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recent"},{"term":"Kerry"},{"term":"Lincoln"},{"term":"Mali"},{"term":"Marxism"},{"term":"Massachusetts"},{"term":"Mueller"},{"term":"PLO"},{"term":"Personal"},{"term":"Pierre Omidyar"},{"term":"Saudi Arabia"},{"term":"Scam"},{"term":"Science"},{"term":"Soros"},{"term":"South America"},{"term":"Sports"},{"term":"Star Trek"},{"term":"Steele"},{"term":"Supreme Court"},{"term":"Tlaib"},{"term":"Tunisia"},{"term":"USSR"},{"term":"VA"},{"term":"Virginia"},{"term":"Woke"},{"term":"Yemen"},{"term":"Zero Hussein"},{"term":"aboutme"},{"term":"amona"},{"term":"cities"},{"term":"class warfare"},{"term":"foreign policy"},{"term":"gang violence"},{"term":"gender"},{"term":"israeli police brutality"},{"term":"judicial activism"},{"term":"photoshops"},{"term":"social justice"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Daniel Greenfield \/ Sultan Knish articles"},"subtitle":{"type":"html","$t":"Daniel Greenfield's articles and writings on the Sultan Knish blog"},"link":[{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.danielgreenfield.org\/feeds\/posts\/default"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/11368628\/posts\/default\/-\/Parsha?alt=json-in-script\u0026max-results=5"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.danielgreenfield.org\/search\/label\/Parsha"},{"rel":"hub","href":"http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/"},{"rel":"next","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/11368628\/posts\/default\/-\/Parsha\/-\/Parsha?alt=json-in-script\u0026start-index=6\u0026max-results=5"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Daniel Greenfield"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/13575285186581875356"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"20","height":"32","src":"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-ywx0Wkms-cU\/Vm75eobzYVI\/AAAAAAAAPg0\/kAlR7rDxOIc\/s113\/picture%2Bnewspapery%2Bsmall.jpg"}}],"generator":{"version":"7.00","uri":"http://www.blogger.com","$t":"Blogger"},"openSearch$totalResults":{"$t":"43"},"openSearch$startIndex":{"$t":"1"},"openSearch$itemsPerPage":{"$t":"5"},"entry":[{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-2393526230291222132"},"published":{"$t":"2009-03-14T20:55:00.004-04:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2009-03-14T21:50:21.091-04:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Parsha"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Purim: Between Emunah and Pega"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"The planned genocide that drives forward the Purim story is seemingly set off by a series of confrontations between Mordechai and Haman. Day after day Mordechai refuses to bow to Haman, but Haman seemingly takes no notice of this. It is only when the king's servants question Mordechai and then pass along whatever he said to Haman that Haman takes notice and becomes infuriated. What did Mordechai say to the King's servants that they passed on to Haman? Taking the Megillah literally,\u003Cspan style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003E \"they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's words would stand; for he had told them that he was a Jew.\"\u003C\/span\u003E. Mordechai's explanation for why he refuses to bow was simply that he was a Jew.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EYet why did this simple fact infuriate Haman to the extent of plotting genocide, and for him to make the statement to his wife and advisers that \"Kol zeh einena shoveia li...\", \"All I have is worth nothing to me whenever I see Mordechai the Jew sitting before the king's gate.\" An extraordinary and extraordinarily irrational statement for the second greatest man in the Persian Empire to make.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ETo begin with we need to look at what the middah or nature of Haman and of Amalek is. When Amalek first encounters the Jews leaving Egypt, the phrasing used is \"Asher Karcha\", a nearly random encounter. Haman's genocidal plan too is random enough to be determined by lots. That middah of pega, of happenstance and randomness is a natural product of a mindset that denies Hashem's role in running the world.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOn the other extreme of that middah is that of emunah or faith. Mordechai's refusal to attend the king's feast or to bow before Haman exemplified that middah of faith. The middah of emunah and pega are in permanent conflict, for emunah insists that all comes from G-d and pega insists that all things happen just because they do. That collision of order and chaos was intellectually explosive enough, for when Mordechai insisted on putting faith above obeisance to Haman, he was demonstrating his faith in the worthlessness of everything that Haman had, and in his entire worldview. Therefore Haman would naturally feel when passing Mordechai, that all he had was worthless.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFurthermore Mordechai's emunah was not in anything vague. Instead it was tied in to the specific prophecy that in 70 years the return would come. The 70 years were seemingly here. When Esther prepared to make her request of Ahasverosh, his phrasing was to offer her up to half of the kingdom, barring that which would split apart the kingdom, namely the rebuilding of the Beit Hamikdash. Haman's power was tied to the kingdom, if Mordechai was correct and things did not happen at random but were ruled by a higher power, then he was doomed to lose everything. Naturally when he came across Mordechai passively defying him by refusing to bow, he could not help but feel that all the power he had would pass away, if Mordechai's worldview was correct.