Alright, this isn't a video, but it is a good lesson regardless... Rabbi Frand, from Torah.org, wrote the following:
http://www.torah.org/learning/ravfrand/
The People Did Not Mourn The Loss of Moshe RabbeinuParshas Ki Sisa contains the story of the grievous sin of making a Golden Calf. Whether or not the incident involved actual idolatry is a matter of discussion among the commentaries. However we explain this incident, it is certainly something that should not have occurred.
How did this come about? People became impatient. They saw that Moshe Rabbeinu was delayed in returning from the mountain. Rashi explains based on Chazal that everyone had in mind that Moshe Rabbeinu was supposed to come down at a certain time. When Moshe was late, the people started getting nervous.
To compound the problem, the Satan, through his powers, made there appear a tremendous sense of doom in the world. It became dark and cloudy -&nd ash; all to create the impression that Moshe Rabbeinu was dead. This is how it happened. The people were not just panicking for no reason. It was not just that Moshe was late. It was much direr than that. They actually thought he was dead: "This man Moshe –- we do not know what happened to him." They felt the world was teetering because of the demise of Moshe and they urgently felt the need for a new leader. The Calf was not supposed to be a deity – it was supposed to be their leader.
When Moshe finally did come down from Mt. Sinai, he saw the people dancing around the Golden Calf. Let us understand Moshe's reaction to this scene. This is transpiring mere hours after the nation "learned" that their leader was dead. Would it not be proper that there should have been some period of mourning for the loss of Moshe?
This was the man who took them out of Egypt. This was the man who could have stayed in the palace of Phara oh and not cared about his brethren. Should there not have been some period of mourning? Rather than mourning they are dancing around the Calf! They are having a party!
When the Almighty told Moshe that He was prepared to destroy the Jewish nation "and make you into a great nation", what would have been the normal reaction of any human being? "You bet! Right on! They deserve it – they are a bunch of ingrates who did not even have the decency to at least observe a period of mourning for me! These people are a lost cause."
What was Moshe's response? The Medrash Tanchuma sites his answer to the Almighty: Let a thousand like Moshe die rather than one finger nail be removed from Israel." This teaches that the leader of Israel, like Moshe, was so devoted to the nation that in spite of all the grief he just had from them, his concern for his people overweighed everything else.
There is only one type of relatio nship in the world that is comparable to this – the relationship between a parent and a child. Baruch Hashem, we should all have nachas from our children, but sometimes children can do things to their parents that are so insensitive, that are so hurtful, and yet time and time and time again the parent will look the other way and be interested in the welfare of the child. This was the relationship between Moshe Rabbeinu and Klal Yisrael – as the nursemaid carries the suckling child. Mothers have this tremendous capacity to take a lot of grief and a lot of aggravation and still be mothers.
This was not a job for Moshe. This was his people. Therefore, he was willing to overlook insult and injury. We see the same concept from a Ramban in this week's parsha. In response to Yehoshua's comment that he heard "the sound of war in the Camp", Moshe responded: "It is neither the sound of strength nor is it the sound of weakness; it is simply a so und that I hear." [Shmos 32:18]. The Ramban writes that Moshe Rabbeinu was attuned to the nuances of screaming. He could tell what types of screams were emerging from the camp. This was not the sound of war, this was something else. The Medrash Rabbah says that Moshe's statement was an implied criticism of his disciple. "Yehoshua, you are going to be the future leader of Israel. You must be able to discern the differences between the various cries (kolos) you hear."
Again, the mother-child relationship is an appropriate analog to this example. Until a baby begins to talk, it is often very frustrating for parents to try to determine what a baby wants when it starts crying. But experienced mothers who know their children for a certain time can distinguish between the various types of crying the baby does. This cry means the baby is hungry. This cry means the baby is in pain. This cry means the baby is wet. This cry means the baby is just generally irritable. To the average listener, the cry is upsetting but they have no idea what it means. A mother can discern the different types of crying. This is the type of leader Moshe Rabbeinu was. He could discern the different cries of the Children of Israel. Just as a mother has inexhaustible patience for her child, so too, Moshe had inexhaustible patience for Klal Yisrael.
Topic: Video Study for Parsha Ki Tisa : The Golden Calf.... Our bad... (Read 4085 times)