The Golden Calf
I. Introduction
The episode of the Golden Calf seems to be so out of character for the Israelites that its very nature raises questions[1]. This essay will explore this episode, and strive to show that the episode of the Golden Calf marks a turning point in the relationship of the people of Israel and their God, and as such is one of the most momentous occurrences in the entire book of Exodus, possibly even rivaling the exodus from Egypt itself in importance.
This episode also raises an interesting question. Why did the people use a calf as the idol? The answer to this question ties the Golden Calf story in with the discussion presented in the essay on Monotheism (where it is argued that the nation the Bible identifies as Israel had its beginnings in the Canaanites who inhabited the hill country of the Southern Levant prior to 900 B.C.E. and monotheistic Israelite Yahweh-only religion was an outgrowth of the religion of those indigenous Canaanites). According to archeological and historical evidence, the bull was a fairly common symbol of the Canaanite god, El and his son Baal. Hence the calf could be seen as a symbol of heir god, and was borrowed from earlier symbolic representations of Canaaniite Gods El and Baal.
II. Brief Review of the episode
The episode
(1) Exodus Chapter 32
When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, the people gathered against Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who shall go before us, for that man Moses, who brought us from the land of Egypt – we do not know what has happened to him. Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” And all the people took off the gold rings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. This he took from them and cast in a mold, and made it into a molten calf. And they exclaimed, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron announced: “Tomorrow shall be a festival of the Lord!” Early next day, the people offered up burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; they sat down to eat and drink, and then rose to dance.
The Lord spoke to Moses, “Hurry down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have acted basely. They have been quick to turn aside from the way that I enjoined upon them. They have made themselves a molten calf and bowed low to it and sacrificed to it, saying: “this is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!”
The Lord further said to Moses, “I see that this is a sfiffnecked people. Now, let Me be, that My anger may blaze forth against them and that I may destroy them, and make of you a great nation. But Moses implored the Lord his God, saying, “Let not Your anger, O Lord, blaze forth against Your people, whom You delivered from the land of Egypt with great power and with a might hand. Let not the Egyptians say, “It was with evil intent that He delivered them, only to kill them off in the mountains and annihilate them from the face of the earth. Turn from Your blazing anger, and renounce the plan to punish Your people. Remember, Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, how You swore to them by Your Self and said to them: I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and I will give your offspring this whole land of which I spoke, to posses forever[2]. And the Lord renounced the punishment He had planned to bring upon His people.
Thereupon Moses turned and went down from the mountain bearing the two tablets of the Pact, tablets inscribed on both their surfaces: they were inscribed on one side and on the other. The tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing, incised upon the tablets. When Joshua herd the sound of the people in its boisterousness, he said to Moses, “There is a cry of war in the camp.” But he answered:
“It is not the sound of the tune of triumph,
Or the sound of the tune of defeat;
It is the sound of song that I hear!”
As soon as Moses came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he became enraged; and he hurled the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made and burned it; he ground it to powder and strewed it upon the water and so made the Israelites drink it.
Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such great sin upon them?” Aaron said, “Let not my lord be enraged. You know that this people is bent on evil. They said to me, ‘Make us a god to led us; for Moses, who brought us from the land of Egypt – we do not know what has happened to him.’ So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, take it off!’ they gave it to me and I hurled it into the fire and out came this calf!”[3]
Moses saw that the people were out of control – since Aaron had let them get out of control – so that they were a menace to any who might oppose them. Moses stood up in the gate of the camp and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come here!” And all the Levites rallied to him. He said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the god of Israel: Each of you put sword on thigh, go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay brother, neighbor, and kin.” The Levites did as Moses had bidden; and some three thousand of the people fell that day. And Moses said, “Dedicate yourselves to the Lord this day – for each of you has been against son and brother – that He may bestow a blessing upon you today.”
The next day Moses said to the people, “You have been guilty of great sin. Yet I will now go up to the Lord; perhaps I may win forgiveness for your sin. “ Moses went back to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people is guilty of a great sin in making for themselves a god of gold. Now, if You will forgive their sin [well and good]; but if not, erase me from the record which You have written!” 33But the Lord said to Moses, “he who has sinned against Me, him only will I erase from My record. 34Go now, lead the people where I told you. See My angel shall go before you. But when I make an accounting, I will bring them to account for their sins.
Then the Lord sent a plague upon the people, for what they did with the calf that Aaron made.