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMordechai's refusal to submit his worldview to Haman's was behind the refusal to bow to him. For Haman did not merely represent political power, he represented the very nullification of faith, the middah of pega. Haman's determination to wipe out not merely Mordechai but the entire Jewish people, rested on his view of their belief in a G-d who was above empires as the ultimate threat to his own power. That collision between these two worldviews would form the events of Purim."},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.danielgreenfield.org\/feeds\/2393526230291222132\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.danielgreenfield.org\/2009\/03\/purim-between-emunah-and-pega.html#comment-form","title":"3 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/11368628\/posts\/default\/2393526230291222132"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/11368628\/posts\/default\/2393526230291222132"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.danielgreenfield.org\/2009\/03\/purim-between-emunah-and-pega.html","title":"Purim: Between Emunah and Pega"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Daniel Greenfield"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/13575285186581875356"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"20","height":"32","src":"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-ywx0Wkms-cU\/Vm75eobzYVI\/AAAAAAAAPg0\/kAlR7rDxOIc\/s113\/picture%2Bnewspapery%2Bsmall.jpg"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"3"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-3155778470178926535"},"published":{"$t":"2008-04-21T21:03:00.001-04:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2008-04-21T21:17:39.219-04:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Parsha"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Pesach - The Culture of Life and the Kingdom of Death"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"With Passover we celebrate the redemption of the Jews from Egypt. What is the significance of this redemption? Was it merely slavery that we were redeemed from? In fact 4000 years before Hitler, Pharaoh had built his own system of genocide for the Jews. Like Hitler he began by accusing the Jews of disloyalty to his own countrymen, he followed this up by building the first work camps for the Jews and then implementing the first plan of genocide to wipe out the Jewish people.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMillennia before Hitler, Pharaoh had a systematized plan of genocide in place. The Jews would report to work building his pyramids for him under Jewish foremen and work themselves to death and the Jewish newborn boys would be killed by Jewish midwives. Like the Kapos and the Yevesketsia, Jews would do the dirty work and Pharaoh would reap the benefits.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAnd what did Pharaoh have the Jews build for him? Pyramids, tombs of the dead for a kingdom of death in which the Pharaohs would be buried, eternal rulers of the dead over a kingdom of the dead. Appropriate enough for Egypt which had dedicated so much of itself to a study of death, to mummification of the dead and to its pyramids of the dead, all attempts to preserve corpses and enthrone death above life.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAnd what began the redemption of the Jews from Egypt? We see it at the end of the first chapter of Exodus after Pharaoh has enslaved the Jews, he decided to wipe out the next generation by commanding the Jewish midwives to kill the Jewish newborns. The kingdom of death issued its command but the midwives did not obey. Instead of fearing Pharaoh, ruler of the Kingdom of Death, it says, \"Vatirena Hameyaldot et HaElohim\" \"The Midwives Feared God\" and so they did not do as Pharaoh asked, \"Vetaheyana et Hayeladim\" \"They Kept the Children Alive.\"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhat is the great significance of this? Children are the essence of the future. They are life itself at the core of its potential. They are the next generation, born either to life or death, the only hope of perpetuating the future. When Pharaoh strove to kill the Jewish children, he was aiming to wipe out the life not only of the next generation of the Jewish people, but all the generations. Like Hitler, he had built up a kingdom of death embodied in pyramids in Egypt, as it was embodied in the crematoria under Germany. And in defiance of him, \"Vetahayena et Hayeladim\", the midwives instead chose to fear God and they chose to let the children live. The culture of life prevailed in that instant over the kingdom of death.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAnd how did God respond? The rest of the chapter tells us, \"Vayaas Lahem Batim\" \"He Built Houses for Them\". What does that mean exactly? The commentaries tell us that these were the houses of royalty and priesthood for Miriam was to be an ancestress of the House of David and Aaron the patriarch of the priesthood. In what merit were they so honored? Because they had chosen life. They had perpetuated the next generation of Jewish children and so their children would become the leaders of future generations in perpetuity. Theirs would be the Temple and to Egypt would remain the echoing tombs of the dead.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EBut the kingdom of death does not take this lying down. The kingdom of death never does, so Pharaoh orders his people to go and kill the Jewish children themselves. And like so many peoples throughout the ages, they go out and do this. The kingdom of death always knows to go after the children. When the Palestinian Arab sniper saw ten month old Shalhevet Pass in his scope, he knew he had his target. When the Arab terrorist burst into a school into Jerusalem to gun down students, he too knew exactly what he was doing. When Arabs teach their children to hate and kill, they too show themselves to be the spiritual descendants of Pharaoh, the rightful inheritors of his kingdom of death.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAnd what do the Jews do to defy this? What does God do? It's simple. At the beginning of the second chapter it says, \"And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took as his wife a daughter of Levi And the woman conceived, and bore a son.