פרשת כי-תשא תש"ד - חטא העגל

Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin—; and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written.’

ועתה אם תשא חטאתם YET NOW, IF THOU WILT FORGIVE THEIR SIN — well and good: then I do not suggest to You, “Blot me out [of Thy book], ואם אין מחני BUT IF NOT, BLOT ME OUT.” This is an elliptical sentence, the words “Well and good” being omitted; of such there are many in Scripture.

אם תשא חטאתם ואם אין מחני נא מספרך, regardless if You, G’d, will forgive their sins or will not forgive them, wipe out any merits I have accumulated in Your Book and transfer them to the credit balance of this people.

And now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee; behold, Mine angel shall go before thee; nevertheless in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.’

כי לא אעלה בקרבך BECAUSE I WILL NOT GO UP AMONG THEE, therefore I say to thee, I will send an angel before thee.

And now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee; behold, Mine angel shall go before thee; nevertheless in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.’

וביום פקדי וגו׳ AND IN THE DAY WHEN I VISIT [I WILL VISIT THEIR SIN UPON THEM] — At present I listen to you and will refrain from consuming them all at once — but ever and ever throughout the ages, when I am visiting them for their sins I shall visit them at the same time for a little of this sin in addition to their other sins for which I am then punishing them. Indeed no punishment ever comes upon Israel in which there is not part payment for the sin of the golden calf (cf. Sanhedrin 102a).

And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned; and no man did put on him his ornaments.

And the LORD said unto Moses: ‘Say unto the children of Israel: Ye are a stiffnecked people; if I go up into the midst of thee for one moment, I shall consume thee; therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.’

And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from mount Horeb onward.

And the Sages have an accepted tradition that five seeds in a six-handbreadth space do not draw sustenance from one another. The Gemara asks: And from where do we derive that when the Sages have an accepted tradition it is a substantial matter, meaning that the tradition is reliable? Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “You shall not cross your neighbor’s border, which they of the old times have set in your inheritance that you shall inherit” (Deuteronomy 19:14)? It means that you shall not cross the border that the early generations set, establishing the parameters necessary for each plant. The Gemara asks: What is the meaning of the phrase: The early generations set? Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said that Rabbi Yonatan said: What is the meaning of that which was written: “These are the sons of Seir the Horite who inhabit the land, Lotan and Shoval and Zibeon and Ana” (Genesis 36:20)? And is everyone else inhabitants of the heavens, that it was necessary for the verse to emphasize that these inhabit the land? Rather, it means that they were experts in the settlement of the land, as they would say: This tract of land that is the full length of a rod is fit for olive trees; this full length of a rod is fit for grapes, this full length of a rod is fit for figs. And the members of this tribe were called Horites [ḥori] since they smelled [heriḥu] the earth to determine what is fit to be grown there. The allusion is based on a transposition of the letters ḥet and reish. And in explanation of why the early inhabitants of Seir were called Hivites [ḥivi] (see Genesis 36:2), Rav Pappa said: Because they would taste the earth like a snake [ḥivya] and determine what should be grown there according to the taste. Rav Aḥa bar Ya’akov said that they were called Horites [ḥori] because they became free [benei ḥorin] of their possessions when the children of Esau drove them from their lands. Their primary name was actually Hivites. With regard to the halakha itself, Rav Asi said: The garden bed in the mishna whose area is six by six handbreadths is one whose internal area is six by six handbreadths excluding the area of its boundaries, which must be added to the total area. That was also taught in a baraita: The internal area of a garden bed is six by six handbreadths. The Gemara asks: How much is the size of its boundaries? The Gemara answers, as we learned in a mishna that Rabbi Yehuda says: The width of the border is like the width of a foot. And Rabbi Zeira said, and some say it was Rabbi Ḥanina bar Pappa who said: What is the reason for the statement of Rabbi Yehuda? As it is written: “And you water it with your foot like a garden of herbs” (Deuteronomy 11:10), meaning that just as one’s foot is a handbreadth wide, so too, the boundary between garden beds where one walks to water plants is also a handbreadth wide. Rav said: When we learned in the mishna that one may plant five kinds of seeds within a garden bed without violating the prohibition of diverse kinds, we learned this with regard to a garden bed in a desolate area not surrounded by other plants. However, if the garden bed is among other garden beds, it is prohibited to plant that many species there because seeds from the different beds will intermingle. The Gemara asks: If the mishna is dealing with a solitary garden bed, isn’t there space in the corners, where more species of seeds could be planted without encountering the prohibition of diverse seeds? The school of Rav taught in the name of Rav: Rav’s statement is referring to a case where one fills the corners of the flowerbed with the five species of seeds, leaving no room in the corners for other varieties. The Gemara asks: And let him plant on the outside and not fill up the inside, to increase the different seed types instead of filling up the corners.

עדיו, a type of jewelry; they had removed it as a sign of mourning for their demotion, as the Torah writes when stating ויתאבלו, “they practiced mourning.” ולא שתו איש עדיו עליו, seeing G’d had told them in verse five to remove such jewelry. [Some people had not seen fit to do this voluntarily. Ed.]

ועתה הורד עדיך מעליך, this spiritual preparedness which you attained at the revelation is something that G’d does not unilaterally remove from the people as we have a rule that gifts are not revoked without the consent of the recipient. Our sages have phrased it thus in Taanit 25 (where the golden leg miraculously given to Rabbi Chanina was taken back only after he had prayed for it to revert to where it came from.)

And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned; and no man did put on him his ornaments.