Portable Biblical Tabernacle, Mishkan,

Yesterday at our women's Shabbat Torah Class, we talked about the Mishkan, Tabernacle, which is the main topic of the Book of Vayikra,  Leviticus which we just finished reading. The neighbor who spoke to us started by reminding us that there isn't a clear chronology in the Bible. That means that events didn't happen in the order we read them.

A few years ago I studied Bamidbar, Numbers, in Matan, taught by Atara Snowbell, and  one of the important things she began with was to say that Vayikra and Bamidbar happened simultaneously. The books each cover different aspects of that time period.

Back to Vayikra and the Tabernacle. Yesterday we were reminded that the "Sin of the Golden Calf" occured right after the Jewish People escaped from Egypt, before the building of the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle in the wilderness was to remedy the people's need for a place to worship, even before entering the Land of Israel. Of course, parallel to this was the "Sin of the Spies," when the people and tribal leaders voted that they weren't ready/capable of the challenges of entering the Promised Land and defeating those there.

In short, those two major sins, the "Golden Calf" and "the Spies" were the reasons why we not only had to wait forty years for a new generation to be ready to enter the Land, but we had a place to worship Gd, the Tabernacle as a central meeting point. Not only was the forty years a time for the twelve Jewish tribes of former slaves to become a People, but the early form of community Judaism developed then, too.

I photoshopped the Tabernacle onto the spot in Tel Shiloh, it is believed to have been in Biblical times.

Weekly Torah Portion, Ki Tisa, "Dumb Question"

Add this to my series of "dumb questions." I have a lot of questions about this Torah Portion and Biblical narrative. Did you ever think about these things?

For the longest time this has bothered me. Until quite recently, time was pretty general-inexact, and since there was no way to communicate with people on the go, we didn't get all that surprised when someone was late. And it's only in the recent century or two that pretty much everyone had a watch with them, and each house one accurate clock or more.

Of course today's world is so very timed and controlled. But we all know that even a few years ago, when a family member or friend traveled, like when my son did his after the army trek in South America, days and even weeks could go by without any communications. We had to just pray and trust that all was well, or we'd go insane. All sorts of normal, benign, conditions could cause delays in even the most planned contact schedules, arrivals etc.

That's why I could never understand why/how, during an era when the hour was judged/measured by the length and angle of shadows, and there was absolutely no way to communicate further than a shout or "smoke-signal" away, the recently escaped from slavery Children of Israel, nascent Jewish Nation, could so quickly freak-out, panic, lose faith that their leader Moshe would safely return.

Exodus Chapter 31

1When the people saw that Moses was late in coming down from the mountain, the people gathered against Aaron, and they said to him: "Come on! Make us gods that will go before us, because this man Moses, who brought us up from the land of Egypt we don't know what has become of him."

אוַיַּרְא הָעָם כִּי בשֵׁשׁ משֶׁה לָרֶדֶת מִן הָהָר וַיִּקָּהֵל הָעָם עַל אַהֲרֹן וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֵלָיו קוּם | עֲשֵׂה לָנוּ אֱלֹהִים אֲשֶׁר יֵלְכוּ לְפָנֵינוּ כִּי זֶה | משֶׁה הָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר הֶעֱלָנוּ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם לֹא יָדַעְנוּ מֶה הָיָה לוֹ:

There had to have been something insidiously planned by trouble-makers to rally the people so quickly against Gd, Moshe and Aaron. 

Considering the massive number of people and how long it would take, if it had truly been spontaneous, for this rebellion to reach a pinnacle of action. Being logical, it would have taken a few days to get organized, collect the gold, melt it down and form a "calf."

picture credit

And how long would it take for this "golden calf" to harden and be ready for display?

The Biblical account is very dramatic, telling of how Moses in great anger broke the tablets Gd had prepared for the Jewish People when he saw them worshipping the golden figure.

From the text, Moses came down just hours or at most a day after the people had panicked, so how could they have so very quickly produced an idol to worship?

It doesn't make sense to me. Does anyone have some answers?

The "Sin Of The Golden Calf," Who's Really To Blame?

This week's Parshat Shavua, Torah Portion of the Week, is Ki Tisa, (Exodus 30:11-34:35.) It's a very powerful one which includes one of the best known Biblical stories, the "Sin of the Golden Calf."

During today's שיעור נשים Women's Torah Class, which was given by our neighbor, Rabbi Tzuriel Weiner, we were challenged to think about what happened and why. Being that it was Shabbat, I could't take notes. I may write more about it in the future, since so many thoughts went through my head, and I had to control myself from dominating the discussions.

Of course today wasn't the first time I studied this "Parsha," Torah Portion, but for some reason, today my mind saw it very differently.

The discussion began with the question of whether Moshe's breaking of the "Tablets of the Testimony" was right or wrong. I think that Moshe did the correct thing. He did something dramatic to grab the attention of the people, to shock them. If he had waited for G-d to react, G-d would have destroyed them. Moshe immediately took charge. He was the leader.

Today I was very understanding of the children of Israel's sin. Just forty days after their oath to G-d, "Na'aseh v'Nishma," "We will do and we will listen," they hadn't been ready to have been left by Moshe.

I was brought back in time to my NCSY days, and I thought of that moving Havdallah, end of Sabbath ceremony, at the 1967 National Convention, when Rabbi Pinchas Stolper's words touched something in my soul. I was standing with a friend, and we seemed equally affected. But I went on to adopt a Torah-observant life, and she didn't. And it was hard enough for me, because I didn't receive the immediate follow-up and support I needed. Maybe the rabbis and advisers didn't take me seriously. Maybe their time and energies were stretched too thin to find room for me. Maybe everyone thought that someone else was doing it.

Baruch Hashem, as I searched and struggled, another friend joined the quest, and that was the key. I wonder how many Jews are lost because of insufficient follow-up.

And I thought of the struggling and confused Jewish People, so recently escaped from slavery in Egypt and all the traumas. And then they were so terrified at Mount Sinai when G-d began presenting them with the Commandments, that they had to beg to get them in a gentler way.

They needed Moshe with them. He needed to train the next level of leadership. His brother Aaron wasn't capable of substituting for him.

Today I felt sorry for the people, and I felt sorry for Aaron thrust into a position he couldn't handle. And Moshe was just obeying G-d's instructions. And I guess that G-d had trusted that the people and Aaron could handle it. Yes, sometimes G-d challenges us and we succeed, and sometimes we fail.