Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan Parshat Ki Tisa 2

the general rule is that those who die from KET Die Young doesn't mean that whoever whoever uh dies before 60 has KET but it does mean that whoever has KET um dies young now another question isn't K the most severe form of punishment it is more severe than Heavenly death it is more severe than lashes it is more severe than paying a fine but KET is less severe than death penalty and by the way there is a way to avoid KET let's say a person desecrated Shabbat uh without Witnesses now he's going to have shom all he needs to do is to do all he needs to do is say Hashem I'm sorry I didn't know I'm not going to do it again and that's it it uh he becomes cleansed whereas with death penalty it doesn't work with death penalty the person needs to do T but he has to undergo death penalty anyway now um this paragraph that we read about Shabbat was put after the construction of the of the uh mishkan to teach us what labors are forbidden on Shabbat now Verse 18 brings us back to the giving of the Torah the discussion of Shabbat connected to mishan was after y kipur but uh from Verse 18 and on we are speaking about from the moment when Moshe went to heaven to the har siai he spent 40 days there and at the end of 40 days Hashem gave him the two stone tablets and in chapter 32 we describe what happened down on Earth when the Jewish people were waiting for Moshe and they were counting every day they knew Moshe is supposed to come at the end of 40 days but they made a mistake they thought that they should start counting the first day when he went up as day number one however that was a mistake because they needed to count full days which means they had to start counting from the night from the night and into the next day is day one they already counted the day he left as day one and at night it's already day two so they miscounted by one day chapter 32 page 493 the people saw the mha had delayed in descending the mountain 40th Day came according to their calculation and he still didn't come they waited for half a day it's noon already he's not coming but he's really supposed to come tomorrow and the the people gathered around Aaron and said to him rise up make for us gods that will go before us for this man Moshe who brought us up from the land of Egypt we don't know what became of him we're on page 495 the Jewish people are scared they are alone in the desert without a leader what's going to be who's going to speak on our behalf to God they became scared they are panicking and they are attacking Aon save us we need an intermediary we lost the GPS signal we need to know where we are where we're going Aaron said to them remove the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives sons and daughters and bring them to me now Aon is playing along because as soon as they heard this the daughter the the son of Miram sister of Moshe he stood up against the people and said what you want to build a statue that it should be as a God for you or intermediary to to access God don't do that he stood up against them and they killed him in fact it was not the Jewish people but rather the a is a group of people from other nations who saw the success of the Jews in Egypt that God is protecting them and they are about to leave and they said wait for us we want to go with you and they converted but for wrong reason and therefore now as soon as they feel worry they go back to the original ways of idol worship and they tell the Jews to make an idol and when someone stands up against against them they kill him when Aon saw that his nephew was killed he started thinking what should I do if I stand up against them and tell them that you're not allowed to serve Idols they might kill me as well and then they're going to have a triple sin not only they serving Idol they also killed who and they also killed me I don't want to let that happen so Aon said I'm going to trick them I'm going to tell them to go to their wives and ask them for their gold rings earrings and go to their sons and daughters and ask them for their gold earrings and it's going to take days until then Moshe is going to come however he was surprised the verse three the entire people removed the gold rings that were in their ears the man didn't bother asking their wives or children they knew they're going to say no or According to some they actually asked and the women refused they said I want to have nothing to do with the idol leave me alone and so people the man took their own earrings their jewelry and they brought it to Aon they brought them to Aon and now Aon is stuck what should I do I asked them for gold I thought it's going to take time and it didn't and Moshe is still not here what should I do um now someone is asking question is it wrong for Aon to do such a thing and uh maybe she should have asked God so it's very difficult for us to judge another human being especially over the stature of Aon aen and uh therefore we have to see what the Torah says about him and the Torah says that yes Hashem was upset at Aaron and part of the reason that Aaron died ultimately