Torah Parshas Ki Tisa

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Hew for yourself. Heb. פְּסָל לְ. He [God] showed him [Moses] a sapphire mine from within his tent, and He said to him, “The [sapphire] chips shall be yours,” and from there Moses became very wealthy. -[from Tanchuma 29, Lev. Rabbah 32:2] Hew for yourself. You broke the first ones. You hew others for yourself. This can be compared to a king who went abroad and left his betrothed with the maidservants. Because of the immoral behavior of the maidservants, she acquired a bad reputation. Her bridesman [the person appointed to defend the bride should any problems arise] arose and tore up her marriage contract. He said, “If the king decides to kill her, I will say to him, ‘She is not yet your wife.’” The king investigated and discovered that only the maidservants were guilty of immoral behavior. He [therefore] became appeased to her. So her bridesman said to him, “Write her another marriage contract because the first one was torn up.” The king replied to him, “You tore it up. You buy yourself another [sheet of] paper, and I will write to her with my [personal] hand [writing].” Likewise, the king represents the Holy One, blessed is He. The maidservants represent the mixed multitude. The bridesman is Moses, and the betrothed of the Holy One, blessed is He, is Israel. That is why it says: “Hew for yourself.” -[from Tanchuma 30]

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Had Israel not sinned with the Golden Calf, they would have received only the Five Books of Moses and the book of Joshua. Why? Because, as the verse (Ecclesiastes 1:18) says, "Much wisdom comes through much grief."

(Talmud, Nedarim 22b)

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Both the [Second] Tablets and the broken Tablets, were placed in the Ark.

(Talmud, Bava Batra 14b)

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The First Tablets, which were given in great fanfare and noise, were destroyed, while the Second Tablets, given in private, endured. For there is no better trait than modesty.

(Rashi)

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G-d... long-suffering and abundant in love (34:6)

When Moses ascended to heaven, he found G-d sitting and writing "forbearing." Said Moses to G-d: "Master of the Universe! Forbearing to the righteous?" Said G-d: "Also to the wicked." Said Moses: "Let the wicked perish!" Said G-d: "See now that you will need this." When Israel sinned, G-d said to Moses: "Did you not tell Me to be forbearing only toward the righteous?" Said Moses to Him: "Did You not say to me, 'Also to the wicked'?"

(Talmud, Sanhedrin 111a)

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Chapter 34

10. And He said: "Behold! I will form a covenant; in the presence of all your people, I will make distinctions such as have not been created upon all the earth and among all the nations, and all the people in whose midst you are shall see the work of the Lord how awe inspiring it is that which I will perform with you.
11. Keep carefully what I am commanding you today: Lo! I will drive out from before you the Amorites and the Canaanites, the Hittites and the Perizzites, the Hivvites and the Jebusites. 12. Beware lest you form a covenant with the inhabitant[s] of the land into which you are coming, lest it become a snare in your midst.
13. But you shall demolish their altars, shatter their monuments, and cut down their sacred trees.
14. For you shall not prostrate yourself before another god, because the Lord, Whose Name is "Jealous One," is a jealous God.
15. Lest you form a covenant with the inhabitant[s] of the land, and they [the gentiles] go astray after their gods, and they offer sacrifices to their gods, and they invite you, and you eat of their slaughtering, 16. and you take of their daughters for your sons; then their daughters will go astray after their gods and lead your sons astray after their gods. 17. You shall not make molten gods for yourself.
18. The Festival of Unleavened Cakes you shall keep; seven days you shall eat unleavened cakes which I have commanded you, at the appointed meeting time of the month of spring, for in the month of spring you went out of Egypt.
19. All that opens the womb is Mine, and all your livestock [that] bears a male, [by] the emergence of ox or lamb.
20. And a firstborn donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; if you do not redeem it, you shall decapitate it; every firstborn of your sons you shall redeem, and they shall not appear before Me empty handed.
21. Six days you may work, and on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing and in harvest you shall rest.
22. And you shall make for yourself a Festival of Weeks, the first of the wheat harvest, and the festival of the ingathering, at the turn of the year.
23. Three times during the year shall all your male[s] appear directly before the Master, the Lord, the God of Israel.
24. When I drive out nations from before you and I widen your border, no one will covet your land when you go up, to appear before the Lord, your God, three times each year.
25. You shall not slaughter [or sprinkle] the blood of My sacrifice with leaven, and the offering of the Passover feast shall not remain overnight until the morning.
26. The choicest of the first of your soil you shall bring to the house of the Lord, your God. You shall not cook a kid in its mother's milk."

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Chapter 34

27. The Lord said to Moses: "Inscribe these words for yourself, for according to these words I have formed a covenant with you and with Israel." 28. He was there with the Lord for forty days and forty nights; he ate no bread and drank no water, and He inscribed upon the tablets the words of the Covenant, the Ten Commandments.
29. And it came to pass when Moses descended from Mount Sinai, and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses' hand when he descended from the mountain and Moses did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant while He had spoken with him
30. that Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses and behold! the skin of his face had become radiant, and they were afraid to come near him.
31. But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the princes of the community returned to him, and Moses would speak to them.
32. Afterwards all the children of Israel would draw near, and he would command them everything that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.
33. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he placed a covering over his face.
34. When Moses would come before the Lord to speak with Him, he would remove the covering until he left; then he would leave and speak to the children of Israel what he would be commanded.
35. Then the children of Israel would see Moses' face, that the skin of Moses' face had become radiant, and [then] Moses would replace the covering over his face until he would come [again] to speak with Him.

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When Moses went in before G-d to speak with him, he removed the veil... and [so he] spoke to the children of Israel that which he was commanded... [After that] Moses put the veil upon his face again (34:33-35)

Moses did not use his "veil" when teaching Torah to the people--even though the divine radiance emitted by his face was overpowering for them--covering his face only after he finished communicating G-d's laws to them.

This teaches us how we are to approach the various involvements of life.

The study of Torah and the observance of the mitzvot should always be approached without inhibition or constraint. No matter how lofty and overwhelming the endeavor may seem, here we are in our element, since G-dliness is the natural habitat of the Jew.

But when it comes to our other, everyday pursuits, we are treading on alien, spiritually dangerous ground. Here we must use a "veil," qualifying and filtering our involvement with the material world. Enjoined to exploit the positive potential that resides within each of G-d's creations, we must exercise great caution in doing so, shielding ourselves against the negative effects of excessive involvement in material things.

(The Lubavitcher Rebbe)

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Chapter 34

10. And He said: "Behold! I will form a covenant; in the presence of all your people, I will make distinctions such as have not been created upon all the earth and among all the nations, and all the people in whose midst you are shall see the work of the Lord how awe inspiring it is that which I will perform with you. ...

23. Three times during the year shall all your male[s] appear directly before the Master, the Lord, the God of Israel.
24. When I drive out nations from before you and I widen your border, no one will covet your land when you go up, to appear before the Lord, your God, three times each year.
...

Could this be Israel's true "Roadmap to Peace?" (34: 23-24) I seem to remember hearing reports about the "enemies" fleeing from the advance of IDF forces, and large parcels of land being captured in each of Israel's defensive campaigns since1948. Of course this was before "politicians" gave many of the captured areas back to the "enemies." Please don't allow the Golan area to be returned.