Ki Siso - Jews sin at Sinai while Moshe speaks to HaShem

Parshas Ki Siso

Dovid Eidensohn

The Parsha of Ki Siso begins with the building of the holy utensils of the Mishkan. It concludes with the heinous sin of the Jews worshipping the Golden Calf, an act of idolatry even while Moshe was on the mountain with HaShem learning the Torah and the Ten Commandments which included the entire Torah.

We have questions on the parsha. First of all, it is obvious that the mistake the Jews made to worship the Golden Calf was because they anticipated Moshe returning from talking to HaShem on a certain date, and they got the wrong date, at least, the people got the wrong date. This itself is very strange.   HaShem is talking with Moshe, who is supposed to return to the Jews on a certain date which he surely told the Jews, and they all got confused. Everyone, including the brother of Moshe, Aharon, who was the leader of the Jews while Moshe was speaking to HaShem on Mt. Sinai, accepted the cry of all of the Jews that Moshe was no longer alive and that they Jews needed a new god to lead them. Did the Jews have to worship idols because Moshe was a few hours late by their reckoning? And, more important, was Moshe really late? How can somebody talking to HaShem who is supposed to know when to return to the Jews, who told the Jews when he would return, tell the Jews something different than what he made up with HaShem?

This is the small question. The big question is on HaShem Himself. When the Jews assumed that Moshe was dead and that the Jews must create an idol to be their god, it is obvious that the entire date of Moshe’s arrival back to the Jewish camp was unknown to the Jews. And that more incredibly, they assumed he had died, and based on this, decided to deny HaShem entirely and worship an idol that emerged from a fire saying “I am your god.” Why did HaShem not ensure that Moshe gave the right date to the Jews, and why did HaShem not remind Moshe to leave on that exact date. It is obvious from the story in the Torah that there were many hours from the act of the populace in making the Golden Calf until Moshe was finally sent by HaShem on what was obviously a date that HaShem considered too early for Moshe to leave Him. If so, it surely is incredible that Moshe himself and the Jewish people and even HaShem were not prepared to honor the date Moshe told the Jews he would return.

But there is actually another question that quells all of the above questions, and it so stunning that it will, as we will see, answer all of the above questions even though it is incredibly amazing.

To prepare you for this incredibly amazing fact, it is necessary to prepare the process a bit, to make the result more palatable.

We have mentioned earlier in various discussions that this world is filled with people who sin, that the world is filled with darkness, and that “from darkness comes light.” Obviously, if at the time of the Giving of the Torah, the Jews built a Golden Calf and worshipped it, something went wrong. How did that happen? What terrible darkness came into the world to uproot all of the above?

The answer, as taught in Gemora Avoda Zora 4b and 5a, is that HaShem did it, deliberately. It was something crucial for the entire existence of the world, a world where people always sinned and the only thing that would save them from Gehenum was penitence. Furthermore, this heavenly mercy applies to people who sin against HaShem. But people who sin against other people must appease the hurt person and become forgiven, without the act of penitence alone by the sinner. (If the sinner does his best to appease the one he sinned against, this is another thing which we won’t go into now.) If so, sin is a terrible thing and since people are always suspected of doing this or that sin, even some sins that HaShem on his own won’t recognize the Teshuva, it was necessary for HaShem to teach people, along with giving the Torah, that they, as a nation that did a lot of sinning as is obvious from this week’s sedra and other holy works and gemoras.

The above gemora says that HaShem deliberately planned two terrible sins from people who were extremely remote from sin. One was King David who took Bas Sheva against her will. The other was the Jewish people at Sinai who achieved an incredible level of perfection from hearing the Ten Commandments spoken by HaShem and explained by Moshe. Hashem did this to teach everyone that if an individual sins, but HaShem accepted his penitence, then any individual knows they can repent to HaShem. If a community sins, HaShem proves from the Jews at Sinai that penitence will even save an entire people who did a terrible sin.

For HaShem’s plan to work the Jews had to be confused about the day of Moshe’s return. Now all of the questions are answered.

The only remaining question: Do we all know the teaching of the gemora to be sure that our penitence will be accepted? And if we repent, will we do as King David did, to devote his life in the Book of Tehilim to atone for his sin? And another question is: Do we imitate King David who once boasted, “My heart is still inside of me” meaning I cannot sin? HaShem spoke to David and said, “Is that so? I assure you that you will one day sin with a woman who is married to another man.” David trembled when he heard this, and when he saw Bas Sheva and felt a terrible desire, he realized immediately that this was now the test HaShem had promised him. He knew that he was able to conquer his evil inclination with great effort, but to do so would insult HaShem, who told him he would sin. To avoid that, he sinned.

This itself produced an uproar and HaShem was asked how he could forgive David who had stolen a married woman. HaShem answered that all of the husbands engaged in open battles wrote a document of divorce to their wives. Otherwise, maybe they would be captured or killed and no witnesses would know where they were buried to free their wives. To assure the wives, all husbands, privately got witnesses watch them give their wives a GET. It happened that Basheva’s husband was killed in a serious battle so David did not take Bas Sheva until she was divorced properly.

The Jews themselves at Sinai began the tradition that all Jews repent on Yom Kippur and many other times. And especially today when everyone learns Musar, penitence is part of life, as is asking forgiveness.