A Thought on the Torah Reading of Shabbat
We read today (and on Shabbat Chol Ha'Moed Sukkot) how G-d
marked
the
forgiveness of Bnai Yisrael by allowing Moses to go back up
Mt.
Sinai and receive
a new set of commandments. But why do we read this section on
the
Shabbat Chol
Ha'moed (the Intermediate Shabbat) of both Pesach and Sukkot?
What
message
connects the reading to these holy and happy days?
The Israelites calamitously agreed to worship the Golden Calf
when
the memory of
their miraculous deliverance from slavery was still very
fresh.
Yet Moses' intercession
with the Divine saved them. G-d, playing the role of the hurt
and
angry parent, was
nonetheless persuaded to show mercy upon his children, the
People
of Israel. This
sort of behaviour is all too understandable: how often do we
suffer from the callous and
apparently thoughtless behaviour of various family members and
friends? Yet we often
forgive for the sake of family and friendship even when
conditions
don't seem to warrant
it. This is an example of chessed, of kindness that is
unmerited,
but the exercise of
which sustains the world.
Why should we forgive? Because the contrition of the wrongdoer
is
significant, tangible,
and demands our attention. The Israelites' sin was very great;
but
their contrition was
real. Given the fact that we are all too full of human
failings,
how can we not show
empathy for these errors and offer one more chance, especially
to
those we profess to
love?
The world is built not just on justice, but on kindness.
Sukkot
and Pesach are about
Divine and human kindness. Sukkot marks Divine Providence at
its
most manifest, as
farmers take in their crops thankful that the rains sufficed
for
growth, but did not lead
to floods. On Pesach, amidst Egyptian cruelty, we remember
those
many Egyptians--
like Pharoah's daughter and the midwives Shifra and Puah, who
heroically stood up to
genocide. If human justice does not follow the forms of Divine
justice--the state will be
unfit for dignified and safe life. But without chessed,
without
kindness that goes beyond
the norm, even the just state will only be defined by law and
lack
humanity. These
are the true characteristics of the simcha, the happiness that
marks both Pesach and
Sukkot, and explains why our Torah reading is so appropriate.
