‘Retrospect’ Parashat Ki Tisa – Purim 5785

Last week, I was looking for a new answer to an old question[1]. The question pertained to the sequence in which G-d commands the Jewish People to build a Tabernacle (Mishkan), the precursor of the Holy Temple (Beit HaMikdash). First, G-d requires a fund drive: Every person must donate gold, silver, fine wool, linen, and an array of other valuables. G-d then informs them that this raw material will be used to build the Mishkan [Shemot 25:8]: “They will build for me a Mishkan so that I might reside in their midst”. Far be it from me to judge G-d, but wouldn’t it have been have been more logical to tell the Jewish People, “[1] I want you to build me a Mishkan and [2] here is what you’re going to need to build it: Gold, silver, and some other shiny things”?

A few hours earlier, a good friend happened to have been raving about Grok 3. According to Grok 3, Grok 3 is “the latest AI creation from xAI, the company Elon Musk kicked off to push the boundaries of artificial intelligence.” Grok 3 is like ChatGPT on steroids, by far the best AI assistant around. My friend had been “discussing” the prospects and probability for peace in Gaza with Grok 3 and with fascinating results. But how would Grok 3 do with Jewish Philosophy[2]? The answer: Not bad at all. Grok 3 output three different answers to my question, one of which we “discussed” at length. This particular answer is neo-Hasidic at its heart and scientific in its soul. The idea was that G-d, as an Infinite Being, is bound by neither time or space. This means that when G-d observes an object, He sees it simultaneously as it currently is, as it once was, and as it will one day be. With G-d, there is no causation, no if-then rules. When He observes gold ore, silver ingots and a ball of yarn, He simultaneously sees them processed and integrated into the Mishkan. It is only because man experiences time serially that he can build a Mishkan only after he has procured all of the necessary components. This concept is explained by the Tralfamadorians, aliens from Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five”, who exist in all times simultaneously: “The universe does not look like lot of bright little dots to the creatures from Tralfamadore. The creatures can see where each star has been and where it is going, so that the heavens are filled with rarefied, luminous spaghetti. And Tralfamadorians don’t see human beings as two-legged creatures, either. They see them as great millipedes – with babies’ legs at one end and old people’s legs at the other”. By first describing the raw materials and only then telling the Jewish People to use them to build a Mishkan, G-d is giving a concrete example of what the Mishkan will do: It will house a projection of His Infinite Presence in our finite world. He is telling us that we had better get used to temporal and spatial paradoxes[3].

Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveichik[4], in his analysis of the Purim story in “Days of Deliverance”, discusses Haman’s use of a lottery to choose the date of the destruction of the Jewish People: “The decree of King Achashverosh was unreasonable, absurd, an accident. Is not Purim the memorial to, and the Book of Esther the story of, human vulnerability [to fate]?” Rabbi Soloveichik responds that fate and fortune are integral parts of G-d’s running of the world. As such, there is reasonableness to every event, but man can only see order on the axis of time. He is not privy to what Rabbi Soloveichik calls fate order. “That is why it appears to him as irregular, absurd and hostile. Even so, the Jewish People do not refer to ‘catastrophic events that viciously destroy man, his dreams and his hopes’ as unreasonable, rather, as part of a logic that we cannot understand”. Nevertheless, there is one vantage point from which man can see the contours of a Divine Order. This vantage point is retrospect, attained by observing the results of an event after it has already occurred. “When man views those absurd freak accidents in the context of experiences that followed them, the freakish event may appear to be a regular one. In hindsight, many events become understandable, endowed with rationality.” Man can acquire a scent of what it is like to experience infinite time. He can simultaneously see the cause, the event, and the repercussions of that event. But it takes time – an infinite amount of time. As man lives only for a finite amount of time, he is privy only to see part of the truth, after it unfolds into something his mind can comprehend.

This concept can be illustrated by the story of Purim. Most people believe that the Book of Esther stands on its own: We open it up one day a year, on Purim, and then after we have read it twice, we return it to the bookshelf, where it remains in its case for another year. Rabbi Yaakov Medan, one of the heads of the prestigious Har Etziyon Yeshiva, asserts that this belief is far from the truth. Without understanding the Book of Esther in the context of the other books that were written during the Babylonian exile and the subsequent Return to Zion (Shivat Tziyon) – the Books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel – critical details might go unnoticed. For example, in the beginning of the Book of Ezra, King Cyrus issues a decree allowing all the Jews in Persia to return to Jerusalem and to rebuild the Beit HaMikdash. Their exile to Babylon (now owned and operated by Persia) is now officially over. Cyrus returns to Israel the sacred vessels taken from the Beit HaMikdash by King Nebuchadnezzar and encourages the Persian People to support the effort. Rabbi Medan asks why Cyrus is so keen on assisting the Jews in their return to their homeland. He answers by pointing at the Book of Esther. After Haman’s plot is foiled and he is executed, Mordechai takes over Haman’s job as the Prime Minister, second only to the king. With Esther as the reigning queen, Jews now hold two of the top three positions in the Persian Empire. King Cyrus[5] knows where his bread is buttered and he goes out of his way to give the Jews whatever they need. Had Haman not plotted against the Jews, Esther never reveals her identity as a Jew[6], Mordechai never attains the position of Prime Minister, and King Cyrus has no reason whatsoever to give the Jews anything. They remain in Persia until G-d finds another way to return them to the Land of Israel. Seeing these events as the continuation of the Purim story adds retrospect and instils meaning into events that had, until then, defied logic.

