Hashem said to Moshe, "I will pass in front of you all of My goodness." And the highest goodness that Moshe was shown was that each person has unique good and purpose which no other person in the world shares with him. And this is what it means that Hashem called out before Moshe, His name "Havayeh," the one who gives existence to everything - referring to the beginning of Creation. Because from the beginning Hashem apportioned and prepared for each individual his salvation in goodness that is particular to him. Hashem showed Moshe how each of our potentials is exalted and that each person chooses for himself how he will live, how much of this goodness he will reach. And Hashem called out His name, Yud - Kay - Vav - Kay, that is, I will show you the awesome depth of my thoughts, that I intended and I apportioned to every individual from the very beginning of creation. And this is what it means, I am gracious according to My will: that My mercy and compassion towards each individual is from the very inception of things. And because of this no one interferes with the good that is set aside for his fellow, as it says in the midrash, "Each artist in his own craft." (Mei Shiloach on the parashah)
Ki Tisa
Reb Shlomo Minyan HarNof
(R. Raphael, email: [email protected])
Sefat Emet
Hashem told Moshe on Har Sinai, after the people began to sin with the calf, "Go, descend." Moshe not only went down the mountain, he also went down from his exalted spiritual level in order to stay together with Klal Yisrael after the sin of the calf. For Moshe, by himself, could have held onto the Tablets but he broke them for the sake of Klal Yisrael. This choice of Moshe's ultimately enabled everyone to be brought higher. But in order to join with the people Moshe had to set aside "his own interests" as the pasuk says, Hashem offered Moshe, "I will make you a great nation," from you alone I will build the future. But Moshe Rabbeinu refused this.
When Moshe came down the mountain he broke the Tablets that Hashem had given him. He did this because he saw the holy letters flying away - the letters that were engraved in the stone had separated themselves and were fleeing upwards. These letters in stone paralleled the light of the inner Torah that was in the hearts of Yisrael on the "tablet of their heart." So long as their hearts were a vessel for the light, the Heavenly letters that Hashem had engraved remained in the stone. When Moshe saw the letters flying away he understood that the people had lost the light of connection.
And by including himself together with Klal Yisrael Moshe actually made it as if they had not sinned. For they were no longer the same people that had committed the sin of the calf because Moshe Rabbeinu had not been with them. Now that he included himself they were no longer defined by the sin. From here we see the greatness of the tzadikkim even in their going down, like it says about the angels, "they go up and down." "Go, descend" - refine the people, bring them merit - bring them all up. And afterwards it says "go and come up, you and the nation." (Sefat Emet 200, 203)
Now I want to look at this Torah of the Sefat Emet from the aspect of the individual. Because within each of us is the aspect of Moshe Rabbeinu, the part of us that stays connected even when we stray after falseness. As long as a person identifies himself with the part of him that runs after his destructive desires this will be how he sees himself: "I cannot overcome the bad within me. I cannot do change."
This is why what Moshe did in joining himself to Klal Yisrael was so powerful. Moshe the tzaddik, the one who was so close to Hashem, who is like the connected part in each of us, joined himself to everyone in the nation in order to bring them back to Hashem. If we look at our own experience we can see just what an enormous decision this was on his part. We know how painful it is to admit the depth of our straying from Hashem, how difficult it is to stand before Hashem with all of our being, our history, our personality.
It is much easier to split ourselves, imagining that we are really some high being and that our faults are caused by others. But so long as we do this we suffer terribly from being split - keeping the parts of ourselves ghettoized. The greatest moments are when we choose to come down from the mountain - when we decide to use our exalted powers to raise up the low parts of ourselves. As difficult as it is to feel the flood of responsibility, it is the only way to own up to our real obligation of standing before Hashem in this way.
When a person remains in his goodness but opens himself to include all of who he is then he is, no longer the same person who was far from Hashem. In a sense he is no longer bound by the actions he did till now, because the person who sinned did it without the presence of the good that is inside of him. When he joins the good within himself, he begins the process of changing himself utterly. For every action, even our bad actions, ultimately have their roots in goodness. Our task is to fix our bad actions by going back to this root. If we can feel how the act was a destructive expression of something inside of us that is good, we can begin to know what we need to bring out of ourselves, choosing better ways of "being ourselves."
