A Forgiving God: Ki Tissa.23

 A Forgiving God: Ki Tissa

By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman

March 7, 2023

Ki Tissa (“When you take a census,” Exodus 30:11-34:35) holds one of the most momentous events in the entire Torah.

The central incident it relates is the Israelites’ creating and worshipping a molten idol: the Golden Calf.

But Ki Tissa goes beyond this fall, this failure of faith. It illuminates a personal characteristic of God, getting us about as close to understanding God’s nature as we can actually get. 

The sin of the Golden Calf is beyond compare to anything else the Israelites had ever done. Moreover, it occurs only three short months after the Parting of the Red Sea, forty days after hearing God’s voice at Mount Sinai giving the Ten Commandments, at the exact moment that Moses comes down the holy mountain, carrying the Tablets of the Law inscribed by God’s own hand.

Could the Israelites have forgotten the Exodus in such a short time?

Or perhaps they sinned not in looking for a new God, but rather for a physical image of that God, one they were more familiar with, to worship and follow. Perhaps their capacity for believing in a God without form was just too far removed from them at this early stage of their spiritual journey.

Yet in Ki Tissa, we get so much more than just an image of God. We learn that God—a force, a law, that emanates from somewhere beyond our understanding and flows throughout all Creation—can execute a complete reversal.

We learn that God can reconsider and forgive.

Despite the grievous nature of the Israelites’ sin, in response to Moses’s pleas, God relents and forgives the people. Unlike any other physical force in Nature, God has a change of mind. God’s power to forgive is a major part of Jewish faith and belief. For otherwise, what would be the purpose of existence? Humanity is prone to making mistakes. If we couldn’t say “I’m sorry” and try again, if the full extent of our guilt were visited upon us, none of us would be here today.

In Ki Tissa we read that, after pleading with God on the top of Mount Sinai and gaining God’s promise to forgive the Israelites, Moses returns with a second set of Ten Commandments—written by his, Moses’s, own hand. The Rabbis teach that this took place on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. 

But along with God’s forgiveness, we also receive a warning. 

There will be consequences—as there always must be to every word we utter and ever deed we perform, for better or for worse. But ultimately, for just about every error and sin, atonement is possible.

Some might ask, can God’s power—expressed through the constant laws of nature and physics—turn and reverse itself? 

Perhaps the answer is that it isn’t God’s will that changes, but ours. Our choices lead us forward or backwards, towards Redemption or Downfall. And yet the great gift we receive in Ki Tissa is the opportunity to be forgiven—and to forgive ourselves and others. 

There will be consequences, that’s a given; and yet a second chance, a renewed possibility to move forward, is always possible. 

It’s really up to us. 

© 2023 by Boaz D. Heilman