Thoughts
on The Parsha
Parshas
Ki Sisa
The Power of Potential
By:
Daniel Listhaus
וַיַּרְא
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:
וַיֹּאמֶר
אֲלֵהֶם
אַהֲרֹן פָּרְקוּ נִזְמֵי הַזָּהָב
אֲשֶׁר בְּאָזְנֵי נְשֵׁיכֶם בְּנֵיכֶם
וּבְנֹתֵיכֶם וְהָבִיאוּ אֵלָי:
וַיִּתְפָּרְקוּ
כָּל הָעָם אֶת נִזְמֵי הַזָּהָב אֲשֶׁר
בְּאָזְנֵיהֶם וַיָּבִיאוּ אֶל אַהֲרֹן:
וַיִּקַּח
מִיָּדָם וַיָּצַר אֹתוֹ בַּחֶרֶט
וַיַּעֲשֵׂהוּ עֵגֶל מַסֵּכָה וַיֹּאמְרוּ
אֵלֶּה אֱלֹהֶיךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר
הֶעֱלוּךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם:
וַיַּרְא
אַהֲרֹן וַיִּבֶן מִזְבֵּחַ לְפָנָיו
וַיִּקְרָא אַהֲרֹן וַיֹּאמַר חַג לַה'
מָחָר:
וַיַּשְׁכִּימוּ
מִמָּחֳרָת וַיַּעֲלוּ עֹלֹת וַיַּגִּשׁוּ
שְׁלָמִים וַיֵּשֶׁב הָעָם לֶאֱכֹל
וְשָׁתוֹ וַיָּקֻמוּ לְצַחֵק
“The
people saw that Moshe delayed in descending the mountain, and the
people gathered around Aharon and said to him, 'Rise up, make for us
gods who will go before us, for this Moshe, the man who brought us up
from the land of Egypt – we do not know what became of him!' Aharon
said to them, 'Remove the golden rings that are in the ears of your
wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.' The
entire people unburdened themselves of the golden rings that were in
their ears, and brought them to Aharon. He took it from their hands
and he bound it in a scarf, and made it into a molten calf; then they
said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the
land of Egypt.' Aharon saw and built an alter before him; Aharon
called out and said, 'A festival to Hashem tomorrow!' They arose
early the next day and offered up olah-offerings
and brought peace offerings; the people sat to eat and drink, and
they got up to sport.”
-Ki
Sisa 32:1-6
The
cheit (sin) that we performed
as a nation by the episode of the eigel ha'zahav (golden
calf), was without a question the most catastrophic event in all of
history. The ramifications of our huge mistake then by cheit
ha'eigel is something we still
must deal with on a daily basis; death, sickness, and galus
(exile) are all part of the
punishment, which we still obviously suffer from. As a matter of
fact, Rashi1
writes this based on a Gemara2:
there is no punishment that comes upon B'nei Yisroel which
does not have in it some retribution for the sin of the golden calf.
Not
only was the aveirah (sin)
itself so horrible – avodah
zarrah (idol worship)
at its worst – but so was the timing. The passuk
(verse)3
tells us that when B'nei
Yisroel saw that Moshe had
delayed in his coming, they decided to worship avodah
zarrah. Rashi4
paints the following picture:
Moshe had announced that at the end of forty days, he will come back
within the first six hours of the day. However, the issue was that
there was a slight mis-communication. Moshe meant forty full days –
meaning days complete with their nights preceding them. Therefore,
since the day Moshe went up on Har Sinai was
after its night had already passed, it was not part of Moshe's
calculation. B'nei Yisroel though
did count it as the first day. This was why, forty days later, as the
people crossed off the last box on their calenders and realized that
Moshe had not returned yet, they became very nervous and confused.
The Satan took
immediate advantage of the and added to the tumult by introducing an
aura of darkness and gloom, as well as an image of Moshe rabbeinu
being carried away, in order to
give off the impression that Moshe had died.5
The Satan's idea
worked and indeed at the foot of Har Sinai
the Jews assumed Moshe
had died and went on to serve avodah zarrah.
This
whole event is more than absolutely abominable and disturbing, it is
senseless! If they would have done this after Amalek
came to attack them or when they were out of food or water, then at
least we would be able to slightly understand the rational behind
such a rash action; for at a time of real distress and discomfort it
could perhaps be tempting to rebel and switch religions looking for
new hope and purpose. However, at this point there urge for avodah
zarrah was instigated by nothing
of the sort. Everyone was happy, they had gotten past some hardships
in the midbar (desert)
through the leadership of Moshe,
and they had heard Hashem Himself declare His Oneness. Now, they were
a day away from receiving the physical luchos and
Torah – the pinnacle of their time in the midbar which
would prepare them to enter Eretz Yisroel.
