Exodus 30:11-34:35 | Numbers 19:1-22 | Ezekiel 36:16-38 | Luke 10:25-42

This week's edition of The Set Table contains:

Questions and Commentary on Shabbat Ki Tissa
Chayyei Yeshua - A Devotional Commentary on the Besora Reading
Looking Ahead

Questions & Commentary on Parashat Ki Tissa

1. In our parasha, Israel sins grievously by worshipping an idol. What is the result or punishment of the sin of worshipping the molten calf? How do the people respond to this punishment? Is the relationship between children of Israel and God permanently damaged? 

David Nichol

Israel, fresh from a powerful encounter with the LORD at Sinai, apparently discards the covenant and tosses aside the LORD's commandments. When the LORD sees the revelry and worship of the calf by the Israelites, his anger is such that he is about to destroy the entire people! As the people are worshipping the calf-statue made from their jewelry and crediting it with bringing them out of Egypt, the LORD (who actually brought them out of Egypt), speaking to Moses, ironically refers to them as "your people whom you brought up from the land of Egypt" (Exodus 32.7)!  The LORD is prepared to do away with them and make a new nation out of Moses instead. Moses manages to convince God not to destroy the people of Israel, by pleading, arguing and putting himself on the line on their behalf. He then returns to deal with the situation. The calf is ground up and the people are made to drink water contaminated with its ashes. Even then, there is disorder and chaos in the camp. Moses calls the faithful to him, and the Levites respond: they pass through the camp with swords, killing three thousand. After this, God causes a plague on the Israelites, perhaps in order to "blot out" from his record some of those individuals who had sinned against him (Exodus 32:33).

But was this punishment sufficient to expiate the guilt of the people for their heinous sin? Though God agrees not to destroy the people, he tells them that he will lead them to the Promised Land: "But I will not go in your midst, lest I destroy you on the way" (Exodus 33:3). Moses and the people realize the import of this statement - their unique relationship with God as his people is in jeopardy. The people mourn upon hearing this and strip off their jewelry and fine clothes. As God will not enter the midst of the people, Moses moves the tent where he meets with God outside the camp, and whenever he goes to the tent, the people all stood at the entrances of their tents, and bowed down when the pillar of cloud appeared and God met with Moses in the tent. Their apparent contrition is the first step toward repairing the relationship. 

Here is where Moses becomes the mediator par-excellence. He speaks with God, and they reach an unparalleled intimacy, as Moses actually beholds a measure of God's glory. As they speak, however, Moses refuses to separate himself from the people. Their conversation is framed by multiple reminders to God that Israel is his people and pleas for God's presence to return to them.  Everett Fox translates verses 13-15: 

So-now, if I have, pray, found favor in your eyes, pray let me know your ways, that I may (truly) know you, in order that I may find favor in your eyes: See, this nation is indeed your people! [God] said: If my presence were to go (with you), would I cause you to rest-easy? He said to him: If your presence does not go, do not bring us up from here! 

When God allows Moses to see a measure of his glory, it is notable that the very image and name of God is associated with words: "a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, yet he does not remit all punishment" (Exodus 34:6-7, NJPS).  Immediately after God passes by, Moses bows low and says: 

Pray if I have found favor in your eyes,

O my Lord,

pray let my Lord go among us!

Indeed, it is a hard-necked people--

so forgive our iniquity and our sin,

and make-us-your-inheritance!

    Exodus 34:9 

Moses sees clearly that if God does not go with Israel and make Israel his inheritance, all is lost. As the LORD begins to answer, it is not clear whether he gives in. It soon becomes clear that he agrees to forgive, as he signals the normalization of the relationship by resuming the most loving of his actions toward Israel, the giving of commandments. Having beheld a measure of God's glory, Moses' face shines too brightly to behold.   

There is a clear parallel in the talmidim of Yeshua, who are portrayed in the Besorot as insufferably slow to grasp the nature of his identity and calling and their implications. In a passage that alludes to the one we have been studying, Yeshua goes up on a mountain and begins to radiate with glory as Moses did.  Moses and Elijah, the two who spoke to God at Mount Horeb, and who most epitomize mediating God's tzedeqa (righteousness) and mishpat (justice) to the unfaithful and stiff-necked, appear and speak with him. Kefa and the other talmidim who are present play their part and are evidently confused. Despite the slowness of Yeshua's talmidim to understand the significance of their teacher and master and their apparent inability to understand his teaching, the Ruach Haqqodesh empowers them and they come to embody his work in the world. Yeshua himself is a sign of - even the ultimate expression of - God's dwelling within Israel despite our sin, both in the wilderness and ever since.

