This week’s Torah portion is called Ki Tisa, and it contains within the eternally impactful story of the Golden Calf.
Moses has gone up on Mt Sinai to receive the Torah. He does not return to the Israelite camp on the day he is expected, and in their panic, the people create an idol. As Moshe descends the mountain, he sees the pagan celebration and drops the tablets upon which Gd had inscribed the Ten Commandments.
Gd proceeds to inform Moshe that the Jewish people will be destroyed and a new nation stemming from Moshe himself will take their place.
Despite the intense shock Moshe must have felt in that moment, he keeps focused on his mission. In the most extreme example of Azus d’Kedusha, holy brazenness, or holy chutzpah, Moshe demurs. He tells Gd that if the Jewish people will not be forgiven and indeed destroyed, he wants no part of it. In fact, he tells Gd to erase his name from The Book, the Torah itself.
In this statement, Moshe is willing to sacrifice it all for the Jewish people. That is true leadership.
Moshe is not focused on himself.
He regards his primary mission as a shepherd, corralling his charges and bringing them along the path.
It is a very big statement Moshe makes.
Gd does hear Moshe’s plea and forgives the Jewish people, but only thanks to Moshe’s intervention.
While Gd extends a reprieve, there is in fact a portion in which Moshe’s name is not mentioned. From the time of Moshe’s birth until his death, his name is mentioned in every Torah portion.
Except one.
Even though Gd is addressing him, Moshe’s name is not mentioned. That is because he did say he would be erased from the Book and that was a statement made by a righteous person, and a statement by a righteous person comes to pass.
That portion was last week.
Moshe’s name is not mentioned once in the Parsha of Tetzave. Even though the Parsha begins with the statement “and you (Moshe)shall command the Jewish people” his name is not used.
Leadership means that the needs of the group come before one’s own.

This week we will read the Torah portion called Ki Tisa.
It speaks of the travesty of the golden calf.
Let’s provide the context.
The Jewish people received the Ten Commandments.
All the Jewish people were present.
The only mass revelation in human history.
Gd spoke (so to speak) and everyone heard.
The experience is a sensory overload for the people.
Moses goes up Mt Sinai by himself to receive the Torah and it’s commandments.
Moses was on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights.
Just as he was about to return to the Israelite camp, Gd informs him that the Jewish people have created an idol in the form of a golden calf.
This was a horrifying piece of news.
Apparently the people had miscalculated the time of Moses reentry and when he tarried, they assumed the worst, that he would not be returning at all.
In their panic over the loss of their leader, they erected an idol and announced that this was the gd of Israel.
Gd informs Moses that this is a sin of epic proportions and the only solution was to destroy the Jewish people and begin again with a new people who would descend from Moses.
This is no idle threat.
When Gd had decided previously that the world was irredeemable, he let loose a flood, destroyed everything, and began again with Noah and his family.
There is dialogue that then takes place between Gd and Moses as Moses tries to advocate on behalf of the Jewish people and save them from destruction.
Gd says they are not worth saving because they are a stiff necked people.
That appellation is an odd one.
Why does it make the Jews worthy of destruction?
Having a stiff neck means you can’t look back.
A person who is proverbially stiff necked does not look back at the mistakes they have made and therefore cannot look from what is behind them.
If one cannot learn from mistakes, then one is doomed to repeat them.