🎤Kol-🐥Hayyah🐘 - קוֹל־חַיָּ֖ה
Ki Tissa’ 5779: דבר תורה טבעוני, translated by Eliran Sobel
"The Eternal 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 Eternal further said to Moses, "I see that this is a stiffnecked 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'" (Exodus 32:7-11, adapted from NJPS translation).
Moses descends from Mount Sinai, from the most spiritual place to be found, after staying with God for forty days and forty nights, and reaches the bottom of the mountain to discover the People dancing and rejoicing facing the golden calf, the sin of idolatry being celebrated with happiness, the very People who not very long ago witnessed God's might in Egypt and in the splitting of the Red Sea.
It is difficult to explain why the people succumbed to sin of the Golden Calf, in making a gold statue, so soon after the spiritual exaltation they experienced at Mount Sinai. A well-known explanation is that in the creation of the Golden Calf, the Israelites wanted to serve God specifically, but in the absence of Moshe, who was delayed on the mountain, they were prevented from having mediation between people and God [i.e. Moses mediating for them], they had to create for themselves another form of mediation, through which they would serve God.
Aaron builds an altar and notes that it is for the service of God- "he built an altar before it; and Aaron announced: 'Tomorrow shall be a festival of the Eternal!'" (Exodus 32:5). Also the Israelites worship the Golden Calf in the way they worship God: "This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!" (Exodus 32:4).
The Israelites, inside, want to serve God, but they do not know how. Are worried about being alone with God without a mediator. All they know is idolatry, as it was and as they saw and did in Egypt. The transition from idol worship to worship of God directly without intermediaries is a development that seems difficult to execute. In one moment in a vacuum, the people fall and do not know how to worship God in the right way. In a moment's decision, impulsively, in the ecstasy of wanting to worship God - the people fall and sin in the creation of a golden calf.
And what does God want from us altogether? "Do what is right and good in the sight of the Eternal" (Deuteronomy 6:18). The Nachmanides explains, "And the intention of this is that from the beginning God said to keep God's commandments, testimonies, and laws as God has commanded them. And now, it says: even regarding what God did not command, pay attention to do what is good and right in God's eyes, because God loves goodness and righteousness. And it is important because it is impossible to mention in the Torah (what should be) everyone's conduct; with their neighbors and friends, in any business matter, and regarding ordinances of any town or country" (Sefaria). God wants us to open our eyes and thoughts and understand what is right and good and proper conduct between one and their neighbors, beyond what is explicitly written and commanded directly. What does God want from us:
That we should merit to do what is right and good in God's eyes, and not fall into deciding on the quick satisfaction of our gluttony¹ with the rationalization of doing good or right.
¹ In Modern Hebrew, the word really just means, "craving," "lust," or "desire," but I translated it as "gluttony" as a reference to the story ending in Numbers 11:35, where the same word is used.
Ki Tissa’ 5779: דבר תורה טבעוני, translated by Eliran Sobel
"The Eternal 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 Eternal further said to Moses, "I see that this is a stiffnecked 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'" (Exodus 32:7-11, adapted from NJPS translation).
Moses descends from Mount Sinai, from the most spiritual place to be found, after staying with God for forty days and forty nights, and reaches the bottom of the mountain to discover the People dancing and rejoicing facing the golden calf, the sin of idolatry being celebrated with happiness, the very People who not very long ago witnessed God's might in Egypt and in the splitting of the Red Sea.
It is difficult to explain why the people succumbed to sin of the Golden Calf, in making a gold statue, so soon after the spiritual exaltation they experienced at Mount Sinai. A well-known explanation is that in the creation of the Golden Calf, the Israelites wanted to serve God specifically, but in the absence of Moshe, who was delayed on the mountain, they were prevented from having mediation between people and God [i.e. Moses mediating for them], they had to create for themselves another form of mediation, through which they would serve God.
Aaron builds an altar and notes that it is for the service of God- "he built an altar before it; and Aaron announced: 'Tomorrow shall be a festival of the Eternal!'" (Exodus 32:5). Also the Israelites worship the Golden Calf in the way they worship God: "This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!" (Exodus 32:4).
The Israelites, inside, want to serve God, but they do not know how. Are worried about being alone with God without a mediator. All they know is idolatry, as it was and as they saw and did in Egypt. The transition from idol worship to worship of God directly without intermediaries is a development that seems difficult to execute. In one moment in a vacuum, the people fall and do not know how to worship God in the right way. In a moment's decision, impulsively, in the ecstasy of wanting to worship God - the people fall and sin in the creation of a golden calf.
And what does God want from us altogether? "Do what is right and good in the sight of the Eternal" (Deuteronomy 6:18). The Nachmanides explains, "And the intention of this is that from the beginning God said to keep God's commandments, testimonies, and laws as God has commanded them. And now, it says: even regarding what God did not command, pay attention to do what is good and right in God's eyes, because God loves goodness and righteousness. And it is important because it is impossible to mention in the Torah (what should be) everyone's conduct; with their neighbors and friends, in any business matter, and regarding ordinances of any town or country" (Sefaria). God wants us to open our eyes and thoughts and understand what is right and good and proper conduct between one and their neighbors, beyond what is explicitly written and commanded directly. What does God want from us:
That we should merit to do what is right and good in God's eyes, and not fall into deciding on the quick satisfaction of our gluttony¹ with the rationalization of doing good or right.
¹ In Modern Hebrew, the word really just means, "craving," "lust," or "desire," but I translated it as "gluttony" as a reference to the story ending in Numbers 11:35, where the same word is used.