by Rabbi Dr. Eli Yoggev
Posted on March 9, 2023
Parsha Ki Tisa opens up mandating a contribution of machatzit hashekel, a half-shekel, toward the construction of the Mishkan (Ex. 30:13). Our commentators ask why the Torah demands a half-shekel and no more. Doesn’t Hashem want our full commitment, our whole contribution? …
by Gabriel Greenberg
Posted on February 17, 2022
In this week’s parsha Ki Tisa, Moshe received the two tablets which contain the Ten Commandments. When he came down and saw the people dancing in front of the golden calf, he smashed those two tablets. This prompts God at the beginning of Exodus Chapter 34 to tell Moshe to “carve two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, ‘asher shibarta’, which you shattered (Ex.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on March 4, 2021
What was the sin of the golden calf and why does it matter to us today? The commentators are divided as to the nature of the sin. For some, the golden calf was the worship of a new god, a rejection of the God who redeemed them from Egypt.…
by Dr. Tammy Jacobowitz
Posted on October 27, 2016
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by Rabbi Haggai Resnikoff
Posted on September 9, 2016
The idea that plain matter can be imbued with divine essence is a fundamentally dangerous doctrine according to the Torah. It leads to the fallacy that matter, and particularly humans can speak with the divine voice. This is problematic both from a practical and a theological point of view.…
by Rabbi Avi Weiss
Posted on May 21, 2016
Is it appropriate to challenge God when things are going wrong? The role of the prophet is usually associated with transmitting the word of God to his people. Yet there are times when the prophet takes on another role—that of the defense attorney for the people of Israel, protecting Am Yisrael and cajoling God to intercede.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on February 25, 2016
Over the course of two parshiyot, the Torah has described the construction of the Mishkan and the making of the priestly garments in great detail. Parashat Ki Tisa is introduced with a seemingly unrelated theme: a census of the people in which each person will pay a half-shekel.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on February 14, 2014
How exactly can a finite human being, rooted in her physicality, connect to an infinite, non-physical God? This question is one that the Torah grapples with throughout the second half of the book of Shemot. The Mishkan delimits a place, a space, for the Divine presence to inhabit, and the Glory of God is a created thing which represents God’s presence, but not God Godself.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on January 1, 2012
How exactly can a finite human being, rooted in her physicality, connect to an infinite, non-physical God? This question is one that the Torah grapples with throughout the second half of the book of Shemot. God commands for the building of a physical Mishkan to house the Glory of God enveloped in the cloud. …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on March 5, 2010
Parshat Parah, a special maftir read before pesach, is read to remind us of the period of purification that preceded the bringing of the korban Pesach on the 14th of Nissan. While for most of us, this is a reminder of a thousands-year-old practice that became obsolete with the destruction of the Temple, this is not true for all.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on March 12, 2009
Parshat Ki Tisa opens with a census and the requirement to give money rather than to be counted directly. What – other than superstition – is the point of this? I believe that the Torah is telling us a critical message about the worth of each person. …
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