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The half shekel – the opportunity to ransom oneself; an exterior veil set up to
paradoxically demonstrate to man that he is but a number, a quantitative entity.
The priests are commanded to be ritually pure - in their dress and their behavior. Both
choices apparently imposed upon them by divine fiat; neither arising from within them.
The priests must act in keeping with the image chosen for them. The incense, the
anointing oil, the spirit of G-d, the insight and wisdom incorporated in Bezalel's
craftsmanship are also products of divine intervention. They do not stem from man; G-d
intercedes to cloak man and his behavior in a heavenly image.
Shabbat
– a rest, a sign, a symbol, a mark, a signal; All these words express Shabbat's
public face; they are external or supernal labels.
The golden
calf
– "When Moses saw that the people had gone wild [were out of control]
… and out came an egel masekhah [molten calf; some read the second word as masked]"
(Ex 32:25; 32:4), he distanced himself from them, pitched his tent outside the camp, and
veiled his face.
Man's
self image is constituted by his thoughts,
intentions and deeds
; each of these
three components is a product of its own unique influences:
- Thought is composed of
images, imagination, stimuli; emotions that awaken the inner Self
from its comatose state.
- Intentions are an expression of man's conclusions regarding a particular issue
external to himself; they push man towards adopting a course of action. Some
utilize this distinction between thought and intentions to contrast Sensation and
Awareness.
- Deeds are defined as
premeditated actions.
These three
components may be combined in several ways. When man is
clear-headed, his thoughts lead to actions: "last in deed, but first
in thought" (sof ma'aseh be- macheshavah techila
). At other times his actions influence his thoughts – "the heart
follows the actions". At any one point in time, various points along this continuum of
combinations may come into play.
The ordering of these components, of thought and deed, both within man, himself, and in
terms of his interactions with the outside world is crucial to his proper functioning. An
individual who is out of control, disorganized, may build a golden calf. And, indeed, this
is what happened to the Jewish people.
Thought formulates man's self-image by utilizing the creative imagination. Self-image, in
turn, dictates the nature of man's actions. Self-image is neither exclusively negative nor
exclusively positive; rather, it is formulated by man's environment, education, traditions
and, also, the expectations made of him and his fulfillment of them. Not only by the
talents and abilities he has actualized. Self-image even determines man's morbidity, both
on the spiritual and the physical levels. Man can reach the pinnacle envisioned for him at
his birth. As the poetess has written, "Every man has a name"; a name that assembles
under its banner the authentic self-image of each man, as long as he remains in control.
The veil is charged
with establishing order in the relationship between man's
inner being and the outer world
. An imbalance between the two creates a two-faced individual, a
hypocrite, a scoundrel who seems to observe the Torah's precepts. And, most
significantly for this discussion, it creates a madman who is not responsible for his
actions because his thoughts and actions lack intent, the crucial link binding them. A man
may be blessed with enormous intellectual capabilities, but lack the ability to govern
them. This occurs when he lacks the ability to formulate his intent, the crucial link
between thought and action.
G-d gave the Israelites
the sign of the edi at Mount Horev [Mount Sinai]. This sign
gave them the capacity of premeditation, the ability to intend. The
Israelites failed to use it properly, and, therefore, they lost
their right to bear it: "And the Children of Israel stripped
themselves of their edyam [some translate, ornaments or finery]
which they received at Mount Horev"(Ex 33:6). The Akeidah
explains that the edi were tefillin
(phylacteries): the hand-tefillin – designed to remind us
of the commandment to observe the Shabbat, the
head-tefillin
– designed to remind us to of the commandment to
remember the Shabbat. The other commentators explain that the edi was a tsits (frontlet)
with the Tetragrammatton (Hashem's four-lettter name) engraved upon it, like the tsits
worn by the high priest.
The veil plays its vital role when the reality existing in the outer world does not match the
inner world of thought. The veil is designed to regulate and co-ordinate between them.
Thus, when Moses taught Torah he removed his veil – it was unnecessary - because the
Torah possesses its own integrative power that creates one unified whole out of the three
disparate elements: the teacher, the student and the Torah.
Molten Calf – Egel Masekhah – Masked
Calf
The golden calf was in reality, as the verse quite literally reports, a masekhah, a mask, an
object dedicated to hiding objects from one another. In contrast, Moses' veil was
dedicated to creating links. The golden calf's mask prevented material reality – the brute-
force world – from making contact with its supernal source, the divine-spiritual world.
The people sinned by placing their trust in brute-force, as distinct and separate from its
divine source. While Aaron saw no evil in a brute-force reality connected to and utilized
to express its divine origins.
Aaron tried to stall the people so that Moses could arrive in time to prevent them from
sinning or so that Aaron, himself, could find a factor linking spirit and matter. However,
he did not find intent "for the sake of Heaven". Therefore, Aaron was held liable: "for
Aaron had made them go wild"(Ex 32:25). The intent to perform actions "for the sake of
Heaven" is the factor which enables the three components – thought, intent and deed - to
interact with one another.
Humility: Acts as a veil or filter and in so doing allows the component parts to stream
together and act in concert.
Pride: Acts as a mask or a barrier. When this divisive force divorces thought from deed,
there is no regulating force to balance man's public and private images. The public
image, which is a product of man's pride, the wickedness of the world, and the other
existential vanities, dominates the Self, preventing its self-expression, and in so doing
wipes it clean off the slate.
The attempt to divorce the World of Production from the World of Creativity and the
World of Creation is the source for the sin of the golden
calf. This legacy remains with us even today as some attempt to
liberate the mechanistic laws
and
grant them true autonomy (automatic and systemic).
An overly aggressive society dedicated to this cause banishes individuality, its emotions,
its innovativeness and its needs. This society forces man to fulfill needs foreign to him
and drains him of every vestige of his personality. In this way, the "masked calf" comes
into being. Under this aegis, man empties woman of her individuality and objectifies her,
paying attention to her exterior alone. Insightful women are more aware of this danger
than men. A Self divorced from action becomes paralyzed, a physical-emotional
castration results; depression sets in.
The lack of a connection between man's inner and outer worlds manifests itself as
obsession when man has difficulty finding a means of expressing himself in the real
world.
The "space cadet," an individual detached from reality, is the kind of man produced when
men engage in thought which is not followed by intent and, subsequently, action that is
carefully critiqued and judged fitting by the interiority of the Self. Perhaps this
phenomenon is caused by over-stimulation from man's surrounding that cannot be
processed and dealt with by the Self, or perhaps the surfeit of emotions exploding into the
surrounding empty space leaves the Self unable to respond.
In truth, man's self-image is not really "of the self". As man slowly and painstakingly
toils in studying the Torah, he creates a divine image out of his own human raw
materials. This becomes his self-image. Thus, the covenant between man and G-d is
manifested through man's self-image too.
However, man's self-image is not generated
spontaneously by itself. Man must choose
between various factors found both within himself and without to build a particular
image.
As
the Ibn Ezra wrote: "But he can not know Hashem if he does not know
his own nefesh, soul and body. For anyone who does not know
the essence of his nefesh
, what
wisdom can he have?"(Ex 31:18)
Translated by
Rabbi Meshulam Gotlieb
www.MGtransEd.com
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