipper like we read last week from kipper there is a few extra sacrifices a few attractivities that don't happen on the rest of the day and interestingly to say just tell us that this was only made this mixture was only made once a year and because it was made to be used every single day there was a tremendous amount of quantity that had to be made and like we said it was made only once and the estimation is that the total weight

15:47of all the ingredients when it was made every year was about 1,800 or so pounds roughly 5 pounds of this incense was used each day now interestingly rachi tells us according from our sages in the Talmud that there was one of the ingredients was the halbana and it was a foul smelling spice and rachi tells us that there's a certain lesson the fact that this the incense this tremendous offering that gives such a beautiful aroma actually one of those ingredients in isolation when not taking together with the rest of the ingredients actually smell quite terrible and rachi tells us that the lesson behind that is that whenever there's a union of the Jewish people whenever we pray together as a nation whenever we fast together as a nation we cannot disinclude the sinners

16:47amongst us we can't say oh you know what you guys smell bad you're not included this is an activity done by only the people who are upstanding the people who are at Sadikimura righteous we don't say that why just like the katoras has to have some foul smelling spice amongst it so two the Jewish people if we're going to have that same aromatic unity we have to have everyone amongst us even those that have the the bad smell and together that creates the katoras together that creates the beautiful aroma of the Jewish people and Rabayno Bachai one of the other commentaries adds that this is why on the holiday of Sukkot we take the lula of in the estrogue and he points out that some of them have a really beautiful smell some of them have a foul smell but all of it's brought together there's a union amongst all the various factions so to speak of the Jewish people and that's how it is appeasing so to speak to God I think there's also another tremendous lesson here another

17:50pedagogical parenting lesson here the Tomatelsus that when the katoras was offered in the temple in Jerusalem nobody in entire city of Jerusalem needed perfume everyone smelled beautifully why because the katoras spread out such a beautiful smell over the entire city no one needed to add their own artificial perfume meaning that even though amongst this collection of spices there was one that had a very foul smell but even something that has a foul smell if you add the right combinations not only will the foul smell be masked but the the total result will be something so beautiful something so heavenly aromatic if you find for example in a child or in an individual you find that they have something about them something about their character that's that's so repulsive it's smells bad it's something wrong it's something which is shameful what do you do you take the lesson

18:57of the katoras it's possible for you to add the right ingredients push the right buttons and the result will be something that like the katoras like the incense will be heavenly aromatic okay so chapter 31 begins with the beginnings of the instructions of the implementation of building the tabernacle and all its vessels gatels moses see behold i have called by name butsalo bin urb and hur from the tribe of juda butsalo he is going to be someone who is going to be very instrumental in building and assembling and embroidering in constructing everything needed for the tabernacle and its vessels why continues verse three i filled him with godly spirit with wisdom with insight with knowledge and every craft we've designed to work with gold silver and copper stone cutting for setting woodcarvings to perform every craft he is so talented he is the right man for the job he's going to oversee the project he's going to be the project manager for the michigan the ramban notes very

20:04interesting that the beginning of this instruction is ray c behold i have called butsalo there's something that's so wondrous about butsalo you have to just behold it and the rambana offers several explanations what is this wondrous thing about butsalo so the first thing he says is that you know a few months earlier the Jewish people were enslaved working hard labor and suddenly you have someone like butsalo he has skill to deal with delicate and precise and intricate work jam cutting embroidery dealing with very delicate materials what a wondrous thing that despite the fact that people were working a very rough hard labor you have someone who has the delicateness and the skill to deal with his very precise work that's the first interpretation see what a wondrous thing in addition the rambana adds a second explanation and that is butsalo understood not just

21:05how to construct the michigan the tabernacle and all its vessels but also he understood the deep meaning behind all the vessels he not only knew how to make them but he also knew what they represented thirdly the rambana says very interesting ray c got showed Moses something that showed that butsalo was qualified and was indeed designated for this very important job he showed him the book of atom atom had a book in the book elisted all the important people of all of human history and then under the entry for person required to build the michigan it said butsalo the son of uri the son of whore from the tribe of jura really interesting idea that almost it's pre-ordained it's predestined that certain people maybe really all of us on our own level but people are pre-ordained all the way back from the beginning of the history of mankind

