Parshat Ki Tissa

This week’s parashah, Ki Tissa, tells the story of the golden calf, and of the second tablets that Moshe brought down from Mount Sinai after having broken the first ones. The second tablets differed from the first in that Moshe wrote the second set with his own hands.

According to Rabbi Yitzhak Nissenbaum, God commanded Moshe to write the second tablets himself so that he would be less likely to break them again. We always take better care of that which we have a personal investment in. His point, more broadly, was that the the Torah that we hold most precious, that we carry with us in our hearts, is the Torah that we have made our own. We write that Torah when we put God’s call — a call deeper than lanaguage — into our own words.

That is what Jewish learning is really about. It is about making Torah truly ours. When we succeed, we experience its words as an expression of our deepest selves.

• Shabbat services at The New Shul are on Friday evenings from 6 to 7 pm, and on Saturday mornings from 9 am to 12 noon. The kiddush-lunch this Shabbat, February 27, is sponsored by the shul.
• Childcare is available from 10 am to noon on Shabbat mornings. Learning services for children this Shabbat are from 11 to 11:30 am.for toddlers and preschoolers, and from 11 to 11:45 am for grades 1 to 3.
• Minyanim during the week are on Sunday mornings at 9:30 am, Monday evenings at 7 pm, Wednesday mornings at 7 am and Wednesday evenings at 7 pm.