The two classic commentators on the Torah disagree as to the chronological exactness of the text. According to Nachmanidies, things are generally in chronological order; while Rashi disagrees. The order of the second half of the book of Exodus is a famous case in point. Nachmanidies argues that the command to build the Tabernacle came before the sin of the Golden Calf, while Rashi changes the textual order and postulates it came afterwards. This dispute leads directly to another concerning the ratification of the covenant described in the last section of Parshat Mishpatim. Again, Nachmanidies says that this took place as described in the text, after the Revelation at Sinai and the laws contained in the rest of that Parshah. Rashi, believes this took place before the Giving of the Torah. This allows him to explain that these laws were revealed to Moses during his first forty days on the mountain, while for Nachmanidies, following the textual order, Moses then received the instructions concerning the Tabernacle. This understanding of the dispute can lead us to the essence of the difference between the two approaches: what was the Golden Calf a rejection of, a rejection instinctively understood by Moses when he breaks the tablets of stone. For Nachmanidies, it is the idea of an incorporeal G-d. The people desire a physical fetish to worship. For this reason Moses obviates the command concerning the Tabernacle, which would merely turn into another fetish, taking the place of G-d. Only, after the repentance of the people does he return to the commandment of the Tabernacle, for which reason it is virtually repeated verbatim in the last two Parshiot of Exodus. For Rashi, on the other hand, the Tabernacle only comes after the Golden Calf. What Moses received on Mt Sinai was the laws in Mishpatim, and it was this covenant, the notion of obedience to the Torah, that the people rejected. For this reason the covenant contained in Mishpatim is again repeated almost verbatim in our Parshah, after the repentance of the people. These two approaches, of course, are both valuable. Both the rejection of the constraints of the Torah ,on the one hand, and turning of ritual into a mindless fetish, are dangers we must guard against, ones Moses understood only too well.

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Sidra Statistics

Parshat Ki-Tissah

·         has 139 verses ;

·         is the 9th in Exodus, 21st in the Torah

·         longest in Exodus, 9th longest in the Torah

·         has 4 pos + 5 neg = 9 mitzvot.