22:11there's certain roles that we each one of us i would say in a general sense but certainly the great leaders the great movers and shakers there's a role that they have that they were given to them sort of speak by god and shown in a book all the way to our earliest for bearer atom what their job is what their role is see behold look it says in the book of atom that this is a great job for butsalo and rashi points out that butsalo has godly spirit and he has wisdom and he has insight and he has knowledge all these different kinds of intellect rashi tells us what does it mean wisdom it means that what they learn for the people they absorb what does it mean insight it means even things that they don't learn they can learn on their own a different a different kind of intellect i would argue maybe an intellect that's not focused enough in our educational system and finally knowledge what does that refer to well that's the holy divine spirit as an aside

23:13rashi just tell us butsalo when he was tasked with responsibility of constructing the michigan was a grand total of 13 years old he has with him ahalia penachisamach from the tribe of dan they're going to build and construct all the various materials all the various vessels the edifice of the michigan and everything in it and everything we've learned about the past two parsha and a half a verse 12 will read now you will speak the children of Israel saying however even though it's so critical it's so important so vital so crucial so necessary to build the michigan however my shop my shabis my shabis this you must observe for it is assigned to me and you for your generations to know that i am husham even though it's so important to build a michigan you may not desecrate the shabis not the shabis that comes every week not the shabis that comes every festival you cannot desecrate that in order to construct the tabernacle why for it is assigned to me and you

24:18for your generations to know that i am husham this is the source so this is one of the sources that we are told that what is prohibited on shabis are the themes that are needed to construct the tabernacle everything that you need to do to build a tabernacle you may not do on shabis like we're told over here you cannot do anything to advance the construction of the tabernacle on shabis because everything that you would want to do is prohibited and of course i say just tell us this is from the oral Torah that there's 39 distinct categories of work needed to construct the tabernacle and ergo 39 prohibition through namalachos that you cannot do 39 categories of work they cannot do on shabis and of course i say just tell us that's a very deep connection between the idea of shabis and the idea of the mistrun for example shabis is this idea this touchpoint of two worlds where the with heavenly world and the physical world meet and of course the mistrun

25:22is the place where god says i'm going to come visit i'm going to come dwell the heavenly abode is going to descend in this particular place there's a certain connection between this world and next world that is the essence of holiness that is personified both by the midst of shabis that we experienced till today and by the construction of the mistrun interestingly the verse here tells us that shabis is a sign between god and the Jewish people and our sages point out that there's three mitzvos that are classified by the Torah as a sign between god and the Jewish people and they are shabis number one number two circumcision number three the mitzvot of thillin and the tomatels us at the reason why we don't wear thillin on shabis is because a Jew has to always have two witnesses testifying to the fact that they believe in god and therefore during the week well what do you have you have your circumcision and you have the thillin so every day of

26:25the week you have you have two comes along shabis not only shabis but festivals too you have a third sign a third witness so to speak testifying that you believe in god and therefore on shabis you don't wear thillin because you already have the other two and just to kind of touch briefly on the idea of the sign the chavatschain was famous for saying that the sign between god and the Jewish people in chavis is akin to a sign of a store you know you have a store and the store is a storefront and on top you have a sign that announces the name of the store maybe a little bit about what they sell what happens you go to a strip mall you go to a store and you see there's a sign sign says this is I don't know a shoe store and you go to the door the door is locked well so long as the sign is still there you assume it's still open for business you come back maybe a week later maybe the guy went a vacation maybe they they closed it for the summer but the second I take down

27:27the sign well then you think okay that's it's all over the relationship that the Jew has with god of course the most important thing and the sign to ensure that this is still an active relationship that is the shabis and finally the last verse of chapter 31 when he finished speaking to him amount sign I god gave to Moses two tablets of testimony this is the two tablets stone tablets inscribed by the finger of god so it's important to stress here the chronology we've talked about it over the last couple of weeks rashi here clarifies it reiterates it again the Torah is not necessarily written chronologically and the episode of the own calf that actually preceded the instructions of parishes teruma of building the michigan by many days why because Moshe after Mount Sinai after the ten commandments after revelation goes up to heaven for 40 days he comes back down on the seventh day of Thomas breaks the luchos breaks the the the tablets which we're

28:28going to read about in chapter 32 and goes back up a second time eventually goes up a third time comes down the third time on yom kippur when god finally accedes to his request to forgive the Jewish people and the next day that's when the instruction to build the michigan was conveyed and the michigan was erected on the first day of nison so the events of chapter 32 actually happened before the events destroyed in the last two and a half partios now chapter 32 is going to tell the story of the goal and calf so the first six verses is maybe the most challenging episode in in the whole Torah how did this happen you know where we're at such a high quite literally on top of the mountain on top of the world at the pinnacle of human experience Jewish people experience prophecy and then very quickly it descends quite precipitously the people saw that Moses had delayed in descending the mountain and the people gather on Aaron and set to him rise up make for us gods that will go before us for this man Moses who brought us up from land of Egypt we

