~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, Rashi[1] writes
this based on a Gemara[2]: 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. Rashi[4] 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 miscommunication. 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 jewelry 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 nowhere 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.
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