Parashat Ki Tisa 5768

There are inopportune moments when I find myself reaching for my Blackberry and instinctively rolling the trackwheel, reflexively scrolling through messages: times like family dinners, hikes in Griffith park, early mornings, to name a few. When I stop and realize what I am doing, I am instantly filled with regret. Why did I just do that?

This is not a new story (I know the Blackberry jokes!). But, I tell it anew this week as we read the Torah Portion, Ki Tissa. In this parashah, the Israelites, tired of waiting for Moses to return from Mount Sinai, construct a Golden Calf to worship.

This is a week for reflecting on idolatry.

One of the central mitzvot from our tradition is "You shall not bow down to idols." What is an idol in our contemporary context? At its core, an idol is a misused object. Most idols are not inherently sinful; they are inanimate, afterall. It is only when an object is misused by its creator/owner that it stops being a potentially sacred tool and becomes a destructive force.

There was nothing wrong with the calf until the Israelites started worshipping it. There was nothing wrong with my Blackberry until I became enslaved by it.

For me, each year, Ki Tissa is a check-in point. It is a time for me to reflect on my life and on my actions. This tends to be a relatively quick check-in. Not too deep or difficult to discern. I ask myself: "What am I 'worshipping' this year?"

In today's world, idols tend not to take the form of golden calves. They are much more illusive. They can look like computers or cell phones or even our work, or any other host of "shiny objects" that we find ourselves misusing. They are those things in our life that end up controlling us. They are those objects that instead of being means to good ends become destructive ends in and of themselves. It is not about the object, it is what we do with it.

Some weeks I experience Torah as a profound lesson. Some weeks the message is all too simple. This Shabbat, our tradition tells me: "Put the blackberry down and go back to living." What does it tell you?