Ki Tisa

Parshat Ki Tisa is one of the most dramatic in the Five Books of Moses. It begins with the census of the people through the half-shekel offering, followed by instructions for the copper laver, the anointing oil and the sacred incense.

It reaches its climax with the sin of the Golden Calf. While Moses was on Sinai for forty days receiving the Torah, the people, thinking he would not return, pressed Aaron to make an idol. Coming down the mountain, Moses saw the scene and broke the Tablets, a sign that the covenant had been broken.

Moses pleaded courageously for the people, ready to have his own name erased rather than see them destroyed. The parshah ends with the renewal of the covenant: G-d tells Moses to carve new tablets and reveals to him the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, central to the prayers of the High Holidays.

The central lesson of Ki Tisa is the power of sincere teshuvah: even after the deepest fall, G-d accepted the people's return and renewed His covenant with Israel.