Today (Tuesday, June 25, 2013) was the fast day of the 17th of Tammuz marking (among other things) the 3000th–something anniversary of the breaking of the Luchot, the tablets which had the Ten Commandments engraved into them. None other than Moshe Rabbeinu, aka Moses the Lawgiver, broke them. Why did he do that? Because when he came down from Mount Sinai, there were the Jews, dancing and carousing around the Golden Calf.
To give you some perspective on what a colossal error this was by our ancestors, Chazal (our Sages of blessed memory) tell us that anytime the Jewish people suffer, part of that suffering is “payback” for making and worshipping the Golden Calf. (I say “payback,” because I don’t want to get into the whole reward and punishment thing right now.) It was a severe mistake and colossal because it was only 40 days after the Divine revelation that was part and parcel of the giving of the Torah. Then—BOOM!—the rush to throw it away.
It may sound far-fetched and terrible, but don’t judge them unfavorably. If you ever attended a genuinely uplifting and truly inspiring spiritual retreat—or Rosh Hashanah in Uman or a Tony Robbins workshop—and came back only to, um, screw up really badly a few days later, think twice before casting stones.
But my point now is to share with you an insight into human motivation; how deep teshuvah (returning to God) has to go; and how precious even a mixed-up, watered-down puff of teshuvah is, whether yours or someone else’s, even if it’s only a distant memory now. This is from Sichot HaRan (Rabbi Nachman’s Wisdom) #123.
The Rebbe once spoke about those who undertake religious observance but then fall away. He said that even the short time that they drew themselves close is very dear to God, no matter what happened later, God forbid.
To support his statement he said, “About the giving of the Torah it is written, ‘You captured My heart with one of your eyes” (Song of Songs 4:9). The Midrash asks why God says the Israelites’ love was only “with one of your eyes.” It answers that the Israelites already had their other eye on the Golden Calf (Shabbat 88b; Gittin 36b; Shir Hashirim Rabbah 1:55). Even as they were accepting the Torah, they already had plans to stray, God forbid. Still, their closeness to God was very dear to Him—“You captured my heart with one of your eyes.”
© Copyright 2013 O. Bergman/148West
