KI SISSA 1985

In the Torah portion Ki Sissa the first two aliyahs are very big, and the last five aliyahs are relatively small.  Usually all the aliyahs in a Torah portion are more or less equal.  We have more or less seven equally long aliyahs every Shabbos.  On Parshas Ki Sissa, however, we have two that are very long, the first two, and the last five are relatively short.  The rabbis, of course, have determined the length of the aliyahs.  They purposely made the first two aliyahs in Ki Sissa long for a definite reason.  The first person we call up to the Torah is a Kohen, and the second person is a Levi.  The last five are Israelites.  The rabbis deliberately made the first two aliyahs long because they wanted the whole episode of the golden calf to be recounted when a Levi was called up to the Torah.  They did that because none of the people from the tribe of Levi participated in the sin of the golden calf.  To call up an Israelite would be to shame him, to remind him that his ancestors worshipped the golden calf.  The rabbis go this far in trying to teach us how to be sensitive to other people's feelings.  Many times individuals are only sensitive to their own feelings.  They are not sensitive to another person's feelings.  Sometimes they do not know enough about the background or skills of another person, and they make statements which hurt them.  The rabbis tell us that a person who has had in his family an individual who was hung for some criminal offense, you should not speak to him about haning fish.  One of the major purposes of Torah and Torah education is to teach us how to be sensitive individuals who are able to feel another person's pain and sympathize and empathize with them.  This point is also brought home at the end of the Torah portion when we learn how, after Moshe Rabbeinu had broken the first set of the Ten Commandments when he returned and saw the people engaged in licentious rites, he ascended the mountain, first, to obtain G‑d's forgiveness for the people and, second, to receive the second set of the Ten Commandments.  When he came down with the second set of the Ten Commandments his face shone.  As the text says: "And Moshe did not know that his face shone."  The same word for "shone" in Hebrew also means "horns."  Michelangelo made a mistake by translating this word and gave Moshe horns in his famous sculpture.  The rabbis ask, why did Moshe's face shine, and different reasons are given.  Most of the rabbis say Moshe's face shone because when he asked G‑d to show him His presence, G‑d told him that He would place him in a cave in a cleft in the rock and he would see His back but not His front.  The rabbis interpret this to mean that we can only see G‑d's footprints in history in retrospect.  We cannot understand His ways in the present and now.  We can have a relationship with G‑d, but we cannot understand everything about G‑d.  Moshe's face shone because, through prayer, he was able to have a relationship with G‑d.  When he was in the cleft of the rock G‑d taught him how to pray, "Adoshem Adoshem Kail Rachum V'Chanum."  Rabbi Berachia disagrees.  He said that the reason Moshe's face shone was because when Moshe brought down the Ten Commandments, which were only about 18 inches wide (in Hebrew, 6 Tfocheem), Moshe was holding 2 Tfocheem, G‑d was holding 2 Tfocheem, and the middle 2 Tfocheem Moshe was aspiring to, and from these 2 middle Tfocheem Moshe received his glow.  The rabbis teach us that when G‑d created the world He did so by withdrawing.  Everything was G‑d; all space, time, etc.  was G‑d.  In order to make room for man G‑d had to withdraw, to create space and time, but G‑d left behind sparks of Himself in everything.  Our soul is a spark which G‑d left behind.  We, in order to have a relationship with G‑d, must liberate these sparks through deeds of loving kindness.  This is what Rabbi Berachia meant by "aspiring" to the middle 6 inches.  We can feel G‑d's presence when we do deeds of loving kindness.  When we elevate ourselves we become more than ourselves.  Rabbi Yehuda said that the glow on Moshe's face came from another source.  He said that when Moshe was writing the Torah he came to a place where G‑d told him to write that Moshe was a humble man, an Anov in Hebrew.  Moshe was embarrassed to write it so he left out one of the letters of the word Anov, a Yud, and that ink was smeared on his forehead and caused him to glow.  The rabbis teach us, too, that in order to glow, to have a relationship with G‑d and man, a person has to be humble.  A person should not be a self-righteous critic of everybody and everything, always looking for the bad and not the good.  A self-righteous person does not really shine or glow.  There is a story they tell about a self-righteous person and his friend who were playing golf.  When they came to the third hold, the friend of the self-righteous person missed a short putt and yelled, "Darn it."  The self-righteous person did not like this and said, "Don't talk like that."  On the fourth hole the friend again missed his putt and yelled, "Darn it, I missed again."  The self-righteous person again said, "Don't talk that way."  The same thing happened on the fifth hole.  This time the self-righteous person said, "If you do that again I'll ask G‑d to strike you dead with a thunderbolt."  Sure enough, on the seventh hole the friend again missed a short putt and yelled out, "Darn it, I missed again," at which point a thunderbolt came out of heaven and struck the self-righteous man.  All of a sudden a voice was heard from heaven saying, "Darn it, I missed again."  Being self-righteous is no way to have a relationship with G‑d or man.  The rabbis teach us that this glow that Moshe had could be and would be transferred to his descendants if they, too, follow in the correct path, if they knew the importance of prayer and doing deeds of kindness and being humble.  Today we are honoring a man who is following in the footsteps of his forefathers, a man who comes to Shul every day before 6:00 every morning to prepare breakfast for the morning minyan, who loves to daven morning and evening, a person who never tells anybody no, who always tries to help everyone, who is always there when needed, a person who always tries to do deeds of loving kindness.  We are also honoring a person who is very humble, who is not interested in publicity and Kovod.  He just wants to do what he knows is best.  In fact, he is very embarrassed when any fuss is made over him.  It is also significant that we are honoring Izzy on this Shabbos in which the aliyahs, themselves, talk about sensitivity, because Izzy is a very sensitive individual who is very sensitive about other people's desires and wants.  In fact, most times he is more sensitive to the needs, wants, and desires of other people than he is to his own.  Sometimes he is too sensitive to other people's needs, and he puts his own third or fifth or even tenth behind everyone else.  His personality does really shine.  Sometimes it happens that self-effacing people are taken for granted.  Everything they do is just assumed.  I want you to know today, Izzy, that we do not take you for granted, that we love you and appreciate everything you have done.