Ki Tisa

📜 The Story

Parshat Ki Tisa opens with a special mitzvah: when counting the people of Israel, each person gives a half shekel coin, no more and no less, rich and poor equally. This way the nation is counted without causing any harm.

God then commands the making of the copper laver for the priests to wash, the special anointing oil, and the incense burned in the Mishkan. God chooses Betzalel son of Uri and Oholiav, filling them with a spirit of wisdom and understanding to build the beautiful Mishkan and its vessels. God also reminds the people again to keep Shabbat, a holy day of rest that stands forever as a sign between God and the people of Israel.

Moshe goes up Mount Sinai and receives the two Tablets of the Covenant, written by the finger of God, after forty days and forty nights without food or water. But while Moshe is on the mountain, some of the people, thinking he is not coming back, sin by making the golden calf and bowing down to it.

When Moshe comes down and sees the calf, he becomes very angry and breaks the tablets. He punishes those who sinned, then prays and pleads before God to forgive the people and not destroy them. Moshe also asks to see God's glory, and God passes before him the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, words we still say today in prayers of forgiveness.

God forgives the people, and Moshe goes up Mount Sinai again for another forty days and receives a second set of tablets. When Moshe comes down this time, his face is shining with a special light, so bright that he wears a veil over his face when speaking with the people.