and did not go to the land of Israel was because he participated in the construction of the um of the golden calf however Aaron really was not guilty because he had good intentions he tried to wait until mosha comes and then people will calm down and this way peacefully everything will be settled but Satan the prosecutor influenced the events in such a way that nothing that Aon did worked he took the gold and he said what should I do now he said I'm going to pretend I'm doing it but it's going to take time he took it from their hands but round it up in cloth which is very interesting why is he putting it in cloth and fashioned it into a molten C how can you fashion it in a to a molten calf when it's inside the cloth doesn't make sense so what really happened is that Aon tided up all this gold heavy heavy gold probably a whole ton of gold and he threw it into fire and he told the Jews don't worry first we need to melt it all these rings when they're all in one uh glob then we will cool it down then we will shape it and we will carve it and we'll work on it and chisel it and as soon as he threw it into the fire surprisingly it got fashioned into a molten calf what happened the midash says that there was one man who brought with him a poy piece of poy upon which It Was Written Ali which means rise up or ax where did he get this poy this poy uh was made by Moshe himself when Moshe was given the task to bring the bones of ysph and the brothers out of Egypt he said where are the bones of ysep and the coffin of of uh ysep was put in the Nile River it sank deep in Nile River and mosha approached the river and he said how am I going to get the coffin out of the river I don't even know where it is so he took py and he wrote on it Al rise or ax why because yep is called ax by Yakov before yov died he gave every tribe a blessing and uh he named them he referred to them by different animals for yah he said you like a lion for bamin he said you're like a wolf for naali he said you are like a deer and for yourself he said you are like an ax so symbolically Moshe wrote rise or ax and he threw it in the river and out of the river floated the coffin of ysf Moshe picked it up and carried it with it with him but there was one man who saw what mosha did and he do Dove in and he got that piece of pottery and he brought it with him now when threw the gold into fire expecting it to take time to melt and then to cool down and to shape it this man he pronounced incantations of black magic and he threw the pottery in and since the message on the P was rise up or ax miraculously the through the black magic the ax just rose up that same second and Aaron was surprised again what he thought will take days took just seconds and they said who are they they means the AR the false converts that that incited the Jews to do to to do idol worship this is your god or Israel which brought you up from the land of Egypt now the real Idol worshipping starts these these false converts the AR the mixed multitude are are um giving a wrong message to the Jews they're saying Jews look this is the god this is what brought you out of Egypt so ion saw What's Happening Now someone is asking a question could it be possible the man was hoping to inspire people and have them remember y but people saw I of Egypt it could be but the midash speaks critically of this man it says that he actually wanted to um to do this now Aon saw what's going on he saw that the people are believing the AR and they're going crazy and it's not possible to stop them so he again pretended to go along with them and he built an altar before him he pretended that yes let's do it together but in the meantime he's trying to take time Aaron called out and said a festival for Hashem tomorrow and here Aaron gave them a double message on one hand they he told them wait let's not sacrifice to this Idol today let's go to sleep it's late let's wake up tomorrow and after breakfast we will celebrate our new Idol but he had a second message and he said a festival for Hashem tomorrow he didn't say to this God he didn't say to this Idol he said for Hashem because he was hoping that by the tomorrow morning mosha will come and they will actually celebrate for Hashem however he made a mistake again he was surprised again verse six they Rose early the next day again they means the AR it means the Rabel the mixed multitude the fake converts they woke up before motion came and they offered up elevation offerings and brought peace offerings and only then the people sat to eat and drink only then they decided to eat breakfast not like Aaron thought and they got up to Revel they got up to dance and to do other sins and now at this moment verse 7 we see what's happening in heaven Hashem spoke to mosha go descend for your people that you brought up from the land of Egypt have become become corrupt they had they have swayed straight quickly from the way that I have commanded them now on page 497 verse 10 Hashem tells Moshe now desist from me let Me Go Don't hold me let my anger flare up against them and I shall annihilate them and I shall make you a great nation so Hashem says Jewish