Ki Tisa: Just Me and You

By Zachary Fish

After one of the most catastrophic sins in the history of the world, the Cheit HaEgel, Hashem mercifully forgives Bnei Yisroel. However, after the sin not everything is the same as before. Originally, the luchos were fully formed by Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but now, with the second luchos, Hashem instructs Moshe Rabainu to create them. Why? On a basic level it could be understood that this is a punishment for Am Yisroel who, because of their sin, are no longer deserving of receiving luchos made by God Himself.

However, Rav Moshe Feinstein explains differently. The directive for the second luchos to be man-made was not a punishment, but rather a lesson teaching Am Yisrael how to overcome the fundamental issue that led them to sin with the egel.

Bnei Yisroel created and served the Egel, not as a way to replace Hashem, but as a mechanism to serve Hashem Himself. But why did they feel the need this? Rav Moshe explains that they felt that they themselves did not have the ability to connect to Hashem or His Torah. They believed only through an intermediary would this be possible. The fact that the first luchos were fully made by God only reinforced this idea. How could the finite interact with the infinite? So, they made an entity that they felt could bridge the gap between man and God.

But this was a huge mistake because man is able to connect with his Creator, and to the Torah that He gave us. In order to impart this message, Hashem directed that the second luchos had to be man-made, to show that man has a chelek in Torah himself. The second luchos teach us that we must come face to face with Hashem ourselves, because it is fully within our ability.

While the temptation nowadays to create a golden calf may be small, this message can have massive ramification for our personal avodas Hashem. Rabbi Lamn, in Derashos Ledorot, explains a similar idea in a different context. In Parsha Shemos [1], he quotes an Abarbanel that asks why when Hashem tells Moshe that he will conduct all the miracles “asher samti biyadekha”, “which I have placed in you hand” does Hashem not mention the rod, the “mateh”. The Abarbanel answers that Hashem did not want Moshe to overly rely on the rod and place his faith in it. Rather, Moshe had to realize that his abilities came from within himself with help from Hashem, and nowhere else. Rabbi Lamn explains “the moment a man places his faith in a mateh, he denies faith in himself and weakens his faith in [Hashem]. When the rod becomes a crutch for man, it interrupts the dialogue of faith between God and Man.”

Rabbi Lamn applies this idea further:

Part of our problem in modern Judaism is that we are always looking for a “mateh Elohim”, when the secret to our success or failure lays only “biyadekha.” We spend our time in search of magic wand, when there is magic in our hands if they be but wedded to full hearts and open minds and clear eyes. We are Americans, and thus always in a rush, looking for shortcuts, and with a naïve faith in gimmicks. So, the rod of God seems ideally suited for our purposes- and later we discover it’s only a weak crutch.

He explains with much nuance that even amazing institutions like Zionism, Yeshiva Day Schools, and Rabbis, if over relied on, can become a debilitating crutch. Because even these necessary helpful tools can take away from a direct face to face connection to Hashem.

The proper connection is one that does not need an intermediary, a mateh, or an egel.  It is one in which we step forward and take responsibility for our own Avodas Hashem and relationship with Hakadush Baruch Hu. May we all find the strength to do so.

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[1] In the piece titled "The Rod of God and the Crutch of Man"