Shabbat Shalom Weekly

Torah Portion:  KI TISA

Proper Hygiene
by Rabbi Yehuda Appel

During the Middle Ages, it was not uncommon for Jews to be accused of poisoning wells and infecting the gentile populace with plagues. Lending support to their claim, the Jews’ opponents would point to the fact that Jewish rates of illness was typically lower than the general population.

This statistic may well have been true. Jews have always been known for their concern with cleanliness and better sanitation. Jewish tradition particularly stood out during the Middle Ages — when royalty would often put on perfume rather than wash, and where in colder climates it was not uncommon for people to sew themselves into their garments for an entire winter.

There are many Torah sources which speak about proper hygiene. The Talmud, written 1600 years ago, reports how the great sage Hillel emphasized to his students the importance of bathing regularly. Jewish law also requires that one bathe as a part of Shabbos preparations.

In addition, there are many Jewish rituals that require washing for “spiritual” reasons: e.g. immersion in the Mikveh, and washing hands before prayer, before eating bread, and when getting up in the morning.

Rabbeinu Bechaya explains the deeper significance behind this ritual. He notes that since the Temple was primarily a conduit to bring God’s blessing into the world, the water flowing forth from the kiyor was symbolically linked to the blessing of rain falling down upon the land.

Nachmanides (12th century Spain) says this washing ceremony was a sign of respect. He explains that just as one would never stand before a king with an unclean appearance, so too the Kohanim were particularly careful to present themselves properly in the sanctuary — the palace of the King of Kings!

Nachmanides also notes the exact procedure the Kohanim used for washing: They would first place their right hand on their right leg, and washing the two simultaneously, then repeat the same procedure on the left side. He says that the hands — when extended up above the head — are the part of one’s body that most closely reach the heavens, while the feet are the most lowly part of a person. This is an allusion to the idea that one must direct simultaneously all parts of one’s being in the service of God.

While it is clear that Jewish washing ceremonies are essentially spiritual in nature, there is little doubt that this has fostered a healthy approach to cleanliness and hygiene in the minds of Jews throughout the generations.

Aharon’s Rationale
by Rabbi Zvi Belovski

Perhaps the most famous episode of the post-Exodus experience is the construction of the eigel hazahav (golden calf). When Moshe returned from his 40 days on Har Sinai, he discovered that not only had Yisrael appeared to have betrayed him and God, but that his brother, Aharon, was implicated in the crime. Moshe questions Aharon about his role in the calf’s construction, and he replies:  Don’t be angry, my lord. You know the people, for they follow a wicked path. They said to me, “Make for us powers which will go before us. As for this man Moshe, who brought us up from Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.” And I said to them, “Whoever has gold, rip it off and give it to me.” Then I cast it into the fire, and this calf emerged. (Shemos 32:22-24)Then I cast it into the fire  — and I didn’t know that this calf would emerge. (Rashi loc. cit.)

This episode is particularly enigmatic; apart from the general problems, why did Aharon throw the gold into the fire in the first place? It seems hardly excusable to have involved himself at all.

THE REAL PROBLEM

To answer this, we need to closely examine the root cause of klal Yisrael‘s original demand for the calf. We may assume that Aharon penetrated the depths of their consciousness and responded accordingly. Aharon realized that the problem was caused by the absence of Moshe. Perhaps the greatest achievement of Moshe was to keep the klal as a unified entity, preventing it from splitting into factions. There was no internal unity within klal Yisrael until after they crossed the Jordan and entered the land. Before that time, they needed a man of Moshe’s stature and immense spirituality to guide them through their collective experiences and to ensure that no selfish interest took control of the people. His loss, however temporary, threw the nascent nation into disarray. They rapidly became a rabble of individuals, rather than a cohesive unit. They had managed to hold themselves together for the forty days during which Moshe had promised to be absent, but now, when they thought that the time had elapsed and that he was gone forever, their ability to continue without a unified force collapsed.

