Timeless Torah

It was a time of high drama. The Israelites, a mere 40 days after declaring their loyalty at Sinai, made a Golden Calf. So Moses came down the mountain, smashed the Tablets, ground the idol to dust, and punished the wrongdoers. Re-climbing the mountain, he prayed for mercy. After G-d allowed Himself to be entreated, Moses made a strange appeal: “If I have found favor in your eyes, my L-rd…go among us, because [ki] it is a stiff-necked people, and forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”

The difficulty in the verse is self-evident. Moses cites the very attribute that G-d had previously given for wishing to obliterate the Jews: (“I have seen these people,” the L-rd said, “and they are stiff-necked. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn…and that I may destroy them.” How then can Moses invoke the people’s obstinacy as the very reason for G-d to maintain His presence among them? The commentators offer a variety of interpretations. Rashi reads the word ki as if; “If they are stiff-necked, then forgive them.” Ibn Ezra and Chizkuni translate it as although or despite the fact. Ramban takes a literalist approach: G-d is to go in their midst because they are a stiff-necked people.

For Ramban it is precisely the waywardness of Israel that requires the close attention of a forgiving G-d; like a rebellious child for whom the only cure is the attentive concern of a loving parent. Ramban’s comment anticipates the audacious prayer of the Chassidic master of Berditchev. “L-rd of the universe, I want to propose a deal. We have many sins. You have much forgiveness. Let us exchange our sins for Your forgiveness. And if You should say that this is not a fair exchange, my reply is: If we had no sins, what would You do with Your forgiveness?”

Perhaps this was Moses’ argument: Almighty G-d look upon this people with favor, because what is now their greatest vice will one day be their most heroic virtue. They are indeed obstinate. When they have every reason to thank You, they complain. Just weeks after hearing Your voice, they make a Golden Calf. But just as they are now stiff-necked in their disobedience, one day they will be equally stiff-necked in their loyalty. Nations will call on them to assimilate, but they will refuse. Religions will urge them to convert, but they will resist. They will suffer humiliation, persecution, even torture because of the name they bear, but they will stay true to Your Covenant and go to their deaths saying, “Ani maamin/I believe.” This is a people awesome in its obstinacy - and though now it is their failing, there will be times in the future when it will be their noblest strength. A midrash sounds a similar sentiment: Three things are undaunted: the dog among beasts, the cock among birds, and Israel among the nations. You might think that this is a negative attribute, but in fact it is praiseworthy.

We catch a glimpse of this unimaginable tenacity in the first recorded incident of nonviolent, civil disobedience which took place sometime around 40 C.E. The Roman emperor Caligula had proposed placing a statue of himself in the Temple in Jerusalem, and had sent the military leader Petronius to carry out the task. Josephus described the encounter between Petronius and the Jews: There came ten thousand Jews…to offer their petitions that he would not compel them to violate the law of their forefathers. “But if,” they said, “you are wholly resolved to bring the statue, then you must first kill us… For while we are alive we cannot permit such things as are forbidden by our law…”

When Petronius saw…their determination…and that there must be a great deal of bloodshed…Petronius said, “Will you then make war with Caesar, regardless of…your own weakness?” They replied, “We will not by any means make war with Caesar, but we will die before we see our laws transgressed.” Then they threw themselves down on their faces and stretched out their throats and said that they were ready to be slain. This they did for forty days, neglecting to till their soil, though this was the season of sowing…Faced with such heroic defiance on so large a scale, Petronius gave way. This episode was not unique. Indeed, the chronicles of Jewish history are full of stories of martyrdom. One episode recorded by the Jewish historian Shlomo ibn Verga (15th-16th century) concerns the Spanish expulsion: One of the boats was infested with the plague, and the captain put the passengers ashore at some uninhabited place. There most of them died of starvation, while some gathered up all their strength to set out on foot. There was one Jew among them who struggled on afoot together with his wife and two children. The wife grew faint and died…The husband carried his children until both he and they fainted from hunger. When he regained consciousness, he found that his two children had died.

In great grief he rose to his feet and said, “O Lord of the universe, You are doing a great deal that I might desert my faith. But know You of a certainty that - even against the will of Heaven - a Jew I am and a Jew I shall remain. And neither that which You have brought upon me nor that which You may yet bring upon me will be of any avail.”

Soon we will read about Haman’s desire for genocide against the Jews which was set into motion because, “Mordechai would not bow down.” Perchance it is our stiff neck that makes it difficult to bow down. Hence, at times, Jews found it hard to bow down to G-d - but they were certainly never willing to bow down to anything less. That is why, alone of all the many peoples who have entered the arena of history, Jews - even in exile, dispersed and everywhere a minority - never converted to the majority faith. Obstinate in their disbelief during much of the Biblical era, they became obstinate in their belief ever afterward. Faced with G-d’s presence, they disobeyed Him. Confronted with His absence, they stayed faithful to Him. That is the paradox of the stiff-necked people.

“So forgive them [ki] because they are a stiff-necked people,” said Moses, because the time will come when that stubbornness will be not a tragic failing, but a noble and defiant loyalty. And so it came to be.