29:33do not know what has become of him this very first verse gives us a lot here to unpack and i wanted to make a quick note by saying that all the commentaries each one each one has their own way of explaining exactly what happened it's very voluminous when i can cover it all we're going to follow basically the interpretation of rashi as we always do and try to give a flavor to be able to cover the entire parasha the people saw that Moses delayed from descending the mountain so there's a lot here that's implied that they knew that motion was delayed because they had an expected timeline there was a certain discrepancy and they saw the delay which seems kind of odd how could you see a delay you just see that nothing happens and of course the Hebrew words are a little bit odd when it says that motion delayed by yara amki bow shesh that motion delayed it's a very unusual term so rashi tells us that motion when he went up to heaven after the ten commandments he told the Jewish people 40 days i'm gonna be back within the first six hours of the day that's what he told

30:39them goes up and 40 days later he doesn't come down and the mistake was or the miscalculation was the discrepancy was that they thought that the day the motion goes up well that's part of the count that's day one that's the first day is not there but he told them that it'll be up for 40 full days and therefore the first day the day that he ascended doesn't count and therefore they're expecting him one day earlier more over the people see a delay rashi tells us because the Satan came and the Satan causes all kinds of confusion he made a look like it was dark to indicate that motion had died and he said the Jewish people well six hours have passed motion hasn't returned and Satan also showed the Jewish people an image of motion being carried in a beer in a coffin in heaven so the people say well bow shesh which means in Hebrew the six has come the six hours have come and motion is not here and the same said well bow shesh the six hours have come

31:44he's not here so the people didn't listen to him and then he said to them well he died people didn't listen to him finally the Satan showed the coffin of Moses and they were convinced and they freaked out motion is dead we are leaderless let us try to find a another solution let's have someone lead us now the rambon points out very important that you read this story simply it's implied that they wanted an alternative god instead of Moses but if so their sentence doesn't really make any sense they tell Aaron make us gods who will go before us why for this man Moses brought us up for land of Egypt and he's gone well if you're looking to replace Moses whom you readily say is a man why would you look for a god to replace him you should look for another man so this and really everyone really agrees that at least initially the plan was not to find an alternative god but an alternative leader to replace the man Moses but of course once they open the

32:49door for some sort of representation of something spiritual that quickly led to a slippery slope and eventually at least some people actually descended to idolatry now the people are very nervous they're very concerned they're very worried and Aaron right away tries to avoid the problem he recognizes that it's quite likely that the Moses is going to come back this is all a test and therefore he says to them okay you know how can we delay how can we delay and he tells them okay well let's let's start we want to make this this god okay sure but take off the gold reins that are in the ears of your wives and your children bring bring them to me let's make it really nice let's have something gold but you know what if you went to your wife or you know you try to convince someone's wife why don't you give me old your gold all your jewelry because I have a very important thing most likely the women are going to say uh I'm

33:52not so sure about that let's think about it let's wait a day or so they're not going to easily part with their jewelry that was his calculation but what happened they go in the snatch all the gold reins in the ears and they bring it to Aaron and in now okay he's got tons of gold what to do now how do we delay it further so he takes it from their hands bounds it up in the cloth and he turns it into a molten calf well why did Aaron do that so Rasha he can explain that he didn't do that intentionally he took all the gold I made up melting pot made of fire and the mixed multitude those Egyptians that kind of joined with the Jewish people jumped in the bad way and we read about a few weeks ago some of them had at least an affinity for idolatry and had certain skills with magic and they somehow turned this pot of gold into this magical little golden calf and Rasha he

34:57adds a recycling alternative opinion is that when Moshe went to get the bones of Joseph which were buried in the bottom of the Nile River he put a special plate of metal and wrote in it Alay Shah arise oh ox Joseph after what was compared to an ox one of those individuals one of the people who were saved from Egypt went and snatched that plate of metal and pocketed it and then when Aaron puts all the gold into the melting pot they throw in that same special metal plate that says arise oh ox and a little ox a baby golden calf comes out and our status tell us that this was not a regular frozen statue of golden calf in fact it had some magical powers was able to run around it was pretty impressive okay well what now they said this is verse four this is your god oh

