Weekly Torah Portion – כִּי תִשָּׂא – Ki Tissa – When you take – Exodus 30:11 – 34:35; 1 Kings 18:1–39

While Moses seeks the absolute closeness of God on the mountain, the insecure people below flee into the tangible security of a substitute god. Yet it is precisely through the pain of the rupture and the breaking of the first tablets that a more mature faith emerges: a faith that no longer denies imperfection but uses it as the foundation for a deeper, more merciful connection. Why must crises and pain belong to a living faith?

Now the very thing that the entire preceding narrative has been pointing toward painfully comes to pass. The laws had been given, and the people had already declared with full conviction: “We will do and we will hear” (in Hebrew: Na’aseh veNishma).

And yet, suddenly a deep abyss opens up. Moses ascends the mountain. He enters a space of absolute closeness, of direct dialogue and spiritual depth with God. But the people remain below, filled with massive fears. What they then do stems...

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