WHEN HE FINISHED

SPEAKING WITH HIM ON MOUNT SINAI, HE GAVE MOSES THE TWO TABLETS OF THE PACT,

STONE TABLETS INSCRIBED WITH THE FINGER OF GOD.

WHEN THE PEOPLE SAW THAT MOSES WAS SO

HAPPENED TO HIM."

(Shemot

31:18, 32:1)

Was

it possible for the Children of Israel, a mere forty days after the theophany

at Sinai, with the commandments I am the Lord and You shall have no

other gods still echoing in their ears, to go and ask for an other god? It

appears that the Torah wishes to teach us with this unforgettable example, that

it is indeed possible. The assumption that people who stood at the foot of

Mount Sinai became incapable of ever sinking again into ignorance, folly, and

the abomination of idolatry is completely unfounded… Revealed miracles,

unique wondrous events, cannot change people, their natures, nor their habits. They

make shake them momentarily, yet they remained connected to their world, their

perceptions, their past and their habits.

(N.

Leibowitz, Iyyunim Be-Sefer Shemot, pg. 399)

Functional and Immanent Holiness

Amos Bardeah

Our parashah begins with the laws of the

half-shekel, also called the holy-shekel,and goes on to cover the

completion of the building of the Tabernacle, the construction of the laver,

and the anointing of the Tabernacle with sacred anointing oil… thus you

shall be consecrated (Shemot

30: 24, 29).

Next, we read of the consecration of Aaron and his sons for the sacred service;

You shall also anoint Aaron and his sons, consecrating them to serve Me as

priests (30:30). Later, the

Sabbath is mentioned, you shall keep the Sabbath, for it is holy (31:14). In addition,

our parasha tells of great events; the sin of the golden calf, and the breaking

of the Tablets. It seems that the notion of holiness [consecration, etc.] is a

recurrent motif of this parasha. The final verse of Tetzaveh, which directly

precedes our parasha, deals with the construction of the incense altar and the

atoning blood offered on Yom Kippur: Once a year Aaron shall perform

generations. It is most holy to the Lord (30:10). It would thus

be appropriate to discuss the concept of holiness/sanctification in the light

of our parasha.

Two major forms of holiness are mentioned in

parashat Ki-Tissah; the holiness of time and the holiness of place, which

constitute the Torah's concepts of time and space. The holiness of time is

defined by the various obligations and prohibitions which people must observe

in relation to different points on the axis of time, while the holiness of

place is defined by the various obligations and prohibitions which people must

observe while occupying different regions of space. These two types of holiness

exist in tandem throughout all of Scripture. Their co-existence begins as early

as parashat Bereishit, which says of the Seventh Day of Creation: And God

the work of creation which He had done (Bereishit 2:3), and then we immediately read, The

had formed (2:8), in a

particular place. This coupling

of time and place is particularly evident in our parasha as well. Just after

completing the matter of the Tabernacle, which was spread over three parashat,

and the completion of its construction and its sanctification through

anointment, the parasha begins dealing with the Sabbath – a topic which appears

to be unconnected to the building of the Tabernacle. However, the ba'alei

ha-mesorah [authorities responsible for the biblical text] were careful not

to separate these two topics, not into different parashiyot [traditional

paragraph divisions] nor into different aliyot of the Torah reading. The

conjunction of holiness of place with that of time is most strongly pronounced

in the verse, You shall keep my Sabbaths and venerate my Sanctuary, Mine,

the Lord's (Va-Yikrah

26: 2).

Besides the thematic coupling of holiness of time with holiness of space, they

are also linked halakhically and philosophically. The Tabernacle's holiness was

defined by the special obligations and prohibitions pertaining to the interior

of the Tent of Meeting, the courtyard, the Holy and the Holy of Holies. Indeed,

its holiness of place was not permanent', but rather fixed for a limited time,

since, On a sign from the Lord they made camp and on a sign from the Lord

they broke camp (Bamidbar

9:20 & 23).

When the cloud rose up from the Tabernacle they disassembled it and resumed

their journey. The temporal holiness of the Sabbath and holidays is defined by

the prohibition of work. The halakhah was careful to connect the holiness of

time with that of space by defining the prohibition of work on the Sabbath in

terms of the thirty-nine types of work involved in the construction of the

Tabernacle.

I have already mentioned that the holiness of

the place occupied by the Tabernacle was temporary – On a sign from the Lord

they made camp. Special attention should be paid to the fact that the place

designated as the Holy of Holies, which could be entered only by the

High Priest, and only on Yom Kippur, was instantly transformed into a

non-descript patch of the wilderness as soon as the Tabernacle was packed away.

This procedure was repeated thirty eight times in the course of forty years,

engraving in the hearts of the people the principle that spatial holiness is

not immanent to a particular place, but rather is a function of a sign from

the Lord, which establishes the obligations and prohibitions attached to a

certain place at a certain time. In contrast to this is your god, O Israel!

(Shemot

32:4)

of the golden calf, to which they had attributed immanent holiness, making it a

form of idolatry, stands Moses' decision to break the first Tablets, an object

of heavenly origin. Of those Tablets, it is written: the Tablets were God's

work, and the writing was God's writing (Shemot 32:16) – in contrast to the second Tablets,

which Moses was commanded to make by himself, carve two tablets of stone

like the first (34:1). The original

Tablets, the very prototype of immanently holy objects, were deliberately

destroyed when it became clear that the people who were to receive them were

not prepared to live holy lives: I saw how you had sinned against the Lord

tablets and flung them away with both my hands, smashing them before your eyes

(Devarim 9:

17).

