Exodus 30:11 - 34:35
Moses is commanded to take a census of the Israelites with each person paying half a shekel as an offering to God. The money is to be used for the service of the Tent of Meeting.
God also tells Moses to make a copper washbowl and stand for the priests to use when they enter the Tent of Meeting, and to make a special oil for anointing the Tent, the Ark, Aaron, and his sons.
Bezalel and Ohaliab are made the chief artisans of the Tabernacle, the Ark, and the priestly vestments. Then Moses is told to remind the Israelites to keep the Sabbath forever as a sign of the covenant between God and the people. All this God says to Moses on Mount Sinai.
When God has finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, God gives Moses the two tablets on which are inscribed the laws.
But the people waiting below have been impatient because Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain. They ask Aaron to make them a god to lead them. Aaron takes the gold jewelry of the people and casts a Golden Calf. The next day, he declares a festival and the people offer sacrifices to the calf as they dance before it.
On the mountain, God tells Moses that the Israelites have turned away from the laws and that God will destroy them and make the descendants of Moses a great nation. Moses pleads with God to remember the promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and to spare the people. God agrees.
Then Moses descends from the mountain, and, in his anger at seeing the gold idol, smashes the tablets of the law.
After the people have been punished and have repented, Moses must again plead with God not to forsake the covenant. god tells Moses to carve two new tablets of stone for God to inscribe again with the words of the law.
Moses ascends Mount Sinai with the tablets and God appears to him in a cloud and renews the covenant with the Israelites. Moses remains on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights.
When Moses descends from Mount Sinai the second time, his face is radiant because he has spoken with god. The Israelites are frightened by the radiance. Because of this, Moses wears a veil over his face except when he is speaking to God or speaking God's words to the Israelites.
Synopsis courtesy of Teaching Torah by Sorel Goldberg Loeb and Barbara Binder Kadden
For your Shabbat table:
- The people knew that they were not supposed to worship idols, and yet, when Moses went up the mountain and was gone for a very long time, they built the Golden Calf. Why did they do something they knew was wrong?
- Bezalel and Oholiab are made the chief artisans of the people in this parsha. Not surprisingly, one of the most famous and prestigious art schools in all of Israel is the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. Where else do you see examples of Biblical names being used today? Why do you think we sometimes use biblical names even today in such a modern age?
- While many Jewish holy spaces (like synagogue sanctuaries) do not contain images of human beings, many do include a wide variety of artistic pieces - either through the architecture of the space, tapestries, pieces of arts, and even the ways in which we dress and adorn our Torah scrolls. Take a tour (or think about) your sacred space - in what ways does it include works of art? How do they enhance your prayer experience? (or does it enhance it - maybe it detracts from it)
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