Parsha Ki Tissa is best known for the narrative of the Chait Haegel, the Golden Calf, the infamous low point of Bnei Yisrael in the Midbar. Indeed, the aftermath of the creation of this false leader - for it was meant to replace Moshe, not Hashem – was terrible: Moshe broke the luchos (tablets), the Leviim drew arms against those who fully and truly sought to worship avodah zarah and slew 3,000 men, a plague struck the remaining nation, Moshe left them for another 40 days, and, most significantly, Hashem separated His Presence from the nation. From ultimate high to absolute low. Within all these dramatic events, there is an interesting set of verses that describe the reaction of Bnei Yisrael:
“The people heard this bad tiding, and they became grief stricken, and no one donned his ornaments. Hashem said to Moshe: ‘Say to the Children of Israel, You are a stiff-necked people. If I ascend among you, I many annihilate you in an instant. And now remove your ornaments from yourself, and I shall know what I shall do.’” So, the Children of Israel were stripped of their ornaments from Mount Horeb” (Shemos 33:4-6).
The order of the verses referring to ornaments is fascinating. In verse 4 it says that no one put on his ornaments, in verse 5 it says that Hashem told them to remove their ornaments, and in verse 6 it says that they were thus stripped of their ornaments. Additionally, one might immediately wonder what ornaments, since the men had given jewelry to Aaron in order to make the Golden Calf. There are several responses to this question. The simplest answer is that they gave Aaron their gold, but they still maintained silver, bronze, gems, stones, and etc from which ornaments could be made. In an interesting understanding of the passage, Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsh suggests that this is a reference to tefillin, since they are referred to as having been received at Mount Horeb (another name for Har Sinai), and because the term used for the ornaments is eidyam, which comes from the root for the word witness. Another suggestion, noted in the Gemara, is that the eidayim were two celestial crowns that each person received up on reciting naaseh v’nishma, we will do and we will hear.
In these three verses, a process is happening, and it is a process that we can learn from. Bnei Yisrael has just been informed that while Hashem will maintain His promise to bring them into the Promised Land and will help them drive out the other nations, Hashem has also announced that His Presence shall not ascend with them “lest I annihilate you on the way.” (33:4). The people realize just how badly they have erred, and they are ready to do teshuva (repent). This is the implication of their not donning their ornaments. They did not put on any false fronts, any masks. They did not decorate themselves so as to make themselves appear more “beautiful.”
Hashem witnessed that they were contrite, and He told Moshe to tell them to remove their ornaments, to finish the process. They might not have put on any ornaments, but now they needed to remove from themselves their belief in their “masks,” the ornaments they already wore. Most people put on a persona for the world. Whether this means brash confidence or a constant perkiness or a host of other emotions varies by individual, but the fact is that Bnei Yisrael was suddenly struck by the fact that the holiness that they believed they had attained through all that had occurred was still somewhat superficial, it had not been spiritually “deep” enough.
The final verse of the three begins with the word vayitnatzlu. It is translated as stripped (they were stripped of their ornaments), but it is interesting to note that this word shares the root of the word for rescue (best known for the word hatzala). The Israelites were stripped of their ornaments from Horeb. Perhaps this communal false front that they were stripped of, that they were saved from – that was the source that empowered them to commit the chait haegel – was a belief that in reaching Har Sinai and receiving the luchos, they were inherently at the peak of spiritual understanding. But, as would be proven in events to come, the Bnei Yisrael who followed Moshe out of Mitzrayim were still mired in the warped ways of the culture that had oppressed them. They were unable to reach deeper levels of spirituality because of all they had experienced prior to the Exodus. The repercussions of the chait haegel forced them to look at themselves, see themselves, and remove from themselves any false spiritual arrogance.
Hashem tells the people that if He were to go among them, He would destroy them. This is not a malicious statement. This is a statement of fact. The people believed that they were on a level of holiness that they had proven they had not yet attained, and Hashem’s Presence in their midst would be too great for them. When they took away their pretentions, however, Hashem would be able to judge them for who they truly were.
We, too, are mired in the galus (diaspora) cultures in which we live. It is almost impossible to read parsha Ki Tissa and not start to judge our ancestors, start to wonder how those who had witnessed such miracles could err so grandly. Do we have that right? Do we proceed through our lives with the ornaments of faith but not the midos (character traits) that are meant to go with it? The Jewish people are instructed to be an Am Kadosh, a holy nation, and if it is something that must be instructed then it is something that must be worked at and earned. Let us all work hard at removing our false fronts so that our collective true selves can bring us back to the intimate Presence of Hashem.
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