Spirituality
DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS
TORAH PORT1
REAL REMBRANDT?
What The 'Golden Calf'
Reveals About Ourselves
Parshat Ki Tisa: Exodus 30:11-34:35;
I Kings 18:1-39.
T
his week's Torah portion, Ki
Tisa, contains the episode of
the Golden Calf.
While Moses was up on Mt. Sinai
receiving God's commandments, the
Jews were getting antsy. What was
taking Moses so long?
What could possibly be
going on?
Aaron, Moses' older
brother decided to help
the people feel better and
attempted to appease
the crowd. He asked the
people to bring him gold,
which they did. Then
Aaron took all of the gold
and cast it into a mold,
and made the gold into
a golden calf. And the
people began to worship in front
of the calf, bringing sacrifices and
offerings and they began to dance in
a rather salacious manner.
Moses descended from the moun-
tain, saw this idolatrous behavior
and smashed the tablets of the 10
Commandments. He blamed Aaron
for leading the Jewish people astray.
Aaron then retorted, telling Moses
that he asked the Jews to hand over
their gold and, in one of the great-
est biblical lines ever, "They gave it
to me, and I hurled it into the fire
... and out came this calf?' Aaron,
in essence, has refused to take any
responsibility for this turn of events.
We see in this story that our holy
text is peopled with characters who
have both great flaws and great
assets. Often times, their Achilles'
heels and their greatest assets are
two sides of the same coin.
Moses, Aaron and the Jewish
people had wonderful qualities that
could also be problematic if not
held in check. Aaron just wanted the
people to be happy. He was known
throughout the Jewish community
as a peacemaker. But, unchecked,
a person who pursues peace can
become the Neville Chamberlain
of his time, obtaining peace at any
price. Moses, who smashed the
tablets upon seeing the golden calf,
was filled with passion and a sense
of justice. But, when provoked, he
had a serious anger management
problem.
And the Jewish people are known
in this Torah portion as a stiff-
necked people, people who resisted
constantly being led and
didn't easily fall in line,
no matter how strong the
vision of our various lead-
ers has been. I'm remind-
ed of the complaint that
Chaim Weizmann, an
early president of Israel,
made before an American
Jewish audience: that
just because Israel was
a smaller country than
America, it was harder to
lead Israel's then 2 million
citizens because it was a country of
2 million presidents.
Yet that quality of being resistant
to leadership is also, on its good
days, a stubbornness, a resistance to
being annihilated and the survival
quality that allowed us to get to this
point.
None of us is perfect. The trick
is to keep the aspects of ourselves
in check. We can be both kind and,
at the same time, not be a push-
over. We can be sociable, but still
hard-working. We can be loving,
and insist that others treat us with
respect. Through reflection, friend-
ship and love of ourselves and oth-
ers, we can find the holy facets in
both our good and our not-so-good
qualities.
Visit Fakes, Forgeries and
Mysteries, sharpen your
sleuthing skills and decide
for yourself.
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Rembrandt's Son, Titus, about 1880, oil on canvas. Imitator of Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn.
Formerly Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-69). Collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts.
This exhibition has been organized by
the Detroit Institute of Arts. Generous
support has been provided by Chase.
Additional support has been provided
by the Michigan Council for Arts and
Cultural Affairs, National Endowment
for the Arts, and the City of Detroit.
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February 17 • 2011
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