Ask two marketing professionals what’s more important – the current sales pitch or the overall strategy – and you’ll likely get two different answers.
Ask a couple coaches what’s more important – the play in progress or the game plan – and you might receive conflicting opinions.
The argument can be made that the most important moment is the one presently at stake. If this goes well, everything else will follow. If I lose focus now, the whole deck of cards may collapse. Laser-like attention is necessary to achieve success.
On the other hand, taken from a broader view, this is only one act of many; one cog in the wheel. Yes, each play is vital – but you don’t really win a game in one play. The game is but a sum of the parts.
So, which is superior – the parts or the sum?
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In this week’s parsha, Ki Tisa, we read about one of the most disgraceful acts in Jewish history, the sin of the Golden Calf. Moshe, seeing this treasonous act, broke the Tablets that he had just received from the Almighty.
If the Jews were undeserving of receiving the Tablets, why didn’t Moshe put them aside or simply put a large “return to sender” label on them? Why shatter the handiwork of G-d?
We can’t simply chalk it up to a weak moment or rage, because G-d later thanks Moshe for breaking the Tablets. Apparently, there was something positive about breaking the Tablets.
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Our Sages teach that when G-d eventually forgave the Jewish people and gave them a second set of Tablets, he consoled Moshe about breaking the first ones. Essentially, Hashem said, “Don’t worry. The second Tablets are superior because with them I will also teach you the details and mysteries of the Torah.”
So, breaking the original Tablets led to a greater revelation of knowledge that was invested in the second Tablets.
Indeed, this explains how the second time around was superior to the first. But, it still doesn’t explain why we needed new Tablets. Moshe still could have put them aside and – when the Jews repented – dust them off from storage for proper use. Why break the originals?
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The Talmud teaches that at Sinai G-d said all Ten Commandments at once. The Jews couldn’t comprehend it, so Moshe repeated each commandment individually.
If Hashem knew that humans can’t understand simultaneous, overlaid speech, why bother?
One of the great mystics explained that Hashem intentionally said it all at once to teach us an important facet of the Torah. G-d was teaching that the Torah is not merely the sum of many parts. Rather it is a singular entity.
Sure, there are specifics. But, they all stem from – and relate to – an overarching oneness.
Taken from this view, when the Jewish people worshiped the Golden Calf they automatically divorced themselves from the entirety of the Torah. By destroying one tree, the very notion of a forest was uprooted.
Moshe, seeing the Jews as completely severed from Torah, disposed of it. It no longer had any relevance to the Jewish people.
When the Jewish people returned to G-d, they were once again worthy of receiving the Torah. But, this time it was seen from a different approach. It was the sum of many parts. They were able to overcome the dichotomy of a fragmented world and find G-d within it. They observed all the trees and found themselves in a forest.
Now, they were worthy and prepared to receive the Second Tablets – with all the layers and secrets of the law.
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It’s not accidental that the Torah was given in this two-step fashion. In fact it’s as providential as can be.
It imbues us with the ability to see Torah – and indeed all of G-d’s ‘messaging’ – through two lenses.
Hashem is everywhere. In the big picture and in the fine details. Now, go find Him.