36:00Israel which brought you off land of Egypt so interestingly right this is where Rasha points out this is your god it doesn't know they don't say this is our god it's only the mixed multitude rendered it into a god as opposed to a leader yes there were some Jews who were complicit in this whole desire to make golden calf of sorts but only the mixed multitude took it to the next level and to idolatry and Aaron saw what happened and he built an altar this is verse five and Aaron called out and said a festival for Hashem tomorrow again Aaron's trying to delay let's try to keep cool let's try to delay as long as possible let's wait wait and see what happens first of all he's going to build the altar himself again to slow things down and again to delay the festival till the next day now the first words of this verse verse five and Aaron saw Rasha gives us four different explanations to what Aaron exactly saw and all that contributes to understanding

37:02what actually happened the first is that Aaron saw that the golden calf had some sort of life to it a second interpretation is that Aaron saw Hore who was his nephew the son of Miriam Hore after all one Moses went up to the mountain he says okay Aaron and Hore you're in charge if anyone has any questions come to you so Hore was really responsible he was the leader one of the leaders in place of Moses and he sees what's happening and of course he starts to reboot them what are you doing let's wait another day just to make sure before we go take these drastic measures made golden calves what are we thinking he starts to reboot he starts to criticize them and the mob murders him and Aaron sees Hore on the floor and he realizes well what happens if they do that to me I'm the high priest I'm one of the leaders of the Jewish people if they kill me then there is no way to fix their sin and therefore I have to make sure that they don't kill me

38:04not because I want to stay alive of course I want to stay alive but specifically for the benefit of the Jewish people they better not touch me because if they do disastrous consequences a third explanation from Rasha is that Aaron says you know what I want to contribute to this I know it's a disaster I know it's a catastrophe I know it's a total debacle but you know what let me have a portion of it it won't be just entirely at the feet of the Jewish people and finally a fourth interpretation we just mentioned he saw that they started building the the the altar and if they build it they build it really fast I wanted to lay the lay the lay and therefore let me build it Aaron's carefully laid plans that was standing first six they arose earlier the next day offered up elevation offerings brought peace offerings the people sat to eat and drink and they started to revel so you're here we see how things are spiraling they want a replacement for Moses some people say well it's a god the next day say okay let's bring sacrifices let's do something spiritual but because this is off you know to the wrong direction this is not done properly this is not sanctioned what

39:11starts off as elevation offerings what starts with spiritual descends it's eating a drinking and eventually to revelry Rashi tells us this is murder this is adultery this is idolatry this is all the worst sins meanwhile god tells Moshe descend your people have done something really terrible they've strayed from the way that I've command him they made them a golden calf they've prostrated to it they sacrificed to it they said this is your god this is a terrible people I'm done with them they're stiff-knit people this is for me allow me let my anger flare up against them I'm going to annihilate them and I'm going to make you a great nation the people are stubborn they're they're your nation it's your fault Mashi explains god tells Moshe you're the one who tried to bring to all these mixed multitude you said hey it's great let me let let me convert them but they're the ones that really accelerated this terrible golden calf therefore it's your responsibility and and the very stubborn and even though they did idolatry their stubbornness is really

40:15the biggest problem and then he says to Moshe you know what allow me to destroy them I'm going to destroy them and I'm going to make you a great nation and this is really interesting because Moshe is in heaven and he's being offered a promotion essentially I'm going to destroy all the Jewish people will start again we'll have a new Jewish nation and you'll be the father of the Jewish nation let my anger flare up against them and I shall annihilate them and I shall make you a great nation this sounds like a godfather offer and of course Moshe refuses but it's a very interesting Rashi here god tells Moshe let my anger flare up against them desist from me stop praying Rashi asked the question wait a minute Moshe didn't even start praying Moshe has just been informed of this terrible development and god is rescuing allow me to do it stop praying says Rashi going from the Talmud that god is opening up a window for Moshe

41:20he's telling him yes I'm telling you I want to destroy the Jewish people but I'm saying desist from me so that I can destroy them meaning implying that this matter is subject to prayer if you pray they won't be destroyed and for the rest of the parasha really it's going to be Moshe praying interceding taking drastic action all these successive stages of prayer, expiation trying to excise the people that are the most responsible taking all these steps to fix what had happened and to try to rectify what had happened and to save the Jewish people so he begins Moshe pleads before Shem is god and says why had Shem share your anger flare up against the people each of the people took a lot of Egypt what's going to happen Egypt is going to say well god took the amount of the of here and he just took him to kill him in the mountains and to annihilate them from the from the face of the earth and then Moshe invotes Abraham Isaac and Jacob remember for the sake of Abraham Isaac and Israel your servants to whom you swore by yourself and you told

