Parshas Ki Sisa (Shushan Purim) 5785
- Torah Tavlin
- Mar 13
- 2 min read
וירא את העגל ומחלת ויחר אף משה וישלך מידו את הלחת וישבר אתם תחת ההר ... (לב-יט)
When Moshe descended from Har Sinai with the luchos, and saw what was happening down below, he took them and smashed them at the foot of the mountain. Apparently, the cheit ha’eigel was a direct contradiction to the concept of Matan Torah. The Beis HaLevi writes that in making the eigel, Klal Yisroel had no intention to worship idols. Rather, based on their intimate knowledge of the spiritual forces in Creation, they calculated that this would help bring about tikkunim, spiritual rectifications, in the upper worlds. However, their fatal flaw was that all these tikkunim only happen through mitzvos when they are based on Hashem’s command. Since the people acted on their own recognizance and not Hashem’s, they were punished.
R’ Chaim Volozhiner zt”l explains that at Matan Torah, the entire creation became subservient to the Torah. Beforehand, lending with ribbis was a huge chessed. You’re helping someone out with a loan and just charging a small fee? Taka a chessed! But once Matan Torah arrived, it turned into one of the biggest aveiros, to the point that one who does it doesn’t get up by techiyas hameisim! Chessed itself was redefined by the Torah. So, certainly, according to their cheshbonos, the Jewish people were correct - the eigel should have accomplished big tikkunim in the world. But they did not appreciate that after Moshe received the Torah, things had changed, Creation now turns on the command of Hashem, on the Torah and its mitzvos, and not on anything else. This was what Moshe conveyed to them when he threw down the luchos: Klal Yisroel, you missed the point! You didn’t just get a set of laws when you got the Torah, you got the whole beriah, a new creation! Everything runs on Torah!
On Purim, this was rectified - "הדר קבלוה בימי אחשורוש" - when the Jews reaccepted the Torah after their miraculous salvation from the hands of Amalek, the embodiment of "אשר קרך בדרך" - everything in the beriah is disconnected from Hashem and His Torah. Let us too be mechazek ourselves in looking at things only through the lens of Torah! Freilichen Purim and Gut Shabbos!