Ki Thisah: Crux

This parsha seems most crucial.  It contains:

• the story of the tablets, Gd's instructions set in stone,
•  coming down form the mountain and shattered because of the golden calf party,
• the threat to destroy the Israelites
• Israel's contrition 
• the core text of Gd's merciful forgiveness, 
• the exaltation, and consequent separation , of Moshe through Gd's epiphany
• ...

I feel that if I only understood this parsha, I would know how to behave, I would understand what Gd demands of us, of me.  Alas, I do not understand. 

The  golden calf seems to be a paradigm of  the sin that must be avoided. I am an American. I think that is why I do not understand the sin. What was the big deal? The people felt they needed a symbol.  They recruited the highest level leader they had, Aaron, to find something to fill the void.  Aaron gets off with a mild scolding. The people are punished with plague, civil war and the promise of future destruction, when the time is right. 

I live in a place and a time of visiting museums. I have seen images- moving, talking images, holograms.  If this had some effect on my course soul, I am insensitive to it.  Am I so corrupted that these grievous violations, these objects that anger Gd to the point of destruction, are nothing to me? Or has there been a change in the nature of the world.  Most likely, I do not understand the nature of the sin at Sinai. 


I will try, again. 

The people had been liberated from centuries of slavery ( meaning unclear) in Egypt.  They were embarking on a new life of liberty.  Prior to the assemblage at Sinai,  the problem of law had  become obvious.  Jethro saw the people consulting Moshe from dawn till dusk to answer their questions and settle their disputes.  The new law was transmitted by Moshe from the Gd that had liberated them from the Pharoah's wild and arbitrary law (note the use of the word in our parsha: 

וַיַּ֤רְא מֹשֶׁה֙ אֶת־הָעָ֔ם כִּ֥י פָרֻ֖עַ ה֑וּא כִּֽי־פְרָעֹ֣ה אַהֲרֹ֔ן לְשִׁמְצָ֖ה בְּקָמֵיהֶֽם׃

Moses saw that the people were out of control—since Aaron had let them get out of control—so that they were a menace to any who might oppose them.

out of control).  The Ruler of the World had replaced the greatest ruler of the known world. 

The law needed to be democratized, accessible to all the people, and uniform and eternal. The tablets, the law set in stone, was the symbol of this uniform and unchanging law.  For emphasis, the people heard first two commandments - including the prohibition of images- with their own ears.  Forty days later, they violated the one law heard directly from Gd.  They were stiff necked, they could not be turned from their old ways. 

I still do not understand.

Let us work on it.