Table Talk

As this parasha begins, Moses is already up on Mount Sinai to get the Ten Commandments. He told the people that he would be back in 40 days. Moses intended for them not to count the first day but they did. On the 40th day, Moses did not appear and they were scared that he would never come back. They didn't know that they had miscounted and were very impatient. If they had waited one more day Moses would have came down the mountain and given them the tablets. They panicked and forced Moses’ brother, Aron to make them an idol to communicate with God. They started to collect gold and jewelry from the people to make a golden calf.

The next day they declared a festival and the people offered sacrifices and they danced around the calf which was not only wrong, but also violated the second of the Ten Commandments which says, “Don’t bow down to idols.”

On the mountain, God told Moses that the Israelites turned their backs on the laws and that God will destroy them. Moses plead to God to remember the promise he made to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov and to forgive the people. God agreed, and Moses came down from the mountain and saw the people dancing and worshiping the golden calf. Moses got so angry that he smashed the tablets and they broke into pieces. 

Moses plead for forgiveness from God once again. This time God told Moses to carve the tablets with his own hands. God eventually forgave the Jewish people for their big mistake.

We learn from this parasha that you should always be forgiving and give people second chances. We also learn that in life, you need to have patience. If the Jewish people just had a little bit more patience,  none of these things would have occurred.

We can relate to this in our own lives. One time I didn't say the nicest thing to my friend and we ended up getting into a big fight. I realized that I was wrong and so I asked for forgiveness. He accepted my apology, and since then we have been super close friends.

I learned two things from this situation with my friend that we can also learn from the parasha. One - it’s important to give people second chances because sometimes people learn from their mistakes and you never know what can happen - maybe you can make up and have a good relationship afterwards.

Second - think before you say things because you may not have meant to be mean but maybe the other person will be upset about how you expressed it. This is like what Moses did in our parasha - if he had been careful about telling the people exactly when he would come down, then this story would have a happy ending. 

One time, I was ignoring one of my close friends that I knew for a long time. Instead of hanging out with him I ignored him everyday and spent time with my other friends. After a while I realized that I was being rude to him and he was getting upset so I went up to him and said, “I’m very sorry that I was ignoring you and not hanging out with you. Do you want to come to my house on Sunday?” He said he would forgive me and that he wanted to come over. I was really glad he gave me a second chance to be a good friend.

After that I learned that it’s important to give people a second chance because it only helped our relationship as friends. Just like God forgave the Jewish people, and just like my friend forgave me, we should always be forgiving and give people a second chance. 

Thank you and Shabbat Shalom!