March
1-2, 2013 / 20 Adar 5773
Shabbat
Ki Tissa
Torah:
Exodus 30:11 - 34:35
Maftir:
Numbers 19:1 - 19:22 | Shabbat Parah
Haftarah:
Ezekiel 36:16 - 36:38 | Shabbat Parah
“Living
at our Best”
Dear Friends,
In this week’s Torah portion, the children of
Israel are waiting at the base of Mount Sinai for Moses to return from his
encounter with God on the summit. More
than a month has gone by with no word.
Many become concerned that perhaps Moses has died and that God has
abandoned them in the wilderness. They
demand that an idol be made for them to worship as they did in Egypt. A midrash interpretive story tells how one
leader of Israel stood against them reminding them that they had seen God’s
miracles when they left Egypt and therefore, did not need a visible idol to
comfort them. The mob killed him. Then they approached Aaron, who quickly gave
in, requiring only that gold rings be given so that a ‘golden calf’ could be
fashioned. Jewish tradition pardons
Aaron because he knew that he had to do something - anything - to stall and
placate the mob until Moses returned.
Nevertheless, the Golden Calf affair is considered one of the darkest
periods in biblical history because the people became impatient and
frustrated. Their lack of faith almost
undid the Jewish people.
We are very much like our ancestors. All too often, we grow impatient. We become easily frustrated. We lose our temper and we do things that we
later regret with deep humiliation and shame.
We forget our values and we forsake our responsibility to act with honor
and maturity. We embarrass our families,
our community, and ourselves. You name
the situation and circumstances; we have all experienced this... because we are
all human.
Our Jewish tradition recognizes the opportunity for
tshuvah - repentance for the times in our lives when we miss the mark and
behave less than our best. Our tradition
accepts that we can make up for our misdeeds and become even better than we
were before. Our heritage understands
that often the sins we commit become the learning opportunities through which
we grow and mature.
The best path is to remain calm and not lose our
patience in the first place. But when we
do, it is through tshuvah - true and sincere repentance and self-evaluation -
that we redeem ourselves and continue our life journey towards living a blessed
life filled with meaning, holiness, wisdom, awareness, good deeds,
mentshlichkeit (being a mentsch – a
person of dignity, honor, and righteousness) and love.
Zye a mentsch, everyone! Be a mentsch!
Shabbat shalom.
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