Parashas Ki Sisa - Accepting answers to the questions we ask!

This week's Dvar Torah has been sponsored for:
Bzchus of finding a proper shidduch: Yonasan Reuven ben Keila Lea'na
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This week's parasha speaks of the famous 'sin of the golden calf.'

After receiving the Torah, Moshe stayed in Heaven, learning the Torah directly from Hashem. Before ascending, he promised the Jews he would return in forty days. After forty days had passed, the Jews started to worry. They asked, "Where can he be? Why didn't he come down yet? Is he dead?!"

They miscalculated Moshe's arrival by several hours, thinking he died. To convince them of his death, Satan showed frightening images of Moshe's physical body being suspended between the Heavens and the Earth. (It really was his body, because he didn't physically ascend, only spiritually.) Satan also conjured up an image of Moshe's coffin. [1]

There was a group called the 'Airev rav,' who persuaded everyone of the need for a replacement for Moshe. They approached Chur (Miriam's son) with this proposition, but he was opposed to the idea. They stoned him to death. [2] Next they approached the Seventy Elders, demanding a new leader, but they refused as well. (There are different opinions to whether they were also slain.) Finally Aharon was asked, and he replied, "okay," hoping to delay their plan. Aharon instructed everyone to get their wife's gold to form it. He thought that maybe the women would decline to give their jewelry, saving more time for Moshe to descend. In fact, the women didn't give anything towards the calf. (I am surprised they weren't slain as well.)

Aharon approved to make the golden calf totally for the sake of the Jews. He had pure intentions and was 100% against the making of a replacement. He knew Moshe was bound to come back soon. After all, Moshe did promise. Aharon only approved to stall for time.

The Ramban points out that the Jews never had intentions of making the Golden Calf to replace Hashem, rather to replace Moshe. They needed someone to guide them through the desert - via the Golden Calf, as Hashem guided them via Moshe.

[I might have a reason as to why the Jews saw fit to make a Golden Calf in order to replace Moshe. We learned in Parashas Va'eira [3], Hashem said to Moshe, "See I have made you a god to Pharoh." I asked myself, "Why did it say "a god" as opposed to "like a god"? (I could be wrong, and totally off, but it seems legit to me.) Maybe the reason why the Jews conjured up this Golden Calf was because they needed a 'security blanket'. Moshe was their security blanket because they saw all the things Hashem did to Pharoh via Moshe. So they thought, "We need to get back our security blanket! It isn't going to replace Hashem, but only Moshe. We still believe that Hashem is our One and only G-d. And so maybe this posuk alludes the source of their idea to make a new guide.]

A lesson I got from this week's parasha: Sometimes we think we are making the right decisions when in fact a Rabbi or a professional guidance counselor should be consulted. Even though the Airev rav consulted the Rabbis, they didn't accept their answers, slaying them instead. There's no point in asking if you aren't willing to accept the answers given. There are people who jump from one rabbi to another hoping to get the answer they are looking for when in fact it is wrong. Pirkei Avos says to stick to one rabbi, otherwise you will be filled with doubts.

We should all make the proper decisions in life, and Hashem should give us all the clarity we need in order to not stumble like we did with the sin of the Golden Calf.

Have a wonderful Shabbos,
Nisso


[1] Shemos Rabba 41:10
[2] Bamidbar Rabba 15:17
[3] Shemos 7:1