Hol Hamoed Passover On the Shabbat which
takes place during Passover, we omit the regular Torah reading and instead
chant a section from the Book of Exodus (33:12-34:26).
Ex. 34:6-7 “… ‘Adonai! Adonai! a God compassionate and gracious, slow
to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending kindness to the
thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin—yet not
remitting all punishment, but visiting the iniquity of parents upon children
and children’s children, upon the third and fourth generations.”
This special reading includes the story of the Golden Calf. Those of us raised
on Cecil B. DeMille’s Ten Commandments have the story down
fairly well, although much of the nuance has been lost. It’s the nuances I
wanted to take a closer look at this week.
Moses winds up taking three trips up the mountain. On the first, he gets the
first set of Tablets, created by God and given to him. He descends, sees the
Golden Calf, and destroys the tables. He goes back up where God threatens to
destroy the People and in effect substitute him for Abraham. Moses pleads and
succeeds, thereby saving the people, and goes back down the mountain. There, he
carves a new set of tablets, and climbs a third time to have them inscribed by
God. While there, he experiences a close personal encounter with God, where he
is informed of the Thirteen attributes of God which are articulated in this
verse.
Moses comes down the mountain with the second set of tablets, knowing
that God is a forgiving God. While the first set of Tablets were by definition
perfect, coming directly from the Hand of God, this second set was a joint
project, necessarily including a metaphorical reference to humanity’s weakness
as well as to God’s power of forgiveness.
Later, the second set of
tablets is placed in the Ark along with the crumbled remains of the first.
Another metaphor: we dream of perfection while we live with the knowledge of
our imperfection. We can find peace in the contest between our dream and
our reality by accepting God’s compassion. I hope your holiday concludes with
great joy.
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