Ki Tissa. Why Shabbat

Parashat Ki Tissa is sadly known for the dramatic episode that runs through it.

When the Hebrews realize that Moses—who had gone up the mountain to receive the tablets of the law for them—does not return after more than a month, they conclude that he has died, that the God they were following is no longer there, and that they must now make another god for themselves.

They then fashion a statue of gold in the shape of a calf, like the animal-gods that form the religion of Egypt, which they have only just left. In doing so, they betray the source of life that guides them and which is, by definition, elusive and intangible—what a challenge that is for human beings.

The moment when Moses returns from the mountain carrying the tablets of the covenant and sees them celebrating, having so quickly replaced the God who brought them out of Egypt, is so tragic that we often forget a short verse that actually precedes the crisis:

“But My Sabbaths you shall keep.” (Exodus 31:13)אַ֥ךְ אֶת־שַׁבְּתֹתַ֖י תִּשְׁמֹ֑רוּ

As the instructions for the construction of the Mishkan come to an end, it is with Shabbat that the divine speech concludes, before Moses is invited to go up and receive the tablets of the law.

Why Shabbat?

According to many commentators, it is to remind us that nothing—not even the construction of the Mishkan, the dwelling place of the divine presence—is more important than knowing how to stop.

To stop building in the world once every six days, in order to give the world the possibility of completing itself through non-doing; and for us, to step out of the constant race of doing and return to the source.

We -or our friends, our non-Jewish neighbors, or our kids, often ask ourselves a question that I feel is very important to ask ourselves at least once in our lives:

Why Shabbat, ultimately, is so important to Jewish Culture?

Why "keeping"- observing a day of cessation and rest- on Shabbat, for challenging that this might be sometimes?

As a testimony to the cycle of creation, as our texts and prayers teach us?

Because it is our tradition?

Yet the text here answers the question explicitly:

“Because it is a sign between Me and you.”

כִּי֩ א֨וֹת הִ֜וא בֵּינִ֤י וּבֵֽינֵיכֶם֙

The verse continues by summarizing this commandment to the children of Israel to keep Shabbat as an “eternal sign,” to the point that these verses became the text of the Kiddush recited on the day of Shabbat.

In my view, this sign is the answer given in advance to the fall of the Golden Calf.

Jewish tradition teaches that the remedy is always given before the wound.

And here we were given a sign of our covenant with the Divine—a sign we could have held onto in a moment of uncertainty and fear when the leader of the people disappeared in the desert.

It is also a sign that gives us the greatest freedom:

It is intangible. It is not an object that can be lost or broken.

This sign is a time that we choose to take.

And therein lies the second dimension of the gift: we are free to take this time—or to not take int.

We are responsible for Shabbat in the sense that it is up to us to carefully preserve this sign of our covenant with the source of life—or not.

The true remedy for idolatry, of which the Golden Calf is the most painfully striking expression in the biblical narrative, is this reminder that the deepest and strongest sign of a relationship between us and life source is—like the God of Israel— intangible.

It is up to us to make it a reality in our lives.

And this is where Emunah, faith, takes on its full raison d'être. Believing that something that is not visible is yet there, is a bet. And if we want to make it palpable, we don't need to make a statue of Gold. We can feel the experience of life when the pace is different. We can experience a day of stopping doing, a day of rest, a day of pleasure. It might be less palpable than a statue. But it might be more real and lasting as an experience- and one noone can take away from us.

This Shabbat is also Shabbat Parah, when we read the verse that speaks of a ritual of purification through the offering of a cow, a ritual intended to purify us so that we may be ready for the Korban Pesach.

To be pure (tahor) in a Jewish perspective, means to be deeply connected to life.

How much purification we need today.

May this Shabbat truly be a Shabbat of Shalom.

May it bring rest and peace to hearts and throughout the entire Middle East. May we the peoples in Israel and Iran, and in all the countries of the Middle East Affected by this war, be safe and taste a sense of peace this shabbat. ✨