Ki Tisa

Harvey Savage, February 22, 2003, 20 Adar I, 5763

A moment forever

There is a moment in this sedra where a theme seems to occur with no lead-up to it. At first glance it is oddly out of place. Most of the preceding sections involve the meticulous details first of assigning membership dues to the community towards the building and upkeep of the mishkan, the first precedent of shul membership dues, as well as all of the instructions regarding the interior design and aesthetics for the tabernacle.

In the last and longest part of the sedra, there is the story of the Israelites constructing a golden calf to embody at least something concrete, when everything else seemed elusive. They had never seen any physical form of God. Moses was delaying in returning something tangible to them, perhaps he was lost and never returning. They were surrounded by clouds and mystery when they craved signs that their post-Egypt destination was more than a mirage. So they constructed this monument which had elements of everything they seemed not to have - it was at least some tangible sign of a divine form, it invoked a ritual around which they could come together, it muted their craving for a leader lost somewhere in space.

But what of this short bridge between two major events in this sedra - between the completion efforts in building the tabernacle and the building of the golden calf? What is its significance and why is it placed where it was?

The bridge occurs when in the midst of all of the busy instructions on the furnishings of the tabernacle - the table and utensils, the lampstead, the service vestments, the aromatic incense for the sanctuary, there takes place an afterthought, as though something was in the back of God's mind which God just realized that God must say or the moment would pass and something important would be lost. And so, in the middle of all of this activity, God spoke to Moses and said: "iattah daber el-bnai yIsrael lamor ach et-otati tishmoru ki ot he bani u v'naichem ledorotaichem ladaat ki ani adonai mekadishchem." "speak to the Israelite people and say: nevertheless, you must keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you through the ages, that you may know that I the Lord consecrated you"

Why the "ach" here? Why the "nevertheless"? The interjection about the Sabbath is just five verses in the entire sedra. There is seemingly no build-up to it, and no follow-through.

In this interjection, there is one word that is emphasized over all others by its repitition - the word "sign". At the beginning, God declares that keeping my Sabbaths is a sign between us, an eternal sign, and again towards the end, he describes keeping the Sabbath as a covenant, as a sign for all time.

What else is a sign but a reminder? Circumcision is said to be the sign of the covenant between God and the people of Israel. The weekday laying on of tephillin is said to serve as a sign on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead of the liberation from Egypt. The mezuzah is a sign of God's covenant with Israel on the doorposts of your house.

Signs are important in Judaism. And the Sabbath is clearly delineated as a sign. But why so suddenly in this passage in the midst of instructions for working on the mishkan?

For this we turn to the beginning passages of building the tabernacle. Nachamah Leibowitz sees a parallel structure between the initial intructions to build the mishkan and how in the middle of this mishkan building God commands Moses to tell the Israelites to keep the Sabbath. At the beginning of sedra terumah, the torah says: va-yedaber adonai el moshe lamor: daber el-bnai yIsrael veyikchoo-li trumah; mae-aet kol ishasher idvenu libo tickchoo et-trumahti. " the Lord spoke to Moses saying: tell the Israelite people to bring me gifts; you shall accept gifts for me from every person whose heart so moves him."

And in the middle of the building, the verse: "and the Lord said to Moses: speak to the Israelite people and say: nevertheless you must keep my Sabbaths."

Lebowitz says that the reason for the interjection is God's need to remind the Israelites that there is both tabernacle making and Sabbath making, and never to forget that the Sabbath-making takes precedence over the tabernacle-making and all other forms of making but it in no way diminishes their importance. That may be the reason for the parallel structure and may also provide an explanation for the seeming out of place interjection.

It's as if in the very midst of a busy activity, God remembers to remind the Israelites to keep perspective. As important as it is to build a mishkan in which the holiness of God is recalled, it is more important to remember the rhythm of life - building the mishkan is still the work of the six days - hammering, chiseling, contributing money - but the Sabbath makes it all possible. Without remembering and keeping and making the Sabbath, the week loses its rhythm, space overtakes time, the materials of life occupy all of the space, and without one day for just the spiritual, the mishkan is so much bricks and mortar.

So, in a religion such as Judaism, where the intangible is really what matters most - the things you can't see or touch but only feel - the presence of God, the sense of kedushah in everything, the importance of the present moment so unique from all others and so elusive - you need a sign to remind you of this. And in the rhythm of everyday life, which is endlessly repetitive - one week into the next - the Sabbath is the paramount sign - the sign of all signs.

Heschel expressed this clearly in two paragraphs in his text, "the Sabbath":

"Judaism is a religion of time aiming at the sanctification of time. Unlike the space-minded man to whom time is unvaried, iterative, homogeneous, to whom all hours are alike, qualitiless, empty shells, the bible senses the diversified character of time. There are no two hours alike. Every hour is unique and the only one given at the moment, exclusive and endlessly precious….. The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world."

This pre-eminence of the Sabbath as the signature reminder to keep in touch with the holy parts of ourselves is given the most prominence of any sign in both the torah and our liturgy. In the fourth of the ten commandments we are commanded both to remember and to keep it - both to remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy. A commentary tells us that to "remember" is to imitate God's rest (va-yinafesh) literally, God's spiritual rejuvenation - following a week of busy activity. And it tells us that to "keep" at as a weekly celebration reinforces that we are not slaves; only free people own their own time and can choose to pause from or even stop labouring.

And a midrash said that only God at Sinai could do what no human being could do, utter two distinct words at the same time - "remember" and "keep", that "remember" is seen as a positive command to do things that make at special, and "keep" as a negative command to refrain from work and other activities that mar the at. And there are even signs within the sign that is the at - from "remember" the rabbis deduce the requirement to say kiddush both Friday evening and during the day on at as a sign or device to mark and remember the at.

The rabbis also deduce from "remember" that rather than calling each day of the week by its own independent name, we should refer to each day by its number in the week before and after the at - Sunday is yom rishon and so on - so that the very names of the days remind us of the at.

In the liturgy there are numerous references throughout the daily prayers, invoking us to remember the at and to keep it holy and even more - inviting the analogy of at and the Israelites to bride and groom.

Rabbi Shimon Ben Yochai taught: the at said to God when creation was completed - everyone has a mate except me. The answer was that Israel shall be your mate. As soon as Israel stood at the foot of mount Sinai, God said to them: remember what i promised the at - the congregation of Israel shall be your mate. This is the meaning of the text: "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy."

Remember something to keep it holy. It's a revolutionary idea. By remembering something we keep it holy. We keep it alive. We keep it from the oblivion of forgetfulness. What about all of the events in our lives - the friends with whom we shared, our children's accomplishments, our parents and relatives no longer with us. The restorative power of memory, if only for the fading instant.

And so the at, with its remembering and keeping, gives meaning to so many other events in our lives, which after they have past, can only be sanctified through active remembering.

The mishkan was an elaborate structure all woven around an intangible - the unseen presence of God. The golden calf was a fanciful construction woven around a tangible - a desperate substitute for a lost leader. The bridge connecting them was the sign that is the at - that holiness is regularly possible - surviving both inevitable loss and empty materialism. We only need to recognize the sign and act on it.

Shabbat shalom