42:22them I should increase your offer offspring at the stars of the heaven you made a promise to Abraham Isaac and Jacob a promise that you linked to yourself meaning a promise that's gotta be true that you're going to increase their offspring and are you going to kill them and you know what Abraham he was the one who was tested with 10 tests in the book of Genesis if the Jewish people transdressed the 10 commandments let the 10 tests the Abraham triumphed let that save them Isaac he was someone who was willing to die for your sake save his descendants in his merit you want to punish the Jewish people while Jacob he was punished sufficiently over his life in his merit may you save them what are you suggesting says Moshe to god you want to make a mere great nation well Abraham Isaac and Jacob they're great founders of the nation that it's just right now and if their merit is not enough to say the Jewish people if a stool

43:22that rests on three legs cannot withstand what's going to be with me I'll be the father of the new nation I'll have only one leg and certainly that will not have continuity so this is Moshe's first argument and it works first 14th I'm reconsidered regarding the evil that he declared that he would do to his people now it's important to stress this is not yet total forgiveness God's gonna reconsider the initially God said he was going to punish the Jewish people and destroy them right away and now he's like well I'm gonna punish them but not right away there's a certain grace period there's a break there is maybe another window into saving them entirely okay now Moshe's going this is Moshe's prayer while he's still in heaven and Moshe's not gonna go down and before he descends we're told that he's carrying with him the two tablets tablets inscribed on both their side on one side and on the other these are God's handiwork the script was the script of God engraved on the tablets we have two verses here

44:25in verse 15 and 16 that are lauding the tablets x by God written on both sides letters suspended mid-ear why do we need to be told the middle of the description of Moshe's trying to save Jewish people after golden calf why do we need to be told about the praise of the tablets ramban tells us that Moshe is about to do something very heroic with the tablets but first in order to tell us how great Moshe's act with the tablets was or the Torah tells us about the praise lauding the praise of the tablets to impress upon us what Moshe actually did this is something tablets written by God tremendous miracles amazing now Joshua we left them last he went with Moshe to the mountain as far as he could go and he was there for the duration of 40 days so Joshua's the only person that's not amongst the camp doesn't hear what's happening he's still waiting for Moshe he pitched his tent at the foot of the mountain so Moshe's descending meanwhile Joshua's hearing

45:27all the sounds of shouting from the camp and Joshua tells Moshe well it sounds like there's a war in the camp and Moshe corrects him no this is not a sound of winning this is not a sound of losing this is a sound of distress this is a very interesting exchange Joshua posits the what you know how he understands the sound we know of course that it's not a sound of wars a sound of revelry and celebrations of golden calf Moshe tells him no no it's not this kind of sound it's that kind of sound really interestingly you know the Torah finds the need to tell us this interesting conversation that happens amidst of the entire golden calf saga and the matrix tells us something very interesting it says that this demonstrates the relationship between Moshe and Joshua it's the epitome of the role of a teacher and their student teachers responsible to teach their charge to prepare them for what lies ahead Joshua's destined to leave the Jewish people and therefore Moshe is positioning

46:28him and priming him for the role which includes knowing to differentiate between various different types of cries and sounds so they start walking back to the camp together and they see the golden calf and they see the revelry and they see the dancing Moshe's anger flares out he throws down the tablets from his hands he shatters them at the foot of the mountain he takes the cast burns it in the fire grinds it to a fine powder sprinkles it in the water it makes the children of Israel drink it this is really interesting Moshe just minutes earlier was in heaven he finds out about this terrible tragedy that happened he's descending with the tablets he breaks the tablets as soon as you see is what happens to Jewish people the Talmud tells us that there were three decisions that Moshe made unilaterally and he didn't consult God and God agreed with him that he made the right choice a lot of them is that he broke the tablets and he didn't ask God if that was right to do and I think there's you know there's a question here why break it maybe he should return it to God

47:29may return to sender also maybe the people of Israel that did not commit the sin of the golden calf maybe they should have the rights to have a tablet that is unbroken so these are good questions and of course subject to tremendous literature on the subject but I saw the Cleokka one of the commentaries offers several novel interpretations the first one he says is that the second the tablets came in contact with the camp with the Jewish people the letters the miraculous letters written by God they flew off they totally departed they they can't partake in such a scene they left and though what happens the spiritual power of God that was infused in the tablets well that departed that left so what do you have you have two massive stone tablets it became heavy for Moses and therefore he dropped it he couldn't hold it that's the first explanation a second explanation is that Moshe will fully destroy the tablets why to erase the evidence of their guilt this

