Words From Rabbi White

Ki Tissa'  5781

A point of Hebrew grammar, leading to a nice idea:

Our parasha begins with the words “ki tissa’”. It is usually accepted that every Hebrew verb has 3 root letters. The root of “tissa’” is clearly the 3 letters “nun,” “sin”, “‘aleph.” But what happened to the “nun”? It has disappeared, and assimilated into the “sin”. [So, you see, letters can assimilate, just like people!] All that remains of the “nun” is just a point in the middle of the letter “sin.”  That dot is called by grammarians a “dagesh hazaq.”

When I pointed this out to my son Yehoshua, he remarked: even though the letter has assimilated, but, as we say in Yiddish, the “pintle yid” remains.

What does that Yiddish expression mean?

Literally, it means “the little Jewish point.” That means, in every heart of every Jew, no matter how assimilated s/he may have become, there is that spark of Judaism, which just needs to be lit up.

This indeed is a fundamental idea among some hasidic rebbeim.

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We also read this weak about the golden calf. How could the people, right after having heard the 10 commandments, begin worshipping the golden calf, and claiming the it was that calf that took us out of Egypt? That’s hard to understand! And yet, I don’t want to draw parallels, but did you hear that supposedly sophisticated Americans, this past week, at the annual CPAC conference, had a golden statue of the former President. What does that imply? I leave it to your thoughts: a point to ponder.

I wish everyone a healthy, good Shabbat.