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15 Adar 5759 - March 3, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Opinion & Comment
The Golden Calf at High Noon
by Rabbi Shmuel Globus

Since the sin of the Golden Calf was committed halfway through the day, they were given the mitzvah of the Half- Shekel. (Yerushalmi Shekolim, 2:3)

We are always in the middle, halfway through. Halfway through the day, Bnei Yisroel committed their greatest sin. They were then commanded to donate a half-shekel to the Mishkan, to rectify this massive mistake. What is the significance of half?

To answer this question, we first need to know what the half-shekel was used for. Unlike the freely given donations of Parshas Terumo which were used for everything needed for construction of the Mishkan, the half-shekel of Parshas Ki Siso had a specific purpose. It was used only for the adonim, the silver bases of the Mishkan.

These bases, which numbered 100 in all, supported the keroshim (beams) which formed the walls of the Mishkan. Each one of these keroshim had two pegs at the bottom, which fit into the slots of the adonim. In this way, the adonim kept the keroshim upright and in place, thus earning their name of bases. They were the basis, the foundation on which the Mishkan stood.

The Mishkan, with all it various parts, represents the various parts of a Jew. Like the Mishkan, a Jew's physical and spiritual being is also constructed of various parts. Just as the Mishkan has a heart, the aron hakodesh, so a Jew has a heart. Just as the Mishkan has adonim, a basic foundation, so a Jew has a basic foundation.

Son of man, describe the House to Bnei Yisroel, that they may be ashamed of their sins (Yechezkel 43:10)

In this verse, Hashem told the prophet to explain the structure of the Temple to Bnei Yisroel. This was intended to bring them to regret their sins. Why should a description of the Temple cause Bnei Yisroel to be ashamed of their sins? The Meforshim give a clear answer: the Temple is their very selves.

The Malbim elaborates this point: "The form of the Temple, and all its various parts, hints to the supernatural way in which Hashem runs the world. Hashem's hashgocho is not dependent on the rules and laws of nature. It is completely above this. Rather, Hashem's hashgocho is effected by the "temple" of one's soul. One must build the temple of his soul in such a way that it resembles the holy Temple in all its parts. One should perform Divine Service in the temple of one's soul through keeping Torah and mitzvos, as one would perform the Service in the holy Temple. One should elevate himself to G-d within the temple of his soul, as one would in the holy Temple.

"In this way, the building of the holy Temple depends on the building of the temple within the souls of Bnei Yisroel . . . The meaning of the verse is as follows: the prophet should tell Bnei Yisroel that they themselves are the holy Temple. The message is that the holy Temple depends on them -- the details of the holy Temple's construction represent something in them. The Temple's intricate and deliberate design represents the manner in which the people should be keeping the Torah and its laws. This understanding will bring the people to the state `that they may be ashamed of their sins.' "

Rav Chaim Volozhiner expresses the deep symbolism of the Mishkan in his work Nefesh Hachaim (footnote, 1:4). He writes that the mitzvos correspond to the various parts of the Temple. A Jew, through keeping the mitzvos, which correspond to the Temple, thereby becomes a temple himself.

Similar to the Mishkan, the Torah is constructed in an intricate pattern: the Taryag Mitzvos. The Torah, "Tree of Life," consists of 613 "branches." These branches are the mitzvos of Taryag. The branches themselves bear "twigs," which are the myriad mitzvos not included in the count of Taryag.

The Chofetz Chaim, in his introduction to his sefer Shemiras Haloshon, explains the correlation of the mitzvos to the physical and spiritual being of a Jew. "Every person has 248 spiritual limbs, and 365 spiritual sinews (making a total of 613). The 248 physical limbs and 365 physical sinews of a person enwrap their spiritual counterparts, as clothes enwrap the body.

"Corresponding to this," continues the Chofetz Chaim, "HaKodosh Boruch Hu gave the 248 positive commandments and the 365 negative commandments. They are also divided according to the limbs. There is a mitzvah which depends on the hand, there is a mitzvah which depends on the foot, and so on."

This is a wonderful interrelationship. The Mishkan corresponds to the person, the person to the mitzvos, and the mitzvos to the Mishkan.

Which mitzvah corresponds to the adonim -- the bases of the Mishkan? What do they parallel in the person himself?

