At this point we’ve all heard the story of this week’s Parsha, Parshat Ki Tisa, a hundred times, and already twice tonight. The gist of it is that Moses goes up Mount Sinai, the rest of the Jews miscalculated when he was coming back and decided to build and worship a golden calf as an alternative. Moses comes back and gets so mad he breaks the tablets that hold the Ten Commandments. What struck me about this Parsha was the clear theme of jumping to conclusions. The Jews thought that Moses got lost, died, or for whatever reason wasn’t coming back, so naturally the first thing they do is to build a false idol – gotta worship something, right?
Jumping to conclusions is one of the basest of human instincts; people have been doing it for thousands of years, as proven by this Parsha. As demonstrated by this Parsha, and as we see all the time in life, jumping to false conclusions can have serious impacts on our lives. In the instance of Ki Tisa, Moses came back from Mount Sinai and his fury results not only in the destruction of the tablets, but he had the primary culprits responsible for building the golden calf put to death. I can say for me personally, had I jumped to conclusions about many aspects of my college experience, I wouldn’t be in the great position I'm in today.
If I had believed my future Aggie high school classmates when they told me their opinions on the University of Texas, I wouldn’t have ended up at this vastly superior school. Had I assumed that all fraternities were filled with the guys from Animal House, I wouldn’t have rushed AEPi – although it’s not too much of a stretch to compare some aspects of that movie to my fraternity experience. If I had made the assumption that on this huge campus, there wouldn’t be anywhere for me to feel at home, I would have been wrong on two fronts. It would have been another reason I didn’t join AEPi, but it also would have caused me to miss out on Chabad. I can honestly say I’ve never experienced another place on campus that evoked the feel of home more than the Chabad House. I’ve always felt welcomed here; I’ve always felt incredibly comfortable, even the first time I came to services my freshman year. Zev and Ariela have created a second home here for so many students, and I get that sense every Friday night. Their efforts have not gone unnoticed by the students who attend Chabad on a regular basis, which is why they always have so many students who are so willing to help them, and I am particularly proud that the men of AEPi can include themselves in that group. Speaking on behalf of AEPi, as well as the rest of the students here, from the bottom of my heart I want to thank Zev and Ariela for all that they do.
We can miss out on a lot when we jump to conclusions. The Jews in Parshat Ki Tisa missed out on the Ten Commandments for longer than they should have. Men could miss out on their future wives if they jump to conclusions about them. We can miss out on lifelong friendships if we make the wrong assumptions about people. I could have missed out on a wonderful place filled with wonderful people, and I feel enormously blessed that I didn’t. Shabbat Shalom.
Matt Harris is pictured on the left.