48:33tablets was almost like a testament like a document describing the relationship to the Jewish people and God and therefore Moshe wants to destroy the evidence to be able to protect the Jewish people from their guilt and finally a third interpretation is that Moshe wanted to be included in their sense similar to we saw with Aaron Aaron wants to partake in it in a little bit to bear some of their guilt it shouldn't be entirely on the shoulders of the Jewish people Moshe as well wanted to do the same and therefore he broke it he so to speak contributed to this defilement and then he takes the golden calf he grinds it into a powder puts it in the water and gives the Jewish people to drink rachi tells us that there were three different kinds of people that died as a result of the sin of the golden calf you had the people that committed idolatry full fledged idolatry together with witnesses and with warning and they were killed via the sword you had people that did idolatry without warning and they died in the plague and then

49:36you had the people that committed idolatry without witnesses and with and without warning and they were judged by the water they drank the water and if there were guilty their stomach exploded as a result and then Moshe turns to Aaron his brother and he says what happened what did this people do to you they brought a grievous scene upon it so it's interesting that Moshe is criticizing Aaron not for Aaron's participation in the sin but what did the people do to you to force your hand to do this grievous sin upon them and the robin asked the question wait a minute shouldn't Moshe first criticize the fact that Aaron participated and only then talk about the fact that he he contributed towards the sin of the Jewish people and the robin answers to answers that first of all while Aaron is Moses's older brother and it's improper for someone to criticize their older brother and therefore he did not want to talk about Aaron's

50:37participation Aaron's sin Aaron's dealt only the guilt of the nation alternatively Moshe knew was confident in his heart that his brother indeed was righteous he didn't do anything wrong and therefore he only spoke about the guilt of the nation because he after all Aaron was participating to some degree in what the nation did in the guilt of the nation so Aaron tries to justify it he says well don't get angry at me you know these people they have a certain disposition towards evil they said to me make a gun we'll go before us Moshe has Moshe has gone we don't know what happened to them I didn't know what to do so I asked for gold they gave me the gold after we went to the fire the calf emerged I didn't really know that this calf would emerge and then Moshe looks around and assesses the situation he realizes there's something disgraceful about about this nation there's something evil there's something wicked that we need to get rid of this not the nation that it's going to be the nation that's going to flourish and fulfill the destiny of the Jewish people so Moshe takes another drastic measure he goes to the

51:42entrance of the camp and he declares who is for Hashem join me me la Hashem a lie who is the person who are the people that are willing to say wherewith God completely 100% no questions asked and the entire tribe of Levites gathered around him and he said them okay this is what Hashem wants us every man gather your sorting your thigh growth from gate to gate in the camp and every man kill his brother every man is fellow every man is near one find the people that were guilty not just guilty because they they were complicit but actually did idolatry and let's get rid of those people as people have no had no business being part of our nation so the Levites did as Moshe said and they went through the camp and they executed about 3,000 men that actually died and Moshe said to them denic yourself this day to Hashem each has opposed his son and his brother you were brave even if someone was related to you you were willing to do what's right you were 100%

52:42committed to God and may he bestow upon you a blessing like this very day this is important to stress it seems like if you read that the parasha simply the entire nation committed idolatry what what a disaster and here we see well how many people actually were guilty to the degree that they were worthy of capital punishment around 3,000 which out of a nation of 600,000 adult males is 0.5% these are the ones that overtly with warning committed idolatry it's a very minute portion of the nation but of course the nation as a whole they suffer because they're part of this nation that had this huge blunder so this is the next stage of Moshe's efforts to try to save the Jewish people and he gives them another recommendation you've committed a grievous sin I'm gonna go back to heaven maybe I can win a tonement in the face of your sin maybe despite the fact that you have the sin I control still try to get a tonement the next day Moshe goes to Hashem and says to them okay I implore you the people coming to grievous sin they made themselves a

53:45god of gold but I want you to forgive their sin and if not erase me now from the book that you have written this is what we mentioned briefly at the beginning of last week's parasha Moshe tells God I'm not gonna go with this plan you're gonna make me into a great nation if you want to destroy them you have to destroy me too I'm not interested in being part of it if they're going to be destroyed so God responds to Moses whoever sin against me I shall erase my book I'm not gonna destroy you I'm gonna show all the people that sinned again here is another stage of the atonement of the forgiveness forgiveness God is not gonna threaten the Jewish people at as a whole only the individuals that sinned and each person is gonna be judged to the degree that they sinned but there's gonna be a downgrade now go and lead the people to where I've told you behold my angel shall grow before you and on the day that I make my account I should bring their sin to account against them so there's two things you're actually points out number one they're downgraded that no longer is God saying I'm going to lead you it's gonna be an angel it's gonna lead you in addition that they're gonna