Just as the Mishkan has a base, a foundation on which it rests, so the Torah has a foundation on which it rests. "613 mitzvos were said to Moshe at Sinai . . . David came and distilled them to eleven . . . Michah came and distilled them to three . . . Chavakuk came and distilled them to one: `A tzaddik lives through his faith'" (Makkos 24a). Emunah. This chazal teaches us that the entire Torah stands on emunah -- faith.

Rav Yosef Tzvi Salant, in his sefer Be'er Yosef, explains the significance of the adonim and the Half-shekel. He says that the Half-shekel, and the adonim of the Mishkan which were made from them, signify emunah. Both create foundations. The adonim, built from the half-shekels, are the foundations of the Mishkan. Similarly, emunah is the foundation of the spiritual life of a Jew -- it is the adonim of his soul's temple.

"A tzaddik lives through his faith." This means that a tzaddik's entire life stands on his faith. But why a half? If this mitzvah is so important, representing the foundation of a Jew's spiritual life, shouldn't we fulfill it by giving a complete coin?

No. Faith is best symbolized, says Rav Yosef Tzvi Salant, by a half-coin. We are always in the middle, halfway through. We do not have the overview of what happens in life, of the how and why of Hashem's hashgocho. We are always in the middle of the story, lacking full perspective.

This is the outlook of emunah. A Jew does not question Hashem, because he does not -- and cannot -- see the complete picture. It is pointless to criticize something you do not understand.

A beautiful moshol illustrates the viewpoint of emunah. It is from the Kanaf Rennanim commentary on Perek Shiroh, a medrash about the various creatures and the songs they sing to Hashem.

There once was a child born to wealthy parents in a large city. He thought that bread grows on trees, like fruit. He had never seen a field -- or a farmer, for that matter. But in the courtyard of his luxurious home there were fruit trees. Innocently, he assumed that bread grew in the same way.

One day, he visited a farming village for the first time in his life. He saw the villagers grinding wheat into flour. He witnessed how they made dough, and baked it in an oven. At last he understood the origin of bread. But where did the wheat itself come from?

The child decided to stay in the village in order to find out the secret of wheat. One day, he saw a man plowing a field. The child thought this to be a stupid act, as the man was destroying a beautiful piece of ground and replacing it with a series of shallow, ugly trenches. Then to his surprise, the man scattered an entire sack of valuable wheat on the broken ground. Then, to top it all off, the man plowed again; thus burying the valuable wheat even deeper.

A few weeks later, when the field was covered with green, the child thought he understood. The man wanted to plant a large lawn! When the green turned to stalks, the child concluded that it was an enormous flower garden.

One day, the child was beside himself with outrage. He found the man harvesting the field. The man had cruelly chopped down all the beautiful flowers. Then animals were brought to trample on them. The child wanted to cry.

Then he noticed that an enormous heap of wheat had been extracted from the mess.

He at last had the answer to the riddle of wheat. The farmer, by sowing a mere sack of dry grain, was later able to reap a towering pile of produce.

This child only understood the wisdom of the farmer because he saw the story through to the end. We, however, are always in the middle -- halfway through. This is why we were commanded to give a half-shekel. It conveys the viewpoint of faith -- emunah.

Rav Yosef Tzvi Salant uses this concept to explain the sin of the Golden Calf. His explanation is as follows: Bnei Yisroel sinned at high noon. Noon is halfway through the day. Bnei Yisroel, still in the middle of the day, should have assumed the outlook of faith. They should have thought that they do not yet have the full picture.

Yet they did not look at it that way, and that was their mistake. They were waiting for Moshe Rabbenu to descend from Mount Sinai, after forty days with Hashem. They should have waited for Moshe Rabbenu all day, but they didn't.

They falsely concluded that they already knew the end of the story. They said to themselves that if Moshe Rabbenu was going to come down from the mountain, he would have come down already. In reality, they were only halfway through the story; halfway through the day. Yet, they judged the situation as if they had the benefit of the full picture. They jumped to the conclusion that Moshe Rabbenu would never return -- and made the Eigel.

To correct this fateful mistake, Bnei Yisroel were commanded to bring a half-shekel. Only a half. We are always in the middle, halfway through.

Emunah will see us to the end.


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