Feb 26/05 — Shabbat Ki Tisa

Commentary by Chazzan Aníbal Mass

Parashat Ki Tisa contains, among its numerous verses, the sad story of the golden calf.

Is there any lesson to extract from the participation of the children of Israel in this inexcusable event?

The answer is yes. We could say, without fear of mistake, that almost all the Jews were willing to economically support a project as dubious as this. As Rabbi Aizel Charif (Slonim, 19^th Century) said with irony, “Our ancestors — even when they sinned — were willing to give up their gold and silver to have a god. The Jews of our generation, on the other hand, give up their God to have gold and silver...”

At the beginning of our Parashah we read, "Everyone included in the census will give a half shekel … an offering for the Sanctuary.” That half shekel completed a double function: On one hand, it was good to count the children of Israel. On the other hand, it was good to build the foundations of the Mishkan. In a very interesting paradox, we could say that in the same Parashah the people of Israel achieved the noblest and the most detestable of projects. But there is a common factor ...  they were together; in spite of the golden calf ... for good or evil they were united.

When they were at the base of Sinai, they were together. And when they turned their backs on God, they were also together. When they built the Mishkan, they built it together, and when they cried bitterly after the report of the spies, they cried together.

That was a generation that made hundred of mistakes, but had a virtue that has been repeated only a few times in the history of our people: It was a united people that had a very clear idea of where the strength of a nation resides. The national unit was not a topic of political parties. The national unit — even facing sins as foolish as the golden calf — was the reason for being of that entire generation. It gave cohesion and strength to those slaves that had abandoned Mitzraim some months earlier.

Perhaps, that it is the best lesson that this generation of the desert has bequeathed us. It was a generation full of mistakes, fears and deficiencies, but even the golden calf had been made in an act of unity.