Rabbi's Blog

RSVP FOR THE OZ VIRTUAL DINNER WITH MODI: WWW.OZNY.ORG/CELEBRATE

Dear OZ family,

This week’s Torah reading contains the inglorious story of the golden calf, likened by our sages to a bride committing adultery, right after emerging from the bridal canopy. Rashi pits the essential blame on the Egyptian mixed multitude that departed slavery with us. The declaration to worship the molten image seems to be made from outside our community. “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt” (Shemot 32:4). The initiative to replace their missing leader with a more sturdy image of God may have come from the mixed multitude, but we still worshipped it. Upon Moshe’s return, he unequivocally delivered the smashing message: Nothing in the physical realm can represent God. Even the tablets of the Law that he was to reveal to them, made from the hand of God (Shemot 32:16), bore no inherent holiness, and were simple stone, in the face of their rebellion. The stain of the golden calf remains with us as we atone our backsliding every year on the anniversary of the date we were forgiven, the 10^th of Tishre, on what would become known as Yom Kippur.

This Shabbat we will notice an anomaly of the Torah reading that is never replicated. The first Aliya that we read on Shabbat morning, unless it is a double Parsha, is usually 10 -15 verses. Some larger portions push slightly above 20 verses but that is rare. Even when a Parsha contains much larger aliyot, they usually appear well into the Parsha and are very rarely found in the second aliya either. Parshat Ki Tissa is divided as follows:

• 1^st aliya: 45 verses
• 2^nd aliya : 47 verses
• 3^rd aliya : 5 verses
• 4^th aliya : 7 verses
• 5^th aliya : 9 verses
• 6^th aliya : 17 verses
• 7^th aliya : 9 verses

The second aliya alone is as large as the next 5 aliyot combined, and the first aliya is not far behind! The answer to this anomaly can be found in a Halacha found in the commentary to the Shulchan Aruch, called the Magen Avraham. He states that, in light of the fact that the second aliya of Parshat Emor speaks of blemishes that would invalidate a Cohen from Temple service, a Cohen who has such a blemish, should not be given the 1^st aliya, whereby he would be standing there listening to the Ba’al keriya read about his blemish right before him. (The custom, before Corona, was for the oleh to remain at the bimah for the aliya following his own). In light of this Halacha, we realize that every Jew, except a Cohen or a Levi has the blemish of being descended from someone responsible for the golden calf. It wouldn’t be proper for anyone but a Cohen or a Levi to receive an aliya while we are reading about that story, so the first two aliyot, which are given to a Cohen and a Levi, were stretched to finish the entire story, and that explains the anomaly of our Parsha.

At its core, this explanation bespeaks sensitivity. It is similar to Rabban Gamliel establishing the barest minimum of standards for expenses regarding burial so as not to embarrass those who could not afford the expense (Moed Kattan 27A), or the Mishna at the end of Masechet Ta’anit which exhorts all Jews to keep weddings, and everything regarding shidduchim simple so as not to embarrass those who could not afford the expense (I’m afraid we have been better at the 1^st standard than at the 2^nd). The golden calf spilled an indelible stain upon our collective history, but like everything in life, has something to teach us. Let us be sensitive to what people are lacking and come to their aid and to the sensitivity they need.

Be safe.  Be healthy.  Be excellent.

Rabbi Allen Schwartz

Rabbi Allen Schwartz

Congregation Ohab Zedek

118 West 95^th Street | New York, NY  10025-6604

Phone 212.749-5150, ext 200 | Fax 212.663-3635

E-mail ras@ozny.org

Website:  www.ozny.org