Torah Portion from Exodus -March 2008/Doreen Kreger
This week’s Torah portion continues the reading from the book of Exodus, which tells us about God’s various instructions to Moses as he leads the Israelites through the desert to the promised land. A sampling of these instructions, for example, contains the request that the people contribute half a shekel of silver each to build the Sanctuary, instructions for the Sanctuary’s water basin to be used to wash hands before entering, instructions for making anointing oil and incense, and, again, the people are commanded to keep the Sabbath holy.
A main event from this Torah portion, which you will most likely recognize, is when Moses ascended Mt. Sinai to receive God’s laws and did not return for 40 days. The people, who were waiting below for Moses to return, grew very anxious and afraid. They implored Aaron, who was chosen by Moses to act in h is place, to make an idol to which they could pray and hopefully ease their anxiety. Aaron took their gold coins and jewelry, threw them into the fire, and the Golden Calf was born. It has been suggested that we could liken the desire to create the Golden Calf to a “lucky piece” or “good luck charm” that we could carry with us into a frightening situation.
Needless to say, God was not happy with the Israelites. God wanted to destroy the errant nation, but Moses interceded on their behalf. When Moses descended from the mountain carrying the two stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments and saw the people dancing around their golden idol, he threw the tablets down, smashing them into a million pieces. After Moses admonished the people for their lack of faith, he once again went up the mountain with two new stone tablets, as instructed by God, and once again God gave Moses the Ten Commandments to share with the people. Moses again implored God to forgive the people and to stay with them and guide them as they made their way through the desert
While Moses was on the mountain, in the presence of God, he was granted a vision of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, which can be described as a paradigm of God’s care, love, and forgiveness. Some of these attributes of mercy are: compassion, graciousness, slow to anger, abounding in kindness, forgiving iniquity and forgiving transgression. These attributes appear today in the traditional prayer books and are used as a regular part of our liturgy and also during the High Holy Days.
When Moses came down from the mountain with the second set of tablets, his face eminated a radiance that, at first, frightened Aaron and the Israelites until Moses spoke to them with assurance and imparted all that he had learned from God. Moses then covered his face with a veil and would remove it each time he encountered God.
Matot/Mas`ey--Numbers 30:2 to 36:13 (July 2007)
by Laura Bloodgood
· There are lots of very different commentaries on different parts of the this Torah portion.
· This parsha includes the story of the Jewish invasion of Midian, where the Jews were victorious, not losing even one man. After the battle, they killed all the men, captured all of the women and children, and brought them back to Moses. Moses got angry at the soldiers for not killing the women, and ordered them to kill most of them as well.
· There is a lot of commentary on this massacre, trying to justify it, or explain why the Jews were commanded to do such a thing. I have chosen not to address this very difficult question.
· Instead, I’m going to comment on a single verse: Number 33:55: “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell.”
· This comes in the context of G-d telling Moses to take possession of the land of Canaan.
· As a political scientist, this really resonates with me. It really points to a central issue for current political conflicts around the world – can you conquer a land and continue to live with the local/native population? Or do you have to drive them out or massacre them to have any peace? (This brings me back to the massacre at Midian, which takes place earlier in the parsha).
· This is relevant for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today, and for the ongoing war in Iraq, Chechnya in Russia, along with older conflicts such as the US wars against the native Indians in this country. I think you could also argue that the aggressors in Darfur are actually just following G-d’s instructions in their conflict, trying to drive out the local population from land that they have conquered.
· Personally, I really don’t like the implication that you can’t make peace last with a local population, but I suspect that it may be true, at least in many cases. It points to a choice for would-be conquerors – you can either put up with the barbs and thorns (like suicide bombers in your cities?) or you can make the effort to remove the local people entirely, which is not as easy to do in today’s world as it was in biblical times.