(2) Chapter 33
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Set out from here, you and the people that you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, aying , ‘To your offspring will I give it – I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites – a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go in your midst, since you are a sfiffnecked people, lest I destroy you on the way.”
When the people heard this harsh word, they went into mourning, and none put on his finery.
The Lord said to Moses, “Say to the Israelite people, ‘You are a stiffnecked people. If I were to go in your midst for one moment, I would destroy you. Now, then, leave off your finery, and I will consider what do to do to you.’” 6So the Israelites remained stripped of their finery from Mount Horeb on.
(3) Chapter 34
The covenant is renewed in Chapter 34.
34:6: The Lord passed before him and proclaimed: “The Lord! The Lord! A god compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet He does not remit all punishment, but visits the iniquity of parents upon children and children’s children, upon the third and fourth generation.”
9Moses hastened to bow low to the ground in homage, and said, “If I have gained Your favor, O Lord, pray, let the Lord go in our midst, even though this is a stiffnecked people. Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your own.”
He said: “I hereby make a covenant…..”
(4) Summary
The episode with the Golden Calf occurs after the Israelites have been following Moses for some time during which several crises occur, including a lack of drinking water, a shortage of food and an attack by a desert tribe, all of which were overcome by God through Moses. The episode also occurs between the visit by Jethro and his guidance in setting up an efficient judiciary, and after God spoke to the Israelites with Moses present giving them the Decalogue and other laws, and, most significantly, between the provision of instructions for building the Tabernacle and the implementation of those instructions into a physical structure. It is observed that the people know Moses is present for all of these episodes.
However, for the Golden Calf episode, Moses left the people and entered a cloud of fire. When Moses did not return from the Mountain, the people became concerned and implored Aaron to supervise the building of an idol. When God and Moses became aware of this, God was angry and wanted to kill all the people and start a new nation with Moses. Moses prevailed upon God to relent in an argument reminiscent of Abraham’s argument on behalf of the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah. Moses destroyed the commandments and required the people to destroy the calf and drink the ground remnants; he also had many killed. Thereafter, Moses returned to God with a confession and a resolve to do better. God punished the people with a plague and re-entered the covenant with them. However, God withdrew from among the people and substituted an angel to go before them. Thereafter, the Tabernacle was constructed and the Israelites set out on their various journeys.
III. Issue
In the essay titled “Forgiveness,” it is argued that God cannot forgive a transgression without violating the Ground Rules, but it appears that God forgave the Israelites for their transgression of building an idol, a Golden Calf. So what happened?
IV. Explanations
This episode seems to be somewhat passed over in most texts and is often merely retold without significant explanation, sometimes even referred to as an apostasy[4]. However, the actions of the people in this story appear to be incongruent with their previous actions, especially their brave act of leaving their home in Egypt to follow God. As such, the story is subject to many interpretations.
(1) According to Rashi, there was a misunderstanding between Moses and the people regarding the time of his return from the mountain. The misunderstanding resulted in the people believing that Moses had not returned at the appointed time. At the time the people thought Moses was to return, Satan threw the world into Chaos and showed the people an image which caused them to believe that Moses was dead. The people became anxious because they considered Moses to be their mediator with God. This reading is intended to exonerate the people and blame Satan for the mass hallucination and the horror of the people. This manipulation by Satan is intended to make the people’s response plausible. However, this interpretation does not seem to adequately account for the subsequent actions of God with regard to the people.
(2) Another explanation is that the Golden Calf was intended to be a “material, visible entity that would fill the spiritual void created by Moses’s absence, something that, by virtue of the symbolism invested in it, would extend the Sinaitic experience of closeness to God and the awareness of His ever-present providential care.”[5]
(3) Yet another interpretation[6] is that the Golden Calf was a physical pedestal of the invisible God of Israel.
These explanations all begin from the assumption that the people needed some physical manifestation of their God or His mediator to believe. These explanations try to explain around this basic assumption or find some reason to excuse it. There is a better explanation.
(4) There is also Midrash that holds that Aaron collaborated with the people in building the Golden Calf because he was afraid (Exodus 32:1: “The people gathered against Aaron….”.
(5) Another possible explanation could be that people did not transgress against God because they had not yet entered into a covenant with God in which they agreed not to build idols or to have any other God before the God of the Covenant. Therefore, the people were not yet bound, and the building of the Golden Calf was thus not a transgression.
