Ki Tisa

 The ninth section of Exodus begins with God’s final instructions regarding the tabernacle and God tells Moses to take a census or count (in Hebrew, Tisha) of the adult Jewish males by collecting a half-shekel of silver from each man.

The silver collected was then used to purchase the sacrifices that were offered on behalf of the entire Jewish nation.

God then goes on to instruct Moses on how to make the water jars that the priests used to wash their hands and feet before serving in the tabernacle.

Instructions on how to make them, how to use the anointing oil and frankincense, who should be appointed to supervise the construction of the tabernacle and the making of its furniture and utensils.

All of this is followed by the story of the Golden Calf and its aftermath, then for the third time God calls Moses up to Mount Sinai for 40 days, during which time God reveals thirteen of His merciful attributes to Moses.

With these merciful attributes, God’s forgiveness would always be available. (the 10th, 11th and 12th attributes of Divine Mercy are that God can) forgive deliberate wrongs, wrongs committed out of rebellion and unintentional wrongs (sins) Exodus 34:7

The Hebrew word for “forgive” used in this verse literally means “to carry” or “to lift up”, based on this, Rabbi Yisrael Ba’al Shem Tov, the founder of Chasidism taught that God increases the Divine spark in the wrongdoing.

Nothing, even the greatest transgression, can happen unless it contains the Divine spark and when a person repents, God raises the Divine spark in his wrongdoing and returns it to its Divine source.

Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of the Chabad Movement of Chasidism, explains it this way: it is impossible to elevate the rank of an Action, the only proper remedy is to abandon the evil.

On the contrary, the desire to do evil can be diverted to doing good and when a person repents properly, we (humans) release the power of the desire to do evil and return it to its pure source.

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