people are guilty they deserve death penalty I'm going to destroy all of them men women and children and I'm going to save just you and I'm going to start from scratch you're going to become the new Abraham and from from you the new nation is going to come verse 11 however mosha is dedicated to the Jewish people he loves the Jews and Moshe pleaded before Hashem his God and said why Hashem should your anger flare up against your people whom you have taken out from the land of Egypt with great power and strong hand why should Egypt say the following with evil intent did he take them out to kill them in the mountains and to annihilate them from the face of the Earth relent from your flaring anger and reconsider regarding the evil V against your people Moshe reasoned with hasem and said Hashem it doesn't look good on you you performed the Miracles and take took them out from Egypt and now if you kill them Egyptians are going to think that you had this idea all along the only reason you took them out is to kill them that they're guilty that you don't love them that you use them as a as a scapegoat you just wanted to kill them or they're going to say elsewhere we we we learn about another argument Moshe gave that people will think yes you were stronger than Egyptians but when you came to the nations of Canan you were not stronger than them and because you couldn't fulfill your promise you felt bad embarrassed and that's why you had to kill the Jews that's what the Nations might say and therefore mosha said Hashem you're stuck with the Jews you have to keep them because because otherwise the Nations will misinterpret the events they will not think that the Jews transgressed rather they will think that you were not powerful enough to bring them to Israel verse 14 it worked Hashem reconsidered regarding the evil that he declared he would do to his people Hashem told Moshe I will will not kill the Jews right now so mosha quickly turned and descended from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand tablets inscribed on both their sides miraculously they were inscribed on the one side and on the other and some letters were hanging in air because they were inscribed from both sides for example that's a circle like a s or closed me the inside is Stone and all around is empty space how was it uh suspended in there as if magnetic levitation it was miraculously just hanging there the tablets were God's handiwork and the script was the script of God engraved on the tablets now we're page 499 verse 19 it happened as he drew near the camp and saw the calf and the dances the that that moshe's anger flared up and he threw down the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain and say just say the reason Moshe did it was because he said there are two reasons offered because Moshe said if I bring the tablets to the Jews it's as if the Covenant is sealed as if I delivered the Torah I delivered the instruction and they're not listening and therefore they will be guilty so I will withhold from them the instruction I will I will withhold from them the Covenant and then perhaps they will not be obligated to uphold it that was reason number one the reason number two was that it was not by moshe's choice as mosha was carrying these huge heavy stone tablets he didn't feel their weight because the inscription of of God was on them they were became spiritual and the letters the spiritual letters held them up and they did not weigh anything however when mosha saw the Jewish people sinning and worshiping the idol the spiritual letters flew up and the stone tablets turned back into heavy Stone and mosha just couldn't hold them and he just let go and they they smashed now verse 20 what does mosha do he took that calf that they had made and burned it in fire first he melted it to destroy the shape of it then after he cooled it down he grounded to a fine powder and he sprinkled it over water and he made the children of Israel drink he took water sprinkled the golden powder mixed it and gave each Jew to drink and every Jew that worshiped Idol died and every Jew that didn't worship Idol the water did not harm him now verse 22 Aon explains now someone is asking question we see that MOS changed hashem's mind and appealed to the character trait of mercy of Hashem and and convinced Hashem while Aaron was trying to pacify the crowd so that is true there are two forms sometimes you have to stand up and fight like mosha did he took the idol he destroyed it and now we will see how killed every person who worshiped the idol whereas Aaron tried to pacify people of course if you have the power you can do it with strength you should do it and on the other hand Aon is teaching us that if you cannot do it head on collision just don't have the power for it then you cannot give up then you have to find another way of achieving the result now Aaron explains to Moshe let not my Master's anger flare up you know that the people is disposed toward evil especially with the AR among them they said to me make us a God that will go before us for this man Moshe who brought us from the land of Egypt we do not know what