\" To achieve victory over the kingdom of death, you perpetuate life. You create life. You defy death.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWe can see the drop in the birth rates or the high infant mortality rates of cultures that have decided to give up, to build themselves virtual tombs of consumer electronics and to mummify themselves in the shrouds of their own hedonism and self-centeredness. The culture of death begins in self-centeredness, the obsession with one's own mortality and degenerates a contempt from life and from there into violence and murder. For good to triumph over evil, the culture of life must triumph over the kingdom of death."},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.danielgreenfield.org\/feeds\/3155778470178926535\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.danielgreenfield.org\/2008\/04\/pesach-culture-of-life-and-kingdom-of.html#comment-form","title":"7 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/11368628\/posts\/default\/3155778470178926535"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/11368628\/posts\/default\/3155778470178926535"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.danielgreenfield.org\/2008\/04\/pesach-culture-of-life-and-kingdom-of.html","title":"Pesach - The Culture of Life and the Kingdom of Death"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Daniel Greenfield"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/13575285186581875356"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"20","height":"32","src":"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-ywx0Wkms-cU\/Vm75eobzYVI\/AAAAAAAAPg0\/kAlR7rDxOIc\/s113\/picture%2Bnewspapery%2Bsmall.jpg"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"7"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-1868822845556324815"},"published":{"$t":"2008-03-29T20:30:00.003-04:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2008-03-29T21:17:09.709-04:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Parsha"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Parshas Shemini - The Hour and the Generation"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"Parshas Shemini begins with the words Vayehi Beyom HaShemini. We learn that the opening Vayehi, And It Was, portends a mixture of tragedy and joy. As in Vayehi Yaakov, that saw Yaakov reunited and living with his son Yosef but in exile and as a prelude to slavery.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EShemini begins with the final dedication of the Mishkan, on the eight day after seven days of Moshe Rabbeinu performing the Avodah, bringing the Korbanot, Aaron steps into his role as Kohen Gadol, brings the Korbanot and as both brothers leave the Ohel Moed at the conclusions, they are privileged to see the Shekihna appear. A heavenly fire consumes the Korbanot. But Vayhei, though there is celebration there is also tragedy.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ETwo of Aaron's sons bring an alien fire and are killed by fire from heaven. Moshe tells Aaron that with this event the word of G-d, Bekrovai Ekodesh, has been fulfilled. Moshe warns his brother and the remaining sons not to leave, not to mourn and to eat of the Mincha. Aaron and his sons do all this and eat of the Mincha but the Seir brought for Rosh Chodesh, they burn entirely and Moshe demands an explanation.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAaron's answer however is enigmatic, indicating that he had acted properly and seems to fully satisfy his brother. Yet is short on detail. The two most common explanations are that either the animal became posul or that only Kodshei Shaa like the Mincha were to be eaten, while Onenim, but not Kodshei Dorot. Yet this too leaves something out.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIt's notable that the Pasuk appears to be engaging in a virtual pun, as Aaron and his two remaining sons, NaNotrim, are told to eat the Mincha, HaNotrot. Both Aaron's surviving sons and the Mincha seems to be described with the same term. But obviously it's not mere wordplay, there is a message and a point to it.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Mincha that they are to eat is the remaining Mincha that had not been burnt, just as the two surviving sons, were the remaining sons who had not been burnt. Moshe describes the deaths of Nadav and Avihu, not as punishment but as glorification, much like a Korban. Like the Mincha, part had been burnt and part remained for Aaron. When Moshe warns them about leaving with the oil on them, as there is oil on the Mincha, the implication is that they too will die. This is what is done with a Korban that becomes Posul, to be burnt outside. So if they leave, they too will be burned outside and what has been a Mincha will become an entirely Posul Korban, which could altogether invalidate the entire Miluim. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAaron and his sons eat the Mincha and the Korbanot which are Kodshei Shaa. Even though the sons are regular Kohanim and Onenim. But they are Onenim over the deaths of Nadav and Avihu and Nadav and Avihu were themselves a Kodshei Shaa Korban, so to speak, a one time event. Both those deaths and the special status of Elazar and Yithamar were unique events, Shaa. By contrast the Seir of Rosh Chodesh was a Kodshei Dorot and as far as the Dorot were to be concerned, Kohanim Onenim could not consume Kodshim. The holiness of the hour had been gained at great cost, like the reunion of Yosef and Yaakov, a terrible price had been paid. But it was a temporary price. The achievement that had been gained however was one for generations."