V. An alternative explanations
As has been discussed elsewhere, people in the biblical era generally had gods that were embodied in events or elements that could be sensed. That is, in the seasons, in rain, in thunder, in crops, in geographic places, in physical idols. However, in an unprecedented and unparalleled occurrence, the Jews adopted a God that was outside of time, outside of history and, most importantly, outside of any embodiment that can be sensed by humans. In effect, the religion went from one in which physical embodiments of God could be sensed and worshiped to one in which there was no physical embodiment. This was an extraordinary departure from what the people were used to. As history has shown, people are reluctant and slow to change, and only do so in small steps with many fits and jumps, and most of all, with much back-sliding.
Prior to the episode of the Golden Calf, Moses was present, or if he was not physically present, he was absent for only short stretches of time. As such, the people had a physical embodiment of their god or at least an intermediary which they could see, hear and touch. If God saved them from slavery, thirst, hunger or attack, it was through Moses. This is not a great change from the beliefs they probably held in Egypt where a god, whose idol or other physical embodiment was present for extraordinary occurrences. As such, the people could follow the new God without much effort at change. Even when the people received the Decalogue and the instructions for building a Tabernacle, it was through Moses. Again, the people were probably used to receiving instructions and laws from their god via a messenger or intermediary. Therefore, again, there was not much change from their previous beliefs and practices.
However, when Moses disappeared into a cloud of fire and did not return when they expected, these people panicked as the physical embodiment, the messenger who was the intermediary between themselves and their god and via whom their god communicated with them had disappeared and had not returned at the expected time. They were left with a god who was not present in any physical embodiment and who was outside of time, history and sensory perception. This was a huge change and one they were afraid to accept. People leave their old practices reluctantly, slowly and in fits and jumps. Therefore, the people built a replacement for Moses and sought to communicate with their god through this replacement. They naturally sought a priest to supervise this effort as that is what they had always done. A golden calf would be a logical choice since calves and like animals were often used as idols in Egypt at that time, and Aaron was the logical choice to supervise since he was closest to Moses and thus the closest thing to God that the people had remaining. Aaron complied because compliance may have been the best, and perhaps only, way to keep the people together and out of open rebellion and possible dissipation into living with people of the desert, compliance was the strategically prudent thing to do[7].
Viewed from a human perspective, the building of a Golden Calf was logical and, possibly, expected, of people who were alone in the desert, a long way from home, knew they could not return home, had already suffered from thirst, hunger and attack and had been saved only via a messenger and intermediary from god, who was now missing and whose return was uncertain at best.
Therefore, it seems reasonable, from a human perspective to assume that the people simply were not completely ready to follow a god they could not see and that they followed Moses because they could see him; however when he disappeared into a cloud of smoke and fire and did not return when expected, the people reverted back to their previous habits of requiring something they could actually see. This could be why God called the people stiffnecked (two times). They simply could not give up the requirement to have a god or at least an embodiment of a god, they could actually sense. At the very least, the people felt they needed a mediator between themselves and God, and Moses was that mediator. Without Moses, the people may have felt they lost their means of communicating with God and had been led away from their homes, into the desert and abandoned to die (this fits with Moses’s argument to God in Exodus 32:11: “Let not Your anger, O Lord, blaze forth against Your people, whom You delivered from the land of Egypt with great power and with a might hand. Let not the Egyptians say, “It was with evil intent that He delivered them, only to kill them off in the mountains and annihilate them from the face of the earth.’”) .
Note, under this view, the people did not reject God, they merely tried to have a tangible object connecting them to God. The Tabernacle fulfilled this role, but had not yet been built and even if, from the perspective of the people at this time, it would be built, it would be built without benefit of Devine guidance as Moses was gone and, they feared, would not return. Thus, even the fact that they had plans for the Tabernacle, a physical presence, they did not trust that physical presence to have the power needed since it would be built without Devine guidance. Viewing the entire episode, including the Tabernacle, from a human perspective seems to show a progression from a worship which required some physical embodiment to a worship of a god who outside of such physical embodiments as being steps: first to a man (Moses) then to a non-human structure (Tabernacle) then to land (the Promised Land) then an intermediary-less situation that was partially landless (the first exile into Babylonia, but which had Jerusalem still extant), to an intermediary-less and landless situation (the diaspora after the fall of the Second Temple) which required the people to have faith in a god without any physical embodiment whatsoever and laid the foundation for a people who could remain a nation and a community, an imagined community, which survived thousands of years of persecution, homelessness and even a Holocaust[8]. Viewed in this manner, the episode of the Golden Calf fits and is reasonable, logical and extremely important.
