Sin and Forgiveness (4 March, 2013, ADAR 22, 5773)
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Contents
The Weekly Torah-Pentateuch Reading
The Divine Angel
The Half-Shekel Offering
Washing the Hands and Sacred Anointment
Building the Tabernacle
The Sabbath as a Covenant
The Golden Calf as a Substitute for Moses
Moses and His descendants in Britain and Gaul with the Lost Ten Tribes
We are responsible for our leaders!
The Tribe of Levi is Especially Blessed.
The People are Placed on Probation
Moses Demands that the Presence of God Remain with them!
New Tablets
The God of Mercy: Favor Shown for a Thousand Generations
The Covenant Renewed.
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b.The Weekly Torah-Pentateuch Reading
The first five books of the Bible are known in English as the Pentateuch. This word is derived from the Ancient Greek, pentateukhos i.e. five books, from pente, "five" and teukhos, "tool, scroll, book". The Pentateuch was written by Moses. In Hebrew it is known as the Chumash i.e. Five. It is also known as the Torah. The term Torah is also applied to learning, especially religious learning, in general. This may sound confusing but it is not since the context in which the word is used shows what meaning is intended. A Weekly Portion (Hebrew "parashah" or "sedra") of the Torah is read out every Shabat in the Synagogue. Over the course of a year the whole of the Torah (first five Books of the Bible) is read.
On Shabat, 2 March, 2013, ADAR 20, 5773, the parashah known as "Ki Tisa" (Exodus 30:11-34:35) was read. This section contains several messages of interest to an overall understanding of the Bible and the Place of the Lost Ten Tribes in it.
The Parashah is part of the Book of Exodus which is dedicated to how the Children of Israel were delivered from Egypt, passed through the Red sea, began their wanderings in the Wilderness, and received the Torah and its laws.
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The Divine Angel
Earlier on, before we reach our section, the People of Israel had been promised that God would send his angel before them. This angel would have the name of God in him.
Exodus 23:
20 Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21 Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him. 22 But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. 23 For My Angel will go before you and bring you in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off. 24 You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars.
We shall return to this point concerning the angel and angels in general further on.
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The Half-Shekel Offering
Our section, Ki Tisa, starts out with Moses still on Mount Sinai alone with the Almighty who is giving him the Laws. Every Israelite male was commanded to give a half a shekel to atone for himself (Exodus 30:11-16). It would avert the danger of plague. This money was to be used to purchase community sacrifices over the course of the year. Commentators say that half a coin had to be given by every person to impress on the community that every one is worth something in the eyes of God. No-one is really any better than the other, at the basic level. Every person is worth something BUT each one on their own is only half a person. We all need others to complement ourselves. We can only realize our full potential by identifying with the whole body of Israel.
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Washing the Hands and Sacred Anointment
After that the section concerns itself with the ceremonial washing of hands in the Tabernacle service (Exodus 30:17-21). We then move on to the making of anointing oil.
This oil could only be used for anointing the utensils employed in the Tabernacle and later for anointing Kings of the House of David (Exodus 30:22-38). In Hebrew the word for anointed is Mashiach. This word, Machiach, is also the title of the Messiah who will be descended from David and be anointed to fulfill the tasks laid upon him. Kings who were not from the House of David could also be anointed but then a different oil, made from the afarsimon (possibly persimmon) plant, was used.
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Building the Tabernacle
Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah together with Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan were to be in charge of constructing the Tabernacle (Exodus 31:1-6). A popular explanation of this choice points out that Judah was the most religious tribes and Dan, traditionally, the least. Nevertheless, the Almighty required that for the building of HIS place both sections of the Israelites should participate.
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The Sabbath as a Covenant
The Israelites were commanded to keep the Sabath as a covenant between the Almighty and His people (Exodus 31:12-17).
God then gave Moses two tablets of the Law (Exodus 31:18).
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The Golden Calf as a Substitute for Moses
Meanwhile, the people of Israel had received the mistaken impression that Moses had not returned when he said he would. They feared that Moses had disappeared.
They asked Aharon (the brother of Moses and Chief Priest) to make them elohim, translated as gods, to go before them in place of Moses (Exodus 32:1). The word elohim can mean God, or gods, or angels, or great men, or judges. It all depends on the context. The people at first did not necessarily want to create a god in place of the Almighty. They rather felt a need for an emissary in place of Moses to intercede for them (Iben Ezra, Kuzari).
The Commentary Netivot Shalom (by Sholom Noach Berezovsky, the Slonimer Rabbi, 1911-2000), says that Moses personified the soul of the Israelite Nation. Once they had turned their back on Moses they automatically fell into idolatry.
