AND THE LORD SAID TO MOSES: "GO, DESCEND, FOR YOUR PEOPLE THAT YOU HAVE BROUGHT UP FROM THE LAND OF EGYPT HAVE ACTED CORRUPTLY. THEY HAVE QUICKLY TURNED AWAY FROM THE PATH THAT I HAVE COMMANDED THEM; THEY HAVE MADE THEMSELVES A MOLTEN CALF! AND THEY HAVE PROSTRATED THEMSELVES BEFORE IT, SLAUGHTERED SACRIFICES TO IT, AND SAID: 'THESE ARE YOUR GODS, O ISRAEL, WHO HAVE BROUGHT YOU UP FROM THE LAND OF EGYPT.'"

(Shemot 32:7-8)

 

And you shall eat and be sated - Take care lest your heart be seduced - He told them: "Take care lest you rebel against the Omnipresent, for no one rebels against the Omnipresent but out of satiety, for it is said - lest you eat and be sated, and build good houses and dwell therein, and your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold increase, and all that you have increases" (Devarim 8:12-13). What does he say [next]? and your heart grows haughty, and you forget the Lord, your God (Devarim 8:14) Similarly, you say: When I bring them to the land which I have sworn to their forefathers [to give them], a land flowing with milk and honey. How does it continue? [they will eat and be satisfied]... then, they will turn to other deities (Devarim 31:20). Similarly, you say: and the people sat down to eat and drink (Shemot 32:6), and how does it continue? They have made themselves a molten calf (Shemot 32:8).

(Sifri Devarim 43:16)

 

The question is worth considering why Aaron, who was given a completely free hand in the choice of the form, should have just chosen that of a calf... But we have already had the opportunity on several occasions to remark - and when we consider the offerings it becomes practically a certainty - that cattle, (cattle, ox, bull) being serving assistants in carrying out the work of human beings, represent, in sacrificial symbolism, the using of one's powers and strength to work in the service of a higher being. So what Aaron was about, was, on the one hand to satisfy the demands of the people who were asking not for another god but for another "Moses", and on the other hand by doing this to keep the error within the bounds of semi-defection; and for this purpose no more suitable form could be found than that of cattle, which represented no directing force but a serving one. And in choosing a calf and not an ox, Aaron expressed even this form in its weakest aspect.

(Rabbi S.R. Hirsch on Shemot 32:4, Levi translation)

 

Has the Idolatrous Inclination been Truly Uprooted?

Ruthi Lazare

I propose to interpret two dramatic events - the Theophany at Sinai and the Sin of the Golden Calf - against the background of the stories of Bereishit, whose major conflicts can be seen as a series of attempts to find the proper way to communicate with God and to live in a way pleasing to Him. The search for a proper offering begins with Cain and Abel, but that story is echoed in the competition between Jacob and Esau to satisfy their father Isaac.

In both stories the sons must bring an offering in order to gain a blessing from the human or divine Father. The broad question which has occupied humanity since its inception has been, "Which way of life generates pleasing results?"

The giving of the Torah marks an essential change in that which is required of God's servants. Previously, gifts were sufficient to gain God's favor; now the founding of a just and fair society is needed. Similarly to the stories of the brothers in Bereishit, here again we find a contest between two types of worship, and God is quick to make His preference known. However, God's response to Abel and the rebuff of Esau do not leave us sufficient clues for solving the puzzle of how to please God. The difference between fruits of the earth and firstlings of the flock fails to explain God's preferences and dislikes.

The question becomes more pressing in the stories of Jacob and Esau, because their offerings do not differ in quality. Rather, it is the manner of presentation and the personality of the person making the offering which determines their acceptability. Jacob is identified by his voice and Esau by his hands. Voice and speech express the human soul, they constitute the realization of the spirit's potential and the materialization of its interiority. The hands, which represent Esau, symbolize action and activity.

To this we may add that the man of voice, the man of spirit and dweller in tents bears a soft personality. His is a spiritual personality that makes its way through the practical world with the help of others or through trickery, but not by sheer force. In contrast, the man of the field is muscular and knows how to get things done. He is close to nature and depends upon his physical strength.

This division between the spiritual and abstract on the one side and the tangible and physical on the other also underlies two distinct modes of worship that took place, respectively, on Mount Sinai and at its feet. The two brothers, Moses and Aaron, also represent these two directions. Moses is the man of God; he represents the demand for belief in a hidden and distant God who makes stringent demands in the realm of ethics and values. Aaron, in contrast, is the man of action. He fosters an immediate connection with the people and he is implicated in the creation of the Calf. Moses is the voice, the voice of Jacob, while Aaron is the hands which make the calf, as we read in the verse from Isaiah (17:18): The work of his hands, and what his fingers made (Isaiah 17:8).

