Dvar Torah for Parshat Ki Tisa

In this week’s parsha we learn about the Golden Calf, Forty days after their encounter with G-d the Jews build an idol. This is what the Talmud Yerushalmi (Shekalim 1:1) has to say: Rabbi Abba bar Acha said, “It is impossible to understand this people. They were asked to donate to the building of the Golden Calf and they gave. They were asked to donate to the building of the Mishkan and they gave.”

When Moshe Rabbeinu came down the mountain with the Ten Commandments he saw the Golden Calf. Immediately he threw down the stone tablets and shattered them. Why did he do this?

The Meshech Chochma says that Moshe Rabbeinu needed to teach the people the role of objects in our religion. What Hashem demands of us is faith in Him. Yes, there are mitzvot such as the Mishkan that involve objects but these objects don’t have any intrinsic holiness. Holiness is a quality unique to Hashem. Objects have holiness only because Hashem chooses to impart holiness to them. Objects should never be venerated.

When Moshe Rabbeinu saw the people worshipping the Golden Calf he knew that they did not understand this idea. Had he chosen not to smash the tablets the people would have merely substituted the tablets for their calf. And had the tablets become an object of worship this would have made a farce out of the mitzvot engraved upon them. So in order to get this fundamental point across to the people Moshe Rabbeinu had to smash the luchot.

The flightiness that Rabbi Abba bar Acha observed was due to ignorance of the most fundamental truth of Judaism. We serve Hashem Himself. We don’t need objects to seek Him or to pray to Him.