54:47be punished in in small bursts every time the Jewish people are gonna be punished there's gonna be a small sliver of punishment that is going to be related to the sin of the going calf God's not gonna punish them but the going calf all at once rather he's gonna spread it out over the millennia of history the dhamma tells us that any bad thing that happens to the Jewish people has within it a small degree of the going calf residue of punishment left over and finally chapter 32 ends then a Shem strut the people with a plague because they made the calf that Aaron had made this is the ones who sinned without witnesses or warning why is there no count as town people die we don't know when people die there among suggests that perhaps the people that was stricken with this plague they did not die immediately but they were they had the plague and they died ahead of their time and as Shem sport the most this is the beginning of chapter 33 grow a cent from here you and the people whom you brought up from on the V-Jip to the land about which I swore to Abraham and Isaac

55:50on the J-Grab sync I'll give it to your offspring you ascend but I shall ascend with you for you were stiff net people lest I annihilate you on the way again God saying that the angels gonna take you it's not gonna be God and that's the status that they're in right now the people mourn they take off their crowns and God tells them listen the fact that I'm sending an angel with you that's actually to your benefit why because if I am amongst you and you start rebelling if you start being stiff net I'm gonna get angry at you and I'm gonna punish you right away therefore ironically having an angel there leading you is to your benefit because you're gonna have more stability because if I'm there there's a very low tolerance certainly now for any misconduct so the people take off their jewelry they start mourning they're stripped of their jewelry that they got at Mount Sinai this you just tell us they got at Mount Sinai multiple crowns they lost those crowns and then Moshe takes his tent in which he has prophecy and he moves it outside the camp God's not coming to

56:53the camp God's not gonna enter the camp but therefore there's no way for Moshe to have prophecy inside the camp he has to take his tent and go outside of the camp and this is gonna continue until the Mishkan is erected almost a year later Moshe is gonna have prophecy with God not amongst the camp but in this tent the tent of meaning which is outside the camp and the Torah describes what happened whenever Moshe would go out to the tent the entire people would stand up remaining standing and they would gaze after Moshe until he arrives to the tent and when Moshe arrived at the tent there was a pillar of cloud that would descend at the entrance of the tent God would speak to Moshe the entire people would see the pillar of cloud which is a representation of God and it would bow down they would prostrate themselves and God would speak to Moshe face to face as a man would speak to his fellow then return to the camp and Joshua did not depart him again Joshua is the consummate student never departs from Moshe now again there's a little bit complications here with chronology rashi here in verse 11 of chapter 33 it explains the chronology there's

57:56three times that Moshe goes up the mountain each for 40 days a piece eventually comes down comes down in Yom Kippur the next day is instructed to make the tabernacle now the Rabban tells us with respect to the rest of this chapter that unless someone is steeped in Kabbalah they're not really going to understand it Moshe tells God you say to me take this people onward but you don't reform inform me whom you will send with me which angel you're going to send and now if I am in indeed found favor in your eyes make your ways known to me so that I might comprehend you have found favor in my eyes you say I that I found favor in your eyes I want to understand what that means and the Talmud explains the book of Brockles what exactly Moshe wanted to see he had various requests he wanted to he wanted the divine presence to rest upon the Jewish people he wanted the divine presence to not rest on the various Gentile nations he wants to know the ways of God why God treats people in different ways why good people have bad things happen to them bad people have good things to happen to them etc show me your glory Moshe is shown how to pray

59:03Moshe is shown that beyond invoking the merit of the forefathers is another way to pray even if the merit of the forefathers has been exhausted there's another way I had to pray and God's going to show him another way had to pray we'll see in a little bit God shows him in his back but not his front Moshe is placed in a cleft in the rock and God passes by again these are things which are very difficult for us to understand what does it mean that God showed Moses the connection of the villain it's it's very hard for us to understand that and this is I would say like the Ramban says is it's clearly matters of the of the Sotaraka but chapter 34 begins where God tells Moshe let's make the tablets 2.0 made two stone tablets like the ones that you made earlier made two more and the ones that you shatter are going to be replaced by the new ones and ascend Mount Sinai again so this is the third time Moshe is going up to Mount Sinai the first time was to get the first tablets the second time was to get a reprieve the Jewish people and the third time is going to be to get the second tablets and again the people have not yet been fully forgiven that's going to

