KI SISSA 1995

In the Torah portion KiSisa we learn about the sin of the golden calf.  Immediately before the sin of the golden calf we learn about Shabbos.  Why should the Torah have seen fit to teach us about Shabbos before the sin of the golden calf?"  Also, what is this whole sin of the golden calf about?"  How can we understand it?"  How it is possible that the Jewish people could have worshipped the golden calf just 40 days after they had the greatest revelation that mankind has ever had, how 600,000 people heard G-d, Himself, speak to them.  How could they have sunk to the level of worshipping the golden calf after they witnessed all the miracles of Egypt, the miracles at the Red Sea, and how G-d, Himself had appeared to all of them?"  In fact, the rabbis say that the lowliest maidservant on Mount Sinai had a greater prophetic capacity than all the prophets later on.  So why is it that the Jewish people sinned by worshipping the golden calf?

The rabbis tell us that man is really composed of two conflicting parts, and the rabbis do not refer to the Greek concept of the conflict between the soul and the body.  In fact, according to Greek philosophy which was later picked up by western civilization the soul is pure and the body is impure.  We do not believe that.  We do not believe that the body is impure and the soul is pure.  Many times the soul can do certain things which are truly impure.  The soul can be so infatuated with different ideas that we have suicide bombers, like we have seen today in Israel.  We see all sorts of religious fanatics who are willing to die for their cause and to kill many other people, too I and this is not just religious fanatics but any ideological fanatics.  In fact, the rabbis teach us that the sins of the mind are even greater than the sins of the body.  It is true that people lust after different things, greed and avarice and sex and so forth but these pale into insignificance when compared to the sins of the soul, the sins of the mind, when we grasp after ideas and are willing to kill millions of people for the sake of our ideals as the Nazis and communists did.

The rabbis say that there is a different dichotomy in the human personality and that is man as object and man as subject.  We know that there are two creation stories in the Book of Exodus.  The rabbis tell us that in the first creation story man is an object.  We are just another creation of G-d in the long line of creation.  We are created right along with the animals.  We are the last animal to be created and, therefore, the universe acts upon us.  We must obey the laws of the universe otherwise we will be squelched, that we are just another form of life in the universe.  We are only an object.  The second creation story, however, speaks about man the subject, man who has mastery over himself and over the world.  In fact, in the second creation story we learn how man names the animals.  He has power over them, how he can change nature.  We are the only animal that has self‑consciousness and can change nature.  We do not just accept things the way they are and we are not just a total object.  Therefore, man could become lonely also.  Why should man be lonely?"  After all the angels were there and would give him anything he wanted.  The angels would talk to him.  Why was man lonely?"  Man was lonely because he had nobody to give to, and man unless he can give to someone else is a very lonely creature.  So we see that we are constantly torn about being man the object and man the subject.  We are subject to all sorts of physical limitations and laws.  As we age different hormones shoot off in our body and we assume different limitations and needs.  At the same time, we do have great mastery over what we can be and what we should be.  G-d gives us each great talent.  Whether we develop it or not it up to us.  Whether we can take the talents that we have and use them to become productive members of society so that we can use them to develop all our artistic sense and all our manual dexterity, etc., but this is depending on us and whether we master ourselves and our environment.  Therefore, man is both subject and object.  It is difficult to balance the two because many times we feel that we are just an object.  We cannot do anything and we are overcome with depression.  On the other hand, many times we feel that we are the subject and can do everything.  Nothing is too much for us.  In fact, one of the glories of America is that we stress man the subject.  For too long throughout history man has felt himself to be nothing more than an object and he is hidebound by all sorts of traditions that he feels he cannot change.  In fact, in the aborigines in Australia if they are shunned, if they are excommunicated from their tribe they just sit down and die because to them they can have no life at all outside their tribe.  In America we say you can be anything you can be.  You are an individual.  Of course, sometimes we carry it too far as we saw in the 1960's when people decided they could do anything they wanted.  We are still suffering from that great cultural divide of the 1960's where people went too far.  They felt they were not man the object at all and did not have to conform to any of the rules of society.  Judaism teaches that you have to do that which is good for you and good for others.  It is hard and difficult to find such a thing but then you have to study.  That's what Jewish study is all about, and that I of course, is what the Jewish position has always been, that we have to balance conflicting needs.

That's why the Jewish people sinned at the golden calf because they had just come out of Egypt, and in Egypt they were nothing but objects.  They were slaves.  They could not do anything about their situation.  They could not develop their talents.  They were completely dependent upon their masters.  They were just objects.  When they came out from Egypt and came before Mount Sinai G-d told them they were not objects but a subject to a master.  Then they decided they were really masters and not objects.  Therefore, they could then do anything they wanted so they worshipped the golden calf as a demonstration of their own power and ability to master everything.  They carried things over too far.  That's why it is so important in human relationships that we know how to balance between subject and object.  We are so happy today that a young couple has come to the synagogue just before their marriage because marriage is the institution par excellence of balancing man the subject and man the object because we all know that in a marriage we have to be both subject and object.  If one party in the marriage tries to completely subjugate the other and make the other into a mirror image of himself for herself then the marriage will be destroyed and all you are is an object.  In fact, the person who tried to impress his will upon the other will soon get tired of his rag, of the woman or man who has no backbone and no feelings and no sense of mastery of themselves.  You have to balance both being subject and object and it is a very difficult thing to do because we all know that one of the miracles of marriage is that people come into the marriage with different ideas and perspectives and somehow they are able to compromise their differences because we have to learn how to balance both man the subject and man the object.  In Egypt the Jewish people were only objects.  They thought they had to compensate for it so when they came to the golden cal f they thought they were man the subject without being man the object, but you have to be both man the subject and man the object.  That, of course, is a very important lesson because even when we are man the subject what good is it if we master everything and do everything .I we cannot share it with other people.  What good are our accomplishments?

I am reminded of the story about a rabbi who loved golf.  One day on Yom Kippur he got up early and noticed that it was only 6:00 and services did not start until 9:00, so he decided to go to the course and play a few rounds of golf.  When he got to the golf course the angels looked down and said, "G-d, look at your rabbi playing golf on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year."  G-d said, "Don' t worry.  I'll fix him."  The angels watched and the rabbi went to the tee and hit the ball and got a hole in one.  The angels looked at G-d and said, "G-d, is that the way You are fixing him?"  You let him get a hole in one?" G-d said, "Yes, I fixed him.  Who is he going to tell?"  Even when we are man the subject we have to be also man the object so that we can get some accolades, some appreciation from our own accomplishments.  Therefore, we always have to balance man the subject and man the object.  That is, of course, what Shabbos is about also, and that's why we read about Shabbos before the story of the golden calf.  When we start out Shabbos on Friday night we talk about man the object.  We talk about the first creation story , "And G-d created the heaven and the earth."  That's what we say in the Shmone Esre of Maariv, but then on Mussaf when we talk about Shabbos we say, "And Moshe rejoiced in the gift of his lot".  Man became man the master.  Then in Mincha we say, "G-d is one and His people is one and the Torah is one."  In other words, we learn how to balance both man the subject and man the object.  If we are able to balance man the object and man the subject then we will have a wonderful life.  Let us all hope and pray that we will all be able to balance man the object and man the subject so the Mashiach will come quickly in our day.  Amen.