The Weekly Sedra – Parshas Ki Sisa

The Rebbe says:

1. This week’s Haftorah discusses how Eliyahu Hanavi (Elijah the Prophet) was sent by Hashem to direct the Yidin (Jewish people) of Samaria back onto the righteous path so that the hunger in the land of Samaria would end.

When Eliyahu Hanavi arrives in Samaria he gathers all the Yidin, who were then serving the idol called “Bal”, and the non-Jewish prophets of the “Bal”, onto Mount Carmel and says, “How long will you dance on two sides?”

2. The Rebbe now questions Eliyahu Hanavi’s strategy:

Why did Eliyahu Hanavi say, “How long will you dance on two sides?”? Wouldn’t it have been better to say, “How long will you serve the Bal? It’s time for you to stop serving this idol and begin declaring that Hashem is G-d!”?

3. The Rebbe now explains how it is possible for Jewish people, who are “believers, the sons of believers”, to wind up serving idols at all, and then proceeds to answer the question:

The Rambam (Maimonides) writes that idol worship began from the mistaken notion that since the sun, the moon, and the stars, gives this world and all its inhabitants their sustenance; they deserve to be bowed to and served. In truth however, the sun, the moon, and the stars, do not deserve any honor because they are only “the axe in the hand of the wood chopper”; in other words, Hashem is really the One giving this world its sustenance, it only travels to this world through the sun, the moon, and the stars. Therefore, if a Jew honors and serves the sun, the moon, or the starts, he is in fact practicing idol worship and this is one of the worst possible sins.

At any rate, from the Rambam’s explanation we see that the only reason people served the sun, the moon and the stars, was for their own personal gain (according to their false understanding)- to receive sustenance and nourishment. Bearing this in mind we can understand how it is possible for a Jew to fall into the horrible sin of idol worship; the Jew does not truly believe in this idol, he only bows to it because he mistakenly thinks that he will receive more nourishment.

This is why the Jews during the times of Eliyahu Hanavi served the “Bal”.

4. Before understanding why Eliyahu Hanavi chose to say “How long will you dance on two sides?” we will first have to clearly understand the difference between outright idol worship and “dancing on two sides”. The Rebbe now explains the difference:

We have just explained that the idea of idol worship is when someone serves anything other than G-d while thinking that he will receive more livelihood and sustenance. However this is only the general idea. More specifically, there are two ways of idol worship. One way is “straight” idol worship, where a person honestly thinks that by him bowing to and serving this idol he will receive sustenance. The second way is “dancing on two sides”, where one has doubt whether he receives his sustenance from G-d or from the idols. Another possible version of “dancing on two sides” is when a person thinks that Hashem and this idol are partners (Heaven Forbid) in sending nourishment to the world. And of course believing in a partnership type of idol worship or having a doubt whether Hashem is the true G-d or (Heaven Forbid) some idol is a grave sin as well.

5. The Rebbe now explains how “dancing on two sides” is actually worse than outright idol worship:

Even though someone who serves idols has totally gone astray and completely denies G-d’s existence, someone who “dances on two sides” is worse off with regards to Teshuvah (repentance), for two reasons:

Reason one: Someone who exclusively served idols will feel horrible when he finally catches on and realizes that he had made a bitter mistake in denying G-d’s existence until then, and this will lead him to a full Teshuvah. However one who was “dancing on two sides” will never fully appreciate how grave a sin he was doing until now because he always believed in the existence of G-d and therefore he will not have a broken heart (which is the motivation for Teshuvah), and will not do a full Teshuvah.

Reason two: Someone who solely serves idols is totally lost however it is possible that he is sensitive towards spirituality, he just made a big mistake about where the truth lies. On the other hand someone who “dances on both sides” does not only discredit G-d’s true being, he has no feeling whatsoever for spirituality; he was willing to bow to idols even though he knew G-d existed just so that he could receive more physical sustenance (according to his mistaken belief). Therefore, when a “straight” idol worshipper realizes that he has been making a mistake he will do an honest Teshuvah because he is sensitive towards spirituality. However someone who was “dancing on two sides” will never do a full Teshuvah because he only cares about physicality; even when he does realize his grave mistake he will only return to Hashem because this is now the place to go to receive nourishment and sustenance.

6. The Rebbe now adds another reason as to why “dancing on two sides” is worse than outright idol worship:

There is another area where “dancing on two sides” is worse than outright idol worship- how it affects other people. If someone from your local Shul (synagogue) would begin to deny G-d’s existence and begin to serve idols (Heaven Forbid) no one would learn from his ways, on the contrary, people would stay as far as away from him as possible. However if this same guy did not completely deny the existence of G-d, but only began to practice another type of worship alongside his Shul observance, people might be attracted to this and drawn into the same pit. Therefore “dancing on two sides” is worse than outright idol worship, because “someone who causes others to sin is worse than all others”.

7. The Rebbe now concludes the answer:

We can now understand why Eliyahu Hanavi chose to reprimand the Yidin by saying, “How long will you dance on two sides?”: As we just explained, “dancing on two sides” is worse than exclusive outright idol worship for numerous reasons, therefore Eliyahu Hanavi wanted to warn the Yidin that about this and cause them to repent, which they did, as it says, “And the entire nation feared and fell on their faces, declaring, ‘Hashem is G-d, Hashem is G-d”.

8. The Rebbe now tells us the lesson we can learn from this:

The Talmud tells us that the Yetzer Horah (evil inclination) for outright idol worship has been taken away from us. However the Yetzer Horah for “dancing on two sides” is stronger than ever, even today, albeit in a more delicate and genteel manner.

Today, there are some, who abandon Torah and Mitzvos (commandments) for a period of time because of worldly concerns; either because they want to be well received and approved of by a certain culture or because they feel this will advance their careers and boost their income. For these few days or weeks they put the Shulchan Aruch (the code of Jewish law) and Hashem on the shelf (so to speak) so that people should not say that he is old fashioned and out dated. In other words, for these people it seems appropriate and correct to exchange Hashem for their physical pursuits and advancements (which are faulty because any money gained based on this path will have to go for non desirable things like doctors or the like).
The lesson for these people from this week’s Haftorah is that this way of life, “dancing on two sides”, is actually worse than outright idol worship for the three abovementioned reasons.

Reason one: It is harder for someone to do Teshuvah if they “dance between two sides” because they don’t feel the enormity of the sin. They will excuse themselves by saying, “I am generally a pious Jew, what’s the big deal if I forego my scrupulous observance for a little while for my betterment?”

Reason two: This man is totally disoriented. He is willing to give up eternal Holy things for empty and short-lived physical pursuits.

Reason three: He causes others to sin. His friends and other community members might learn from his conduct, and when questioned this man will even bring a verse or a saying of our Sages to boost his position.

9. The Rebbe now ends off by emphasizing that proper Teshuvah brings a person to an even higher level than he was at before:

As we mentioned earlier, when Eliyahu Hanavi caused the Yidin then to do Teshuvah they declared, “Hashem is G-d, Hashem is G-d”. This is once more then at the giving of the Torah when Hashem said only once, “I am Hashem your G-d”. This shows us that after one is in a state which requires Teshuvah he can reach an even higher level than he was at before.

Being that “all Jews are guarantors for one another”, in other words all Jews are deeply connected to each other, the light that is brought down through one Jew’s Teshuvah will surely affect all other Jews that need it and we will all declare as one, “Hashem is G-d, Hashem is G-d”.

Translated and adapted by Rabbi Shalom Goldberg. Taken from Likutei Sichos volume one, second Sicha.