Nonetheless, when different functions were originally allocated to Moses and Aaron, Moses could not operate without Aaron's practical-mindedness. True, Moses brought the content of the messages, but without Aaron he could not make them heard.

The Tablets and the Golden Calf are polar opposites which draw the soul to opposite extremes. The Calf was shiny and invited celebration, while the Tablets were verbal and demanding. It was possible to point towards the Calf and say, This is your god, O Israel, while the tablets announce I am your God, but they are only the writing of God Who is without body or the image of a body.

It seems that the level of abstraction and the faith in the hidden that were demanded of the Israelites were beyond their capabilities. Moses, who was late in returning, expected the Israelites to continue to feel his presence and obey his commands, thus accustoming themselves to knowledge of an invisible God. However, it is the nature of every gap to be refilled with new material, as R. Behayey Ibn Pekuda said, "One who does not trust in God will trust in something other than God" (Hovot haLevavot 4).

That is to say: the Israelites did not reject the existence of a Higher Power and they did not want to replace faith with atheism. Rather, they wanted to replace God with a strange god. The natural need to hurry up and fill in the gap left by Moses' disappearance explains why the people failed the very first test of their maturity, the test of patience and faith. It wasn't only God's hidden nature that pushed the Israelites into making another God for themselves in His place. God's demands were also infinitely more difficult than those of the molten Calf. The I am you God of the Tablets required the performance of commandments, while the golden statue invited them to feasting and drinking, to laughter and release. The competition was unfair; this was a difference of essence and principle, not a narrow difference between the fruits of the earth and firstlings of the flock, or between game meat and the delicacies of Rebecca's kitchen.

The attractions of the golden god have never ceased to disrupt faith in God's unity and to undermine loyalty to Torah and the commandments. The RaMBaN (on Shemot 32:2) explains gold's powerful attraction: "He chose [to make an idol of] gold rather than of silver because it represents the attribute of justice and it has the appearance of fire... which is like blood."

The color of gold, which is like that of fire and blood, draws us towards the limits of life and death, of justice and valor. The Torah, in contrast, offers no expression of powerful emotions or of attraction to extremism, as found in the worship of the Calf. The Lord in not in the wind... the Lord is not in the earthquake... the Lord is not in the fire (I Kings 19:12). God is to be worshipped silently, and with inner strength that demands constant self-control and self-supervision.

I wish to quote in this context the words of a psychologist, Dr. Yair Caspi. In his book Lidrosh Elohim (Yediyot Aharonot & Sifrei Hemed, Tel-Aviv: 2002.) [To Inquire After God] he explains the secret of modern idolatry's charm: "Idolaters believe that god exists in some object or world-view, or human being. They have a simple formula for the secret of happiness and the explanation of suffering. They have a list of sacrifices that must be offered; these constitute the secret of control over their god and the way to get what they want from him" (pg. 210).

Enslavement to a strange god, then, consists of every attempt to discern his will through gift or sacrifices. It consists of the establishment of some means or another as an end that must be placated with offerings in the form of concessions that bring us to forget ourselves. Caspi continues in this spirit and reveals the faces of the false gods which we all worship: the god of societal norms, the god of technology, the god of happiness and the god of the pursuit of excellence, the god of youthfulness and a slim figure, the god of consumption and money, and the god of spirituality and nature. Caspi explains that these kinds of gods reflect a world that invites us to neglect the difficult missions of life; they form a system of values in which every sin becomes a commandment (pg. 297).

If so, it becomes clear that it was not only the ancient brothers who tried and failed, who sacrificed and were punished while trying to please God. It was not only those who left Egypt who were perplexed by the commanding voice that emerged from the cloud and fog. Our contemporaries also sanctify beliefs and objects which separate them from the true God, from the difficult demand that they find their purpose, and from the understanding that while God has no need for their gifts and sacrifices humans must do their best to fulfill their mission of to work and preserve it with which they were charged in the Garden of Eden.

Ruthi Lazare is a lecturer, a teachers' advisor, and also prepares educational plans.

 

When you take the sum of the children of Israel according to their numbers, let each one give to the Lord an atonement for his soul

R. Eliezer, in the name of R. Jose b. Zimra, said: Whenever Israel were numbered for a proper purpose they sustained no diminution in numbers; but whenever they were numbered for no proper purpose they sustained a diminution. On what occasion were they numbered for a proper purpose? In the days of Moses, in connection with the standards and the division of the land. When for no proper purpose? In the days of David.

