From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, March 17, 2006 3:08 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Ki Sisa, 5766




                                            
                                              It's the Thought that Counts

                        By Rabbi Joshua (thoughtfully known as The Hoffer) Hoffman


  In this week's parsha, there is a command to observe the Shabbos, although the nation had already been commanded concerning Shabbos previously. Rashi explains that the command here is mentioned in juxtaposition with the completion of the details of the mishkan, and teaches us that the construction of the mishkan does not supersede the command to cease from work on Shabbos. A number of commentaries try to find additional reasons for this juxtaposition. However, as we will see, more significant than the juxtaposition of Shabbos to the construction of the mishkan is the juxtaposition of both these factors to the incident of the worship of the golden calf, which follows immediately after the command concerning Shabbos.


  Rabbi Mordechai Gifter, zt"l, in his Pirkei Torah, in an essay entitled, "Kedushas HaMakom VeKedushas HaZman," or "Sanctity of Place and Sanctity of Time," asks, why would one think that construction of the mishkan would override the sanctity of Shabbos, to the extent that the Torah needs to teach us that it does not? He answers that one may have thought that since the purpose of the mishkan is to bring God's presence among us, and Shabbos itself is a sign that God sanctifies us, it is more important to be engaged in building the mishkan, the seat of God's presence in this world, than in observing Shabbos which merely serves as a sign of His presence. Therefore, the Torah teaches us that Shabbos, which brings sanctity to time, is of more importance than the mishkan, which brings sanctity to place. Rav Gifter explains that the world exists because of its connection to God. The further one is distanced from his ultimate source, he continues, the further he is from sanctity. Place is more connected to the physical, and therefore more removed from sanctity than is time. Time, although created by God, is, in essence, something spiritual, removed from any connection to the physical. Shabbos represents that aspect of spirituality inherent  in time, since Shabbos, as the rabbis teach us, is akin to the world to come, and above any restricted notion of a particular point in time, just as God is. Thus, Shabbos overrides the building of the mishkan, because its sanctity is of a higher nature than that of the mishkan.


  In light of this analysis, says Rabbi Gifter, we can understand why the section on Shabbos and the mishkan precedes the Torah's account of the sin of the golden calf. The people sinned because they thought Moshe delayed in returning from Mt. Sinai, and therefore thought he was not going to return at all. They made this mistake because they had failed to grasp the notion that spirituality is beyond time. Instead they descended to the world of the physical and judged matters based on physical considerations. Instead of bringing sanctity to the physical things of the world by connecting them to the timelessness of God, they did the opposite and placed artificial limitations onto the notion of time. It is for this reason, he adds, that in parshas Vayakheil, before the Torah records the actual construction of the mishkan, which was to atone for the sin of the eigel, it mentions the observance of Shabbos, in order to teach the nation that the sanctity of time must be recognized as a prelude to the sanctity of place represented by the mishkan, and that, indeed, it is the sanctity of time that they must inculcate into their service in the mishkan.


  Perhaps we can add to Rabbi Gifter's comments that it is for this reason that Rashi, unlike the Ramban, explains that the command to build the mishkan, presented in Terumah and Tetzaveh, is out of chronological order. The command to build the mishkan came as an atonement for the eigel. Therefore, we would expect the Torah to record it after the sin of the eigel. However, says Rashi, the Torah is not written in chronological order. Rashi, however, does not explain what the purpose behind this change of order is. Based on Rav Gifter's analysis, we can explain that since the sin of the eigel represented a failure to have a sense of the timelessness of God, and the sanctity of the mishkan was to be based on that sense, the command to build the mishkan is recorded out of chronological order, to underline the factor of timelessness that the mishkan represents (for a somewhat different application of this idea, see Netvort to parshas Terumah, 5766, available at Torahheights.com).


  The idea that, by sinning with the eigel, the nation was imposing physical dimensions upon the more spiritual notion of time, can help us understand the midrash that connects the beginning of this week's parsha to the sin of the eigel. The parsha begins with the command, "When you will take a census of the children of Israel, according to their counts, every man shall give God an atonement for his soul when counting them... This is what they shall give… half of the shekel… You shall take the silver of the atonements from the children of Israel and give it for the work of the Tent of Meeting ; and it shall be a remembrance before God for the children of Israel, to atone for your souls" (Shemos 30:12-16). The rabbis tell us (Yalkut Shimoni, Terumah, 368) that this half shekel was given as an atonement for the sin of the eigel, and precedes the Torah's recording of that sin in order to provide a cure before the actual sickness. Rav Shlomo Yosef Zevin, in his LeTorah VeLamoadim, points out that the word for' taking a census' - sisa - really means to elevate. The external difference between a man and an animal, he explains, is that a man holds his head erect, emphasizing his cerebral aspect, and indicating that it rules over his physical aspect, while an animal keeps its head down, emphasizing its physical dimension, which rules over its mental aspect. When the nation sinned, using its gold to construct an idol that it would bow down to, it emerged as a calf, an animal, thus emphasizing that their behavior was similar to that of an animal, whose physical dimension rules over it. Thus, when they were given a means of atonement, they were told to lift their heads up, thereby emphasizing their more spiritual aspect.


  Rabbi Avrohom Aharon Yudelevitch, famed spiritual leader of the Eldridge Street shul on the lower east side of Manhattan in the early part of the twentieth century, writes, in his Darash Av, that of the two types of sins, those involved with the spiritual aspect of man, and those involved with the spiritual, those involved with the spiritual aspect are much more grave. The Talmud (Yoma 29a) tells us that thoughts of sin are worse that the sin itself. The Rambam, in his Guide for the Perplexed (3:8), explains that the spiritual aspect of man is of greater importance than his physical aspect, and, therefore, when man rebels against God through heretical thoughts, he is staining a more important part of himself than when he sins against God with his body. According to Rabbi Gifter's analysis of the sin of the eigel, as we have seen, the people placed more emphasis on the physical than on the spiritual, and this is why the sin of the eigel is considered so egregious. For this reason, as an atonement for that sin, the people needed to lift their heads up as they were counted to give the half-shekel, and elevate themselves above the more physical aspect of their existence.


  Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

  To subscribe to Netvort, send a message with subject line subscribe, to Netvort@aol.com. To unsubscribe, send message with subject line unsubscribe, to the same address.