This week’s Parshah is famous for being the only Parshah since Moshe came on the scene that does not contain any mention of his name. Instead another leader takes the central rule – his brother Aharon. In fact throughout the forty years journey through the desert there was a dual leadership between Moshe and Aharon. In an unparalleled acceptance of each other’s unique role in guiding the Jews the Medresh point out how delighted they both were at each other’s position.
What were these two unique roles of leadership? Externally we can immediately notice several differences; Aharon being the High Preist had special clothes to wear – ‘for honour and splendour’. Nachmonodies explains that the clothes were befitting for royalty. The servants in ‘The King of Kings Palace’ had to dress accordingly. His place of work – the Tabernacle, was again a project that was surrounded by external beauty. In contrast to the ‘Kohen’ who is imbued with physicality the prophet lacks ornament. Secondly, unlike the priesthood which was passed from father to son automatically, the leadership of Moshe does not get automatically passed to his children. We also know that Aharon was primarily the man on the ground – involved in sustaining peace and harmony between the Yidden.
Symbolically the lineage of Aharon represents the connection with tradition and a sense of continuity passed through the generations. However the “rite and ritual” that made up the leadership role of Aharon are only as important and sacred as the meaning we ascribe to them. This is where Moshe’s role comes in. The role of the prophet is to provide the spiritual to the ritual! While Aharon primarily was involved in the action, Moshe was behind the scene providing the meaning and depth, taking motion and making e-motion!
Perhaps with this idea we can begin to understand (a bit) what happens in next week’s Parshah. The single event leading up to the Sin of the Golden Calf was the lack of Moshe, “for this man Moshe who brought us up from the land of Egypt – we do not know what became of him!” There was an imbalance in the leadership – only Aharon was present not Moshe. Symbolically there was just ritual – but nothing spiritual. It’s quite simple to see how from here how things went pear shaped – or rather calf shaped! The nation left with just mere rituals and rites, without a firm grounding to the reason behind them, veered off the way and developed a golden calf. It was a ritual with no meaning; an icon that didn’t have the correct significance behind it.
This idea, that Moshe represented the meaning behind our traditions fits in beautifully to an Ibn Ezra [1089–1164] who quotes “empty headed people” who pose the question, “What was Moshe doing all that time while up on the mountain for forty days and nights?” The question he says is based on a severe misunderstanding of Judaism. Let’s expound on the question a bit. In the world of action, of doing Mitzvahs and keeping Jewish traditions there is a finite amount of things that you can do. How many Lulav’s can you shake? How many pairs of Tefilin can you wear? If all being Jewish is doing the actions, then indeed there is a good question – what did Moshe do for all that time?
However when we understand that behind all our actions there is supposed to be meaning, we can understand what Moshe was doing. Colloquially we say that Moshe was “learning Torah for forty days and forty nights”. What we mean by this is that he was delving into the depth – the infinite depth that there is to the Torah and its commandments. In the world of meaning there are no end points, only actions are finite. Moshe as we have explained represented the meaning behind what we do – and this is exactly what he was practicing while up on Mount Sinai.
Ironically while Moshe was up there accepting from Hashem the meaning and depth to the Torah – the Jews were bereft of this idea and came up with ritual with no meaning!
May Shabbos be more than just a ritual this week – perhaps something spiritual!
Good Shabbos,
Yaakov