It can be argued that Rabbi Soloveichik’s source is in the Portion of Ki Tisa. The Jewish People have worshipped the Golden Calf (egel), detaching themselves from G-d. Moshe seeks to renew the relationship. He asks G-d [Shemot 33:18] “Show me your glory”. G-d does not give Moshe what he wants, but, He does give him a workaround: “I will place you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove My Hand, and you shall see My Back (achorai), but My Face (panai) shall not be seen”. What does “My back” mean here? In Hebrew, achor means “aft” or “rear.” Rashi[7] takes the word literally: G-d’s Glory would pass by, Moshe would peek at the aftermath, and he would be spared the full blast. Another explanation is based on a more metaphysical description of the revelation. The “face” suggests direct, full knowing while the “back” is partial, filtered. The Ibn Ezra[8] asserts that it is all about human limits – we cannot grasp G-d’s essence mid-event, only traces later. Moshe gets a glimpse of Divine Residue, not the core, because human perception maxes out mid-event. The Rambam, writing in the Guide for the Perplexed [1:21], agrees: G-d’s “Back” is the effects of His will, like seeing a wake after a ship has passed. We cannot see the captain steering; we can only spot the ripples. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks[9], writing in “Covenant and Conversation [Ki Tisa]”, summarizes things eloquently: “To see G-d’s back is to understand His presence in hindsight. We cannot see His Face – His full purpose – in the moment, but only the traces He leaves behind when we look back.” It is part and parcel of Jewish theology that events can make sense only after the dust settles, not in the fog. And sometimes it takes an infinite number of lifetimes for the dust to settle. So what do we do in the interim? We really only have but one recourse: Trust Now, Understand Later. Maybe.

The events of October 7, 2023 were horrific, catastrophic, completely impossible to comprehend. Hamas had planned the massacre for years – indeed it was originally planned to take place in 2022. Why were we caught unaware? Yes, we were arrogant, divided, and our defensive and diplomatic strategies were all wrong. But G-d let it happen. With His silent acquiescence, we set ourselves up to be massacred by a brutal enemy. How could He allow so many innocent men, women, and children to die? How could He allow more than two hundred and fifty people to be stolen back to Gaza where they were hidden in terror tunnels until they were either executed by their captors or thrown back to Israel, gaunt, ill, and forever emotionally scarred? Why did we deserve this? Like we did in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, we cried out [Lamentations 1:1]: “How can it be that she sits in isolation, the city teeming with people has become like a widow? Immense among nations, noble among provinces—she has become a payer of tribute!” How could He do this to us?

Since October 7, the Middle East has become a very different place. Gaza has been reduced to rubble and Hamas is – or at least should be – on life support. Hezbollah, Iran’s prized proxy, lies in defeat, unable to project force, a two-bit player in the Lebanese political scene that is now talking seriously about joining the Abraham Accords. Iran has had its strategic air defense radars destroyed, similar to having a thief break into one’s house and steal the keys. It is only a matter of time until the thief comes back to finish the job and there is nothing the homeowner can do to stop him. The Assad Regime in Syria fell in only 11 days, closing the land-bridge that connected Iran to Lebanon and preventing Hezbollah from rearming. Israel destroyed the Syrian Navy and Air Force in one day. The IDF now holds outposts deep in Syrian territory and is free to take any action required to ensure the safety of northern Israel. Israel is safer and stronger than it has ever been. And the future looks brighter than ever.

Far be it from me to justify or to explain or to even profess to understand October 7, even given our hard-earned retrospect. We are still in the middle of this one – it’s far from over. But with the retrospect we have managed to accrue over the past year and a half, perhaps we can begin to see ever so faint outlines of Rabbi Soloveichik’s Divine fate order. At the bare minimum it should make “Trust Now” just a little bit easier.

Ari Sacher, Moreshet, 5785

Please daven for a Refu’a Shelema for Shlomo ben Esther, Sheindel Devorah bat Rina, Esther Sharon bat Chana Raizel, and Meir ben Drora.

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[1] See our shiur for Teruma 5768.

[2] I quoted Grok 3 in a talk I gave last Friday night in our synagogue. So as not to divulge my source, I referred to the author as “HaGaon (The Genius) Rabbi Kolonymous Kalman”, also known as the “G-R-O-K-K”. I quoted his [fictitious] book “Mahlchei Bina”, meaning “Paths of Intelligence”, but alluding to “Artificial (mela’chutit) Intelligence”. Nobody had the slightest suspicion.

[3] The most well-known spatial paradox in the Beit HaMikdash is that it could house the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. Do the math: The Ark was too big to fit in the Holy of Holies, and yet it fit right in.

[4] Rabbi Soloveichik was the leader of Modern Orthodox Jewry in North America during the second half of the previous century.

[5] Chronology in the time of Babylonian Exile is very murky. According to the Midrash [Vayikra Rabah 13:5], Cyrus was considered to be the son of Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus.

[6] When Esther becomes Queen of Persia, Mordechai tells her to conceal her true identity. The only reason that Esther spills the beans is to convince the King that Haman’s great idea is not so great, after all.

[7] Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, known by his acronym “Rashi,” was the most eminent of the medieval commentators. He lived in northern France in the 11^th century.

[8] Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra, usually referred to as “The Ibn Ezra,” lived in Cordoba, Spain, at the turn of the 12^th century.

[9] Rabbi Sacks was the Chief Rabbi of England between 1991-2013. He is one of the greatest philosophers and spokesmen of our generation.