The Darkest Day in the History of Judaism?

This week’s Torah reading of Ki Tissa (Exodus 30:11-34:35) is built around the story of the sin of the Golden Calf, which represents either the heart of darkness or an inspirational example of childrearing through trial and error. I once compared the relationship between the Almighty and Moses with that of a comedy team in which Moses plays the straight man. Here, however, they seem not so much a comic duo as a married couple who, when they have to discuss something in considerable depth, leave the children in the care of Uncle Aaron.

But let’s start at the beginning. The parashah, which takes place not long after the revelation at Sinai, starts with a census-cum-poll tax to fund the service of the meeting tent, the proto-Temple whose construction has been described in the previous chapters:

The rich shall not add and the poor not detract from the half-shekel in giving the Lord’s donation
To atone for your lives. You’ll take the atonement money From the children of Israel
And put it toward the service of the meeting tent.