Continuing with this line of reasoning, it would seem that in order to accept a god without any physical manifestation, the people had to change. The entire people had to change. The people had to change their outlook, their beliefs, their ethics, their principles, their laws, the way they practiced their religion, the way they lived their lives. The people had to change from the old people into a new people.
VI. Repentance
There is only one vehicle in Judaism that is powerful and significant enough to persuade God to re-establish His connection to a person or a people, especially a people who change from people who lived among idol worshipers and polytheists, and call these people His own: repentance[9]. The people had to go through the process of repentance. The episode of the Golden Calf was the trigger for this process for the nation. However, as will be discussed elsewhere, the people did not immediately and totally transform themselves as required to complete the process of teshuvah. They repented, but did not “get right with God” as is required for a complete change to complete the process of teshuvah. Thus, God granted them a clean slate, but did not treat them as new people or a new nation because He held Himself separate from them (“But I will not go in your midst, since you are a stiffnecked people, lest I destroy you on the way.” Ex 33:3).
There are many parts and steps to repentance, and it is a process[10]: leaving the transgression; making anyone harmed by the transgression whole; repentance and regret, confession, apology and resolution for the future, with a final step which shows completion of the process being a turning away from the transgression. That is, once the transgressor has understood that he has transgressed, felt genuine remorse, left the transgression, apologized and made anyone harmed by his transgression whole, repented and regretted, confessed and resolved to do better in the future, if he (or she) is placed in a situation again that would cause them to repeat the transgression, and they refrain from committing the transgression, then that person has completed his (or her) journey and is considered as being an entirely new person. Further, a person who has transgressed and has completed teshuvah has been viewed by some as standing in much higher esteem that someone who has not transgressed (“Where a ba’al teshuvah stands, a totally righteous person [who has not transgressed] cannot stand” (Babylonian Talumud (b.) Brachot 34b) ). That person is in a position to teach others because he has been there and knows what it means to give in and transgress. But, immediately after the Golden Calf episode, the nation had not yet shown that it had gotten right with God and thus had not yet completed the process of teshuvah even though the people had repented. The nation would have to go beyond repentance and prove that it had gotten right with God, and it had not yet done that. Therefore, there were further steps for the nation to take before it could be released into the Promised Land and into the world to teach in the manner of a ba’al teshuvah. As will be seen, the nation did, indeed, pass this step in the process.
It has been said that one who successfully completes teshuvah is a different person. That is, the person who did the act requiring teshuvah no longer exists and a new person has emerged.
In such a case, forgiveness is not necessary for the new person as that new person has done no act requiring forgiveness. The new person stands newly minted in the eyes of God.
In support of the thesis that the Israelites repented, the following comparison between the steps involved in repentance and the steps followed by the people at and after Sinai is presented:
| Steps in repentance: | Steps followed at Mt. Sinai |
| Leave the transgression | Let the idol be destroyed |
| Make anyone harmed whole | Not possible with God |
| Repent and regret | Levites killed sinners, drank Golden Calf All men and women willingly brought brooches, earrings, rings, pendants, all jewels of gold to God in Ex 35.2-22 after the episode to show their repentance. |
| Confess | 34:9[11] |
| Resolve to do better in the future | 33:6[12] |
| Turn away from the transgression | 33:6 |
With regard to the completion of repentance, the person must not repeat the transgression if faced with an identical situation[13]. The Israelites clearly fulfilled this requirement. After the episode, Moses withdrew back to Sinai for forty days and forty nights (Exodus 34:28), furthermore, Moses then placed a veil over his face (Exodus 34:33) and the people did not build another idol….they did not repeat the transgression when faced with the identical situation. Still further, when they did build a tangible object, it was totally at the request of God (as relayed through Moses) and totally under His guidance…..again, the people did not construct an object on their own, but only under the expressed instructions of God….they did not repeat the transgression. They had confessed, repented, apologized, been punished, tried to make restitution, and, finally, they had turned away from their transgression: they had successfully repented.
Also, note that we recognize this process today when we observe the “Days of Away” between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. As discussed in the essay “Rosh Hashanah,” Rosh Hashanah corresponds to the people’s acceptance of the commandments and Yom Kippur corresponds to God granting the people a clean slate and allowing them to enter into a covenant with Him. The days of awe correspond to and symbolize the process of repentance through which the people repented their transgression of the Golden Calf.