This is how Moshe saved Klal Yisrael. Because he associated himself with the congregation that included everyone creating a new chance - an opportunity to begin again. Individually, as well, we never lose our point of connection within ourselves, our Moshe Rabbeinu, the aspect of daat. But we need to remember to bring the good to where we thought there was only bad. This can be very threatening: since we don't want to see the good associated with the bad, we don't want to endanger whatever good we have in our lives. But there is no other way of beginning the process of changing our whole self for the better, it should be His Will.
The Lesson Of Forgiveness
When B'nei Yisrael left Mitzrayim they came to the bitter waters of Marah and Moshe questioned within himself why something like that should exist. Hashem then showed him an essential lesson: the need to call out to Gd in order to take something bitter and make it sweet. For we see that the pasuk says, "And he called to the Lrd and Hashem showed him (literally, taught him the lesson of) the tree and he threw it into the waters and the waters were made sweet." And we see later after the sin of the calf that Moshe called to Hashem and said, "Lrd, do You intend to destroy them? Remember Marah when You instructed me that You can turn to sweetness that which is bitter. So now please heal them." And this is what it means that "Moshe supplicated Hashem." (Midrash Rabbah 43:3)
Moshe Our Teacher
How do we know how to approach Gd? How do we learn to take our inner need for relationship and turn it into healing? We have to think back to a time when something worked, when we were given an insight about our own healing or healing others and see how it can help us in the present. This is what Moshe did after the sin of the calf. He compared his situation with Marah. But that isn't all that he did. There are many explanations given for how Moshe reached the place of true prayer from inside himself. This tells us that it is good to keep looking as long as the need is there and not to give up hope.
Fortunately we have the Torah that contains so many stories of falling and overcoming our failings, the words that were spoken by Moshe and the other prophets to bring the people to a new connection with Hashem. We have to take this and learn to use it in our lives. If we didn't have the history of Moshe's relationship with Hashem, if we didn't have the record of how he found a way to renewal, we would be infinitely poorer.
Moshe built a history with Gd, and these are not a series of random or chance events. We believe, and one can clearly see as well, that the whole of our lives is touched upon by the Torah. We need to learn how to make the Torah alive for us, to find within the Torah and ourselves chiddushim that will heal us. How to see ourselves with Torah eyes. How to hear our own Torah.
This is related to the parable of Sholmo HaMelech and his book of Parables, Mishlei. There is a deep well (Torah) and Shlomo's wisdom is like someone who comes along and ties together bits of twine to make a strong rope so that he can draw up those waters that are so deep and hidden.
Each of us needs to utilize this in our own lives: First noticing when things work well and then bringing them together so that we can be strong, making available to ourselves and others the wisdom that is there in the Torah and in the world and in ourselves. The vessel that can contain all this is our awe of Hashem, what we experience when we stand openly before Hashem.
By standing in front of Hashem our lives are changed, turned from one direction to another. This has to do with the midrash that everyone at Sinai heard the first two commands, "I am Hashem" and "Have no other gods." Because ultimately, the laws and details of the Torah only become meaningful when we stand before Hashem in all openness and immediacy, if only for brief moments. Then things can begin to fall into place. Then we can plumb the wisdom of Torah that lies hidden in all the volumes and volumes of learning.
If we are not standing before Hashem, we are like a piece of pottery that has been sealed all the way around. It is only when we open ourselves up that we actually can become a vessel, a kli for the Torah. This is what Moshe did. He made himself a kli. He opened himself up. And this is what it means when it says that he was the most humble man. For by making space for Hashem he sanctified his life. Moshe was able to take the multiplicity of himself - the complexity of his body, his responsibilities, his relationships, his desires and emotions - and find the wisdom in them, find a way of standing before Hashem in everything.
This is the task of a Jew. To transform his life so that in everything he does he lives in front of Hashem. But like an unopened piece of pottery which he dare not strike violently with a hammer, lest he destroy it altogether, we must consider very carefully what it means to become such a vessel. While we must open fully we must also open slowly, sanctifying more and more aspects of our life, offering ourselves in holiness to Hashem.
Mitzvot From Sefer Hachinuch
There are nine new commandments listed in the parashah (others are repetitions from the original covenant in parashat Mishpatim - compare Sh. 34:11-26 with Sh. 23:10-23):
At A Glance