Parashat Ki Tisa
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Synopsis
God instructs Moses to collect a half shekel from every person over the age of 20 to take a census of the community. There are some final instructions for the building of the mikdash. The text then flicks back to Moses on mount Sinai. He’s is holding the tablets with the ten commandments on them and he descends to find the Hebrews worshipping a golden calf. All hell breaks loose and Moses tries to convince God not to kill everyone.
Themes
1) The Sin of the Golden Calf
2) Protesting on Behalf of Others
The Sin of the Golden Calf
What was the real sin of the golden calf? Impatience. It wasn’t the fact that they built an idol for that’s just material but it was the fact that despite the miracles they had seen they didn’t have the patience to wait for Moses and so created a symbol of the negativity created by impatience. Today’s world is full of impatience, everything runs at break-neck speed. It is difficult to make well reasoned judgements at such a pace and all to easy to create something that is against everything you stand for. So be patient give yourselves and others time.
Protesting on Behalf of Others
When God tells Moses that the Israelites have created a golden calf and are worshipping it and that as such they will be destroyed. Moses despite having been accused of all sorts of treacherous things by the Israelites since leaving Egypt defends them and convinces God to give them another chance. But why? Because human beings are hypocritical fools, however good intentioned we make mistakes and are flawed in our nature. Moses would have been a hypocrite to chastise them after he had struck the rock for water against Gods wishes. So stand up for people because people are great they just make mistakes.
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