It Is Dangerous When Our Leaders Isolate Themselves from Us: Parshat Ki Tisa

In this week’s parshat ki tisa, the leader of the nation, Moses, has distanced himself from the people, for he is on Mount Sinai talking to God. He is given many laws, culminating in the Sabbath laws:

The Israelite people shall keep the sabbath, observing the sabbath throughout the ages as a covenant for all time: it shall be a sign for all time between Me and the people of Israel. For in six days God made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day [God] ceased from work and was refreshed. Upon finishing speaking with him on Mount Sinai, [God] gave Moses the two tablets of the Pact, stone tablets inscribed with the finger of God (Exodus 31: 13-18).

However, down below:

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 fellow Moses—the man who brought us from the land of Egypt—we do not know what has happened to him.” Aaron said to them, “[You men,] take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” And all the people took off the gold rings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. This he took from them and cast in a mold, and made it into a molten calf. And they exclaimed, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron announced: “Tomorrow shall be a festival of God!” Early next day, the people offered up burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; they sat down to eat and drink, and then rose to make music (Exodus 32: 1-6).

While he is up there, the people take it upon themselves to take things into their own hands. They are afraid. What is he doing up there? They need and want a God they can see!  They want protection. What’s amazing about all this is that ALL the people donated their golden earrings to build the calf and that Aaron is an eager party to all this. He is the one who suggests the festival. And then the next day, the people do indeed celebrate, not only do they eat, but they sing.

God’s reaction to this is as to be expected: the people are choosing another god over Him. And He wishes to destroy the people. Moses diplomatically tells God that it’s not a good idea, and moreover the rest of the world will say about God “It was with evil intent that he delivered them, only to kill them off in the mountains and annihilate them from the face of the earth.” And he convinces God to renounce his blazing anger against the people. Moses comes down from the mountain and meets up with Joshua, who tells him “There is a cry of war in the camp.”  And now it is Moses, who in an about-face is upset. In theory when he was arguing with God about saving face, he saved the people. When coming down the mountain with the two tablets in his hand, he sees what is going on with his own eyes:

He became enraged; and he hurled the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made and burned it; he ground it to powder and strewed it upon the water and so made the Israelites drink it.

He yells at Aaron: “What did this people do to you that you have brought such great sin upon them?”

Rather than take full responsibility for his own initiative in creating the golden calf

Aaron said, “Let not my lord be enraged. You know that this people is bent on evil. They said to me, ‘Make us a god to lead us; for that fellow Moses—the man who brought us from the land of Egypt—we do not know what has happened to him.’ So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, take it off!’ They gave it to me and I hurled it into the fire and out came this calf!”

It is clear to Aaron that Moses is to blame for leaving him alone to deal with the people and it is equally clear to Moses that Aaron is responsible:

Moses saw that the people were out of control—since Aaron had let them get out of control—so that they were a menace to any who might oppose them.

But rather than attack Aaron and remove him from his position as high priest, he takes his anger out on the people:

Moses stood up in the gate of the camp and said, “Whoever is for God, come here!” And all the men of Levi rallied to him. He said to them, “Thus says God, the God of Israel: Each of you put sword on thigh, go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay sibling, neighbor, and kin.” The men of Levi did as Moses had bidden; and some three thousand of the people fell that day.

Not only do Moses’s kinsmen, the tribe of Levi, kill 3000 people, but to add insult to injury God also gets into the act and sent a plague upon the people, for what they did with the calf that Aaron made. With leaders like this: Moses, Aaron, and God, one can only wonder what are we to make of this story.

PARALLELS TODAY

People want to be sure; they want to trust their leaders and they also want them to behave responsibly. Yet both Moses and Aaron do not accept responsibility. Moses does not seem to have understanding of how important the presence of a leader is to people who feel vulnerable. He secludes himself with God. Aaron is left to deal with the people, and rather than convince them that there is nothing to worry about, and comfort them with words like, “don’t worry, Moses will come back soon”, he takes the easy way out. Perhaps he too has no faith that Moses will return. But he is never punished for making the golden calf. One could argue that in the future, the death of his two sons Nadav and Avihu (Leviticus 10: 1-2) who also will act spontaneously and offer up a strange fire, will be his eventual punishment.

When I think of the people who are governing us today on the national level, who are afraid to show their faces in public, who still refuse to take responsibility, it affects us all personally. The political today is indeed the personal. We are stuck. The fact that we are a democracy has made this possible. We have to maneuver and somehow live with it. But that does not mean that we have to silence our voices. We can continue to go out on the streets and protest with the hope that eventually change will come. The new normal has become protest; dissatisfaction with the status quo. What might have in the past been considered abnormal behavior has been normalized. Everyone has chosen sides. We are afraid of the other and often don’t want their ideas and ideologies to influence us–so each side talks at each other rather than to each other. Does the fact that we are mostly monotheists, make it difficult to accept the other? Does God’s demand that we worship only Him trickle down to us so that we choose only one Deity. and does this teach us something about our own character? We are living in a world where we are constantly told to choose sides, and to rule out the legitimacy of the other. Such a world is restrictive and will self-destruct.

PURIM AND VASHTI

Tonight, we celebrate Purim. More than thirty years ago, I identified with Vashti. I saw her as an early feminist who was demonized and whose voice had to be silenced. Although the megillah is unclear about what happened to Vashti when she was deposed, I decided to concur with the rabbinic tradition that she was sentenced to death. However, I gave her dignity in her choice of death. This is the poem I wrote then:

VASHTI DEROBED

Straight and proud she stands.

Not for her the Selections.

She has refused

She has objected

She will not subject herself,

Submit to gazing drunken eyes

Boring into her.

The path she has chosen is different.

Not for her the party clothes

The giggling,

The dressing up

For others.

She is other

Anomaly

Threat to

Claims of supremacy.

Vashti bends down.

Not for her Supplications.

She bares her head

For the first

And last time.

The party is over

For her.

I know that this is a pessimistic ending for a holiday that is supposed to be festive, but to be perfectly honest, it is very difficult to be positive when there are so many hostages left behind to rot in their cages and we have uncaring leaders, or rather leaders who only care about themselves. So to you all, a half-hearted Purim Sameach!