Parsha Paragraphs
Rabbi Naftali Kassorla
Parshat Ki Tisa 5778
A Stiffnecked People
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ר׳ אלחנן יעקב בן מו״ח ר׳ שמואל פנחס ז״ל
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This week's parsha features one of the most famous and dark episodes in Jewish history: The sin of the Golden Calf, leaving a deep and lasting mark on the future of our Nation. G-d initially desires to wipe out the nation, but relents, after the pleading of Moshe on their
behalf: וַיֹּ֡אמֶר אִם־נָא֩ מָצָ֨אתִי חֵ֤ן בְּעֵינֶ֙יךָ֙ אֲדֹנָ֔י יֵֽלֶךְ־נָ֥א אֲדֹנָ֖י בְּקִרְבֵּ֑נוּ כִּ֤י עַם־קְשֵׁה־עֹ֙רֶף֙ ה֔וּא וְסָלַחְתָּ֛ לַעֲוֹנֵ֥נוּ וּלְחַטָּאתֵ֖נוּ וּנְחַלְתָּֽנוּ – If I have gained Your favor, O Lord, pray, let the Lord go in our midst, even though this is a stiffnecked people. Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your own! (Shemot 34:9)
The Torah tells us that the Jewish people are an עם קשה עורף, commonly translated as “a stiff necked people.” However, while that may be the literal english translation, it falls short of the true meaning behind this deep description of our people.
The Malbim (ibid.) quotes the famous French Jewish Philosopher, Rav Levi Ben Gerson (commonly known as the Ralbag), who expounds upon this idea and offers a window into the the spiritual makeup of our People.
The Ralbag says that really, this attribute of the Jewish people is best understood as being skeptical and discerning. We are generally not willing to take anything at face value; rather we have an innate drive to question, investigate and understand things further.
However, says the Ralbag, once we have done a proper investigation and are “convinced,” our acceptance is iron-clad, and nothing will turn us away from the truth. Certainly no argument can convince us otherwise, but even more so – no threat of expulsion, no pogrom, no sword or gun barrel will ever take us away from the truth that we have ingrained in our collective bones. This is the “stiffneckedness” of the Jewish People. We stubbornly cling to what we have determined is the truth.
No other time was this was so clearly displayed as when Jews – faced with the stark reality of evil and depravity – were forced to march to the gas chambers. Knowing that they were walking to their deaths, they sang the traditional song of אני מאמין, declaring their unending faith and dedication to their G-d and their traditions. Such devotion can only come from the powerful knowledge that we intuit in the deepest recesses of our hearts. In the face of such evil, they showed that truth prevails.
While this middah can get us into trouble, and may cause us to be obstinate when we do wrong, nonetheless, Moshe argues on behalf of Klal Yisrael that Hashem should spare us in the very merit of this trait! This is an example of the complicated nature of personality traits; for sometimes the positive and negative can be bound together – forming the wondrous complexity of the human spirit.
I once heard someone speak derogatorily about a certain Torah Gadol of the past, a Gadol to whom we owe almost our entire Torah. He was critiquing this Rabbi for “being so stubborn to the extent that he thought everyone else was stubborn”! Aside from the obvious disrespect to the Gadol, this person totally missed the boat regarding the greatness of this particular Rosh Yeshiva. It was precisely because he was so stubborn that he was able to accomplish so much; This Rosh Yeshiva – facing a post-holocaust world that was apathetic to Torah scholarship – needed to be stubborn to stick to his principles to be able to imagine building and instilling the values that he received from his teachers to the next generation. The very critique was this Rabbi’s praise! (And while our own “stiffneckedness” and “stubbornness” can be utilized for the good, we certainly cannot let it disallow us from seeing the complexity and positive nature of another’s traits.)
May we be zoche to learn how to utilize the best of our talents and traits in the serving Hashem.
Shabbat Shalom