The breaking of the Tablets before the eyes of Israel constitutes an exemplary

act that represents the essence of the entire Torah, i.e., the battle against

idolatry and the coronation of God as the only being possessing inherent,

unchanging holiness: Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts (Isaiah 6:3). Referring to

the verse, But he answered, "It is not the sound of the tune of

hear" (Shemot

32:18),

the Jerusalem Talmud (Ta'anit

4:5)

states: "What is the sound of song? It is the sound of idolatry."

Referring to the final verse of the Torah, And for all the great might and

awesome power that Moses displayed before the eyes of all Israel (Devarim 34:12), the midrash

Sifri states: "Rabbi Eliezer says: ‘Before the eyes of all Israel –

this is the smashing of the Tablets.' What support is there for this opinion? There

it states, smashing them before your

eyes,

and here it says, before the eyes

of all Israel." Rashi on the verse quotes the Talmud (Shabbat 87a): "His

heart inspired him [Moses] to shatter the Tablets before their eyes, for it

says smashing them before your eyes. God's opinion agreed with his

opinion, for it says asher shibarta [which you

shattered] (Shemot

34:1)

– [God is telling Moses:] yishar kohakha

she-shibarta [more power to you for breaking them!]." The emphasis

here is on the idea that Moses acted of his own volition, and God agreed with

his decision. The conclusion to be drawn is that even an object of heavenly

origin (not to speak of less noble artifacts) can not possess holiness unless

it is incorporated in the service of God. This is the great message of the

battle against idolatry which constitutes the essence of the entire Torah.

Functional holiness is dependent upon people's

acceptance of the obligations and prohibitions imposed upon them in connection

with the particular sacred object, in contrast to holiness immanent in the

object itself, independent of human actions and attitudes. Functional holiness

requires the spiritual ascent brought about by the observance of practical

commandments that call upon us to serve God by turning away from our instinctive

behavior. Immanent holiness is independent of human beings, granting those who

occupy themselves with it the license to throw off all obligations, to carouse

and make merry: The people sat down to eat and drink, and then rose to make

merry (Shemot

32:6).

But he answered, "It is not the sound of the tune of triumph, or the

sound of the tune of defeat; it is the sound of song that I hear! (32: 18). Moses did not

hear the sounds of triumph, in the sense of triumph over the instinctual drives

for the sake of God's service, neither did he hear sounds of halusha [defeat,

but also domination], of domination over the instinctual drives, but rather

sounds of disintegration, as Onkelos renders it, "I hear the sounds of

dissipation."

The concept of the holy is first

mentioned in parashat Bereishit in connection with the Sabbath, and God

blessed the seventh day and declared it holy. We should notice that this

concept is only introduced after the creation of humans, in order to teach us

that holiness cannot exist in the absence of a human consciousness that

dedicates the holy thing to heaven by way of the special obligations upon human

beings pertaining to the holy thing. At the conclusion of the building of the

Tabernacle, the Torah states, Thus you shall consecrate them so they may be

most holy; whatever touches them shall be consecrated (Shemot 30:29). Rashi

explains the verse's repetitive language: "Thus you shall consecrate

them so they may be most holy – this anointing sanctifies them to be most

holy, and what constitutes their holiness? That whatever touches them shall

be consecrated." Their holiness is defined by the prohibitions and

obligations that people must observe in connection with the sacred objects. Similarly,

we read, But when you make this incense, you must not make any in the same

makes any like it, to smell of it, shall be cut off from his kin (30:37). The holiness

of the incense is defined by the prohibition of its preparation for non-ritual

use. The mishnah defines the increasing levels of spatial holiness, from the

holiness of the Land of Israel, through the holiness of the Temple Mount, and

finally to that of the Holy of Holies:

There are ten degrees of holiness: The Land of

Israel is holier than all other lands. What constitutes its holiness? That the

Omer and first fruits and two loaves are brought from it…the Holy of Holies

is the most holy in that no one may enter it, save the High Priest on Yom Kippur

during the service. (Kelim

1:6)

The increasing levels of holiness are defined by

the scope of the obligations and prohibitions associated with each place.

At the end of the day, the attribution of

holiness is a function of the way that human minds, i.e., the minds of God's

servants, submit themselves to God's service. This is achieved by people taking

upon themselves to observe the special obligations associated with some object,

as expressed in the formula "Who sanctified us with His commandments and

commanded us…" The dependency of holiness upon human beings stands at

the center of our parasha, along with an unflinching battle against idolatry,

idolatry which finds holiness is things themselves, without connection to

humanity.

Dr. Amos

Bardea is a doctor of chemist and biochemistry, a philosopher and thinker

(graduate of Bar Ilan University's department of philosophy)

A soon as Moses came near the camp and

saw the calf and the dancing… (Shemot 32: 19): Rabbi Hilkiyah said in the name of

Rabbi Aha: "From here we learn that a person should not judge on the basis

of an assumption."

(J.

Ta'anit 4:5)

saw the calf and the dancing: Around it. Another

says: The writing on the Tablets disappeared, so he broke them.

And

some say that God commanded him to break them. It seems most reasonable to me

that it happened as it is written, that he was zealous for God and broke them

in his anger.

And

I have already told you about the allegory of "the husband of youth"

in the beginning of the parasha [i.e., God is the husband of Israel in her

youth, the sin of the golden calf was Israel's infidelity, etc.]. The Tablets

were the marriage contract, their shattering the tearing-up of the contract.

(Ibn

Ezra's Short Commentary on Shemot 32:19)

And no man shall go up with you (34:3): Because the

first [tablets] were [given] amidst great noises and alarms and a vast

assembly, the evil eye had power over them [that they did not endure] – there

is no finer quality than to be unostentatious!

(Rashi

34:3, Silberman translation)

The

you a heart of flesh.

 (From the haftorah for Parashat Parah, Ezekiel

36: 16-19, 24-26)

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