D'var Torah

You don’t have to go very far in this week’s Torah portion to think about how this portion, Ki Tisa, from Exodus 30-11-34:35 can influence our lives. It’s actually right there in the title: “Ki Tisa,” or “When you take” as the text starts out talking about the contribution that people need to pay to the Mishkan, or portable sanctuary. However, let’s just focus on those two Hebrew words: “Ki tisa: when you take.” If we stop right there and don’t read it in context, it has a very important message for us. Are you a taker or a giver? What kind of person are you, or do you want to be?

A taker is focused on themselves, perhaps putting their own interest above others. Someone who is a taker is likely to want to get something out of a relationship and contribute very little in return. These are people who blame others for something that went wrong, without thinking about their role in the issue. A taker self-promotes and wants credit for, perhaps, what a group of people did. Perhaps in this week’s Torah portion, the takers are the ones who build the golden calf because they were inpatient waiting for Moses to come down the mountain. Takers ultimately fail.

The giver, on the other hand, is the one who puts others first. Someone who is a giver is likely to care about how to cultivate relationships and not dwell on what benefit being in that relationship would mean for the giver. The giver doesn’t focus on who is at fault, but how to correct and move past the wrong that occurred. The giver shys away from credit and doesn’t look for the spotlight. Perhaps in this week’s Torah portion, the givers are the ones who did not take part in the building of the golden calf, who had faith that Moses would prevail.

In this story, the takers actually take us all down with them. For the whole basis of Yom Kippur is rooted in this story of the Golden Calf. It was because of that event in the Torah, that we ask for forgiveness from our sins. The midrash is that on the first day of Elul, Moses went back up on the mountain after shattering the 10-commandments in disgust of seeing the golden calf. Moses was on the mountain for 40 days, pleading for God not to wipe out the Israelites for their transgressions, but rather to forgive them. On the 40^th day, or the 10^th day of the next month, the month of Tishrei, God forgives the Israelites and gives the new set of the commandments to Moses. That day, the 10^th day of Tishrei is what we know as Yom Kippur.

Perhaps Moses was the ultimate giver. He took the blame for the Israelites and asked forgiveness. The giver focuses attention on other people’s needs and does it with humility.

Perhaps this Torah portion reminds us all that being a giver is so much better than being a taker. Proverbs 11:24 says, “One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.”

May we all find nourishment of our souls through the gifts of our heart.

Shabbat Shalom,
Cantor Michael Shochet