The parsha (Torah portion) that we read this shabbat is called Key Tisa which means, “When you lift/raise.”

Now that we have finished the parsha that Moshe is not mentioned (click here for an explanation), the Torah immediately says that haShem (god) is talking to Moshe (Moses).   HaShem is telling Moshe that when he raises up the heads of the children of Yisrael to count them, that person needs to give an atonement for his soul so that a plague will not kill him.

This seems like a strange thing for the Torah to mention.  I shared an answer concerning this in my parsha thoughts on key tisa two years ago.  See if you can guess why, and then see if it matches my idea, which are found here. 🙂

Getting back to our parsha, we learn that the atonement is exactly 1/2 shekel, that it applies only to those 20 years old and up, and that the money is to be used for serving the tent of meeting.

God then tells Moshe to make a copper basin and a stand so the cohanim (priests) can wash their hands and feet when doing their service and not die.

After this, we read about the anointing oil, and then the incense.  God then tells Moshe the people who have been given the artistic ability to make all the things that make up the mishcan (tabernacle).

God also warns Moshe to tell the people that even during the building of the mishcan, they must observe shabbat to remind people that it is god who made them kodesh (holy/separate), and because shabbat is kodesh for them, and because it is a sign between them and god, that god made the heaven and the earth in six days, and on the seventh god sat and breathed.

Finally, god finishes talking to Moshe, and presents him with the two stone tablets of testimony.  It is at this point that we jump back to the people who see Moshe is late in coming down the mountain and gather around Aharon demanding he make for them gods that will go before them because they don’t know what happened to Moshe, their previous leader.

Aharon makes for them a golden calf and an altar, and the next day the people make offerings and eat and drink and laugh.  God tells Moshe that he had better go down for the people have become corrupt.  God continues by saying to Moshe that he is ready to destroy the people and make Moshe a great nation.

Moshe convinces god not to destroy the people and then goes down the mountain.  When he gets down there, Moshe becomes angry and smashes the stone tablets and destroys the golden calf, and has 3000 people killed.  He then tells the people to initiate themselves to bring a blessing upon themselves.  Then he tells the people that they have sinned big time, and that he is going back up the mountain to try to atone for their sin.

God tells Moshe he will kill those responsible and he will send an angel to lead them instead of himself so she doesn’t kill them.  The people mourned and removed their jewelry when they heard all this.  Moshe set up the tent of meeting outside of camp,  where he would meet with god, and Y’hoshua (Joshua), son of Nun would never leave the inside of the tent.

At this point, Moshe asks god to reveal his face to him.  God says that no human can see her face and live, but he can see the back of god as god goes by him.

God then tells Moshe to make two new stone tablets and bring them back up the mountain the next day where god will rewrite the 10 utterances (real translation of the Heberw that is normally translated as 10 commandments), and of course Moshe does just as god asks.

When Moshe gets up to the top of the mountain, he calls out to god who passed in front of him and Moshe bows down.  God then makes a brit (covenant) with Moshe and with the people saying god will drive out the inhabitants of the promised land, and the people are not to make a brit with the natives of the land.  Rather, they are to destroy their altars and monuments.  If they don’t do this, they will stray after other gods and this haShem has expressly forbidden.

From here we read of the three pilgrimage festivals, and about the redemption of the first born, and again about not working on shabbat.  This bit ends with us again being told not to cook a kid in its mother’s milk.

God then tells Moshe to write all this down because these words are the basis of the brit between god and with Yisrael.  Moshe remained there 40 days and 40 nights, without eating or drinking.

Moshe then descended and didn’t realize that his face now glowed.  The people saw and stayed away from him until he called to them to gather around and he spoke to the people.  Moshe then covered his face.

The parsha ends with us learning that Moshe would uncover his face when he went into the tent and talked with god, and then he would come out and tell the people what god had said.  When the people saw Moshe’s face glow, he would cover his face again until he came to speak with god.

What a parsha.  I try to keep the summary short, but sometimes I can’t.  What would you have me cut out?  No, I am not going to cut out my thoughts on the parsha, nice try. 🙂

I am glad you brought them up; you have given me a perfect lead in.  What did I find hiding in the parsha?

Well, to be honest, I saw many things.  I will share only a couple with you now, so I will have something to share in the future, and also to leave something for you to find.

The first thing I noticed is in verse 32:25 (of the book Shmot/Exodus).  Moshe had just come down the mountain and destroyed the golden calf and had asked Aharon how he had come to make the golden calf.  After Aharon’s answer, we have our verse which the translation I have reads as:  Moshe saw the nation that they were disgraced, since Aharon disgraced them to shame among their adversaries.

Now, I don’t really have a problem with this translation.  There is one word, however that I couldn’t find in my dictionary.  It is the word that is translated here as disgraced.  The Hebrew word is:  phraoh.

What I find interesting is that with a slight change in the vowels, we have the word:  pharaoh.

This is one of the reasons I like reading the Torah in Hebrew, and a good example of why translations just don’t do justice to it.

