Ki Tissa

Ki Tissa – Elisha Ancselovitz

Elisha Ancselovits, ordained a dayyan by Yeshiva University, teaches a Critical Common Sense hermeneutic method of Halakhah at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, at Yeshivat Maale Gilboa of the Religious Kibbutz Movement, and periodically at the Midrasha of the secular kibbutz movement's Oranim College.  His students now teach variations of this method in several countries.

One G-d?

Living can be painful. Economies can collapse. Does it matter whether people believe in one G-d, multiple gods, or no G-d? Does it matter whether the Jews in this week’s Torah portion serve the G-d who speaks through Moses or the merely superior god of a pantheon who rides on a young bull (Exodus chapter 32)?

Let us begin answering this question by acknowledging that Jewish mysticism has included various imageries of a multi-personality G-d and that Jewish philosophy has included a G-d without a personality, and that some Jews have even believed in Satan’s free choice. More importantly, let us acknowledge that if G-d cared about correct theology for His own sake, G-d would no longer be good, as in one who acts for the sake of others. In other words, let us begin answering by acknowledging that theology cannot be important for its own sake.

If theology is not important for its own sake, our other option for understanding the problematic of idolatry is to examine what G-d in Tanach ultimately desires of humans (however we imagine that G-d), to discover the contra to idolatry. In answer to that question, we turn to the three explicit prophetic statements of G-d's desire. Each prophet states in oratorical parallelism that G-d desires goodness:

The first is: "He has told you, O man, what is good. And what does the Eternal requireof you other than to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your G-d?" (Micah 6:8)

The second is: "Let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me as the Eternal who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth. 
For these things I desire, declares the Eternal." (Jeremiah 9:24)

The third is: "For I desire kindness and not sacrifice Knowing [or Internalizing] G-d over burnt offerings." (Hoseah 6:6)

According to the prophets, the point is to live with one solitary G-d, an underlying source of reality that is Goodness and calls for Goodness. Sometimes we will find ourselves in a period of Revelation and we will hear and see G-d in thunder and lightning (Exodus 20:14). Sometimes, with a blink of an eye, we will feel ourselves abandoned in the desert, like the Israelites this week. Other times, we will find ourselves in a world of evil like Elijah the prophet, and we will not find G-d in powerful manifestations but rather in a thin silent voice:

"…Then a very strong - mountain and stone shattering before the Eternal - wind blew, but the Eternal was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Eternal was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire, there was a quiet, gentle sound." (1 Kings 19:12-13)

No matter what manifestation of G-d we experience and in whatever theological form, the Biblical commandment is to connect with and express the reality of Go[o]d[ness].