After completing repentance, God granted the nation a clean slate and made a new covenant. It was similar to the first one, but differed in a couple of important ways as befit repentance and incipient teshuvah which God would recognize once the nation completed the step of coming back to Him: the Lord withdrew from their midst (Exodus 32:34: “See, My angel shall go before you.’”). Once the nation showed that it was back with God, God would treat them as a new people, a ba’al teshuvah – a person or nation that is in a position to teach others because he or it has been there and knows what it means to give in and transgress. Further, by withdrawing, God moved the people another step toward worshiping a god without a physical embodiment and moved the people a step closer to being independent and fulfilling the goal set for them by God. The Tabernacle was the next step, as discussed above. The Tabernacle was the progenitor of the Temple in that God could reside in the Tabernacle. Indeed, the layout of the Tabernacle served as the model for the Temple in Jerusalem. Since God had determined that He would no longer walk among the people, He could reside in the Tabernacle.
VII. The role of repentance in the Golden Calf episode
A. Repentance and God’s threat
After God became aware of the people’s transgression with the Golden Calf, God said “I see this as a stiffnecked people. Now, let Me be, that My anger may blaze forth against them and that I may destroy them and make you a great nation.” (Exodus 32:9-10). Once Moses reminded God of His promises to the progenitors of these people, God relented. Still further, once the people repented, God renewed the covenant. This seems to align with the conclusion in the essay on Sodom and Gomorrah that repentance is stronger than God’s word. God had promised to destroy these stiffnecked people, yet did not do so after their repentance. Hence, repentance overcame God’s intention.
The episode of the Golden Calf thus starkly reiterates the lesson taught in the episode of Sodom and Gomorrah: repentance and teshuvah are stronger than even God’s word or God’s desires. At Sodom and Gomorrah, God impliedly gave His word that the cities would not be spared if God found fewer than ten innocent men, yet apparently only one, Lot, was found, and that man was saved when he should have been destroyed along with the transgressors according to the implied terms of the agreement made between God and Abraham. However, Lot had repented his ways and thus was saved in spite of God’s promise thereby showing that repentance is stronger than God’s own word. In the Golden Calf episode, God wanted to destroy the entire nation and begin again. Yet God relented and allowed the people to repent[14] thereby overruling His own desires. The Golden Calf episode is a very strong and stark illustration of the theme of the Bible regarding the power of repentance.
The episode of the Golden Calf also starkly demonstrates one of the overarching themes of the Bible: progress through repentance. The people transgressed, and repented and hence progressed along the path of the theocentered history being told by the Bible.
B. God did not forgive the people for the Golden Calf
Also note, in 32:33-34, God did not forgive (the essay on forgiveness states that God cannot forgive). However, since the people had repented, they were given a clean slate. As discussed in the essay “Forgiveness,” granting a clean slate after repentance is not forgiving, it is granting another chance. Furthermore, God never said He would “forgive,” He did say in 32:33 that “He who has sinned against Me, him only will I erase from My record.” This has two possible meanings:
1. The sinner, including the sinner who has not repented, would be eradicated, removed, wiped out – this certainly does not sound like forgiveness; or
2. The sinner having repented would have a clean slate and thus not erased, which is the very essence of repentance.
Thus, the episode with the Golden Calf sets up the possibility for the Israelite people to be better than the people who left Egypt and in a position to teach others, which is exactly what God wanted when He drew the people out of Egypt.
Thus, repentance was a significant and monumental step in the process of transforming the people from what they were when they exited Egypt into what we know as Jews.
The episode of the Golden Calf was thus significant and monumental: it was the most significant step from idol worshiping and polytheism toward monotheism and worship of a God who had no physical presence and was outside time, history and place. The initial step was leaving Egypt of course, but as discussed above, that step was taken with a physical entity present – Moses. It was the step taken during the Golden Calf episode that truly made the transition from the position which requires a physical presence to the position where no physical presence is required to practice the religion and to believe in God.
VIII. Contract with God
As discussed in the essay “A Contract With God,” the elements of either a contract or a Suzerainty Treaty, require both parties to freely enter into the agreement. As discussed in that essay, the episode with the Golden Calf can be read as showing that the people clearly wanted to be bound by the treaty since they accepted the Covenant a second time after the episode. Such a momentous undertaking must be clearly and unambiguously accepted. By showing the people to first seemingly reject the undertaking by building an idol, the Golden Calf, then repenting and accepting the undertaking after repenting shows that they understood the terms of the agreement and that they clearly and unambiguously desired to be bound.
