The World Turned Upside Down – Ki Tisa 5785

Have you ever seen the musical Hamilton? It’s one of the favorites in our house. Towards the end of the first act, there’s a song sung by the cast after the Battle of Yorktown: “The World Turned Upside Down.” For those who don’t know, Yorktown was the final major battle of the Revolutionary War and caused the British to surrender. The title of the song captures the improbability of the moment — simply put, it wasn’t supposed to happen. A small, ragtag army of upstarts isn’t supposed to get the better of the much larger and better organized British forces.

Perhaps coincidentally (or not), this same theme permeates both our parshah this week — Ki Tisa — and Purim, which we celebrated yesterday. In both of these, certain events transpire that were not supposed to happen. Events that turn the world upside down. 

Let’s begin with Purim. We all know the broad strokes of the story- how Esther came to be queen and eventually, at the urging of her relative Mordechai, revealed that she was Jewish to the king Achasuerus and foiled the genocidal plot of his evil minister Haman. However, in chapter 9, the Jews assemble together to fight a defensive war against those citizens of Achasuerus’ kingdom who are intent on carrying out the decree of extermination that Haman engineered. The Jews do indeed end up killing large numbers of people (this is the part of the Purim story that we don’t usually teach in Hebrew school), but one can sense the irony of the scene in chapter 9, verse 1 of the Megillah. The text reads:

וּבִשְׁנֵים֩ עָשָׂ֨ר חֹ֜דֶשׁ הוּא־חֹ֣דֶשׁ אֲדָ֗ר בִּשְׁלוֹשָׁ֨ה עָשָׂ֥ר יוֹם֙ בּ֔וֹ אֲשֶׁ֨ר הִגִּ֧יעַ דְּבַר־הַמֶּ֛לֶךְ וְדָת֖וֹ לְהֵעָשׂ֑וֹת בַּיּ֗וֹם אֲשֶׁ֨ר שִׂבְּר֜וּ אֹיְבֵ֤י הַיְּהוּדִים֙ לִשְׁל֣וֹט בָּהֶ֔ם וְנַהֲפ֣וֹךְ ה֔וּא אֲשֶׁ֨ר יִשְׁלְט֧וּ הַיְּהוּדִ֛ים הֵ֖מָּה בְּשֹׂנְאֵיהֶֽם׃

“And so, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month—that is, the month of Adar—when the king’s command and decree were to be executed, the very day on which the enemies of the Jews had expected to get them in their power, the opposite happened, and the Jews got their enemies in their power.”

The famous phrase in this verse- v’nahafoch hu– is translated by JPS as “the opposite happened”, but it also has valences of the phrases “got turned around”, “reversed itself”, or “was overthrown”. The Jews of Shushan and the other provinces of Ahasuerus’ kingdom were supposed to be destined for destruction. And yet, v’nahafoch hu– it was reversed. The Jews, in an ambiguous moment, perpetrate those acts of violence that were plotted to be done to them, not by them as envisioned by Haman. This particular reversal, it seems, is for the good. We preserve our peoplehood, and our lives, in the face of a harmful threat which becomes not just words, but actions.

In our parsha, too, expectations are dashed- definitively for the worse, this time- when the Israelites build the egal masecha, the golden calf. After waiting for forty days and nights for Moses to come down from Mount Sinai, they ask Aaron to build them a god that they can see- something tangible that will lead them. As we know, it doesn’t turn out well: Aaron fashions the calf from their gold jewelry which they hand over all too quickly. Moses, hearing and seeing the people’s licentiousness, throws and destroys the tablets with Ten Commandments written on them, burns the golden calf, grinds it into powder, mixes it with water, and makes the Israelites drink it. It’s quite the punishment, and is only part of what the Israelites endure as retribution for their act of idolatry.

V’nahafoch hu– the opposite happened. The Israelites, who so recently said na’aseh v’nishmah– “we will do and we will hear”, when asked if they will abide by the rules of the covenant and mitzvot, are all too quick to violate them in the gravest way. The people for whom both G-d and Moshe had such high hopes for quickly disappoint in splendid fashion. While the people are ultimately forgiven by G-d, it’s not without some negotiation on Moshe’s part, and is far from the only time where they will prove a disappointment.

In fact, the Israelites at this moment are such a disappointment that the word the Torah uses to describe them- p’ra’o, or “out of control”- is the same spelling as the word paro- Pharaoh. The Israelites, shockingly, have become the very thing that they were so desperate to leave behind when they left Egypt. V’nahafoch hu– it was overturned. 

Our lives, and the world, can often feel upside down. Situations and ideas we thought were permanently fixed in place can quickly turn, for better or worse. I know that I’m not the only one who looks at the state of the world and our community, and wonders how things got to be the way they are. There is such uncertainty, conflict, sadness, and fear that many of us may be feeling. But, as my teacher Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld has said, when we want to turn away from the world we should turn towards each other.

In our parsha, the Israelites are repeatedly named as am k’shey oref, “a stiff-necked people”. It’s curious to note that this epithet functions as both the thing that is our downfall as well as the thing that saves us. G-d wants to punish us for being am k’shey oref when we don’t do what’s expected of us. Moses, on the other hand, entreats G-d and says in so many words, “What did you expect from these people? They are am k’shey oref; this is the best they can do.”

And yet paradoxically, we are also called in the book of Exodus am segula…mamlechet kohanim v’goy kadosh: “a treasured people, a nation of priests, a holy people.” I want to argue that this quality of being “a stiff-necked people” can be a positive quality. When the world seems hafoch- backwards- we have the Tradition to guide us. Not straying easily to the right or left, but trying to live according to the golden mean is ideally how we’re supposed to live our lives according to Maimonides. Our stiff-neckedness, for better or worse, has been to our benefit and makes us unique among other nations.

Perhaps this idea is best summed up in the book of Samuel:

וּמִ֤י כְעַמְּךָ֙ כְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל גּ֥וֹי אֶחָ֖ד בָּאָ֑רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֣ר הָלְכֽוּ־אֱ֠לֹהִ֠ים לִפְדּֽוֹת־ל֨וֹ לְעָ֜ם וְלָשׂ֧וּם ל֣וֹ שֵׁ֗ם וְלַעֲשׂ֨וֹת לָכֶ֜ם הַגְּדוּלָּ֤ה וְנֹֽרָאוֹת֙ לְאַרְצֶ֔ךָ מִפְּנֵ֣י עַמְּךָ֗ אֲשֶׁ֨ר פָּדִ֤יתָ לְּךָ֙ מִמִּצְרַ֔יִם גּוֹיִ֖ם וֵֽאלֹהָֽיו׃

“And who is like Your people Israel, a unique nation on earth, whom God went and redeemed as His people, winning renown for Himself and doing great and marvelous deeds for them [and] for Your land—[driving out] nations and their gods before Your people, whom You redeemed for Yourself from Egypt.” 

When the world is hafoch– upside down, when things happen that shouldn’t be happening- it can be confusing and bewildering. However, adhering to our principles and, when necessary, being am k’shey oref as we were in the story of Purim, can often be the thing that points us in the right direction.