parshat Ki Tisa

Purim, with its central mitzva of reading Megillat Esther, finds us in the midst of our preparations to read Parashat Ki Tisa. This prompts me to look for overlapping themes. I have always been fascinated by the Jewish people’s change in fortune with Mordechai and Esther’s ascendance to prominence and the fall of Haman. Despite Achashveirosh’s sudden good will toward the Jews, he presented Mordechai and Esther with a frightening refusal. He claimed that he was incapable of rescinding his/Haman’s orders to have the Jews killed. He just allowed them to write new letters – that do not contradict the first ones (see Malbim, Esther 8:8). The letter that Mordechai sent simply allowed the Jews to actively defend themselves. It did not even command local officials to side with them (Esther 8:11), as indeed they had been told previously to take part in the murder. Why should we think that the Jews would have the upper hand in the fighting that transpired?

There are many basic questions to consider when analyzing the sin of the Golden Calf. How is it that Bnei Yisrael changed their approach so quickly when Moshe came down from the mountain? After all, when Chur rebuked the people, they killed him (Sanhedrin 7a), and here Moshe destroyed their idol and enlisted the Tribe of Levi to fight the sinners without opposition!