* TORAH WEEKLY * Highlights of the Weekly Torah Portion and Haftorah. Plus Ani Ma'amin - The Rambam's 13 Principles of Faith. Parshas Ki Sisa For the week ending 18 Adar Rishon 5755 17 & 18 February 1995 =========================================================================== Due to a system error, the text of Torah Weekly-Kisisa was garbled. We are resending it to you now. Please accept our sincere apologies. =========================================================================== Dedicated to the memory of Mr. Jack Annis whose life was the embodiment of devotion, concern and love for others. May his good deeds be an inspiration to all his family. =========================================================================== Summary Moshe conducts a census by counting each silver half-shekel donated by all men, age twenty and over. Moshe is commanded to make a copper laver for the Mishkan -- the women donate the necessary metal. The formula of the anointing oil is specified, and Hashem instructs Moshe to use this oil only for dedicating the Mishkan, its vessels, and Aaron and his sons. Hashem selects Betzalel and Oholiav to be the master craftsmen for the Mishkan and its vessels. The Jewish People are commanded to keep the Sabbath as an eternal sign that Hashem made the world. Moshe receives the two Tablets of Testimony on which are written the Ten Commandments. The mixed multitude that left Egypt with the Jewish People panic when Moshe's descent seems delayed, and force Aaron to make a golden calf for them to worship. Aaron stalls and tries to delay them. Hashem tells Moshe to return to the people immediately, threatening to destroy everyone and build a new nation from Moshe. When Moshe sees the orgy of idol-worship he smashes the Tablets, and destroys the golden calf. The Sons of Levi volunteer to punish the transgressors, executing 3,000 men. Moshe ascends the mountain to pray for forgiveness for the people, and Hashem accepts his prayer. Moshe sets up the Mishkan, and Hashem's cloud of glory returns. Moshe asks Hashem to show him the rules by which He conducts the world, but is granted only a small portion of this request. Hashem tells Moshe to hew new Tablets, and reveals to him the text of the prayer that will invoke His mercy. Idol worship, intermarriage, and the combination of milk and meat are prohibited. The laws of Pesach, the First-born, the First-fruits, Shabbos, Shavuos and Succos are taught. When Moshe descends with the second set of Tablets, his face is luminous as a result of contact with the Divine. =========================================================================== Commentaries "The Children of Yisrael shall keep the Shabbos¬throughout their generations" (31:16). After a person leaves this world, his soul experiences a state of confusion. If, in his lifetime, he enmeshed himself in the physical world, so even after death, his soul still looks for those same physical pleasures. However, lacking a body to experience the material dimension, his soul frantically rushes from one side of the world to the other in a vain search for the physical. However, if a person spends his life in a quest for the spiritual, and only uses the physical world to elevate his neshama, then, after he passes from the physical world, his soul recognizes the next world, which is entirely spiritual, and rushes to embrace it. The phrase "throughout their generations" in this verse can also be translated "as their dwelling place." When a person keeps Shabbos, he "spiritualizes" himself and, at the same time, creates a dwelling place for himself in the next world -- `the world which is entirely Shabbos.' When he goes to the next world, he will find a familiar dwelling -- Shabbos will be home for his soul. (Adapted from the Ohr HaChaim Hakadosh) "It (Shabbos) is an everlasting sign between me and the Children of Yisrael" (31:17). A shoemaker's shop -- the door is barred, all the windows are shuttered; not a crack of light can be seen from within. In fact, one would think that the shoemaker has moved out of town. Only the sign above the door -- "Shoemaker" -- gives any clue that the shoemaker is still in business. Similarly with the Jew -- however far he wanders from the faith of his fathers, and even if all the mitzvos that should lighten his home are like darkened windows, but if he still keeps Shabbos, then there is yet a sign that Jewish life is smoldering within; that the light of Yiddishkeit has not gone out completely. But when that sign -- "Shabbos" -- comes down, it is as though the Shoemaker has left town for good. (The Chafetz Chaim) "Aaron said to them `Remove the golden earrings that are in the ears of your wives, sons, and daughters, and bring them to me'" (32:2). Aaron's part in the incident of the golden calf is difficult to understand. It cannot be that he deliberately incited the people to make an idol to worship. Rather, his intention was the reverse: A person's will is represented by the heart. And the heart is expressed through the `pocket.' By gathering gold from all Yisrael, and making it into a single unit, Aaron was trying to create a tangible symbol of the unity of the will of Jewish People: The gold would be cast into the fire, and the fire would remove the impurities of the latent tendency to idol worship (which is known in the mystical writings as the poison of the primeval snake). What would be left would be pure and united, a symbol of the Unity of Yisrael and Hashem. However, the mixed multitude who came up from Egypt with the Jewish People, and whose intentions were truly idolatrous, introduced the powers of spiritual impurity into the gold. Yisrael was then drawn after this, and what resulted was the golden calf. (Admo"r Rabbi Shmuel m'Sokhachov) =========================================================================== Haftorah: 1 Melachim 18:1-39 "How long will you dance between two opinions? If Hashem is the G-d, follow Him! And if the Baal, follow it" (18:21). When Moshe Rabbeinu descended from Mount Sinai with the Tablets, and the Children of Yisrael were busy making the golden calf, Yehoshua tried to comfort him by saying "The sound of battle is in the camp," meaning, not all of Yisrael has been infected by idol-worship, there is still a "sound" of battle between the worshippers of the golden calf, and those faithful to Hashem. Moshe replied that a "sound of battle" is not enough. Even those who were not worshipping the calf were taking a stance of tolerance, of neutrality. They were open to both opinions -- a voice of appeasement, devoid of decisive action. In the fight against idol-worship, whether the more obvious worship of foreign gods, or the more subtle forms of forbidden worship, it is impossible to "dance between two opinions." =========================================================================== Ani Ma'amin The Rambam's 13 principles of faith Principle #12: "I believe with complete faith in the coming of the Mashiach, and even though he may delay, nevertheless I anticipate every day that he will come." Should someone ask what we are supposed to do to prepare for the arrival of Mashiach, the answer is that Hashem does not expect of us colossal things which we are incapable of doing. Each one of us is expected to do whatever we are capable of. If one is capable of only learning Mishnayos, he should set aside a time each day when he sets aside everything else in order to learn his Mishnayos shiur. And so it is, regarding all Torah study. Certainly, if one is capable of learning gemara and halacha, he must make sure to learn them at a set time each day. The underlying principle is that Hashem does not expect the impossible from us, only what each of us is capable of doing to prepare himself for Mashiach. So it was when Hashem told Moshe to build Him a Sanctuary. Moshe trembled at the thought of a mortal, building a house for Hashem. But he was reassured that the Jews were only expected to contribute and to build what they were capable of -- by human standards and not divine ones. We must, therefore, do whatever each of us is capable of doing in returning to Hashem, so that we shall be worthy of His revelation soon, in our days. Chafetz Chaim, Zechor LeMiriam, Perek 18 =========================================================================== Where do YOU find TW* ? Sam Kushner @ kpmg.com gets TW via E-Mail: "I read TW on the subway to and from work. 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