This Shabbat we are reading in Parashat Ki Tisa. After having been on an extraordinary journey of redemption, salvation, nationhood, and Divine revelation, Moses delays on the mountain Sinai and the Am Israels find themselves leaderless, lost and alone in the desert and no longer certain of their destiny. The people panicked – their new ways were suddenly not so certain, they dropped from the level of seeming invincibility to a level of calamity and confusion.

One of the most interesting and at times saddening aspects of our lives is that in a situation of crisis we often prefer to return to a previously stable situation, even if that previous state was toxic. So often this is recalled in various romantic literature, recalling one’s unrequited love of yesterday when often those relationships were unhealthy, turbulent, damaging and sometimes abusive.

When a particular addiction exists, the question remains of what trigger might be powerful enough to reawaken it and reignite cyclic downward spirals into self-destruction.  In our Parasha, the people of Israel are drawn back by the Erev Rav to their former state of idolatry, the famous Golden Calf – Egel Hazahav.

The reason that the incident is so painful and requires such a spiritual correction is because it speaks about the transcendence that has occurred when they received the Torah, and the fall backwards to the level of the people while they lived in Egypt.

In the description given of this situation the Torah uses the Hebrew word BOSHESH that means “delay” and can also be read as the number six.

The Talmud explains that Moses promised to return within the first 6 hours at the end of 40 days, the people of Israel counted the day of his ascension as part of this calculation and thus came to this error to believe Moses will never come back.

Perhaps a reflection of a deeper teaching contained in this idea is, that according to Jewish Numerological Mystical teachings the number 6 is associated with the working days of the week of required physicality and Melakhah (creative works) – whereas the number 7 with rest, abundance and the Shabbat and the number 8 with transcendence over the physical as, Brit Mila and the nights of Chanukah.

We can understand that the Children of Israel were asked to wait just long enough to transcend their innate natures and unfortunately, they failed in this task, the same as many of us who have slipped in exactly the moment where we were required to express our own self-mastery.

Judaism is inherently a religion of transcendence through the mechanism of patience – we are asked to wait a moment to thank Hashem before taking a bite of food, it asks that we pause our busy lives and our work on Shabbat to appreciate our family and to join to our community. To wait some days for the Mikvah process before having intimate conjugal relationships, to await the coming of the Mashiach each day, to wait 3 years until a fruit tree is no longer considered in the category of “Orlah” before tasting its fruits, and so other many reflections of this profound idea permeate our Mitzvot`s philosophy.

This parasha is a personal call for each one of us to analyze his own addictions and what are the triggers that could reawaken and reignite downward spirals into self-destruction leading him to worship his own private golden calf.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Refael Cohen