Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Ki Tisa Exodus 30:11-34:35

By Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel - “Why O Lord are you so angry at your nation whom you took out of the land of Egypt with great strength and with a strong hand.” (Exodus 32:11)

Who is to blame when a tragedy occurs to the Jewish people? Is it G-d’s fault? Is it the fault of Jewish leaders? Is it the fault of the Jewish people?

A careful look at this week’s Torah portion will reveal the answer. The Israelites have emerged from the dizzying and rapturous heights of the Revelation at Sinai only to have descended to tragic immorality with the worship of the Golden Calf. It almost seems as if a glorious potential history will conclude before it has really begun. The Almighty G-d seems to blame the nation, when He says to Moses, “Go forth and descend because your nation which you have taken out of Egypt has become corrupted… and now allow Me to vent my anger against them and I will destroy them; I will make from you a new nation.” (Exodus 32:7). From G-d’s perspective, it is the Israelites who have defiled themselves by descending from heavenly purity to licentious idolatry.

Moses blames G-d, when he turns around almost the very words which the Almighty used against Israel. “Why O Lord are you so angry at your nation whom you took out of the land of Egypt with great strength and with a strong hand?” (Exodus 32:11) In effect Moses is criticizing G-d who initially brought them into Egypt and now has taken them out of that idolatrous nation before they were really ready for a life of Torah and commandments. Yes, G-d may very well have wrought many miracles to have gotten Pharoah to let them go and to have enabled them to cross the Reed Sea. In effect G-d’s very greatness of power and strength of hand pampered them and did not give them the inner resources to stand on their own two feet against the challenges of the desert while G-d and Moses (as it were) were otherwise occupied.

And then, to a certain extent, Moses blames himself. After all, he was their leader - and perhaps he should have prepared them much better for a life of independent Divine service even in his absence. Indeed, Moses even suggests that he serve as a vicarious atonement - a kapara - for his nation:

“And it happened the next day that Moses said to the nation, ‘You have sinned a great sin; now I shall ascend to the Lord so that perhaps I may achieve forgiveness (be a kapara) for your sin.’ And Moses returned to the Lord and he said, ‘Please this nation has sinned a great sin… and now perchance You will bear (literally take upon Yourself) their sin; and if not, blot me out now for your book which you have written.’” (Exodus 32:30-32)

The rabbis of the Talmud even compare Moses to the suffering servant of Isaiah (53) who takes upon himself the sins of the multitude and is willing to give up his life on their behalf (B.T. Sotah 14a). In another Talmudic passage, the sages interpret the words, “VaYehal Moshe”, usually translated as “Moses entreated G-d”, as meaning “Moses made himself a corpse (hallal) before G-d” (B.T. Berakhot 32a).

You will certainly be aware that this idea sounds frighteningly like the vicarious atonement of the founder of Christianity, the major subject of the Passion movie of Gibson. Undoubtedly the entire concept of vicarious atonement or kapara stems from the sacrifice of the sin offering, where the animal dies instead of the repentant individual as an expression of G-d’s graciousness and forgiveness. Here our rabbis extend this notion to the Jewish leader, to Moses, who seems to be willing to take “ministerial responsibility”.

However, G-d does not permit such vicarious atonement! The Almighty responds to Moses in no uncertain terms, “The one who has sinned against Me, he shall be blotted out from My book” (Exodus 32:33). And our Bible stresses this cardinal principle of individual responsibility with the clear exhortation, “Parents shall not die because of their children and children shall not die because of their parents; each individual shall die because of his/her sin” (Deuteronomy 24:6).

And so the Almighty continues to explain to Moses a fundamental truth of Jewish history and Jewish theology: “And now you (Moses) go and lead the nation to where I have spoken to you; behold My messengers shall walk before you and when I exact punishment, I shall exact it upon those who have sinned” (Exodus 32:33).

G-d has told Moses that He Himself is not yet ready to walk in the midst of the nation and to show His face frontally as the manifest leader of the people; to do so would mean an immediate system of Divine reward and punishment which would remove individual free will and which would make G-d ultimately responsible for Jewish history. G-d wants to make the Israelite nation itself responsible. G-d wants the nation to perfect itself and perfect the world. Hence, G-d does not take responsibility for the nation’s backsliding nor does He allow for blameless leaders to take upon themselves vicarious atonement. Israel must take responsibility for what happens to Israel.

This is one important place in which Judaism diverges from Christianity. Judaism believes that the people - indeed, all of humanity - has the inner strength to perfect and redeem itself. G-d believes in us, despite our many failures. The least we can do is to believe in ourselves. After all, we have His Torah and all of us humans are created in the image of G-d.

Shabbat Shalom.