Quick Thoughts on the Parsha

In Parshat Ki Tisa, Moshe famously asks to know Hashem’s ways. ועתה אם נא מצאתי חן בעיניך הודעני נא את דרכך ואדעך למען אמצא חן בעיניך, “And now, if I have found favor in Your eyes, let me know Your ways, so that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your eyes” (Shemot 33:13). This pasuk has a chiastic structure (A-B-B-A): Favor-->Knowing God-->Knowing God-->Favor. What are we meant to learn from this chiasm, which in translation seems repetitive and somewhat roundabout? Rashi teaches that one leads to the other, meaning that those who find favor in Hashem’s eyes are rewarded with knowing His ways. In our chiasm, this interpretation then underscores a cycle. Those who strive to serve God (i.e. ‘find favor’) will know God, and those who know God will strive to serve Him-- and this is a cycle that continues throughout our lives. We may have thought that life and service of Hashem were linear, moving from point A to point B. But in the moment when Moshe asks the question we all want to know the answer to, ‘What is God’s plan?’, we are taught this subtle yet powerful lesson of the chiasm. Life is not linear but cyclical. Questions do not always have final, singular answers. The way to know God’s ways is to engage in living them. From this lesson, we learn the necessity of continuing with resilience in the cycle instead of burning out just trying to get from point A to point B. We also learn the need to recognize that the cycle gives us a much larger perspective that reaches far beyond our present concerns, fears, and struggles. Finding favor in Hashem’s eyes is the way in which we truly know Him, and truly knowing Him requires that we live in a way that will find favor in His eyes.

-- Rabbanit Alissa