IX. Partners
Moses’s negotiation with God to remit His decree against the Israelites for building the Golden Calf appears to mirror Abraham’s negotiation with God to remit His decree against Sodom and Gomorrah. The difference is that the citizens of Sodom did not repent and thus were punished; whereas, the Israelites did repent.
The partnership remained, but one of the partners, humans, became an entity that was worthy of being God’s partner.
X. Conclusion
The episode of the Golden Calf thus
marks a momentous and signal turning point in the relationship between God and
man as represented by the Jews. It was the first step in the beginning of
Judaism which worships a god who is out of time, and out of space and out of
man’s ability to sense, and in fact, a God who is even beyond man’s
imagination, yet which is to be believed on faith. It was the first step in
leaving behind, forever, the religions which required physical embodiments and
moving toward a religion which worships an invisible, yet approachable, God.
Other steps would follow, and some of the steps were even backwards, but,
beginning with the episode of the Golden Calf, the people would never go all
the way back to idol worshipers who required a physical embodiment to worship,
and moved toward a god who did not have any physical manifestation, and could
maintain their faith is such a god despite having no place of worship, no land,
and no homeland even while they were being persecuted, exiled and murdered in
other lands. The people could remain a nation and a community, even an imagined
community, because they could, and did, worship a god without the need of physical
manifestations.
THE GOLDEN CALF
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- What was the significance of forcing the people to drink a slurry containing the dust from the ground-up golden calf?
- Why didn’t God understand why the people built the idol? Or at least try to understand their motivation? Perhaps they were frightened that Moses had led them into the desert and then abandoned them. Why didn’t God practice the golden rule?
- Given how God killed Egyptian children, then drowned Egyptian soldiers, and now seeks retributive punishment of the very people who left their homes to follow him, what light is God cast in?
- Why wasn’t Aaron punished for his part in the episode?
- Where were those people who did not agree with building an idol and wished to remain faithful to Moses’s god? Do you think everyone participated in this episode? What happened to those that did not participate?
- Where were the Levites at the beginning of this episode? They were quite ready to administer punishment at the orders of Moses, but why didn’t they stop the people before they built the idol?
- Were the Levites, and Aaron, required to drink the slurry?
- Do you think there might have been some physical problems for those that drank a slurry containing gold dust? If so, what happened to those people? Do you think everyone, drank the slurry? What happened to those that refused? Do you think children were forced to drink the slurry?
- When Moses saw the people dancing around the Golden Calf, he threw the tablets down and shattered them. These tablets were directly connected to God. Today, we cannot even discard a Torah without taking special steps, yet Moses summarily smashed these tablets whose significance far, far outweighs any symbol we have today and perhaps were the most sacred objects ever possessed by man. Wouldn’t it be up to God to take the step of destroying the symbol of the covenant? How did Moses, a man after all, get away with usurping the action that should have been God’s? God never reproaches Moses for this act, God could have said “who are you to destroy the symbol I provided for the covenant between Me and My people?” Yet He did not. What happened here?
- What was Israel’s sin? Polytheism or idolatry? Could it be that the Israelites simply made a mistake as to who the true One God really was?
- What do you think Moses’s initial reaction was when God informed him that the people had acted “basely” (Moses did not respond until God had vented twice)?
- Why did God ask Moses to “let Me be” in 32:10? Certainly, God did not need Moses’s permission to do anything He wanted to do.
- Do you think God would have carried through on His threat to destroy the people if Moses had not interceded?
- Why did Moses refuse God’s offer to make him the new Abraham in 32:10?
- In 32:20, we are told that Moses burned the calf, ground it into powder, scattered it upon the water and then made the Israelites drink it. Did Moses make all (several million, at least 600,000 men) drink this slurry? How does one burn gold? Was Moses following some formula with this procedure (such as, for example, Num 5:11-31 requires a woman accused of adultry to drink “bitter water” to assess her innocence according to what the mixture does to her body. Is this similar? Were the Israelites guilty of “adultry” (could idolatry be a form of adultry?)? If so, what was the effect on their bodies of the slurry?
