Parashat Ki Tisa, Exodus 30:11-34:35, Shabbat Parah*, Numbers 19:1-22

Leaders do not succeed in every undertaking; neither do plain folks.

Kermit Tyler lived a long and—one hopes—fulfilling life; he died at the end of February at age 96. In 1941 as a young lieutenant on his second day on the job in sunny Hawaii, he received word from a radar station about a large group of approaching aircraft:

"I knew the equipment was pretty new," Mr. Tyler said of the radar scope in an interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune long afterward. "In fact, the guy who was on the scope, who first detected the planes, it was the first time he'd ever sat at the scope. So I figured they were pretty green and had not had any opportunity to view a flight of B-17s coming in. Common sense said, Well, these are the B-17s. So I told them, 'Don’t worry about it.'"
…Gordon W. Prange, a historian who spent nearly four decades researching the Pearl Harbor events, wrote that the Army private who phoned the radar report to Lieutenant Tyler had "made one big mistake" by not stating that the screen showed more than 50 approaching planes.
Had he been given that information, "Tyler could scarcely have mistaken it for a flight of B-17s … Such a number would represent a good slice of the entire American inventory of this type of bomber."

Kermit Tyler, Player of a Fateful, if Minor, Role in Pearl Harbor Attack, Dies at 96, Richard Goldstein, New York Times, February 25, 2010

What a predicament for the young officer and the two army privates! How do you report such a new experience? How do you process it? It is inevitable that there are mistakes, misunderstandings, and even catastrophes. The tragedy of Pearl Harbor is written in history. The decision not to "worry about it" was an individual calamity that haunted one man throughout the decades of his life. Yet, given the burden placed upon him, he carried on. One would expect an investigation and perhaps even some disciplinary action. Nevertheless, the military placed its trust in Kermit Tyler, who went on to receive the Legion of Merit in the Pacific War and retired decades later having attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Mistakes, misunderstandings, and tragedy are interwoven in parashat Ki Tisa. Moses is up on Mount Sinai and has left Aaron and Hur in charge, telling the elders before he ascends Mount Sinai: "… You have Aaron and Hur with you; let anyone who has a legal matter approach them." (Exodus 24:14) Well, it's been forty days and the people approach Aaron in a panic:

"Come, make us a god who shall go before us, for that man Moses, who brought us from the land of Egypt — we do not know what has happened to him." Aaron said to them, "Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me." And all the people took off the gold rings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. This he took from them and cast in a mold, and made it into a molten calf. And they exclaimed, "This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!" When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron announced: "Tomorrow shall be a festival of the Lord!"

Exodus 32:1-6

Aaron the untested lieutenant is facing a circumstance that was unforeseen. Our sages used midrash to highlight the tension of the situation: Exodus Rabbah (41:7) makes a pun on the verse When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. Vayira (he saw) is understood as vayera (he feared). What was there for Aaron to fear? According to the midrash, the altar (mizbe'ach) implied that something, or someone, had been sacrificed (zebu'ach). That would have been his assistant, Hur. Hence, Aaron feared that, if he did not do what the people wanted, he would be killed.

Another explanation is that Aaron was trying to stall the process and calm the people until Moses returned, which explains his statement that "Tomorrow shall be a festival of the Lord!":

They were desirous of building an altar with him, but he would not allow them, saying: 'Allow me to build it by myself, for it is not befitting the respect due to the altar that another should build it.' Aaron's intention in this was to delay matters; he said to himself: 'By the time I build it all by myself Moses will come down.'

Exodus Rabbah 41:7, Soncino translation

The midrash goes on to say that Aaron did not foresee how the people would get out of control. The Golden Calf turned out to be new equipment that failed the test.

Aaron is not the only leader engulfed in chaos. The same midrashic source goes on to detail all types of obstacles that the sages imagined Moses faced: Since the people rebelled in his absence, it showed that his control had diminished. When God orders Moses to go back down and deal with what is happening, he is so distressed he doesn't know which way to go. Moses' very life is threatened by the ministering angels, who do not want the Torah to be taken out of heaven. (Exodus Rabbah 41 and 42, selections)

As the rabbinic narrative develops, Moses stands up for his people and pleads for them before God, preventing the complete destruction of the people. At the very end of the episode, Moses acknowledges the grievous offense committed by the people, pleading on their behalf despite the offense and putting himself on the line: Moses went back to the Lord and said, "Alas, this people is guilty of a great sin in making for themselves a god of gold. Now, if You will forgive their sin [well and good]; but if not, erase me from the record which You have written!" (Exodus 32:31-32)

Together, with God's guidance, Aaron and Moses stood up to the great Egyptian pharaoh. Now, separately and on their own, they each face new predicaments: Aaron was challenged by the people; Moses had to deal with the people and with God. Both faltered and tragedy ensued. The incident of the Golden Calf would always be a traumatic memory for the people of Israel. In the end, difficult lessons were learned and these two leaders went on to earn their traditional descriptions: Aaron, a man of peace, and Moses, our teacher.

Leaders do not succeed in every undertaking; neither do plain folks. The incident of the Golden Calf demonstrates that it is possible to rebound from crisis and even from failure. We all carry burdens of mistakes and failures; we can shape these events into lessons, but they need not define us.

Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Michal Shekel

*Shabbat Parah, the Shabbat of the Red Heifer, occurs after Purim and right before the Shabbat when the month of Nissan is announced. The special maftir reading (Numbers 19:1-22) describes the ritual of the red heifer whose ashes were combined with water and used to ritually purify an individual who had come into contact with a corpse. Only people who were ritually pure could partake of the paschal sacrifice. There is a similarity between the ritual of the red heifer and the ritual the children of Israel went through after the incident of the Golden Calf -but that comparison shall have to wait for another day!

Ongoing credit: Unless otherwise indicated, the English translation of the Torah used is the New Jewish Publication Society translation.