},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.danielgreenfield.org\/feeds\/1868822845556324815\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.danielgreenfield.org\/2008\/03\/parshas-shemini-hour-and-generation.html#comment-form","title":"1 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/11368628\/posts\/default\/1868822845556324815"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/11368628\/posts\/default\/1868822845556324815"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.danielgreenfield.org\/2008\/03\/parshas-shemini-hour-and-generation.html","title":"Parshas Shemini - The Hour and the Generation"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Daniel Greenfield"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/13575285186581875356"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"20","height":"32","src":"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-ywx0Wkms-cU\/Vm75eobzYVI\/AAAAAAAAPg0\/kAlR7rDxOIc\/s113\/picture%2Bnewspapery%2Bsmall.jpg"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"1"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-4306782133848630167"},"published":{"$t":"2008-03-22T20:29:00.004-04:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2020-11-13T18:39:30.746-05:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Parsha"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Where is God? Where is man!"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"In the face of human evil people often demand, \"Where is God?\"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EBut as Purim should teach us the real question is never where is God, but where is man. God is always where he needs to be. Our concern is not with where is God but where is man.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOn Purim a near genocide of the Jewish people took place that was averted and though we celebrate it while giving thanks to God, we never see His hand clearly at work in it. There are no great open miracles. The earth doesn't open up, the sea doesn't part, the sky doesn't rain fire and the mountains don't tremble. Instead a seeming minutia of events on the part of human add up to bring salvation.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn the aftermath of the destruction of the temple and the fading of prophecy from the world, Mordechai and Esther confronted a world of men that had with its persistence of evil driven away God. For thousands of years God had sought man in grand and open ways. Now man would have to seek God by understanding that he is present even when he appears to be hidden.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EEsther and Mordechai understood what most did not, that God was where he should be, it was man that was absent and so they committed themselves to a course of action, not because they were confident that it would succeed, indeed Mordechai explicitly states that it may not, but because they were confident that God would nevertheless find a way to bring about salvation through someone. Perhaps through them. Perhaps not. Like Daniel and his friends, he had faith in God and in the need of man to stand up for what was right, without the confidence of invulnerability.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EEsther and Mordechai's question was not where God was. They understood the need for man, for men and women, to do what they could. Megillat Esther, the Esther signifying Hastir or hidden, was the bridge from the world of the Temple and the Prophets and the accompanying open miracles to a world in which God appeared hidden and his miracles discreet. The miracles of Chanukah and Purim were the bridge to that world in which God appeared distant but that challenged us to find him in the salvations both great and small, from the escape from genocide to the rising of the sun to the filling of the needs of every creature. From a world of open miracles we had seemingly declined to a world of miracles that were just as open but no longer obvious because they were part of how God had been running the world all along.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ERecognizing God requires not only requires recognizing Him as the God who can disrupt nature in open miracles but who underlies nature. While the lack of grand miracles that disrupt the natural world may seem like a diminution but it's also a chance to achieve a greater understanding of God and to take action.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe question continues to be asked, \"Where is God.\" But God continues on. As always it's human deficits that are at issue. It's we who need to find ourselves and find our place in the larger picture. And we do that by standing up for the right things and rather than blaming God by demanding to know \"Where is God\" taking action to make things right.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhether it is the Holocaust or Israel, the question is not where is God. But where is man? That too is what God is waiting for and has been waiting for all along."},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.danielgreenfield.org\/feeds\/4306782133848630167\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.danielgreenfield.org\/2008\/03\/where-is-god-where-is-man.html#comment-form","title":"5 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/11368628\/posts\/default\/4306782133848630167"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/11368628\/posts\/default\/4306782133848630167"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.danielgreenfield.org\/2008\/03\/where-is-god-where-is-man.html","title":"Where is God? Where is man!"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Daniel Greenfield"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/13575285186581875356"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"20","height":"32","src":"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-ywx0Wkms-cU\/Vm75eobzYVI\/AAAAAAAAPg0\/kAlR7rDxOIc\/s113\/picture%2Bnewspapery%2Bsmall.jpg"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"5"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11368628.post-5337554401074960823"},"published":{"$t":"2008-02-23T21:00:00.006-05:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2010-08-19T22:37:33.773-04:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Parsha"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Parshas Ki Tisa - The Wisdom of Rock"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"Ki Tisa contains some of the more baffling events in the Torah as the Jewish people, shortly after hearing the ten commands, proceed to create an idol and worship it. Various explanations have been given for what happened but I think it is instructive to explore the mindset behind these actions.