- Ex 32:28 states that the Levites killed three thousand people. How were the Levites able to determine whom to kill? Did they select the ones who had a bad reaction to the slurry? What happened if someone refused to drink the slurry?
- Compare this version of the Golden Calf episode (Ex 32:7-35) to the version related in Deut 9:1-10:11). Note the differences. Look also at other throwing scenes, such as 2 Kings 23:6, 12.
- In 32:27, Moses says that he was instructed by God: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Each of you put sword on thigh, go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp and slay brother, neighbor and kin.” Where does God tell Moses to do this? If God did not give such instructions, then was Moses acting on his own? If Moses was acting on his own without the shield of God, couldn’t this massacre be considered murder and Moses punished accordingly?
- Do you think the Israelites felt guilt, remorse, or fear for this episode?
- Compare the episode of the Golden Calf to the story of Gideon (Judges 8:22-35) where Gideon asks the people to gather their gold earrings then fashions them into an ephod which Israel then wordshipped thereby participating in idolatry and “gave no thought to the Lord their God” and thus were conquered again. What are we to learn from the repetition of these two episodes? Is it human nature to seek a physical embodiment of a higher power (the golden calf, the ephod) that will not abadon them? Especially if they are alone (as the newly-freed slaves in the desert, or the newly-freed Israelites from captivity by the Midonites)? Remember, neither Moses nor Gideon accepted the role of such a leader.
[1] There seems to be two schools of thought on this point: (1) Rashi, Rashbam, Helvi Abraham ibn Ezra, Nachmanides, Saadiah Gaon, and others believe that the Israelites did no wrong and may have been influenced by outside forces to act in ways that were contrary to their desires; and (2) R. Ulla in the Bablonian Talmud (Gitin 36b), Midrashim, Philo and Maimonides all argue that the Israelites acted disgracefully but were no more than humans capable of soaring deeds as well as disgraceful ones.
[2] Note that at no point does Moses try to make excuses for the people, nor does he ever suggest that God is overreacting. The first step in repentence is to accept the fact that you transgressed and not make excuses.
[3] Aaron is trying to weasel his way out of it by first blaming the people and then by making some BS phony excuse that I just threw the gold into the fire and – abracadabra – out popped the calf. Aaron is saying, “Blame it on the people or blame it on the fire – just don’t blame me.” See the discussion of repentence in the foregoing footnote.
[4] See, “The JPS Commentary – Exodus” edited by Nahan M. Sarna (Philadelphia, PA Jewish Publication Society 1991, hardback).
[5] See “Exploring Exodus” by Naham M. Sarna, (New York, NY Schocken Books 1996, paperback).
[6] See “Exploring Exodus” above.
[7] See the essay “Aaron and the Golden Calf” for a further discussion of Aaron’s role in this episode.
[8] See the essay titled “Judaism and Nationalism”.
[9] Rabbi Abbahu bar Se’era said, “Great is repentance, for it preceded the creation of the world, as it is said, “Before the mountains were brougbht forth….You say, “Turn back, children of man”“ (Psalm 90:2-3).” Genesis Rabbah 1:4. “Israel is redeemed only by means of teshuvah, Maimonidies, Mesneh Torah, Laws of Repentance 7:5. All as reported in “Repentance, The Meaning & Practice of Teshuvah” by Dr. Louis E. Newman and published by Jewish Lights Publishing in 2010.
[10] See: Repentance, The Meaning & Practices of Teshuvah by Dr. Louis E. Newman, (Woodstock, VT Jewish Lights Publishing 2010, hardback).
[11] “Moses hastened to bow low to the ground in homage, and said, ‘If I gained Your favor, O Lord, pray, leg the Lord go in our midst, even though this is a stiffnecked people. Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your own!’”.
[12] “So the Israelites remained stripped of their finery from Mount Horeb on.”
[13] This is one possible reason for God’s over-the-top punishment of Pharaoh and the Egyptians with the last plagues, especially the plagues that killed innocents (animals and children): for the initial plagues, Pharaoh would repent, but when faced with a similar situation later would commit the identical transgression. This occurred some five times before God “went ballistic” and killed innocents, including those of His own creation. The plague episode can also be used to illustrate the steps that are required for full repentance.
[14] This is the reason that in Moses’s entire argument in favor of the people in 32:11-13, he never makes a protest for the people or tries to excuse them. The first step in repentence is to accept your responsibility and not make any excuse or protest. Moses knew that repentence is stronger than even God’s desires or intentions.