(Bamidbar Rabbah 2:17)

 

When you take the sum, etc. When a person counts his silver and gold or when the king counts his soldiers, it is very likely that he will trust in his wealth and in the multitude of his soldiers and become haughty and say, it was with my might and the strength of my hand that I made this wealth or that I will do valiant deeds. And then, in most cases, the wheel [of fortune] will turn against him and an unexpected catastrophe will overtake him (for this is one of the rules of Providence, pride before the fall, and it has been repeatedly validated in all generations, in connection to individuals as well as nations and kings). This gave rise to belief in the evil eye in all the nations. It appears that this belief had already spread into Israel in the generations preceding the giving of the Torah. God did not want them to completely abandon this belief, given its being founded on faith in Providence and that it keeps people from trusting in their power and wealth, which is the principle of the entire Torah...

The sages of our generation take the opposite view. They scoff at belief in the evil eye and many other things that cannot be explained naturally. I think that both sides to the controversy are wrong. The world does not behave in accordance with the laws of material nature alone; there are other laws which were legislated by the Highest Wisdom at the beginning of Creation. These laws arrange for events to bring both nations and individuals benefit and loss that testify to Providence. When the philosopher sees them, he will call them mere happenstance. When the masses see them, they will call them miracles. The truth is that they are the natural consequences that necessarily follow their natural causes. However, the entire system of causes and effects is ordered since the beginning of Creation in accordance with the wisdom of the Highest Organizer, may His name be blessed... the decree of pride before the fall is engraved into the procession of events in the lives of communities and individuals, and it brings about that a person (or an entire nation) standing at the heights of success, full of pride and boastful, will cause those who see him to be jealous. Then the wheel [of fortune] will turn against him and an unexpected catastrophe will overtake him, and the masses will attribute it to the evil eye, or sometimes to the curses of his enemies. In reality, the eye does no harm and the curses bring no evil. Justice is meted out by God, and He decreed and legislated into the chain of causation leading to the good and the bad that a person's pride will lay him low, while humility will gain honor. The Me'amer says that the men of that generation had to give atonement money [kofer] because they had sinned with the Calf and deserved to be destroyed; however, he forgot that this command preceded the sin of the Golden Calf.

(ShaDaL on Shemot 30:11)

 

Is it possible that the Children of Israel - only forty days after the Revelation at Sinai, while the words I am and You shall have no gods still echo in their ears - are seeking other gods?!

It appears that the Torah wished to teach us, by presenting a number of examples, that indeed, such things can occur. The assumption that people who stood at the foot of Mt. Sinai are incapable of again sinking into ignorance, into foolishness, into the abomination of idolatry - such an assumption is basically fallacious...

Overt miracles - one-time wondrous happenings - do not change a person, his personality, his habits. They may strongly impress him temporarily, but they do not cut him off from his world, his accomplishments, his past, his lifetime habits.

(From Studies In The Book of Shemot, Nehama Leibowitz z'l)

 

Our Rabbi Moses exemplified this when he broke the tablets as soon as he saw the people transgress the commandment make no idol or image for yourself. We must understand that the expression idol or any image applies not only to the golden calf made by Israel, but to every natural existent: Nation, land, homeland, flag, army, idea, a personality, and so forth, whenever they are treated as being holy.

(Y. Leibowitz: Sheva Shanim shel Sihot al Parashiyot HaShavu'a, pg. 401)

 

Then the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man would speak to his companion, and he would return to the camp, but his attendant, Joshua, the son of Nun, a lad, would not depart from the tent.

(Shemot 33:11)

 

In the same sense the word is used in the following passage, And the Lord spoke unto Moses face to face," i.e., both being present, without any intervening medium between them. Compare Come, let us look one another in the face (II Kings 14:8); and also The Lord talked with you face to face (Devarim 5:4); instead of which we read more plainly in another place, You heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude: only ye heard a voice (ib. 4:12). The hearing of the voice without seeing any similitude is termed face to face. Similarly do the words, And the Lord spoke unto Moses face to face" correspond to There he heard the voice of one speaking unto him (Bamidbar 7:89), in the description of God's speaking to Moses. Thus it will be clear to you that the perception of the Divine voice without the intervention of an angel is expressed by face to face. In the same sense the word panim must be understood in, And my face [panai] shall not be seen (Shemot 33:23); i.e., my true existence, as it is, cannot be comprehended.

(RaMBaM Guide for the Perplexed 1:37, Friedländer tr.)

 

 [Another explanation, this one] in the style of the Midrash: Face to face - an expression of anger. The Holy One, Blessed Be He said to Moses: "Moses, I did not tell you [to punish the people] when I was angry and you were conciliatory, nor when you were angry and I was conciliatory. But now I am angry and you are angry; return to the camp; read not v'shav el hamachaneh [and he - Moses - returned to the camp], but read it v'shuv el hamachaneh ["return to the camp"], if we are both angry who will bring Israel close?"

(Rabeinu Bahaye, Shemot 33:11)

 

 

 

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