Ki Tisa
G-d talks to Moses: Look what your people have done Let me destroy them
Moses talks to G-d: What will the Egyptians say If you destroy them?
As the people dance around the Golden Calf, both G-d and Moses seem ready to abandon them.First, G-d tells Moses, "your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves." (Ex 32:7). Is this the same G-d who reminds us repeatedly that "I am Adonai your G-d who brought you out of Egypt."? It sounds like a parent telling his or her partner, "Let me tell you what your daughter did today."Then, Moses (sort of) comes to the defense of the recently freed slaves, telling G-d, "Therefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, for an evil intent did G-d bring them out, to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of earth?" (Ex 32:12). Does the fate of the people only matter to the extent their destruction would allow the Egyptians to deny G-d's greatness?Moses wins the argument, but as he descends the mountain his emotions mirror those G-d expressed earlier. "Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets from his hands, and broke them beneath the mount." (Ex 32:19). Moses asks "Who is on G-d's side?" (Ex 32:26) and after calling the Levites to the sword, "the Levites did according to the word of Moses, and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men." (Ex 32:28)
Torah Haiku delivered to your inbox!