Aharon, as Moshe’s surrogate, had to address this issue when the confused and bereft people stood before him to request an alternative leadership. Aharon assumed that if he could tackle the problem at its root, then the spurious demands, of which it was symptomatic, would disappear. They would be comforted by some alternative means of unifying them and would return to their homes to await what he knew to be Moshe’s imminent arrival. Aharon attempted to effect this through a physical act — a community-wide project which would unify the people. So he asked them all to contribute gold, which he intended to melt into one large ingot. This, apart from involving them all in one activity, would symbolize the cure to their problem — each individual personality, represented by each item of jewelry, would be merged into one community, represented by the single ingot.

Hillel said, “Be one of the pupils of Aharon HaKohen — loving peace and pursuing peace, loving people and drawing them near to Torah.” (Avos 1:12)

Aharon’s role in the golden-calf episode was rather like that of an expert doctor, who, when attempting to heal a patient, looks at the cause of the illness and cures that. The symptoms will automatically disappear once the treatment has been successful.

WHAT WENT WRONG?

We now understand why Aharon allowed himself to become involved with the incident at all; he believed that he could solve the problem by making the ingot. But it all went horribly wrong, and, as we saw, the calf emerged from the fire, to Aharon’s complete surprise and undoubted horror. This disaster was caused by the involvement of the eirev rav — the so-called mixed multitude of non-Jewish hangers-on who joined klal Yisrael at the time of the Exodus. We have discussed before that when an alien item is added to a distinct group, the result is not the group plus the outsider but complete ruin for the group. This is what happened to Aharon’s plan. The eirev rav were not interested in the welfare of klal Yisrael and had no real fears about their ability to cope without Moshe; they were simply troublemakers, opportunists with their own agenda. This means that Aharon’s ingot was partially infused with their wicked intent, thus ruining the whole project. This allowed evil forces to rest on the gold, resulting in the eigel.

When the Torah describes the manufacture of the calf, we learn:

All the people ripped off the gold rings which were in their noses, and they brought them to Aharon. And he took from their hands… (Shemos 32:3-4)

This was the mistake that Aharon made — he took the gold directly from the hands of the troublemakers. This was infused with their wicked, self-oriented aims and was thus able to pervert the objective which Aharon had intended for it.

AHARON’S REWARD

Not only was Aharon not criticized for his role in the eigel, but he was actually rewarded, for he only got involved to delay them until Moshe came back. God said to him, “Aharon, I know your true intention. By your life, I shall set none other than you over the offerings of My children…” (Shemos Rabbah 37:2)

So we see that as a reward for his good intent Aharon was given the service in the Mishkan and, eventually, the Beis HaMikdash. Careful consideration will reveal that this great gift was middah keneged middah (measure for measure). The task of the kohen gadol, Aharon’s eventual role, is to unify the hearts and minds of klal Yisrael in their worship of God. Of course, this is just what he intended to achieve through his involvement in the eigel, for which God justly rewarded him for eternity.

Excerpted from Shem MiShmuel by the Sochatchover Rebbe, rendered into English by Rabbi Zvi Belovski, published by Targum Press. 

Accepting Ourselves
by Nesanel Yoel Safran

From This Week’s Torah Portion

In this week’s Torah portion we learn about the special mixture of incense spices that was used in the Tabernacle offerings. An interesting thing is that while most of the spices were very fragrant and pleasant smelling, one of them did not smell nice at all. Yet God told us that it was just as important to include that spice too, and without it, the offering didn’t count. This teaches us that we should accept and value parts of the Jewish People — and parts of ourselves — that might not seem to be so nice or pleasant.

In our story, a girl discovers that there is more to looking good than meets the eye.

As the kids were waiting in the lunch line, Dina, a popular girl and class clown, was doing her usual job of cracking joke after joke after joke, to help her classmates pass the time in line. She had all the kids rolling in the aisles — all except for ‘Serious Susan’ — the kid who never smiled.

The truth is that Susan really wasn’t as serious as everybody thought. In fact she loved a good joke and would have loved to laugh along with everybody, but what could she do? From the day that she first got her ugly braces, she had decided that nobody was going to see her gross teeth and that was it.

After she got her lunch tray, Susan sat down, making sure to keep far away from everyone else so that they wouldn’t see her teeth while she ate. She knew it made some of her classmates feel she was a little snobby, but it was still better than the humiliation of them seeing her smile, which to her looked like the bumper of a pick-up truck.

