Jewish Tradition maintains that the sin of Golden Calf, which we read in today’s portion, is a recurring sin of which most generations are to some extent guilty. It is important, therefore, to understand it and its causes, and thereby see whether it is germane to this generation’s problems. The Golden Calf is usually thought of as a symbol of Greed. This contention is not true, since its creation was volunteered by Israelites who donated their own personal effects for it. If anything, the sin was not Greed, but a lopsided scale of values where Gold is given first priority – in our estimation of others, in our hopes and dreams and aspirations and prayer – in other words, in our Religion. What caused this? The Torah merely tells us that Israel thought Moses was unduly late in coming down Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments (ki boshesh Moshe), and so directed Aaron to make for them a god to lead them through the wilderness.The comments of our Rabbis are of great interest and extremely pertinent here. They say that a rumor spread through the camp that Moshe meis – Moses is dead! In our context, the relevant claim would be: Judaism is done for, it has no future, it is a thing of the past. In almost the same words, Nietzsche had Zarathustra clamor, “The gods are dead,” and in almost the same tone modern deviationists from the Torah maintain that, for all practical purposes, Judaism as we’ve known it throughout ages is – dead. Moshe meis.What gave cause to these expressions of hopelessness in Judaism, to this death-knell sounded for Torah? Why are people convinced that Orthodoxy cannot survive? The causes are the same as those that gave rise in the desert camp of the Children of Israel that Moshe meis, the ugly premature obituary of Moses.One reason for the birth of this rumor was the fact that Satan had cast a pall of black darkness all about the mountain. Lost was all its primitive beauty, the glory of the Mountain which only a short while ago was the breath-taking scen…

Our Torah Reading this morning begins by telling us of a very ordinary, prosaic affair in the life of the nation of Israel some 3500 years ago. Moses is commanded to take the census, to count the people. And one may wonder: why does such a common, unspectacular event have to be mentioned in our Torah? Our Torah is not a textbook of political science, it is not a tract on the workings of government, and it is not a book on civics. Why, then, mention a census, even if it is Moses who is in charge?Perhaps one answer may be found in the sort of language the Torah uses to describe G-d’s command to Moses to muster his people. He says, and these are the opening words of the Sidra, ki sissa es rosh Bnei Yisrael – when you will count the Children of Israel. That is what it means. However, literally speaking, the words actually mean, when translated from the Hebrew idiom: when you will lift the head of the Children of Israel. That is the way the Bible uses the Hebrew expression for counting – ki sissa es rosh Bnei Yisrael, “when you lift the head of the Children of Israel.” And in the use of this particular idiom, we have a great lesson, one which changes an ordinary procedure of census into a great challenge to today’s Jews, and particularly to today’s Jewish youth.We are growing up in a strange world. It talks a lot about freedom – and yet does not allow us the freedom to choose our own way of life, but tries to force us to accept what most people do. It talks about the individual – and forces him to follow the majority standards, whether right or wrong. It tells us to think creatively, but punishes us if we dare to think of something we are not expected to think about. There is a word for it – conformity. If we conform then, we will all go to certain colleges, wear crew-cuts and dark sport coats, vote liberal, become agnostic the first three years of college, and in the fourth consent to attend an occasional late Friday Service. We will marry, perhaps live in a suburb, an…

It was R. Simchah Zissel, one of the giants of the Lithuanian Mussar movement, who pointed out an unusual aspect of G-d’s reaction to the worship of the Golden Calf by the Israelites. The divine wrath was kindled at the people of Israel not for idolatry, not for faithlessness, but because hinei am keshei oref hu, because it is a stiff-necked people. Evidently stubbornness is, in G-d’s scheme, more deserving of anger than idolatry. The Torah regards an obstinate character as more evil than a pagan soul. The calamities that followed the Golden Calf were due more to bad character than bad technology.Certainly this is a valid point. The man with the stubborn streak has a rigid will. His mind is frozen, and so he cannot learn. His soul suffers from a rigor mortis which prevents him from communing with the Source of all life. Brazenness, ignorance, a closed mind and a dead spirit – these are the prices of obstinacy and the casualties of stubbornness. A stubborn people will persist in its evil ways and never learn the ways of G-d. A stiff-necked people cannot raise its head above the Golden Calf.And yet the matter cannot be dismissed so simply. A blanket condemnation of stubbornness does not fit in with the complicated facts of today’s Sidra. For while, on the one hand, G-d points to stubbornness as the root of the sin of idolatry, and while he blames obstinacy for His withdrawal from Israel – ki lo e’eleh be-kirbecha ki am keshei oref ata, I will not go up amongst you because you are a stiff-necked people – yet, on other hand, it is this very characteristic that Moses presents as a reason why G-d should rejoin the Camp of Israel! In his second prayer of intercession, Moses says, yelech na ha’Shem be’kirbeinu ki am keshei oref hu! Let G-d go with us because we are stiff-necked people! The very reason G-d gave for abandoning Israel is the one Moses presents for His accepting them! If stubbornness is an unconditional evil, an absolute sin, then how can Moses point to Jewish…

