…תִשָּׂא Between Tetzaveh and Ki Tissa אֶסְתֵּר פּוּרִים מִשְׁתֶּה שִׂמְחָה Esther, Purim, feasting, joy מִי יַחֲנֶה וּמִי יִסַּע Who shall stay home, and who shall travel וּמִי יִשָּׂא בַּתּוֹצָאָה And who will bear the consequence בֵּין כִּי תִשָּׂא לְוַיַּקְהֵל Between Ki Tissa and Vayakhel עוֹלָם מַפְסִיק לְהִתְקַהֵל The world stops congregating לְהִשְׁתַּתֵּק לְהִסְתַּגֵּר Goes quiet, locks itself in…
…revolutionary: the supreme power intervenes in history in defence of the powerless. Shemot Vaera Bo Beshallach Yitro Mishpatim Terumah Tetzaveh Ki Tissa Vayakhel Pekudei Vayikra (Leviticus) In Vayikra, the book of Leviticus, God sets out the mystery and majesty of holiness, summoning the people with whom He covenanted to a life driven by its energy, lit by its radiance, transformed…
…person can do everything. Ki Tissa: How Leaders Fail Team building, even after a disaster like the Golden Calf, is neither a mystery nor a miracle. It is done by setting the group a task, one that speaks to their passions and one no subsection of the group can achieve alone. It must be constructive. Every member of the group…
…הַכֹּל רָגִיל כָּאן לִכְאוֹרָה Everything seems normal here בָּמָה קָהָל וְאַהֲבָה Stage, crowd, and love בֵּין תְּצַוֶּה לְכִּי תִשָּׂא Between Tetzaveh and Ki Tissa אֶסְתֵּר פּוּרִים מִשְׁתֶּה שִׂמְחָה Esther, Purim, feasting, joy מִי יַחֲנֶה וּמִי יִסַּע Who shall stay home, and who shall travel וּמִי יִשָּׂא בַּתּוֹצָאָה And who will bear the consequence בֵּין כִּי תִשָּׂא…
In the immensely lengthy and detailed account of the making of the Tabernacle, the Torah tells the story twice: first (Ex. 25:1 – 31:17) as Divine instruction, then (Chapters. 35 – 40 of Exodus) as human implementation. In both cases, the construction of the building is juxtaposed to the command of the Sabbath (Ex. 31:12-17; Ex. 35:1-2). There are halakhic…
It is a moment of the very highest drama. The Israelites, a mere forty days after the greatest revelation in history, have made an idol: a Golden Calf. God threatens to destroy them. Moses, exemplifying to the fullest degree the character of Israel as one who “wrestles with God and man,” confronts both in turn. To God, he prays for…
Comparing two of the most famous events in the Torah, we face what seems like a glaring contradiction. In this week’s parsha, Moses on the mountain is told by God to go down to the people. They have made a golden calf. Moses descends, holding in his hands the holiest object of all time, the two tablets carved and inscribed…
In Ki Tissa and in Vayakhel we encounter the figure of Betzalel, a rare type in the Hebrew Bible – the artist, the craftsman, the shaper of beauty in the service of God, the man who, together with Oholiab, fashioned the articles associated with the Tabernacle. Judaism – in sharp contrast to ancient Greece – did not cherish the visual…
As we have seen in both Vayetse and Vaera, leadership is marked by failure. It is the recovery that is the true measure of a leader. Leaders can fail for two kinds of reason. The first is external. The time may not be right. The conditions may be unfavourable. There may be no one on the other side to talk…