Ki Tisa

📜 The Story

The parsha begins with a special mitzvah (commandment). When the people are counted, everyone gives a coin worth half a shekel. Rich people give the same as poor people, no more and no less. This way the people are counted without counting the people themselves.

God tells Moses to make a copper basin where the priests wash, a special oil for anointing, and incense to burn in the Tabernacle. God chooses Bezalel son of Uri and Oholiab to build the Tabernacle and everything in it, and fills them with wisdom and skill. God reminds the people again to keep Shabbat (the Sabbath), the holy day of rest. Shabbat is a sign between God and Israel forever.

Moses goes up Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights without food or water. There he receives the two Tablets with the Ten Commandments, written by God. But down below, some of the people think Moses is not coming back. They make a golden calf and bow down to it.

When Moses comes down and sees the calf, he is very angry, and he breaks the tablets. He punishes the people who sinned. Then he prays to God and begs Him to forgive the people. Moses also asks to see God's glory, and God teaches him the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy. We still say these words today when we ask God for forgiveness.

God forgives the people. Moses goes up the mountain for another forty days and comes back with a second set of tablets. This time, his face is shining with a special light. It is so bright that he covers his face with a veil when he talks to the people.