Adar I 17, 5776/February 26, 2016
"When the people saw that Moshe was late in coming down from the mountain, the people gathered against Aharon, and they said to him: "Get up! Make us gods that will go before us, because this man Moshe, who brought us up from the land of Egypt we don't know what has become of him." (Exodus 32:1)
What exactly was troubling the people? In their short history as a nation, the children of Israel had already experienced occasions of doubt. At Meriva they asked out loud, "Is HaShem amongst us or not?" (ibid 17:7) They experienced hunger and thirst and bouts of existential despair, but never once did they stoop to idolatry. But one day beforeMoshe was scheduled to descend from Mount Sinai the people panicked and demanded ofAharon to create a replacement for "this man Moshe [because] we don't know what has become of him." The golden calf that resulted from their demands was not presented as a replacement for G-d , for that was not their concern. The people were not doubting G-d's existence or trying to supplant G-d . They doubted Moshe's role as leader.
The people weren't fearful of Moshe's fate. If that were the case they would have prayed for Moshe's safe return. And if they had concluded that Moshe was not going to return they would have banded together not to make irrational demands of Aharon, but to appoint a new leader. But they didn't ask for a new leader. They asked for a lifeless lump of gold. Why?
Moshe, even before he saw the debacle that overtook his people, heard their commotion, and from that alone immediately understood what had transpired. "When Yehoshua heard the voice of the people in their shouting, he said to Moshe: 'There is a voice of battle in the camp!' But [Moshe] said: 'It is neither a voice shouting victory, nor a voice shouting defeat; it is a voice of shouting blasphemy I hear.'" (ibid 32:17-18) "Blasphemy" is an inaccurate translation of the Hebrew word anochi. Anochi means "I" or "Me." The blasphemous sounds that Moshe was hearing were the sounds of egoism - "I, me, mine!"being shouted simultaneously by thousands of frenzied people. Bereft of their leaderMoshe, and led on by the mixed multitude that first approached Aharon with the demand to "make us gods," the nation of Israel became atomized, every person seeing in the golden calf their own reflection and dancing around it. In other words, the sin of the golden calf was not some primitive throwback or crude expression of a weakened intellect. The sin of the golden calf was a very sophisticated and modern syndrome: it was the syndrome of self-infatuation, of doing your own thing at all costs, being your own god, bowing to your own desires, dancing circles around your own self image.
Moshe is gone. The man who brought us out of Egypt is no more. The man who served as servant and spokesman for G-d is no longer with us. The slavery in Egypt is ancient history. Crossing the Sea of Reeds is yesterday's news and the covenant at Sinai no longer applies. The people weren't seeking a new god. Nor were they seeking a new leader. They were simply expressing a devastatingly profound abandonment of collective and individual responsibility. Every man for himself.
The very first word of the Ten Commandments was "Anochi" - "I am HaShem, your G-d, Who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall not have the gods of others in My presence." (ibid 20:2-3) The people have replaced the Anochi of HaShem with the anochi of their own self image. This was indeed a form of idolatry, but G-d understood that the people were not rejecting Him, but were rejecting His servantMoshe. This is why G-d told Moshe, "Now leave Me alone, and My anger will be kindled against them so that I will annihilate them, and I will make you into a great nation." (ibid 32:10) G-d was offended, not for Himself, but for Moshe.
The people were guilty of theft, for they stole the gold that G-d had enabled them to take out of Egypt and which was intended for the golden vessels of the Tabernacle. They were guilty of infidelity, for they abandoned the Torah that they had just received. They were guilty of idolatry, for they replaced the G-d in Whose image they were created with a self-absorbed hedonistic image of themselves, created by their own hands. And ultimately they were guilty of murder. For in the aftermath of their crime, some three thousand people were killed.
Moshe, whose leadership was challenged by the people's descent into self-absorbed nihilism, nevertheless evoked the ultimate expression of selfless leadership when he told G-d , "Please! This people has committed a grave sin. They have made themselves a god of gold. And now, if You forgive their sin But if not, erase me now from Your book, which You have written." (ibid 32:31-32) Despite their abandonment of him, Mosheattached his fate to his people's fate, thereby guaranteeing both their forgiveness and his continued leadership.
Parashat Ki Tisa, before the incident of the golden calf, relates the commandment to build a copper laver at which Aharon and his sons will sanctify their hands and feet each day at the start of the Divine service in the Tabernacle. We will read later in Exodus how the Israelite women brought to Moshe their copper mirrors to be used for the creation of the laver. Midrash tells us that these mirrors were used by the Israelite women in Egypt to arouse their husbands whose spirits were being broken by their oppression. The women believed in G-d's promise of redemption and understood the imperative to bring babies into the world. But when Moshe saw them bringing the mirrors he grew angry, saying that it is inappropriate to use these objects of vanity for a sacred vessel designed to sanctify the kohanim. But G-d , our sages tell us, scolded Moshe, saying these mirrors don't reflect vanity, but on the contrary, reflect the purity of heart of the women who dedicated themselves to bringing a new generation into the world. In light of the golden calf, Moshe's reaction becomes understandable. He feared that once again the people were worshiping their own self image, just as they had done when dancing recklessly around the golden calf. But he needn't have worried. The Israelite women who brought the mirrors were the same Israelite women who resisted the temptation of the golden calf. The reflection that they saw in their mirrors was neither themselves nor a depraved descent into the worship of the self. The reflection they saw in their mirrors was the pure will of G-d . Ultimately, the rightful place of the women's copper mirrors was is the sanctifying laver that greeted the kohanim each morning, a daily reminder of the triumph of Israel's selfless love of G-d over the vanity of the golden calf.
-The Temple Institute
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