The Beauty of Mystery - Ari Abramowitz (Parsha Ki Tisa): The Land of Israel Fellowship

Moses goes up the mountain he was supposed to be gone for 40 days and as he disappears up the mountain the nation begins and anxiety-filled countdown and when you're filled with anxiety and fear you don't see anything clearly and they miss count we'll skip all the details the bottom line is they miscount and being that they are so riddled with all of this fear and just filled with all this anxiety the moment that they're mistaken count ends they build an idol they built a golden cast and they and they declare this is chapter 32 verses one and then four and when the people saw the Moshe delayed to come down from the mount the people gather themselves together to Aaron and said to him up make us a God who shall go before us for as for this Moses the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt we know not what has become of him and he made it a molten calf and they said these Ellen these are your gods of Israel which brought you up out of the land of Egypt now let's look at the Hebrew of the first verse of chapter 32. the nation goes to Aaron and they say make us an Elohim that will go before us we don't know what happened to motion no we we can't go into the identities and the concepts behind the different names of Hashem in depth at each Fellowship it would just take up every single Fellowship so we're gonna have to rely on what we've taught in the past but the word Elohim has implication of a Divine conduit right or a channel through which Hashem manifests in the world but the sages take that word Elohim and they divided it up into two component parts which I've really never seen it divided that way before and it spoke to me in a really deep way you see the slide the word Elohim they teach consists of the word Ella which means these and me which means who one part these it's a declarative word Ella look these right here right here that's it right there and one part right is me the question me which is who it's an open and unanswered question these are the facets of God which can be demonstrated on some level they can be understood on some level you could have see right there Ellen this is your god oh is it whereas me right the rest of the word from Elohim me who is a question that our finite brains cannot possibly comprehend and understand it's not fathomable and it simply cannot be described so understanding this distinction can help us understand what was happening in the terrified hearts of the people they were simply overtaken by an emotion which you know after this week I could empathize I can empathize with it really in in a way that I never could before the people declare right Ella these Ella are your gods of Israel what was missing from that word me me who the question the mystery right the mystery that is beyond their comprehension they didn't want to have to deal with the fear and hopelessness and vulnerability that comes with relating to a god that they couldn't see which they couldn't perceive which they couldn't understand they wanted to have some semblance of control so they created Ella right these a God that they could control and that they could understand the sin of the people is that they gave into their deep desire to understand it all to remove the mystery and the questions and even the doubts about Hashem I remember Shane and I were in someone's house and the wife said she said I went out with my friend for coffee and she said you know do you ever wonder and I was like no no I don't wonder I just don't wonder I don't want to wonder right to the the nation wanted to remove the mystery and questions and even the doubts about Hashem to make Hashem something that they could understand and demonstrate and relate to with the set of rules and principles that was both comprehensible to them and also while they're at it why not why we're not making appealing to them as well because we know about the debauchery that was happening around this Golden Test they wanted a tangible accessible God that they could fully understand not a transient uh Transcendent invisible one that they couldn't understand and when Moshe descends the mountain right he's Furious and he shattered the the the luhots the uh the tablets and he Bellows out Mila Hashem Eli right what does that mean me the first word is me who who is on hashem's side come to me moshe's answer to their terrible but very human sin was to restore the meat the question the mystery the ineffable lack of understanding to the Ella so that which could be understood to make Elohim whole and complete and real again which is why is Robin again beautifully explains are you ready for this that the fixing of the sin of the golden calf the fixing of the sin of the golden calf is the Mitzvah of the red heifer which is the greatest and most extreme example of right a hook is a law that there is no rational explanation that we understand it needed to be a law like that that we cannot possibly understand that fixed the sin of the golden cast