Aharon told them to bring their golden jewellery. He then created a golden bull calf (Exodus 32:4). [A bull calf was the symbol of Ephraim, and a bull represented Joseph in general.] Aharon then made an altar to this false god and declared that the next day would be a feast to God Almighty. This shows that this image was not at first necessarily considered idolatrous.
# And Aaron made a proclamation and said, 'Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord ' ( Exodus 32:5). #
The next day the people offered sacrifices to the image, and "sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play" (Exodus 32:6). This expression "rose up to play" has connotations of both sexual licence and bloodshed (Rashi).
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Moses and His descendants in Britain and Gaul with the Lost Ten Tribes
God ordered Moses to go down from the mountain. HE threatens to destroy the people and make Moses a great nations in place of them (Exodus 32:10). Moses pleades with God.
Exodus 32:
13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.
14 So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.
Even though Moses had averted the destruction of all Israel he had been tentatively promised to become a great nation himself.
The Descendants of Moses in folklore were often spoken of together with the Lost Ten Tribes. They were reported by Arab- related sources of Jewish origin to be in "Gebalk" meaning in Gaul and related areas. They were also said to be together with the Sons of Ad in the "Islands of the Happy" meaning the British Isles. "The Sons of Ad" was an Arabian term for the Lost Ten Tribes who because of their sins had been blown across the sea and were to be found in the British Isles. Descendants of Moses were also associated with Dan. The Book of Judges tells us how JONATHAN, THE SON OF GERSHOM, THE SON OF MANASSEH [Judges 18:30] joined the Danites and gave rise tot heir priesthood. The name Manasseh in the lineage of JONATHAN, THE SON OF GERSHOM, THE SON OF MANASSEH
is actually spelt in Hebrew the same as Moses with a small "n" letter inserted (in the upper level, i.e. as superscript) to change it to Manasseh and hide its true Moses association (Rashi).
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We are responsible for our leaders!
Moses went down the mountain and saw the people revelling before the golden calf. In his anger he broke the tablets (Exodus 32:16).
He broke and burned the calf, mixed the ashes with water, and made the people drink it (Exodus 32:20).
He was angry with Aharon and asked him for an explanation. Aharon blamed the people (Exodus 32:24). Moses then seems to leave Aharon alone. Nor do we find it expressly said that God ever punished Aharon for his role in this matter. Aharon was the High Priest. He represented the Priesthood, the spiritual directors of the people.
It may be that our Rabbis, priests, and spiritual guidance people are reflections of ourselves? Perhaps their level is always dependent on us?
I ran this idea past Rabbi Yehonatan Davidiy who replied that it ties in with the saying that the type of person one gets married to is determined by our actions.
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The Tribe of Levi is Especially Blessed.
Moses got the Tribe of Levi together, they drew their swords and killed about 3000 of the idolaters . As a reward the Tribe of Levi received a special blessing (Exodus 32:25-29).
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The People are Placed on Probation
Moses pleaded again with God who agreed to let the people be for the time being but threatens to punish them more severely if they ever sin in this way again (Exodus 32:30-35).
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Moses Demands that the Presence of God Remain with them!
God says that he will send his Angel before the people to drive out the Canaanite Nations (Exodus 33:1-3). We see later this is not acceptable to Moses though previously
a similar statement had been accepted by him (Exodus 23:20-24). We shall return to this matter of the angel in a separate article.
Moses insists that God Himself go with them. The Almighty appears to agree but Moses requests that as proof he be enabled to see the Almighty Himself (Exodus 33:12-18)!
God says that no man may see HIM and live. Nevertheless HE tells Moses to hide himself in a cleft of a rock and see the Glory of God pass by from behind (Exodus 33:19-23)! Maimonides (Shemoneh Prakim) explains this to mean that Moses will have proof of the Presence of God remaining with Israel IF he sees what happens in history after it happens.
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New Tablets
Moses is commanded to cut two new tablets and write on them the words that were on the first ones (Exodus 33:1-3).
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The God of Mercy: Favor Shown for a Thousand Generations
God describes HIMSELF as a God of mercy. Someone who sins will be punished. The punishment may continue for three or four generations which is usually explained to mean IF they do not repent, i.e. if one sins punishment may come not only for the sin itself but also for similar offences carried out by your ancestors! On the other hand for those who do good it is promised that the reward will carry on for a thousand generations!
Exodus 33:
5 Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation.'
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The Covenant Renewed.
God Himself Promises that HE will lead the people into the Land and drive out the Canaanite Nations. We are forbidden to make a covenant with these peoples and commanded not to intermarry with them (Exodus 33:10-16).
Additional commandments are given. It is explained how on each occasion that Moses spoke with God in the Tabernacle his face would shine afterwards. Moses would therefore place a veil over his face (Exodus 33:17-35).
See Also: "Ki Tisa. Golden Calf"