Who is the leader of your family? Is it the mom or the dad, one of the kids? I think this is the key problem in this weeks parasha. The people need a leader.
Moses of course has been the unquestioned leader up until this point. But he is gone. He has been up on the mountain for so long listening to detail after detail after detail about the building of the mishkan. The parasha starts out with the continuous detail about the building of the mishkan which as of now still exists only in the minds of God. I have to imagine that hearing about this is driving Moses crazy by now. It's like being stuck next to the most boring person at a dinner party who explains to you in excruciating detail the construction of their new home. You are treated to hearing about every tile, every shade of wood that they have chosen for their dream home. You have no choice but to sit and listen and smile. God is explaining who is contractors will be (Bezalel) his decorator (Oholiab) and exactly how this project will be paid for (the atonement offering, exactly one half shekel given by every Israelite rich and poor). I have to think that after 40 days of this Moses eyes are starting to glaze over.
Meanwhile utter chaos has broken out down below. The people have been without a leader, and act as thought they can barely remember him at this point. They turn to Aaron and say "this Moses, this man who brought us out of Egypt (you know the one) we don't know what became of him". They are lost without a leader and beg of Aaron two things, "kum" rise up, and "make us gods".
Aaron does the second and not the first. He isn't a good leader. Their first request "kum" is the most important one. They know that they need a leader. This group is the ultimate group of followers. They were slaves for most of their lives, they lack any capability of making their own decisions. The only thing that they know for sure is that they need a leader. Aaron is a bad choice.
He is a bad choice because rather than become their leader, he listens to them. He enables their bad decision and makes the calf for them. He gathers their jewelry and he himself makes the calf. They then hold it up and say "This is your god O Israel the one who brought you out of Egypt". They are completely ridiculous. This is not paganism, this is lunacy. They saw that five minutes ago this golden calf did not exist. They watched Aaron fashion it. There is no way that it brought them out of Egypt.
As quickly as he realized his mistake Aaron tries to fix it. He builds an alter and declares the next day a festival to God. Instead of worshiping God however the people dissolve into a kind of frenzy of pagan worship. They eat, they drink, they revel. It is too late for them to turn back to God with Aaron as their leader. The second in command was not a good choice as leader. But if you are raising children with two parents it is important that neither one becomes like Aaron. Both parents must be able to be the leaders in the house. Both must be tuned into the needs of the children. The children will ask for what they want (i.e a golden calf) a good parent will hear past what they want to what they really need which is a leader. As parents we must be ready to "kum" to rise up.
Meanwhile God finally stops this long monologue about the Mishkah, and tells Moses he better get back down to the people as utter pandemonium has broken out. In fact God is ready to destroy the people, but as Moses has no idea what is happening he implores God to save them. God hastily hands Moses the tablets with the ten commandments and Moses descends the mountain to have his heart broken. What he sees must have caused him so much pain. Can you imagine leaders if you go away and come back to find a family who you don't recognize? Who are these people? And Moses defended them. What ensues is terrible tragedy. Brother against brother, violent civil war and a despondent leader.
When Moses again speaks to God everything has changed. Moses doesn't want to lead the people nor does he want God to destroy them. God declares that he can no longer be with the people without destroying them and will send an angel in his place to accompany them to the promised land. Everyone has reached bottom. No one wants to go on. This is the nadir of bad. Finally God and Moses pull themselves together. There is no choice. When things are as bad as they can be we want to wallow in the badness. It feels like we can't go on. But really, we don't have a choice. There is no choice but to go on.
Have you felt that way? Have things gotten so bad for you that the only choice feels like to just stop and quit? Moses and God figure out how to go on. Moses must take action. The first thing he must do is practical. He must find two new tablets to replace the ones that he broke.
After he finds them he tells God that he can lead the people only if God stays with them. An angel won't do. He also tells God he must "know" Gods' ways. We have the mysterious scene of God passing by and showing his back to Moses. Also exclaiming that while God is mostly good there is bad involved too. Here we have it the nature of God. All good would be better. It would be better if everything would be fair. But its' not what we have. We have a God and a world and a life that contains good and bad and we better find that good or the bad will overwhelm.
God on his part decided to stick with the Israelites for the time being. But rather than going back to his talk about the Mishkan God tells Moses about some actual mitzvot that he will need the people to follow if he is to stick with us. We must not make idols! Never again. Also we should keep Shabbat, and not intermarry, and celebrate Pesach, Sukkot and Shavuot. And we shouldn't boil a kid in its mothers milk. Judaism pared down to its very bones I think are these commandments. More so than the ten which are mysterious, these are actions. They are doable. They are what makes us Jewish. They will keep God with us.
Shabbat Shalom
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