By Rabbi Joshua Dorsch
SAN DIEGO — In our Torah portion this week, Ki Tisa, Moses comes down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments. When he saw that the Israelites had built a golden calf in his absence, out of anger, he throws the tablets down to the ground smashing them into many pieces. But according to a Midrash, things may have happened a bit differently. The Midrash suggests that instead of smashing the tablets out of anger, Moses unintentionally dropped them. Seeing the Israelites with the golden calf was heartbreaking. So much so that he could no longer bear the weight of the heavy stones. They slipped out of his hands onto the floor, shattering into many pieces. According to the Midrash, Moses and the Israelites tried to put the pieces back together again, but they were broken beyond repair. Yet the Israelites recognized their holiness. Instead of leaving them on the floor in the desert, the broken pieces were put in the ark. They were carried by the Israelites through the desert, into the land of Israel, and remained with them wherever they went.
This has been an incredibly difficult week for the Tifereth Israel family. With Rabbi Rosenthal’s passing, many of us feel somewhat broken and beyond repair. But, like the tablets, we will continue to carry everything that Rabbi Rosenthal has taught us and the values he demonstrated, wherever we go. While we will never be the same again, we will continue to move forward together as a community, one guided by the ideals and the passion that he instilled in each of us.
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Rabbi Dorsch is spiritual leader of Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Diego. Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal, the emeritus spiritual leader, died earlier this month.