By using this word, the Torah is trying to telling us something really deep.   It is telling us that Moshe was given a tremendous insight.  He suddenly saw how fragile the people were.

The people, when strong, of course will follow haShem and his ways.

But when he didn’t come down the mountain, the people become scared and fell back to what they knew, and all they knew was the ways of Egypt and Pharaoh.  Hence, their fear led them to disgrace themselves by bringing Pharaoh and his god back into their lives.

Moshe knew that the people who instigated, and really believed in their golden calf, were really still following Pharaoh, and it is for this reason that he had them killed.  In a sense, they should already have died with the rest of Pharaoh’s followers back at the splitting of the sea.

I realize, I might be sounding harsh here, however, I am just trying to work and make sense of the words of the Torah.  The Torah says, immediately after our verse, that Moshe stood at the gate and called for all those who are for haShem to come to him, and then he told them to kill certain people.

Fortunately, this is not the only thing I saw.

After this big sin of making the idol, haShem is ready to wipe everyone out and start over.

Moshe convinces haShem to give the people another chance.  What is that other chance?

We see it in verse 33:5, where haShem tells Moshe to tell the people to remove the jewelry they are wearing and, “I will know what I will do to you.”

In other words, haShem is giving the people a second chance to listen to him.

What I find fascinating is what god wants them to do:  just take off their jewelry.

God says that she will decide what to do based on what they do.  In other words, even though the people did the worst thing they can do, if they are willing to listen to haShem and do the simplest thing, he will forgive them.

I find this amazing!

I also find this comforting because what it is saying is that this is true today:  no matter how badly we mess up, god will only ask of us the simplest thing, something like removing our jewelry, to show her that we really do want to do what he says.   If we are willing to listen to haShem even that much, she is willing to forgive us.  Wow!

We now come to the last two things I wish to share (so as not to make this too long).  🙂

The first shows, again, how much more can be found in the Hebrew, than in a translation.  It has to do with the fixing of the sin of the calf.  Moshe says he will provide atonement for the sin of the calf.

How do we know he is successful?

Because of what I am going to share.

The golden calf is an idol, and the word in Hebrew for an idol is pesel.  The word also is a verb which means to carve.  This makes sense because an idol was frequently carved out of word or stone.  Up to here, the word pesel is a negative word associated with sin of the calf.

Now god tells Moshe to make a new set of stone tablets to replace the ones he smashed.  The way god tells Moshe to make these tablets is to pesel/carve them out of stone.

In other words, god is telling Moshe that to fix the sin of making an idol, he has to perform a similar act towards something god desires.  In other words, god is telling Moshe that he needs to fix the word pesel and make it into a positive, pro god word.  And, by doing this, it will help fix the people’s misuse of the word.

The parsha ends with Moshe going up the mountain a second time and when he comes down his face is glowing.  This unnerves the people, so after Moshe talks to the people, he covers his face in a disguise and only takes it off when he goes into the tent to talk with haShem.  When he comes out, he puts on the disguise only after he talks to the people and they see his face shining again.

When I read this, it suddenly dawned on me that Moshe’s face didn’t glow all the time.  It first glowed when he came down the mountain, and then it would glow only when he relayed haShem’s words to the people.

What is the connection, and what is the Torah trying to tell us concerning glowing faces?

Let’s ask the questions the other way around.

First, what makes a face, or a person glow?  I have found that when a person it talking about something that makes their heart sing, their soul fly, at these moments a person, including their face, glows.

This is what the Torah is trying to tell us.

Moshe’s purpose, what makes him alive, what makes his soul sing, is to talk words of Torah, which are also the words of haShem.  Moshe’s face was glowing when he came down the mountain because he had just spent 40 straight days and nights talking Torah with god.  He didn’t even stop to eat or drink!  This is why is face was glowing.

Then, when Moshe was amongst the people and living a more human life with all its distractions, he lost that glow.

He only regained it after receiving haShem’s message and sharing it with the people, because, as I just mentioned, this is what made his heart sing and his soul fly.

This was the reason for Moshe’s existence, to share god’s words with the people.

So, when he would leave haShem’s presence, and go and share what haShem told him with the people, he, his face, would start to glow, and the people would see it, and Moshe would cover it up so as not to make the people uncomfortable.

Why were the people uncomfortable?

My guess is because they had not found the thing that made their hearts sing and their souls fly.

I hear a few of you asking, “Why don’t we see people’s faces glowing today?”

My answer is that we do, but so few of us have found what our purpose is, and the ones that have, have are either just beginning to light up as they start following their soul, or have been pulled down by life, or have learned to cover their glow somewhat so as not to make people uncomfortable and nervous.  Hence, we don’t associate their glowing with Moshe’s glowing.

May all of us find what it is that calls to us and makes our lives bright and our faces glow so much so, that none of us need to cover our faces and filter our light ever again!

If you want to read what I wrote about this parsha last year, click here.

About the Author

Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.