became of him um Aaron explains to mosha that Jewish people were not trying to forget Hashem they were not trying to make a new deity all they wanted is just some someone who will lead them in place of Moshe they knew Moshe is not God he's just intermediary and they built a replacement for Moshe Moshe in verse 25 saw the people that it was exposed for Aron had exposed them to disgrace among those who rise up against them now with return to page 501 Moshe takes control Moshe stood at the gate stood at the Gateway of the camp and said whoever is for Hashem join me and all the Levites gathered around him because the Levites did not worship the idol none of them and mosha said to them let every man kill his brother every man his fellow and every man his near one that means mosha commanded the Levites to find those who serve the Idol with Witnesses and to execute them the Levites did as Moshe said and about 3,000 men of the People Fell that day now here we see that out of a Nation numbering 3 million people only 3,000 Men actually serve the idol that is 3,000 out of 3 million that gives us one tenth of 1% only one person out of a thousand served the idol so here we see that vast majority of the Jews were righteous and they did not participate in it it was mostly AR and some individual Jews here and there now in verse 30 and by the way this is why the Levites were chosen to be Servants of God to be the the leim and kohanim because they didn't serve the idol and they were willing to risk their life to go and kill the uh Idol worshippers um verse 30 on the next day Moshe said to the people you have committed a grievous sin and now I shall Ascend to Hashem perhaps I can win atonement in the face of your sin now Moshe went up for another 40 Days asking Hashem to forgive the Jews Hashem forgave them just enough that they shouldn't be annihilated immediately but mosha knew that the punishment is still hanging over their head Hashem just gave him a little bit of time to go and fix the problem and see what he can do verse 31 mosha returned to Hashem and said I implore this people has committed a grievous s sin and made themselves a god of gold and now if you would but forgive their sin but if not Erase Me Now from your book that you have written and now someone's asking a very good question 99.9% of people did not commit the sin so why such a severe punishment in fact I Sayes say that every Calamity that be that that fell upon the Jews since then until now now for 3,000 years had a little bit of the punishment of golden calf in it whether it was Pags Holocaust persecutions Exiles and the answer is because Hashem judges the Jewish people to the highest standard possible and he says even if you don't do the sin but people around you do the sin it means that within you spiritually mentally you had a weakness you were not dedicated 100% to the truth to God and so because the the the Rabel the troublemakers the lowest of those among the Jews committed idol worship it shows that among the true Jews there was a certain weakness in their commitment to God so it became a fault of the entire nation now Moshe says Erase Me Now from your book that you have written if you don't forgive the Jews and Hashem said to mosha whoever has sinned against me I shall eras from my book and on the day that I make my account I shall bring their sin to account against them this is the source that every punishment in the future That Came Upon Us carries within it the punishment for the um golden CF verse 35 then Hashem struck the people with a plague and we don't know how many people died there now chapter 33 Hashem spoke to mosha go ascend from here you and the people whom you brought up from the land of Egypt to the land about which I swore to your forefathers we're on page 53 verse two I shall send an angel ahead of you which means I will know longer lead you now it's going to be an angel now the divine presence will withdraw verse four the people heard this bad Tiding and they became grief stricken and no one Dawn his jewelry the Jewish people mourned they removed their jewelry they were crying verse seven mosha moves his tent from inside the camp to outside the camp to show the Jewish people that Hashem is upset with them and since Hashem said that the divine presence will depart in order to still be able to speak to Hashem Moshe had to separate himself and be on the outside of the camp mosha verse 7 mosha would take the tent and Pitch it outside the camp whoever sought Hashem would go out to the tent of meaning verse 9 when mosha would arrive at the tent a pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent and God would speak with Moshe verse 11 Hashem would speak to Moshe face to face we're now page 55 as a man would speak with his fellow and now Moshe asks Hashem for um some favors verse 12 mosha said to Hashem now I'm going to skip a little verse 13 and now if I have indeed found favor in your eyes make your ways known to me so that I may comprehend your you have found favor in my eyes Moshe is asking Hashem please let me understand your ways let me understand why do righteous suffer and why sometimes