Susan had just taken her first bite, when she felt a tap on the arm. “Well I’m glad at least you didn’t throw a pie in my face!”

Huh? It was Dina.

“Yeah, I could see you didn’t like my little ‘show’ back in the line, so I came to give you your money back.”

Susan, wanted to laugh at the cute joke — but didn’t, of course.

“Oh please don’t feel hurt, Dina. I love your jokes,” she said.

“If you love them so much, how come you never laugh at them or even smile?”

Susan could see that Dina really cared, so she decided to share her secret. “You see, it’s my teeth. They just look so awful in these braces that I couldn’t bear anyone else seeing them.”

Dina nodded. “I hear you. I used to feel just like that about my ugly nose.”

Susan didn’t get it. As far as she could see, Dina was a perfectly fine looking kid, and everybody thought so.

“Thanks for the sympathy, Dina,” she said, “but please don’t joke about this. You know it’s not the same because there is nothing wrong with your nose. You look absolutely fine.”

“That’s only because I gave myself a ‘nose job.'”

“You mean you had an operation on your nose?” Susan asked in surprise.

“Well, yes and no. I just decided to stop letting the way I looked bother me, and start being myself, crooked nose and all. Then, when it stopped bothering me, it just seemed to stop bothering everyone else too. It was like I gave myself a nose job!”

“But Dina, your nose isn’t crooked!” protested Susan.

“Fooled you too, eh? Take a good look.”

She turned her head sideways and sure enough, Dina had a really crooked nose! Susan had never even noticed it before.

“See! And you can do the same thing with your teeth. Once you stop worrying about them, and just be your regular smiling self, braces or no braces, you’ll not only feel better — but look better too. So how about coming over and joining us? I promise not to make you crack up, unless of course you want to.”

Susan began to smile at Dina’s quip. She was about to stop herself as usual, but this time didn’t. It felt funny to show her teeth, but it also felt good. The two of them walked over to the table full of kids and sat down. The kids were a little surprised to see ‘Serious Susan’ join them. Dina began her usual comedy routine. Susan controlled herself for a while, but then when Dina shot a particularly funny look her way, she first smiled, then giggled, then burst into the biggest, warmest sunniest laugh her friends had ever seen.

The next day Susan had become one of the gang. A couple of kids had even said to her how great she looked.

“How you doing Smiling Susan?” quipped Dina from the line.

“Great, thanks to you — the joking dentist who helped me fix my teeth by accepting myself.”

Discussion Questions

Ages 3-5

Q. How did Susan feel about her teeth at first?
A. She didn’t like them, and felt like she had to hide them from everyone.

Ages 6-9

Q. What lesson did Susan learn that afternoon in the lunchroom?
A. Susan discovered that even if we have a part of ourselves that we don’t like, it doesn’t have to stop us from living normally and enjoying life, and that we can, and should accept ourselves — our whole selves — flaws and all.

Q. Why do you think Susan didn’t notice Dina’s crooked nose until she pointed it out?
A. . Dina’s nose didn’t magically straighten itself out. But she had developed such a healthy self-accepting attitude, and behaved in such an up-beat and positive way that it made her an attractive person, even if some of her features were less than perfect. It’s a powerful secret to know — that the more we accept ourselves, the more others will accept us too.

Ages 10 and Up

Q. Is anybody perfect?
A. Some people’s imperfections may be easier to spot than other’s, but we all have them. God put us in the world to perfect our character, so by definition each of us must have something about us that is not perfect. We shouldn’t compare ourselves to others nor let our imperfections get us down, because everyone has them and it’s just part of being human.

Q. Are we meant to accept our imperfections or try to change them?
A. It all depends on the circumstance. First we should determine whether it is something which is changeable or not. For example, someone with a physical flaw for which there is no treatment obviously has been given the challenge of developing an attitude of self-acceptance. On the other hand, someone who is in the habit of belittling others shouldn’t just say ‘that’s the way I am’, and accept that part of himself, rather should be actively seeking to change for the better.

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