Ki Thisa: Artifice

The contrast is between Gd’s creation - words on stone - and human creations - the Golden calf. The calf is of the purest, shiniest, most precious material, a lasting material... gold. Gd’s words are on the basest material and in eternal need of interpretation. Man’s handiwork is clear. Gd’s handiwork is vague.... But Gd’s handiwork survives physical destruction. Moshe reproduces the tablets ( ultimately, his act of reproduction continues until ArtScroll and hopefully beyond). The golden calf is destroyed (?)

The Israelites announce: : Ayle Elohei Yisroel: these are the gods of Israel. What could that mean? I take elohei to mean: the powers. The power of Israel was the willingness to sacrifice their gold to the common (meaningless) cause. The people could unite, they had a drive to unite, and they were willing to pay (dues) for their union. ( Samuel Gompers). They had formed a (Zionist [in the sense of a movement with a symbol] enterprise. But this violated Gd’s sensibilities.

Moshe returns, destroys the erroneous symbol, along with the 10 commandments. Moshe negotiates the future of Israel with Gd. Forgiveness is obtained. Moshe returns with supernatural headlights. He has become magical. The law is now supernatural. The people’s wrong interpretations are subordinated to the heavenly truth ( for a while, until Lo Bashomaim He)

The power of the people needs direction. The direction should be toward heaven.

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