KI SISSA 1993

In the Torah portion Ki Sissa we ]earn about the sin of the golden calf, how the Jewish people just 40 days after they had received the Torah, had received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, that they began to worship the golden calf.  How is this possible?  How could a people who had seen the miracles of Egypt, who had seen the miracles that.  G‑d had done to them in the desert before they came to Mount Sinai and receive the revelation at Mount Sinai, how could they have committed the sin of the golden calf?  What's more, right before we learn about the sin of the golden calf we learn about the laws of Shabbos.  What does Shabbos have to do with the sin of the golden calf?

Perhaps we can understand the answers to these questions if we understand a phenomena that we have even today, and that is the phenomenon of what if.  People want complete security.  Unfortunately, in life there is no such thing as complete security.  There are some people who are always going what if.  What if I go outside and I get hit by a car?  It is better if I stay home.  Or people say, "What if I send my child to yeshiva and he becomes a fanatic?" On the other hand, people say, "What if I send my child to an eastern establishment college and he joins a cult?" It is true that there are dangers in life, and it is true that sometimes if you send a child to yeshiva he becomes a fanatic, but this does not mean that you do not send children to yeshivas.  Sometimes it is true that if you send your child especially to an eastern establishment university that they could become a member of a cult, and it is true that sometimes if you leave your house you will be hit by an automobile or you can slip on a banana peel, We know that in life there is always risk and we are willing to take risks because if we do not take risks we cannot live.  We believe there is a G‑d in the world.  G‑d will protect us and help us.  We are not to act on our what ifs.  In fact, we Jewish people have been persecuted throughout the ages because of the what if.  In the Middle Ages both the Christians and the Moslems said, "What if our people mingle with the Jews and they see how nice the Jewish religion is and they want to become Jewish and they are going to forsake our religion."  And, of course, there is a risk.  There is a risk, too, of vice versa, of Jews assimilating with Moslems and Christians.  Perhaps they will change their religion, too.  These are risks but they are minor risks, and we are told by G‑d that we have to take risks in this life.  We cannot live life based upon what if.  In fact, most of us take a huge risk every time we get into an automobile, and we all know that we need to get into automobiles in order to do shopping or go to our job or to visit relatives.  That is probably a higher risk than any of the risks talked about here today.  We have to live not based upon what if.  It is true that if it is 90% or 99% sure thing, then we should not do it.  If we jump off a cliff we are going to get hurt, but most things in life are not that way.  Yes, we have to assume some risk.

That is what the Shabbos teaches us.  The Shabbos teaches us that there is a G‑d in the world and G‑d is going to help us, and we should not say, "What if we keep Shabbos?  We will not be able to earn a living," Or what If this or what if that?  By keeping Shabbos every week we declare our loyalty to G‑d and we, so to speak, give our cares and what ifs to G‑d.  G‑d will take care of these minor risks.  All we have to do is take care of the major risks.  We cannot, of course, shoot ourselves and say we are not going to get hurt.  We cannot run in front of a locomotive and say we are not going to be hit.  These are major risks.  The other normal risks of life we have to assume and we know that there is a G‑d in the world and G‑d will see to it that we are not harmed, and that if we are harmed that it will be for some greater purpose but that we have to take a chance of the what ifs.
What was the sin of the people of the golden calf?  They kept saying, "What is Moshe is dead?  What if he is delayed?  If Moshe is dead, how can we continue?" In fact, the rabbis say they even looked up at the sky and It looked like there was a coffin being carried and the people said, "See, that is Moshe.  He has died.  What if he is no longer going to be our leader?  What can we do?  How can we do what we are supposed to do?"  The Jewish people, of course, at this time had just come out of Egypt and, as they say, it was a lot easier to take the people out of Egypt than take Egypt out of the Jews.  Throughout the Torah and throughout Jewish literature Egypt was not only a country but also a symptom of a disease.  It is a disease of self-centeredness, of self-indulgence.  One of the biggest problems of today is alienation.  In fact, there is only one real theme of any novel that has been written in the world for the past hundred years in serious literature and that theme is alienation.  From Proust wanting to regain his lost childhood to Saul Bellows talking about his alienated self and it is embodied strongly in Kafka who talks about us all being cockroaches on this earth, that we really do not belong anywhere.  This whole theme of alienation is so strong because people have a wrong idea of how they find themselves.  In our modern culture we think that we find ourselves by going into ourselves, by becoming self-actuated and self this and selfish, that the only way that we can make any progress in this world is to find ourselves.  The only problem with that is that we become narcissistic and we know the story of Narcissus.  He saw his reflection in the pool and was so taken by the beauty of his own reflection that he wanted to embrace himself and, of course, he fell in the pool and drowned.  There are so many people who do not realize that the way you find yourself, the way that you stop being alienated is by attaching yourself to others.  There is a paradox in life: the more you attach yourself to others, the more you find yourself, while the more you try to get into yourself, the more you lose yourself.  Unfortunately, in our modern culture today all people think about is themselves.  In fact, you see several television shows where it is propounded the philosophy that what you should do is what makes you happy, and people getting divorced after 40 years because they do not feel a spark and they want to feel a spark.  Well, they should get a match and light it.  Then they will feel a spark.  People give up families and homes and desert parents to find :heir happiness.  This will not result in happiness.