2. What is the connection between Shabbat Para and this week's Torah portion, Ki Tissa? 

Joshua Brumbach

This week is a special Shabbat called Shabbat Para. It is named after the special maftir reading from Numbers 19 that is added to the weekly parasha describing the process for sacrificing the Red Heifer. This portion is always read before Parashat HaChodesh (before the beginning of the Jewish month of Nissan).   

In biblical times, every person was required to bring a Qorban Pesach, a Passover Sacrifice on the eve of Passover that was to be eaten during the Seder. However, only people who were ritually pure were able to partake of it. Therefore, right before the month of Nissan (the month in which Passover falls) a public announcement would be made that every person who had become impure must purify themselves, and be extremely careful not to become impure before Passover.   

The para aduma "red heifer" represents the quintessential choq (a divine decree without any seeming rationale). The ashes of the Red Heifer were used for purification. Through the death of a calf, the Tabernacle, its furnishings, and those who served were purified and ritually cleansed to serve in the presence of God. The ashes are also used to purify someone who became ritually impure through contact with a dead body.  

Interestingly, this week's Torah portion, Ki Tissa, also describes a calf, the egel massekha "the golden calf." The Jewish people grew restless after many days had passed since they last heard from Moses. So they took matters into their own hands, and Aaron and the people built a golden calf. This calf, however, was unlike the red heifer. Rather than bringing purification from ritual impurity it brought about defilement, sin, and eventually death. 

In Likutei Halachot, Rebbe Nachman explains why this special portion on Shabbat Para is read after Purim. In the course of our victory over Haman-Amalek, we become defiled through contact with death and evil, and need to be purified. The Sfat Emet further explains (and makes the connection to Ki Tissa) that tumat met (impurity from the dead) is a function of mortality, which entered the world as a result of the primordial sin of Adam who ate from the tree of knowledge. According to Rabbi Zvi Leshem, man's desire to be all knowing like God, placing the value of knowledge over that of faith, led to his downfall, bringing death and impurity into the world. Ritual purity comes through the willingness to serve the LORD even in a reality permeated by doubts and confusion. 

Luke 10:25-42 - "Go and Do Likewise!"

Jen Rosner

The Christian world has long interpreted Yeshua's interactions with and statements to the Jewish authorities as a tacit rejection of Judaism.Our perspective as Messianic Jews allows us to see that the reality is much more nuanced. In this week's Besora portion, we see Yeshua's passion to renew Judaism from the inside out, and we are left with a model of how to live out our call to covenant faithfulness. 

Our passage includes two distinct but related stories. In the "Parable of the Good Samaritan," an expert in the law questions Yeshua about what one must do to inherit eternal life. Yeshua and his interlocutor agree on the foundation of righteous living: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind" (Deuteronomy 6:4) and "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18). The bulk of the discussion revolves around the question, "who is my neighbor?"  

Yeshua tells the familiar story of a man whose misfortune is overlooked by a priest and a Levite, but who is shown mercy by a Samaritan passerby. The implication is clear: mercy is at the heart of what God requires. It was the Samaritan who carried out the two greatest commandments. 

Last week's Haftara portion communicates a similar message. In 1 Samuel 15, Saul's zeal causes him to disobey God's command. Samuel's chastisement of Saul closely parallels Yeshua's critique of the priest and Levite in the parable. "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams" (1 Samuel 15:22). The priest and the Levite failed to practice the very love that stands at the core of the Torah.  

Our obedience must be characterized by charity and mercy lest we unwittingly spurn the word of the Lord out of a zeal for righteousness. The second story in our passage communicates the same message. While Martha scrambles to make preparations, Mary sits at Yeshua's feet "listening to what he said."  

Yeshua's critique of the Pharisees is not a critique of Judaism. It is a critique of misguided zeal that builds barriers and stratifies the Jewish people. Yeshua's words in the next chapter reiterate this idea: "Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone" (Luke 11:42). 

Rabbi Sacks sums up the matter well:  

Greatness, even for God, certainly for us, is not to be above people but to be with them, hearing their silent cry, sharing their distress, bringing comfort to the distressed and dignity to the deprived. The message of the Hebrew Bible is that civilizations survive not by strength but by how they respond to the weak; not by wealth but by how they care for the poor; not by power but by their concern for the powerless. What renders a culture invulnerable is the compassion it shows to the vulnerable. 

This is Yeshua's message in Luke 10, and this is the heart of Judaism. The mercy of the Samaritan passerby becomes our command: "Go and do likewise."

NEXT WEEK'S READINGS - PARASHAT VAYYAQHEL-PEQUDEI

Exodus 35:1-40:38
Exodus 12:1-20
Ezekiel 45:16-46:18
Matthew 13:1-23