When, as recorded in today’s dramatic Haftorah, the prophet Elijah ascended Mount Carmel in what today is the city of Haifa, he faced the hundreds of priests of the Baal and the crowds of the people of Israel, and flung a challenge at the dissident and confused masses to make up their minds and decide where their loyalties lay. “How long halt ye between two opinions?” – Why are you as indecisive as a small bird hopping from one branch to another, unable to make up its mind on which branch it wishes to perch? “If the Lord be G-d, follow Him; but if the Baal, follow him.” You can’t have it both ways. You can’t escape the necessity for choosing, painful though it be. Indeed, Elijah speaks to all men of all times when he presses us to make a choice between G-d and the Baals of all ages. Especially interesting in his historic challenge is the piquant description of idolatry when he presents the alternatives from which the choice is to be made. His searing sarcasm contains a nugget of wisdom about idolatry both ancient and modern which is most important for us. “And it came to pass at noon” – at a time when all a man’s actions are open and revealed and he can hide nothing –” that Elijah mocked them and said ‘Cry aloud, for is he not a god? – either he is musing, or he has gone aside, or he is in a journey’ – and most important – ‘or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awakened.’” The nature of idolatry, Elijah declares in the measured accents of mockery, is that of sleep. When you most need him, he is most fast asleep. I would add that the difference between a man asleep and the sleeping god is this: A sleeping man looks lifeless but he is alive; a sleeping god looks alive, but is very much dead. The idol appears real enough: it has eyes, ears, nose, hands, but as King David said, “They have mouths but they speak not, they have eyes but they see not, they have ears but they hear not.” What Elijah called the sleeping god refers not only to the idolatries of the ancient …

The episode of the building of the egel ha-zahav, the golden calf, was probably the most traumatic experience in the life of our nation during its infancy. It left an indelible impression upon the psyche of the folk. Its echo can be detected throughout the life and the literature, the dreams and the liturgy, the destiny and the self-image of our people. It is essentially an inexplicable phenomenon: so soon after the revelation at Mt. Sinai, this same people dances about a golden calf! From dizzying heights to harrowing depths! Perhaps most incomprehensible is the conduct of Aaron, the Kohen Gadol or High Priest of Israel, the brother of Moses. His role has challenged our commentators, stimulated our exegetes, and perplexed the ordinary reader of the Bible. I would like today not to apologize for Aaron (although his position can be satisfactorily explained under the circumstances), but to point to certain insights resulting from the Rabbis’ comments on his role, comments which are especially relevant to some of the central issues of our times and with which I was especially confronted during my recent trip overseas. We read this morning of the pressure brought by the Israelites upon Aaron to help them build the golden calf, and the stalling and procrastination by Aaron. Then comes the following significant verse: va-yar Aharon va-yiven mizbeah lafanav va-yikra Aharon va-yomer hag la-Shem mahar, “and Aaron saw and he built an altar before Him, and Aaron called out and he said there will be a festival to the Lord tomorrow.” The plain meaning of this verse, according to Nachmanides, is that Aaron felt that the Israelites were determined to go ahead with their idolatry, and so he built an altar not to the idol, but lefanav, before Him, meaning God, and announced: hag la-Shem mahar, tomorrow we will have a celebration not for this idol, but for the Lord. The verse is introduced by two words, however, which are quite challenging: va-yar Aharon, “and Aaron saw.” What, exac…

While the external problems of the State of Israel today agitate the minds and hearts of all those who love it and are committed to its welfare, an even more crucial story is developing in its internal life. Religious tensions, which have been present from the beginning of the State and even before it, now appear to be reaching the danger level. Irritations and hostilities between the Orthodox and anti-Orthodox element are growing all too rapidly. To a large extent, denunciation has taken the place of argumentation, and enmity has begun to replace amity in Israeli society. Sometimes differences of opinion are a challenge and a spur to greater creativity. Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the case at present; instead, Israel is threatened by the long-dreaded “Kulturkampf,” a pitched battle of ideologies in conflict with a deep divisiveness that can split Israeli society asunder.These internal problems of the State of Israel are not the exclusive concern of the citizens of Israel; just as issues in American-Jewish life are legitimately of interest to Jews everywhere. Our Rabbis taught us: כל ישראל ערבים זה בזה, “all Jews are co-responsible one for the other.” It is this principle which is based upon, and in turn guarantees, the fact that we are all one people.Furthermore, American Jews have had these problems brought to their attention quite forcibly in recent months. Not too long ago we were invited by the Israeli government to make use of its facilities aboard the new flag-ship, the S.S. Shalom. Therefore its character and its kashruth became of immediate concern to American Jews. A few weeks ago, the eminent columnist of the New York Times, Mr. Brooks Atkinson, wrote an article which astounded and hurt many of us: a report that was patently based upon wrong information and prejudicial to the ideals and the sentiments of Orthodox Judaism. Recently too, a Zionist quarterly (Midstream) contained an article by its editor which was so clearly vicious and malevo…