People who do these things will be even more miserable.  Getting into yourself is not going to bring you happiness and is not going to end your alienation.  It is only by attaching yourself to others that you are going to find yourself and feel whole and feel the meaning of life.

The Jewish people had just come out of Egypt and when Moshe no longer was there they said, "What if he died?  What if this philosophy chat he has been teaching us about how we should be concerned about others, how we find ourselves through attaching ourselves to others is wrong.  Maybe we should do like we did in Egypt.  We should try to become self-indulgent."  That was what the golden calf was all about.  It was to resurrect the Egyptian philosophy.  That is why it said when Moshe came down the mountain, "And Moshe saw the people, that they had loosened themselves the sheeps of the command because Aaron had made them get loose co become a derision from their enemies."  The word Feroah is the same word as Paroh.  What was Paroh's great sin?  All Paroh cared about was himself and satisfying his own selfish whims.  That was the basis of Egyptian civilization.  That is what the Jewish people decided to go back to, because what if Moshe was dead?  Then we can no longer live by his philosophy.  We have to go back to the philosophy of Egypt.

That, of course, is why when G‑d told Moshe about the people's sin and said He was going to wipe them out and start a new nation from Moshe.  Moshe said, "No, don't do that," and he gave G‑d three reasons why He should not blot out the Jewish people because he said, one, "G‑d, You are the one Who took them out of Egypt.  You knew how difficult it was.  This was a slave people, not an educated people.  It was easier to bring them out of Egypt than to bring Egypt out of them."  The second reason he gave Him was, "What will the Egyptians say?" And the third reason was, "Remember the G‑d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."  We can understand the first reason, that G‑d should be lenient with the people who were reared in a philosophy of self-indulgence who were slave people who were imitating their masters, and it would take a long time for them to get rid of their slave mentality.  But what of this second reason, "What will the Egyptians say?" The Egyptians said it was impossible to live any other way, that the only way that you can live is to satisfy yourself and do not be worried about anybody else, to cut all your ties, to roam free, to be independent, to be a cowboy roaming on the prairie, so to speak, as we say in modern parlance.  This would prove that they were right, that the Egyptians were right.  People cannot form a society based upon attaching oneself to another and trying co help another and trying to make sure that the society as a whole progresses, so, G‑d, this would just confirm the Egyptians' view of life.  Finally, "Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."  The Jewish people are not orphans.  They have a tradition to go back to.  They can go back to this tradition and they will go back to this tradition, so there is hope for them.  Of course, we know that G‑d did spare the Jewish people because it was true that it was hard for them to forsake this philosophy of self-indulgence.  It is our hope and prayer that there are Jewish people who have been hoodwinked once again and who assume this type of philosophy mainly because of the great material success of America and the great many inventions that came and the so-called progress that has been made here, There are many Jews that are forsaking family that have been the basis of Judaism and of all Jewish culture, that by spending family, that by refusing to assume obligations for parents and grandparents and grandchildren and for spouses in hope of obtaining something better is proving false.  They are not happy.  They are getting more alienated.  They are not becoming better and better people and even happier people.  Their happiness is only momentary if at all.  People said, "What If Moshe died?  What if the Jewish values have been false?  What if we have sacrificed for nothing?" We do not have to worry about that, my friends.  Our philosophy should be why not?  Why not try to live a good and compassionate life?  Why not try to be the best family people we can be, because if we are we are, we will soon realize that we have satisfaction and meaning and a sense of purpose in life.

I am reminded of the story they tell about a reporter who came to a football coach.  He said to the football coach, "I know your star player performs wonderfully on the basketball court, but how does he do scholastically?  How does he do in the classroom?" The coach looked at him and said, "My star player makes straight A'."  The reporter was astounded and said, "Straight A's?  That's wonderful."  The coach continued, "But his B's and C's are a little crooked."  My friends, today people think that by shucking off all their responsibilities they are going to make straight A's, they are going to find happiness, but they are going to find that it is momentary happiness.  Their B's and C's and D's are all crooked.  They are not going to have a good life.  The life that they are going to have is going to be empty and they are going to be more alienated, but by attaching yourself to the tradition, by attaching yourself to family and to the Jewish people and to the G‑d of Israel you will truly find happiness.  Let us all hope that all of us will soon come to this realization so the Mashiach will come quickly in our day.  Amen.