Patience

Patience is a virtue. Unfortunately, it is not one possessed by many.
This week’s Parasha (Torah portion) teaches us the important lesson of the need to acquire that attribute as well as the disastrous outcome of impatience.

I am referring to the sin of the Golden Calf.

While Moshe is with G-d on mount Sinai where he spends forty days and forty nights, Am Yisrael is getting anxious, impatient and worries that Moshe is never coming back. They are afraid that they will have no leader to deliver them to Eretz Yisrael.

Can we blame them?

A wise person once wrote that patience hopefully comes with age and even then, it is not always easy to maintain or practice

Am Yisrael, lest we forget, is, at this stage, still in its infancy nation-wise. These former slaves became a nation merely a short while ago. They are uneducated, unversed in the art of freedom. They are lost, they are confused, and they feel hopeless. They are incapable of thinking independently, or taking their destiny in their own hands, not yet anyway. They want an answer here and now, an immediate gratification to their need, their hunger for security and for faith.

In order to make my point clearer, let me bring an example. Surely some of us remember or have witnessed the tantrum children throw when their parents leave them for even a short while, let alone for a long time. Imagine also that these young souls are under the care of a babysitter who is not very well versed in the skill of child rearing or does not possess the qualities of a leader and would thus do anything, at any cost to pacify or calm them down?

Now, if we transpose Moshe for “parent”, Am Yisrael for “the child” and “the babysitter” for Aaron, we can begin to grasp the difficulties that are unfolding in this Parasha. As it turns out, Aaron is not only an unqualified caretaker, he is a weak person and quickly caves in to the pressure that the forlorn Am Yisrael are applying.

Do not misunderstand me. I am not condoning the erection of the Golden Calf. I am merely trying to put myself in the place of all players in this Parasha. Would you, the reader, act differently to them? What would you do, had you been put in charge of overseeing such a rowdy impatient multitude?

G-d wishes to punish Am Yisrael. Moshe pleads with him to forgive them. G-d does. Am Yisrael, so it seems, learns the important lesson taught here.

Since then, we have come a long way. Patience and perseverance have been the key to our survival and ensuing success. They are the main ingredient that laces our Jewish optimism and unending determination to remain focused on our destined path, the one laid out for us at Mount Sinai. It has brought us to the Promised Land and will continue to guide us towards our ordained pervasiveness, the essence of our name, Yisrael, along the rocky road ahead of us.

Shabbat Shalom