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIt is Moshe's failure to return on time that encourages the construction of an idol to take the place of Moshe saying, \"Rise and make us a god who shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him.\" The statement contains two admissions, that Moshe is a man and yet that he brought them out of Egypt.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIf they simply wanted another man to take Moshe's place, they would have elected a leader. Clearly while they believed that Moshe was a man, they did not believe that he was merely a man. At the Sea, it is said, \"Vayaminu Be'Hashem U'Be'Moshe Avdo\", \"They Believed in G-d and in Moshe His Servant\". When Moshe first set out to reveal his prophecy to the Jews, he brought signs to cause the Jews to believe in him. Then with many of the plagues, Moshe or Aaron took an action followed by a miracle. It is not unreasonable that some had come to believe in Moshe, but not quite in G-d. While Moshe repeatedly spoke of G-d, what people hear is not the same thing as what they are told.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAt the sea things changed, for Moshe began to pray and was cut off. Instead the miracle came as the Jews advanced into the sea. Their own reliance on G-d brought the miracle and afterward, they believed in G-d and Moshe only as his servant. Yet at Sinai they heard G-d and were unable to stand it and instead chose to receive the commandments from Moshe. As the lawgiver and with his departure, Moshe came to seem coequal with G-d or an aspect of G-d.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe phrasing of the demand for an idol is telling, \"כִּי-זֶה מֹשֶׁה הָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר הֶעֱלָנוּ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם, לֹא יָדַעְנוּ מֶה-הָיָה לוֹ\" \"For this Moshe, this man who led us out of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.\" The emphasis is on Moshe as only a man, a form that was apparently in their minds as inadequate to contain divinity. So they replaced him with a more supernatural form, gold in place of flesh, animal in place of man.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHow do we know that the worship of Moshe himself was a problem? For one thing, his tomb was hidden, fairly unique when the tombs of great men even predating him are accessible. Secondly Moshe was never allowed to enter Israel. The presumed sin for which he was forbidden to enter the land involved a repetition of a miracle involving bringing water from a rock. The first time Moshe struck the rock while the second time he was commanded to speak rather than strike it. What difference does this make?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMoshe was chosen as the most humble of all men. Why in particular was humility a choice virtue? Why not one of his other positive traits? To be humble means to displace yourself in favor of your ego and Moshe had been chosen to perform the greatest miracles in history, feats that could easily be construed to demonstrate his own divinity. As the humblest man, Moshe was to be the least plausible candidate for being construed as a deity, let alone presenting himself as one.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn striking a rock, Moshe was functioning as superior to the rock. Yet by being told to speak to it the second time around, Moshe was to demonstrate that even when dealing with a rock, he would show a humility so great as to address it, rather than to hit it, so as not to set himself above even the rock.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMany years earlier, Moshe had carved the second set of commandments out of rock and shattered the first, in response to an idolatry that had been rooted in the perception of him as a deity. Yet the rock that he struck the second time was a failure to set aside that humility and for this he would not lead the second generation that had not known the calf into the land.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAfter the events of the second tablets, the light from Moshe's face shone so brightly that he was forced to wear a mask except when he taught, for then the light of divine inspiration could clearly be seen, reflecting the divine light on his face. By contrast when facing people who so easily might fall into thinking of objects and men as gods, he instead wore a mask to cover the light."},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.danielgreenfield.org\/feeds\/5337554401074960823\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.danielgreenfield.org\/2008\/02\/parshas-ki-tisa-wisdom-of-rock.html#comment-form","title":"6 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/11368628\/posts\/default\/5337554401074960823"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/11368628\/posts\/default\/5337554401074960823"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.danielgreenfield.org\/2008\/02\/parshas-ki-tisa-wisdom-of-rock.html","title":"Parshas Ki Tisa - The Wisdom of Rock"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Daniel Greenfield"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/13575285186581875356"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"20","height":"32","src":"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-ywx0Wkms-cU\/Vm75eobzYVI\/AAAAAAAAPg0\/kAlR7rDxOIc\/s113\/picture%2Bnewspapery%2Bsmall.jpg"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"6"}}]}});