שתי סוגיות גדולות ומרכזיות ערוכות לפנינו בפרשת כי-תשא: מצות שקלים ומצות שבת. והיחס שביניהם אינו אומר אלא דרשני. מצות שקלים דומה מאוד למצות צדקה, אלא שזה נותן לעניים וזה לבנין המשכן ובדק הבית. והדמיון ביניהם הוא לא רק בזה שבשניהם על האדם לתת לזולתו, לעצור את קמצנותו הטבעית ולעבור דרך חסרון כיס להגשמת מטרה עילאה, אלא דומות גם גם בטיב המקבל, שהרי חכמי הסוד בישראל אמרו שהמשכן הינו סמל לאדם, וכלי המשכן מקבילים לאברי האדם כל אחד ואחד על אופנו. נמצא שבכל אחד מהם, שקלים וצדקה, האדם נותן פרוטה או מחצית השקל, כאן לאיש פרטי וכאן לאנושות כולה כשהיא מסומלת במשכן.והנה צדקה היא אפייניח לכל מצוות שביו ארם לחברו. וידועים דברי בעל-התניא בפרק ל״ב שחשיבות צדקה היא בדה שהיא כוללת את כל כחותיו ומאמציו של האדם שעמל ויגע בעבודתו בכדי לרכוש לחמו וכספו שממנו הוא תורם לצדקה. צדקה היא אי פא הסמל של כל הוייתו הגשמית של האדם המופנית כפי מצות תורתנו הק׳ לטובת חברו האומלל והמסכן- איו לר מצוה יותר מסוגלת לייצג את כל המצוות שביו אדם לחבר ו.ומאידר, שבת היא כל כולה לשם שמים, ׳ישבת היא לה,", והיא מיצגת את כל המצוות שבין אדם למקום. ויותר מדה: ידוע ששבת הוא כינוי לת״ח, ולפי״ד שבת מסמלת ת״ת, והלא ת״ת היא מצוה שבין אדם למקום. יש איפא מין עימות או מתח בין שתי המצוות הגדולות בסדרתנו: שקלים וכל שאר מצוות שביו אדם לחברו מחד גיסא, ושבת וכל שאר מצוות שביו אדם למקום מאי דר גיסא. ולפי דה, שתי המצוות האלה מסמלות גם חכמת התורה וחכמות העולם. שבת היא הסמל לחכמת התורה, ושקלים—לחכמות העולם שהו דרושות לאדם למצוא טרפו וכר לתרום משלו לדולתו. ובאמת אין דה עימות או התחרות ביניהן. אדרבה, הו משלימות רו את דו, שלא ייתכן לקיים רק מצוות שביו אדם למקום או רק מצוות שביו אדם לחברו. וכן טוב לאדם שיעסוק הם בחכמה העליונה של התוה״ק שסמלה היא שבת, והם בחכמות האחרות הדרושות לצדקה. אולם השילוב ביניהן אינו שילוב של ערכים השווים דה לדה, שאין ספק שתורה עולה על כל שאר המצוות, כמו שאמרו "ות״ת כנהר כולם". ואם כי המצוות שביו אדם לחברו עצמאיות הן כר שמי שהעליב או הד י ק לחברו אינו יכול להתכפר ע״י תפילה וכדומה אלא צריך לפייס את חברו, בכל דאת סוף-סוף הן מבוססות על מאמר ה׳ ומצותו. וכן לעניו החכמות, אם כי לחכמות העולם שנברא ע״י השי״ת יש ערר עצמאי, הל…

Ever since Rachel Carson wrote her Silent Spring some seven years ago, and especially during the last year or two, the problem of man’s mishandling of nature has come to the forefront of public consciousness. Once, a small, elite group used to advocate conservation, trying to protect certain specific preserves of nature from plundering by a careless humanity. Today, however, all segments of the public have become interested in ecology – not only in specific areas of nature, but in the totality of natural forces, based upon the premise that injury to any one significant segment of the natural scene will upset its fine balance of forces and so eventually destroy human life on the face of this planet. We should not be deterred by the attraction ecology seems to have for many radicals and cultists, who apparently have tired of civil rights and even Mao and the Black Panthers. It is an extremely urgent project and deserves the most serious attention by all of us. The President and Congress have moved forward commendably in trying to legislate on the subject. Yet, that is still inadequate. It is not enough to eliminate known sources of pollution of the air and water. A distinguished scientist, Rene Dubos (in Psychology Today, March 1970), has reminded us that we still know very little indeed about pollution. Some 70% of the precipitate contaminants in urban air are still unidentified, and 20-30 years from now, those who today are infants, the ages of 1, 2, and 3, will undoubtedly show varying signs of permanent and chronic malfunction. Modern technological man, apparently, is clever enough to subdue nature – and stupid enough to wreck it.There is no doubt that Judaism fully supports the endeavors to restore the balance of nature with man’s respect for it. The Bible teaches us that man was given dominion over Nature: after creating man and woman, “God blessed them and God said unto them: ‘be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it; and have dominion ov…