1:00:06happen in in in in this chapter and Moshe is going to be told the 13 attributes of mercy but he's going to send Mount Sinai a third time and be there with God on the mountaintop again for 40 days and here verse 3 we read no man may ascend with you nor may anyone be seen on the entire mountain even the flock of the cattle men are grazed facing that mountain this is the opposite of the first time the first time the first tablets were done with tremendous pop and circumference there was all these sounds and all these fires and all that says God this time no this is going to be done modestly first time the first tablets the Ein Harad the evil eye had a vise on the tablets and that's why it was destroyed but now there's nothing more beautiful than modesty so Moshe carves out the two stone tablets Moshe is going to do the tablets and God's going to inscribe upon the tablets again the messages of the first tablets and then God descends in a cloud and instead with him and he called out with the name of Hashem so now God is going to demonstrate to

1:01:09Moshe how he's going to pray to achieve forgiveness and this is what's known as the 13 attributes of mercy these are refrains that we repeat multiple times during the high holiday season God tells Moshe when you want to pray this is what you say Hashem Hashem God compassionate and gracious load of anger abundant in kindness and truth preserve of kindness for thousands of generations for giver of iniquity willful sin and error who cleanses but does not cleanse completely recalling the iniquity of parents upon children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation Rashi explains what this means God has mercy upon someone before they sin and after they sin and these are various attributes of mercy that God is slow to anger and God has abundant kindness and God gives reward for those who do the mitzvos when God rewards its thousands of generations with God punishes it's only for four generations the good outweighs the bad by 500 Moshe again requests

1:02:14that God be amongst them he's trying to get that last degree of atonement of forgiveness he said this is verse 25 found favor in your eyes my lord let my lord go amongst us versus stiff net people forgive the iniquity in our era make us your heritage and God responds in the affirmative pending certain conditions there's going to be a covenant there's going to be a certain agreement the Jewish people are going to be distinct but when you get to the land of Israel and get to land the canal you have to destroy all the altars of idolatry you have to smash their pillars you have to uproot their trees don't make a covenant with idolatrous nations don't make any more more more more more more than God's observe the festivals and the Torah lists the three festivals and the pilgrimages and there's a promise of security despite the fact that Jewish people will leave their homes and leave their fields unwatched they'll be guarded again they're told to observe the Shabbos they're also given other instructions and these are all conditions upon

1:03:15which goddess is hinging his commitment to again re-accepted Jewish people wholeheartedly and finally God forgave the Jewish people he deers Moshe again a second set of tablets Moshe descends from Mount Sinai he doesn't realize that his face have become radiant he was glowing he was as bright as the sun the people couldn't look at him and they all started to turn away there's a very beautiful rashi here that I like to read every year in verse 30 the verse reads Aaron Olicious of Israel saw Moshe on behold the skin of his face have come radiant they affair to approach him says rashi come and see the power of sin until the Jewish people sinned they were able to experience prophecy with God and they weren't terrified and now once they did the golden calf even the bright beetian of light that was Moshe they could not withstand and then Moshe descends and starts teaching the Jewish people again themes have been normalized

1:04:16maybe it's not quite the same level as it was at Mount Sinai but Moshe has achieved via his prayer via his intercession via his very strong actions he has achieved full forgiveness for the Jewish people the day that Moshe is fully forgiven the day that it comes back with the two sets of tablets tablets 2.0 that day is Yom Kipper that's the day which is designated for forgiveness for atonement the first time we had Yom Kipper was God forgive the Jewish for the sin the golden calf therefore it became a day in sconstant history a day of forgiveness there's a very interesting rashi in verse 32 about how Moshe taught he would teach to Aaron and then he would teach to Aaron's children and then to the elders and then eventually to everyone very important rashi to understand how the Torah was conveyed for the duration of the 40 years and then we find out that because Moshe's face was glowing he wore a mask to cover his face

1:05:17whenever he would speak to God he would remove the mask and whenever he would speak to the Jewish people he would place a mask above his face interestingly Moshe are status tellers became like an angel and therefore his communication with God was natural whereas when he committed to the Jewish people he had to wear a mask yet to put on an artificial body thus concludes the parasha next week we have parasha's vayakal which is dedicated to the actualization implementation of the instructions of building the tapenachal