2008 Only a tiny portion of Jews participated in worshipping the golden calf. So why does God seem to blame the whole nation? by Rabbi Ken Spiro After 40 days on Mount Sinai, Moses came down with the Ten Commandments in hand, and what he saw angered him to such an extent that he threw down the stone tablets, shattering them at the foot of the mountain. Below, where just a few weeks ago they d stood in an encounter with God, the Jews were worshipping an idol in direct violation of the law they had just been given. The day for this infamous event is forever marked on the Hebrew calendar 17 th of Tammuz. This would be the day later in history on which the walls of Jerusalem would be breached by the Babylonians and again by the Romans prior to the destruction of both the first and the second Temple. 1
It is very important to analyze what happened with the Golden Calf and why the Bible criticizes this sin so harshly, for it gives us a better understanding of God s relationship with the Jews. At face value, it seems like a totally idiotic thing to do. I mean, if I d had an encounter during which the Infinite Creator of the Universe spoke to me, and I heard Him say, I am God, don t worship anything else, I don t think I would be stupid enough to be jumping around a golden cow a few days later. So what s going on in this story? To answer that question, it is necessary to read the text of the Bible correctly that is, ideally in its original Hebrew, but certainly with the commentators, because there s an oral tradition that must be studied along with the simple, very brief description in the text. When Moses came down the mountain, were all 3 million Jews dancing around a Golden Calf? No. The Book of Exodus 1 says it was only about 3,000 people. That means that only about 0.1% of the Jews (one in a thousand) participated and 99.9% of the Jews did nothing wrong, although the majority should have stopped the minority. Yet, the Bible makes it clear that God blamed the whole nation. Exacting Standard We already mentioned that, among all ancient books, the Bible is unique in its objective criticism, and that the purpose of this criticism is to educate. But why the hyper-criticism? One of the great untrue expressions of all time is love is blind. Infatuation surely is, but true love has a magnifying glass for faults. While to love 1 Exodus 32:28. Most of the idolaters were from the mixed multitude of individuals who left Egypt with the Jews because they were so impressed by what went on with the Ten Plagues. See Rashi on Exodus 32:4; Nachmanides on Exodus 32:7 and 32:28. 2
others means to focus on the beauty and positive within them, it doesn t mean denying their faults. An excellent practical example of this is the relationship between parents and children. Parents typically love their children beyond measure though for sure they are aware of all the kids faults. Loving parents may be quite strict, for far worse than an overly strict parent is a parent who is neglectful. If we transplant this parent analogy to God (a.k.a. Our Father in Heaven) then the hyper-critical nature of the Bible begins to make sense. While God is the God of all humanity, He has a special relationship with the Jewish people and constantly has an eye on them. He deliberately emphasizes the Jewish people s faults and mistakes to get them to pay attention to hammer home, in the strongest possible language, vital lessons that they must learn. God holds the Jews to a very high standard because they have a unique responsibility in human history. The world won t get perfected without the Jews and if the Jews blow it, all of humanity, not just the Jewish people, will suffer. Therefore, the Bible uses hyper-critical language to bring home some important principles: According to your level of knowledge is your level of responsibility. Even the small mistakes of people in positions of power have huge consequences. According to your level of responsibility is your level of accountability. The greater you are, the bigger the impact of your decisions, therefore you must be held to an extremely high standard. The Jewish people had been given the ultimate responsibility for the world at Mount Sinai, and these principles explain the criticism that God levels against them. We also learn here another fundamental idea of the Torah that every Jew is a guarantor for every other Jew. The nation of Israel is a body and the individual Jews are like cells in this body. If part of the body does 3
something wrong, the whole body is held accountable. 2 (This theme of collective responsibility repeats itself over and over again in the Bible and throughout Jewish history as we shall see.) Judaism teaches you re either part of the problem or you re part of the solution, and that you have an obligation to be part of the solution. Being a by-stander is not an option. Till today, the Bible is virtually the only moral/legal code in the world which demands that you actively do good. 3 The Aftermath As a sign of His displeasure over the Golden Calf, God distanced himself from the Jewish people and the Tent of Meeting (Moses s tent for communicating with God) was moved outside the camp, while Moses spent a lot of time dealing with the aftermath of the debacle. He smashed the idol, gathered loyal Levites around him and executed those responsible. (As you might have noticed the Bible is not a liberal book. While it is full of the merciful acts of God, it also emphasizes that there are serious consequences for wrongdoing.) Moses went back up the mountain on the first of Elul Rosh Chodesh Elul. Elul is the month before Rosh Hashana, the beginning of the Jewish year. He spent 40 days on the mountain again and came back down with the second set of tablets a clear sign that God had forgiven the Jewish people. What s the day Moses came back down? Yom Kippur. As already mentioned, each Jewish holiday has a specific theme or focus. While the holidays are linked to specific historical events, on a deeper level they are connected to the different spiritual forces embedded within the yearly cycle. Each holiday in the cycle touches on a fundamental concept 2 Deuteronomy 29:28; Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 43b. 3 This is epitomized by the expression Follow His ways. (Deuteronomy 28:9). An excellent example of this is the obligation to give 10% of one s income to charity. See also Sefer HaHinuch 611, and WorldPerfect: The Jewish Impact on Civilization, Chapter 14. 4
