14th March 2025
Week of 09 January – 15 March 2025
Torah portion: Ex. 30:11-34:35 Haftarah: I Kings 18:1-39
The Parasha for this week is very rich in teaching. It reflects on several aspects of God’s perennial faithfulness to His people and at the same time the people’s weakness in maintaining their faithfulness to God.
The first part of the text is a continuation of the previous Parasha, in which the constituent elements of the people’s religious life are established, such as the altar, worship, and sacred things, with Shabbat as the central theme, as a perpetual covenant between God and the people of Israel. Once these instructions were completed, Moses received the two Tablets of the Law (the Torah) on the Mount, written with God’s own finger, definitively concretising the relationship between God and the people of Israel.
The entire context indicates the seriousness required of this relationship. It presupposes absalute and exclusive fidelity: the people are the particular people chosen among all peoples, however, on the other hand, God is the unique God who must be served, prayed to, honoured and the only one to whom one must base one’s life according to His orders.
The story continues with the great tragedy of the people’s infidelity. Having lost trust and in the absence of Moses who is before God on the mountain to receive the Torah, the people build the Golden Calf to worship it; a statue representing God. This fact shows the abysmal fall of the people before God. It is practically the total denial of the relationship established between God and His people. The people returned to their previous state of worshiping the god represented by the golden calf.
However, the Bible always presents a God who is just, who demands fidelity from His chosen ones; but, the God who is just is also merciful. He makes arrangements to enable the return of those who have strayed or distanced themselves from Him. In today’s Parasha, we have the figure of Moses who acts as a bridge between the people and God. On the one hand, he threatens the people, promising God’s punishment; on the other hand, Moses mediates so that the people are not annihilated or abandoned by God because of their grave fault.
I give a brief concluding commentary on this Parasha, written by Rashi (1040-1105), a Master and one of the greatest commentators of the Tradition of Israel. He teaches us that an apparently tragic account shows God’s great compassion towards his people: “The Lord said to Moses: Hew two tablets of stone, like the first ones…” (Ex 34, 1).
Rashi comments: “This can be compared to a King who went abroad and left his bride with his servers. The misconduct of the servers caused unfavourable rumours to spread about the bride. So the chaperone [the person appointed to defend the bride in case of trouble] stood up and tore up his marriage contract. He said, “If the king decides to kill her, I will say to him, ‘She is not yet your wife.’ “The King, when he returned, made a finding that the misconduct was on the part of the servants and therefore reconciled with his bride. His trusted servant who had torn up his marriage contract, and said to him: ‘Write her another marriage contract (Ketuba), since the first one was torn up!’ The King replied: ‘it was you who tore it! Buy a new parchment, and I will write on it with my own hand!’ This is what happened in this account (of the golden calf), in which the King is the Holy One Blessed is He and the servants are the wicked among the people. The good servant is Moses and the bride of the Holy One Blessed is He is Israel. That is why it is written ‘. “Hew two tablets of stone…”
May this profound teaching from the tradition of Israel inspire us Christians, during this time of Lent, to trust in God’s goodness and faithfulness to us and to return (do teshuva) to God.
This week’s Parasha Commentary was prepared by
Elio Passeto, NDS, Jerusalem–Israel, Director
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