Parshat Ki Tissa

One of my favorite things about  characters in the Torah is how they breakdown stereotypes.  I think that many people have the notion of a religious person as someone who does God’s will unquestioningly, and therefore they think that religion places a high value on the ability for a person not to question God.  In this week’s Parsha,  Moses does the opposite, and he teaches us a valuable lesson in the process.

After the Jewish people form a golden calf and worship it as a god, God is ready to destroy the Jewish people.  God tells Moses, “I have seen that this is a stiff-necked people…now let my anger blaze forth against them and I will destroy them and make from you a great nation” (Exodus 32: 9-10).  One might think that the truly religious person’s attitude when hearing such news would be to accept God’s decision without question.  But that is not what Moses does. 

Moses argues with God on the basis that it’s not a good plan saying, “Let not the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that He delivered them, only to kill them off in the mountains and annihilate them from the face of the earth’ ” (Exodus 32:12).  God listens to Moses, follows his advice, and does not destroy the Jewish people. 

Similarly, when God wanted to destroy Sodom, he told Abraham about his plans to do so.  Abraham also could not accept God’s decision without question, and Abraham argued with God that it would be unjust to do such a thing.  It happens to be that God decides to continue with his plan, where in the case in our Parsha God follows Moses’ advice and does not go through with the destruction of the Jewish people.  But the similarity between the two stories is that not only does God not get angry at Abraham and Moses for questioning God’s decision, God actually considers their points. 

I don’t think the lesson from this is that we should always question, disagree, or argue with God.  After all, we are not Moses or Abraham.  But I do think that these examples should challenge the perspective that it’s never ok to question, disagree, or argue with God.  When coming from a good place, not from a desire to disprove or defeat God, the process of challenging God can be sign of a deep emotional and personal relationship with God.  And, you never know, maybe God will listen.