By Sophia Stepansky, National Ambassador of Education, New Jersey NCSY
Dear Abby,
Yesterday I told my best friend that I don’t want her to eat my food. But then when I looked for my chocolate today–lo and behold I found my best friend eating them!!! How can she breach my trust like this!? Especially when I told her just yesterday that I don’t want her to do that!
Sincerely,
Hurt
Dear Hurt,
I totally get where you are coming from, it really hurts. Your friend’s actions are not excused at all, but maybe it would help you to understand why your friend did it. Maybe your friend interpreted food as non-dessert items. Of course your friend is still wrong, but hopefully this can help you understand the motives.
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The Jewish nation just got commanded from G-d Himself to only believe in Him and not serve any other god. Yet in this week’s parsha we see the Jews violate G-d’s wish. How in the world could they do that when they heard the commandment straight from G-d just a few weeks ago!?
Clearly this generation of Jews was extremely holy to hear straight from G-d, but their crucial mistake was that they interpreted how to serve G-d on their own without any basis. They took matters in their own hand and decided this calf would help their service to G-d, but their decision really hindered their connection to G-d in the end because they chose not to listen to exactly what G-d said.
Many times in our lives we want to connect to G-d, but we need to make sure we are doing it in a way that G-d asked for, not in a way that we decided must be right.