Ki Tisá - English

By Rabbi Guido Cohen

Asociación Israelita Montefiore Bogotá, Colombia.

This week’s Parashah contains, among other topics, one of the most well known episodes in the book of Shmot, the episode of the golden calf.  

This tale is so impressive and presents so many dilemmas, that many times we ignore the first verse that says, “When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain…”

In his commentary about Moses being so long in coming down, Rashi says, “Moses had told them he would be back within 40 days, in the first six hours of the day.  They thought the day he left to go up the mountain counted, while he referred to 40 full days, meaning the count would start at night.  Since he went up on the 7th of Sivan, the count began the next night and finished on the 17th of Tammuz.

But on the 16th of Tammuz, Satan came and created chaos in the world, by showing them darkness and having them fear Moses had died.”

Where does Rashi get that the people expected Moses to come down in the first six hours of the day? The word for “being so long” or “delayed” in Hebrew is ‘boshesh’, which can also be read as ‘be shesh’, at six.  

Punctuality was a virtue highlighted by the sages when Moses said, “at this hour tomorrow, I will bring hail upon the land”, and the Midrash teaches that it happened precisely 24 hours later, at the same time that he had said it.

In a similar way, when Abraham was called to offer his son on Mount Moriah, he wakes up early in the morning to be at the appointed spot at the exact time.  

Further along the line, rabbinical tradition also points out the importance of punctuality, especially regarding prayer and sacrifices.  A famous Talmudic dictum says, “avar zemano, batel korbano,” meaning if the time to bring a sacrifice is exceeded, that offering is lost.  Time in Jewish tradition was always meticulously taken care of.  Fifteen minutes late is already too late to recite the Shemah or to pray a certain prayer.  Maybe because of this, the most careful pious used to get up very early to pray at dawn.  

It is somewhat odd then, that with time we have strayed from this value and adopted the ‘JST’ (Jewish Standard Time, the time zone we generally go by).  Half an hour later than the appointed time is always OK among Jews.  

When Kabalat Shabbat is announced for 6:30, everybody knows it will begin at 6:45.  When a wedding invitation says 9, everyone knows they can arrive at 9:45 and still have a few minutes to check themselves in the mirror before the bride arrives.  It would seem that the virtue of punctuality cherished by our sages, has been relegated with time.  

A little over two years ago, I began serving in the Israelite Association of Montefiore, a community founded by German Jews at the end of the 1930s.  Even after 25 months, every now and again, I am still shocked when I arrive at 7:01 for Shacharit service and it has already begun. The ‘Yekkes’, famous for their meticulousness and their tuned ability to have the exact time, have still not lost the value of punctuality.  They consider it almost an offense to begin at 7:01 (or 6:59), if the service should begin at 7.  Even if it’s raining, if the town hall decreed a day with no cars, or if there is an important soccer match, services and activities begin at the scheduled time.  At first I thought this behavior was almost obsessive, but in time, I discovered the joy in this virtue, that even if we do not mention it often, punctuality is a millennial value in our tradition. To respect the appointed times, is to respect each other and our community.  Through this we show that the other’s time is precious to us, and that our commitment holds even if it means we need to rush a little.   

When I was a child, there was a fun show on TV called “Parker Lewis”.  One of the most emblematic phrases used by this group of teenagers was, “Gentlemen, let us synchronize our watches.”  In the spirit of this Parashah, and considering how grave Moses’ delay was I invite you to synchronize watches and to recover the value of punctuality in our communities.   

Shabbat shalom

Rabbi Guido Cohen