Parshas Ki Tisa: The Gift of Divine Mercy

Instruction in Torah often focuses on rules and punishments. We Jews have 613 of these dos and don'ts with concomitant rewards and punishments, so our teachers spend a lot of time on them. Often overlooked and unappreciated are the Divine gifts of mercy, forgiveness and repentance that are freely given us in this week's Torah portion, Ki Tisa, Shemot (Exodus) 30:11 - 34:35.

Enslaved minds gain power in the mixed multitude at Sinai while awaiting the return of Moses. Idolatry, adultery. and murder, ie., errant human activity in pagan Egypt as well as today, runs rampant. Upon his return, Moses witnesses this precipitous fall back into spiritual darkness and smashes the first set of tablets, which represent the world's first opportunity to establish a covenant with the Almighty. Moses tidies up the Golden Calf mess and once more ascends the mountain, where God again inscribes the covenant on a second set of tablets. On the mountain, Moses is also granted a vision of the the Divine thirteen attributes of mercy, for God knows that many generations will pass where rules alone will not keep his wayward children in line. We will need a Father's tender mercies and the consolation of second and third chances to redeem ourselves along the way to transformative living.

We lament our own missteps along the path to spiritual maturity, and profoundly appreciate our second and third chances to get things right. As God tenderly forgives and redeems us, so we can offer the gift of second and third chances to our friends and neighbors who retain a slave mind, in bondage to a death culture that threatens to destroy all of us. Armed with a faith and belief that the Almighty can and will use even our most tragic transgressions to redeem us, we anticipate a promised Divine Heaven on earth when all human beings hold life at every stage of development sacred.

Cecily Routman

May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and good life upon us and upon all Israel. Amen.