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 LONG IN COMING DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN, THE PEOPLE GATHERED AGAINST AARON AND SAID TO HIM, "COME MAKE US A GOD WHO SHALL GO BEFORE US, FOR THAT MAN MOSES, WHO BROUGHT US OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT – WE CANNOT TELL WHAT HAS 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 consecrate them so that they may be most holy; whatever touches them 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 purifications upon its horns with blood of the sin offering of purification; purification shall be performed upon it once a year through-out the 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 blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because on it God ceased from all the work of creation which He had done (Bereishit 2:3), and then we immediately read, The Lord planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed there the man whom He 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 your God: you had made yourselves a molten calf; you had been quick to stray from the path that the Lord had enjoined upon you. Thereupon I gripped the two 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 triumph, or the sound of the tune of defeat; it is the sound of song that I 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 proportions for yourselves; it shall be held by you sacred to the Lord. Whoever 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 word of the Lord came to me: O mortal, when the House of Israel dwelt on their own soil, they defiled it with their ways and their deeds, their ways were in My sight like the uncleanness of a menstruous woman. So I poured out My wrath upon them for the blood which they shed upon the land, and for the fetishes with which they defiled it. I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries: I punished them in accordance with their ways and their deeds... I will take you from among the nations and gather you from all the countries, and I will bring you back to your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean: I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and from all your fetishes. And I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit into you: I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh.

 (From the haftorah for Parashat Parah, Ezekiel 36: 16-19, 24-26)

 

 

 

 

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