July 31,2007-16 Av 5767
Details,Details!
Our Sidra talks about the small items that ordinary people overlook.
Moshe warns us that the little things can complicate our lives greatly and we must not dismiss their importance.For this reason the whole Torah portion focuses on two events that had serious consequences.
They were the sin of the Golden Calf and that of the spies. These two events caused the generation of the Exodus to be lost and for us to wander an additional 39 years in the Desert .
The immediate question is , these events were major confrontations against G-D and G-D’s directives. So how can you compare them with the small overlooked items?
The answer is that these major rebellions started out with slight
Deviations from the norm. In the case of the Calf, it started with the inquiry as to the whereabouts of Moshe after Moshe , who had been faithful in all that he had predicted,had already told them that he would be away for 40 days . Since Moshe had been accurate before
The people should have assumed that he would follow through.
Furthermore, immediately after the giving of the Ten Statements
At Sinai, the leaders came and asked Moshe to speak to G-D on their behalf as they feared that further contact with G-D would be beyond their capacities.
Now, even though G-D agreed with their request , it was still a small unnoticeable small item of deviance . Instead of being satisfied that
Moshe would be the one to speak with G-D , they should have requested to learn the secrets of Prophecy , so that they too, would one day be capable of what Moshe had achieved. Even if they could never reach that level ,they would be showing that G-D contact was important to them , not just as the source of rules.
Instead they remained satisfied with just learning the external element of the Torah without pursuing its’ essence which is-PROPHECY!
This seemingly small detail snowballed into the Golden Calf directly and indirectly.
(to be continued)