Exodus · Weekly Torah portion
Parashat Ki Tisaכִּי תִשָּׂא
Torah reading
Exodus 30:11-34:35
Haftarah
I Kings 18:1-39
Sephardic: I Kings 18:20-39
What happens in Ki Tisa
While Moses is on Sinai, the people panic at his delay and press Aaron into making a golden calf. Moses descends with the tablets, sees the dancing, and shatters them at the mountain's foot. In the aftermath, Moses refuses to give up on the people, pleading their case before God, and climbs back up for a second set of tablets. There he asks to see God's glory and receives instead the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy — compassionate, gracious, slow to anger — recited in synagogues to this day.
Big themes
- Failure and repair
- Patience versus panic
- Mercy as God's essence
If this is your bar or bat mitzvah portion
Forty days after hearing 'You shall have no other gods,' the people build one. Ki Tisa is brutally honest about how quickly fear undoes commitment — and how second chances work: the second tablets are carved with human participation. Repair is possible, and we're partners in it.
Learning to chant Ki Tisa?
Ready 13 builds a verse-by-verse practice plan for this exact portion — chanted reference audio, karaoke highlighting, trope games, and a countdown that keeps the big day on track.
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