Yet, within the window of one day, they totally did an 'about-face'.
Furthermore,
it is not even like it was a process which took a long time of
waiting around and arguing over what should be done in Moshe's
unexpected absence. Rather, they were able to quickly work together
and gather everything needed to build the eigel ha'zahav
and put it together. This is also despite the fact that Aharon tried
very hard to stall time until Moshe would come back. For example he
said that the men should bring the jewelry of their wives and
children.6
After all, imagine trying to demand your wife to give up all her
jewelery and asking your children to hand in their ipods and cell
phones. It will most definitely not happen. Yet, within hours, they
came up with all the resources needed to mold the avodah
zarrah.
How
could it be that while the entire B'nei Yisroel was
on such a spiritual high – only a day away from receiving the
luchos, that they
could rush to do avodah zarrah from
a mere suggestion from the Satan that
Moshe had died? It should have been news they did not want to hear
and would have been in a state of shock unable to believe it. Yet
that was not the case. They fell for it immediately and hit rock
bottom. How could we understand all this?
Within
the realm of physics, there are many types of energy. Among the more
commonly discussed types of energy are kinetic and potential. Kinetic
energy is simply the energy something possesses due to its motion.
One could imagine a roller coaster at the bottom of a steep drop
where it is speeding from all the motion gathered as it charged down
the track.
Potential
energy, on the other hand is a little harder to visualize, for it is
merely energy stored in a system ready to be unleashed. The classic
example of this is a clock pendulum swinging. If one were to pause
time as the pendulum reaches the highest point of its swing on either
side, one could imagine the potential energy contained as it is on
the verge of heading back down. In order to make it feel more real,
we will once again go with the roller coaster example. Imagine
yourself on a roller coaster. It has just slowly chugged its way up
the track for quite some time and all you have been thinking is “what
goes up must come down”. As the sound of the air brake being
released reaches your ears and the coaster begins to inch ahead, you
peer over from your front row seat and notice the steep decline of
the track in front of you. At that point, immediately before zooming
forward, you and the coaster are full of potential energy. However,
imagine for a second that as your body prepares itself and that
sensation has permeated every part of your body, the roller coaster
breaks down and never goes down the track, but rather gets stuck on
top and everyone is escorted down an emergency staircase on the side.
What would happen to that bottled up sensation? Some may have the
urge to jump down the last few stairs, while some may need to release
their energy by heading straight over to another thrill ride, and
while others my need to punch something hard, but one thing is for
certain – it just does not feel right letting that potential
energy dwindle away slowly. In some way or another we look for ways
to re-channel it on another route.
When
it comes to our personal levels of potential as individuals, the more
kochos (abilities) we
have, the greater the impact we are capable of making in the world.
However, having more kochos comes
with a tremendous risk, that they could be used for bad as well
Perhaps
this is how we could understand what happened by the cheit
ha'eigel. B'nei
Yisroel were indeed super
charged with ruchniyus (spirituality)
prepared to receive the luchos.
However, when the moment came and passed and all their bottled up
potential and energy had no where to escape, the weak ones among them
who were unable to control the direction of their potential, let it
all rush forward to the point where it was very possible to have the
eigel ha'zahav up and
running in only a matter of hours. The rubber band had been pulled
back and held in position for too long. So when Moshe did not come
down with the clear direction to head in, they just had to let it fly
in an area which could hold their massive potential energy that had
been reserved to serve Hashem on a spiritual high upon receiving the
luchos.
This is perhaps why the event was so catastrophic and was able to be
so easily misled with a mere single implication from the Satan
to
plant a new idea in their heads during a time of confusion.
Each
and every person has his or her own kochos
and
incredible levels of potential that are able and meant to be utilized
to achieve tremendous heights. However, along with these kochos
come
an equal risk of taking that energy and running with it in the wrong
direction.
With
this in mind, let us try to adopt two behaviors. The first is to work
on setting our directions correctly so that the potential energy we
have is not set in motion the wrong way. We must realize what our
strengths are and what we are capable of and then think about how to
use them to further our own growth, and that of K'lal
Yisroel as
a whole.
The
second thing to keep in mind as an inferred lesson, is to not get let
down when we do things that are wrong. Rather we should do teshuva
(repent)
and
gain chizuk
(strength
and confidence)
from
the realization that the magnitude of the aveirah
we
did is an indicator of what we are really capable of on the other
side of the spectrum.
May
Hashem help us realize our kochos and how to utilize them
effectively in order that we be able to direct them in the right way.
1Shemos
32:34
2Sanhedrin
102a
3Shemos
32:1
4Rashi
ibid.
5See
Rashi 32:1
6See
Rashi 32:2
Photo Credit: http://www.negative-g.com/SFOG/SFOG2011/SFOG-2011-9.htm
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