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The Golden Calf

The Golden Calf When the Jews left the land of Egypt they were on the 49th level of Tuma. When the Jews came to Mount Sinai, they had reached the 49th level of purity. So how can The Jews descend to the level of The Golden Calf? How is it possible that Aaron the high priest was capable in leading these people to make a golden calf? In addition how come Aaron wasn't punished like the rest of the people who were involved in this worship? The Bible states (Exodus 32:1-6) that The people saw that Moses had delayed in descending from the mountain, and the people gather around Aaron. Make for us a god. This was caused due to the error in counting the days in which Moses would return back to the Jews after he accepted the two tablets. Thus the Jews approached Aaron to make them a god, because they believed Moses wasn't coming back. So in response to this request Aaron the high priest, told all of the Jews to bring the gold and the bring it to him so that he may form this "Golden Calf". Rashi states (32:6) that since Aaron saw Hur killed. Aaron knew that is he stalled the Jews he would be able to allow Moses to descend from the mountain and a crisis would have been adverted. Aaron also assumed the fact that he asked for the gold of the woman, which this would stall because people are always resistant to give up their valuables. The Talmud in Sanhedrin states (7a) What did Aaron see? He saw that Hur was slaughtered before him on that day, and if I don't listen to them I will fulfill the Prophecy that a Navi and a Priest shall not be killed on one day. Therefore, he foresaw that it was easier to be forgiven for this sin then the other sin. Many commentaries see this action of Aaron as an action, which should be praise while others see it as a disgrace and that we shouldn't give Aaron any credit here. Rav Jeremiah suggests that when Aaron saw the people bring the gold he stated the fist sentence of psalm 123. The Midrash Rabbah states that when Moses came down from Sinai he was upset at Aaron. He believed that Aaron was a partner in crime with the Jews in this crime. Thus, God said to Moses that Aaron was really on Moses's side and thus should not be to be punished. This was die to the fact that Aaron was trying to delay the action of the Calf not to cause an upraise in Israel. Thus we see that even Moses thought his brother Aaron was responsible for The Golden Calf. Yet we see that Aaron did not build the Alter in the name of the Calf, rather he built it in the name of the lord. In his rational he said if the entire nation brings me the stones the alter will be built with the wrong intent and there will be idol worship right away so, he said that he had to build it himself. (Midrash Leviticus 10:2). From theses sources it seems that even though Aaron sinned, he was forgiven. His sin was in order for the Jews not to sin on such a large scale. We se that he believed compromise is the best way to go, since the Jews wouldn't settle for just hum drum old answer, Aaron felt it was time to take caution, time to steer the Jews in the right path. Even though this path wasn't as straight as we would have liked it to be, never the less we still don’t condone Aaron for this sin. The Midrash in Leviticus states that god was extremely angered by Aaron’s action in the events of the Golden Calf. Moses his brother paired for him when it was time for the lord to appoint Aaron and his sins the high Priests and the ultimate priests of Israel. The first bore supposed to really receive this blessing, but due to their sins their priesthood was taken away from them. Thus in the Midrash we see that God showed that he really forgave Aaron for his actions. Even according to the Talmud, one should not praise Aaron for his actions in conjunction with the Golden Calf. If we take a step back and once more look at Aaron’s actions we may be able to see why the Midrash agrees with Aaron's standpoint. Firstly, Aaron said to the people that you should go take the earnings of your wives. Yet these men took their own jewelry and sinned with it. In addition we can affirm the displeasure of Moses initially with Aaron in Shemoth Rabbah (42:6) we see that the real sin of Israel was not the fact that they made the Golden Calf. In truth only a small percentage was involved. What Israel was punished for was that they did not speak up against these people. They allowed them to kill Hur. They allowed them to threaten Aaron’s life so that he would be put into a situation where he would have to choose if he could make a calf. Thus the entire nation was responsible for this sin, not only Aaron but also anyone who was quiet and didn’t say they objected. The Zohar states (193 b) that the Alter that Aaron built was not meant for the idol it was meant for the sake of god. We see according to this that an Alter saves a person from being killed. Aaron held on to the altar so that the children of Israel would not be able to kill him, thus we see that the altar is refuge for all that really serve god and truly believe in it. Thus one who truly believes in the altar one can truly believe that this alter is the savior so too one who truly believes in god and serves him in the proper way he will not be denied by god In addition the Zohar states (192) that the Golden calf is attributed to Aaron, because he took the gold into his hand. The Zohar states that if the gold had touched the ground it would have lost its magical quality. Thus from this we can infer that the gold received some of its Keddusha from the fact that it went straight into the hand of Aaron and it was treated with respect and not like the real worth which it was. Now we can answer all of our questions. Firstly, the Jews were able to go down to that level because they were on a level which involved god at all points. When they didn’t see god in front of them they panicked. They were so used to having god with them step by step. Thus the Jews were able to fall. When I discuss a spiritual level I use something called the dirt theory. This theory entails how one builds their yiddishikite. When one builds his yiddishikite he has to pack his dirt in very tightly. This comes from the hard work he has put in to get to this level. When god pushed Israel into this level they weren’t really ready to handle this so they were able to fall. Thus when one builds his dirt he has to built it tight and get the true meaning of yiddishikite. Secondly, we see how Aaron was capable of creating this was because he saw what was in the future. He felt that was better for one man to sin then for the entire nation to sin. Can we go as far to say that the entire nation would have sinned due to social pressure? Of course not, but because Aaron was the one who led the fight and not some other person the Jews were able to receive the second tablets. As we see later on the Jews were forgiven for their sin. Lastly, Aaron was not punished like the rest of the Jews. One who tries to do a mitzvah gets the reward for the mitzvah. Aaron’s intend was pure, but his action was faulted. Granted we should not praise what he did as a great thing to do, but we should also be thankful that he saved us. Who knows maybe not for this action we would still be in the dessert? Bibliography:

Word Count: 1412