To Not Know - Parashat Ki Tisa, Exodus 30:11-34:35

by Rabbi Darren Kleinberg

When we read this week's Torah portion, we all find ourselves asking the same question. How - while standing at the foot of Mount Sinai, having just received the Ten Commandments, having crossed the Yam Suf and left Egypt in such a miraculous fashion - can the Jewish people build and worship the golden calf?

And not only build the golden calf, but also attribute their coming out of Egypt to that very object? (Exodus 32:4)

If we take a look at the text, we will see that the Jewish people give but one reason for the building of the golden calf. While the narrative of the Torah notes that the people realize that Moshe was delayed in coming down the mountain, the only words we read from the people themselves that give us any indication of their motivation for this act are "lo yadanu meh haya lo" - "We do not know what became of him." (32:1) The people "do not know" - it is in this that we learn what precipitated the building of the golden calf.

Each of us builds golden calves when we feel that we "do not know" - when we lack clarity. Idolatry is essentially a result of people's insecurity about their own limitations - their "not knowing." And so, in response to "not knowing," the people create a tangible god that they can point to, touch and identify - a god that they can "know." The Torah's view of idolatry can be equated with the desire to know.

Judaism's stance against idolatry is born of a desire for ambiguity - the knowledge that we cannot always "know." A Judaism that does not always claim "to know" is a Judaism that is humble. And it is this kind of Judaism that we should be striving for. Judaism acknowledges and embraces ambiguity and does not claim to have all of the answers.

One of the areas in which Orthodoxy has not lived up to the message of the golden calf is in the area of rabbinic authority.

One of the central ideological aspects of Orthodoxy has been the ideology of Da'as Torah. Da'as Torah is perhaps best defined in this statement attributed to Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan, the Hafetz Haim: "The person whose view (da'as) is the view of Torah (Da'as Torah) can solve all worldly problems, both specific and general. However, there is one condition attached. The Da'as Torah must be pure, without any interest of bias." The idea of Da'as Torah is that, for any given problem, there is a "Torah answer."

There is a political election taking place and you don't know who to vote for? Ask your rabbi.

You want to know where to give charity? Ask your rabbi.

You want to know who to marry? Ask your rabbi.

This is a model of Judaism that says, "We know." In this model of Judaism, that rabbi has become the golden calf.

One of the central tenets of Modern Orthodoxy is the humble rabbinate - a rabbinate that recognizes the limits of rabbinic authority. It is a rabbinate that takes the Talmudic dictum "Lamed lashoncha lomar, 'eini yode'a'" - "Teach your tongue to say, 'I don't know'" - very seriously. It is also a rabbinate that acknowledges that answers can be found elsewhere, that truth is found in many places.

When a rabbi casts an opinion on a subject, I submit that it should not represent the end of the conversation, but rather only the beginning. "To know" is not the supreme goal in Jewish life - and when it is, it becomes an object of idolatry."To not know" is the message of this week's parsha.