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On the virtue of being slow

שעון חול

Translation by Yehoshua Siskin

This week's Torah portion brings a very relevant caution to our hectic and frenetic times in which we live.  The nation of Israel is waiting for Moshe Rabbeinu at the foot of Mount Sinai, but after forty days the people lose their patience. They lack the capacity to wait for the Ten Commandments and quickly prepare a substitute, a golden calf. The source of the sin of the golden calf is impatience, the desire to get everything right here, right now.

Rabbi Yaakov Galinksy was accustomed to say that in our days, too, sometimes "Moshe Rabbeinu is late." The Torah is not always immediately accessible or instantly understood. Eternal values are not necessarily transmitted at superhighway speed. Moshe Rabbeinu may not be the most "in the know" or up-to-date. He has no seductive magic charms. In contrast to the golden calf, he does not offer any tangible, glittery form of instant gratification. Instead, he demands that the people undergo a lengthy spiritual transformation.

From then until now, Rabbi Galinsky explained, Jews have been criticized for not living with the times, for not changing in order to fit into the prevailing culture. Perhaps all of us, too, should ask ourselves:  Are there instances when, due to our impatience, we would be likely to choose the golden calf over the Ten Commandments and opt for a temporary, fraudulent quick fix over a slow, long-term process of growth?

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