and serves as an opportunity for an improved relationship with God. From Yom Kippur comes the spiritual power of teshuva of repentance, of returning to closeness with God and repairing relationships with others. DAY HEBREW DATE EVENT 1 15 th Nissan Exodus from Egypt 50 6 th of Sivan Encounter with God at Mount Sinai Moses on Mount Sinai for 40 days receiving the Torah 90 17 th of Tammuz Moses comes down with Ten Commandments to see Golden Calf Moses on Mount Sinai for 40 days begging God s forgiveness 130 1 st of Elul Moses ascends to receive the second set of the Ten Commandments Moses on Mount Sinai for 40 more days 170 Yom Kippur God grants forgiveness and Moses descends with second set of tablets As a sign of forgiveness God told Moses that He would again dwell among the Jewish people, and He instructed how His home was to be built: They shall make for Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell among them. 4 Following this command, the Torah spends many chapters giving intricate instructions just exactly how this totally portable sanctuary (for subsequent travels) was to be built. When finished, the sanctuary consisted of a large tent called a Tent of the Meeting surrounded by a courtyard. Inside the courtyard was an altar where sacrifices were offered. In the tent were two rooms. The outer room held a seven-branched candelabra, a table with 12 loaves of bread on it, and an incense altar. The inner room called the Holy of Holies held the Ark of the Covenant. Inside the Ark were the two sets of the Ten 4 Exodus 25:8. This commandment actually is related in the Book of Exodus prior to the sin of the Golden Calf and is considered by the biblical commentators a classic example of how God prepares the cure even before the disease i.e. the elements for reconciliation are already in place before the Jews had violated their covenant with God. 5
Commandments the broken set inscribed by God, and the second set inscribed by Moses. Anyone who has seen Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark has seen a pretty good replica of what the Ark looked like. It was a wooden chest covered with gold, and it was decorated on top with two small statues of winged cherubs. The Talmud says that the two cherubs normally faced each other, but when the Jewish people were not getting along with God they would be turned away from each other. 5 The whole structure called the Mishkan in Hebrew was not a portable synagogue or a museum. It was a tool to be used by the Jewish people individually and as a nation, to connect to God. When it was completed, the Torah relates that the clouds of glory a manifestation of Divine Presence known as the Shechinah would literally rest on the sanctuary as a tangible sign that God was with the Jewish people. When the sanctuary stood, people would feel holiness in the world in a way we can t begin to understand today. No amount of description can begin to give us a sense of what it would have been like to connect spiritually to God via the Mishkan. Today we are like people born blind no description of the site can begin to replace the actual experience. So central was the Mishkan to Judaism that following the account of the flight from Egypt and encounter with God at Mount Sinai, much of the Five Books of Moses are spent describing the construction of the Mishkan, its vessels and the priestly service that took place with in it. Because the Mishkan is now gone, only 369 of the 613 commandments are applicable and most of those are negative commandments (of the thou shall not variety). Most of positive commandments are focused on how to 5 Talmud, Tractate Yoma 54 a/b. Also see: Kitov, Eliyahu, The Book of Our Heritage, Jerusalem: Feldheim, 1978, Vol. 3, pp. 257-258. 6
use the Mishkan to connect to God. The loss of that structure has had tremendous implications for the Jews (and all of humanity s) ability to relate to God. The service in both the Mishkan and later the Temple (which was its replacement) was carried out by the priests in Hebrew, Kohanim. The first Kohanim were Moses s brother Aaron and Aaron s sons. This line has continued until today. Most interesting is the fact that recent genetic analysis of the Y-chromosomes of hundreds of Kohanim from around the world proves that close to 80% are in fact descended from common male ancestors who lived more than 3,000 years ago. 6 Even though the Temple service has been discontinued since the destruction of the Temple by the Romans, the Kohanim who often have the last name like Cohen, Kahane, Kahn, Katz or Cowen are still awarded special honors in recognition of their unique status and responsibility. 7 The Mishkan which was readily dis-assembled and assembled accompanied the Jews in their wanderings in the desert for 40 years. For 440 years after they entered the Land of Israel, but before they conquered Jerusalem, they assembled it in several different locations. After David became king and made Jerusalem his capital, he planned to build a permanent structure just outside the city, atop Mount Moriah where Abraham had offered Isaac as a sacrifice to God and where Jacob had dreamt of a ladder to heaven. For reasons that we will explain later, he did not actualize his plan. Finally, in 832 BCE, his son, King Solomon, built the first Temple there, and it became the permanent sanctuary until it was destroyed by the Babylonians in 422 BCE. 8 At this time the Ark of the Covenant disappeared, 6 For more information on this fascinating subject see Kleiman, Yaakov, DNA & Tradition: The Genetic Link to the Ancient Hebrews, Jerusalem: Devora, 2004. 7 For example, the first person called up during the Torah reading is a kohen. 8 For an explanation of the discrepancy between the Christian/Western dating and Jewish chronology, see Author s Note at the beginning of this book. 7
never to be seen again. (We will discuss the speculations where it might be hidden in class #22 when we reach that point in history.) 70 years after the first destruction and exile, the Jews returned and rebuilt the Temple, which again was destroyed, this time by the Romans in 70 CE, never to be rebuilt again. The golden Dome of the Rock, which is there now, was built on the site by the Muslims in the year 691 CE, and it has stood there ever since. But we are getting ahead of the story. At this juncture in time, the Jewish people have experienced a national revelation. They ve been given the Torah and built the sanctuary for God to dwell among them. Now they are ready to enter the Promised Land. 8