EXOD992 What Moses had to do after the Golden Calf was Vayak'hel--turn the Israelites into a kehilla, a community. He did this in the obvious sense of restoring order. When Moses came down the mountain and saw the Calf, the Torah says the people were parua, meaning "wild," "disorderly," "chaotic," "unruly," "tumultuous." He "saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughing stock to their enemies" [this verse]. They were not a community but a crowd. He did it in a more fundamental sense as we see in the rest of the parasha. He began by reminding the people of the laws of Shabbat. Then he instructed them to build the Mishkan, the Sanctuary, as a symbolic home for God. Why these two commands rather than any others? Because Shabbat and the Mishkan are the two most powerful ways of building community. The best way of turning a diverse, disconnected group into a team is to get them to build something together.[See Jonathan Sacks, The Home We Build Together (London: Continuum, 2007)]. Hence the Mishkan. The best way of strengthening relationships it is set aside dedicated time when we focus not on the pursuit of individual self-interest but on the things we share, by praying together, studying Torah together, and celebrating together -- in other words, Shabbat. Shabbat and the Mishkan were the two great community-building experiences of the Israelites in the desert. More than this: in Judaism, community is essential to the spiritual life. Our holiest prayers require a minyan. When we celebrate or mourn we do so as a community. Even when we confess, we do so together.... In Judaism, it is as a community that we come before God. For us the key relationship is not I-Thou, but We-Thou. Yayak'hel is thus no ordinary episode in the history of Israel. It marks the essential insight to emerge from the crisis of the Golden Calf. We find God in community. We develop virtue, strength of character, and a commitment to the common good in community. Community is local. It is society with a human face. It is not government. It is not the people we pay to look after the welfare of others. It is the work we do ourselves, together. Community is the antidote to individualism on the one hand and overreliance on the state on the other. Darwin understood its importance to human flourishing. Tocqueville saw its role in protecting democratic freedom. Robert Putnam has documented its value in sustaining social capital and the common good. And it began in this parasha, when Moses turned an unruly mob into a kehilla, a community.