Scrollers Prevew - Parsashat Ki Tissa 2014

“You know that breaking up. . . is. . . hard to do! Now I know, I know that it’s tru-ue.” (I had to throw this in to prove that the generation gap at Scrollers isn’t THAT wide. Neil Sedaka 1962? Okay, I admit, I did google that fact.) But truly, ever since reading the parasha for this week, I haven’t been able to get this  song out of my head.

Our tradition often understands the meeting between God and the people Israel at Mount Sinai as a wedding, and the story of the ongoing relationship as a love story. But this is not some Disney love story. Ours is more like a soap opera. We have huge ups and huge downs in this relationship. In terms of where we are now in the Book of Exodus, the people and God have just sealed their covenant. Moses has been up on the mountain receiving detailed instructions for how we will construct the Tabernacle – God’s home on earth where God’s Presence will dwell among the Israelites. We have spent several chapters answering the question “Is God indeed among us?” with a resounding, “YES!” God is about to officially move in!

And this week it all threatens to fall apart. While Moses is up on the mountain, the people become impatient, and the impatience quickly turns to desperation. They are lost – they feel that without Moses among them, they have no connection to God. And so they ask Aaron to make them a god. Aaron molds a golden calf, and the Israelites worship it. God sends Moses back down to check things out.

Moses and God are not happy. The covenant is in great danger. Divorce is imminent. Moses smashes the tablets – the wedding contract.  He then strips the Israelites of their finery - their wedding apparel perhaps? God wants to kill all the people and start over with Moses.

BUT – as Neil Sedaka wisely teaches us – “breaking up is hard to do!” Moses goes back up the mountain to try and gain forgiveness. God relents the idea of killing the people but announces that God’s Presence will no longer be among the people, leading them to the Promised Land. Moses can’t accept this and finally persuades God to stick with the people. By the end of the parasha, not only has God relented the punishment, but God has also given Moses a more intimate experience of who God is. Moses is placed in the cleft of the rock as God passes by and proclaims the 13 attributes of mercy and compassion. God has shown Godself to Moses more directly than God has before or ever will again to any prophet in our tradition.

And so we ask this week – what is it about almost reaching the breaking point that brings us even closer together? How is it that after a fight, the lovers are even more in love than before?