Golden Calves

Rebbi Yudan in the name of Rebbi Yasa: There is no generation in which there is not an ounce of the sin of the Calf.

R. Isaac said: “No retribution whatsoever comes upon the world which does not contain a slight fraction (a twenty-fourth) of the [retribution for] first calf (i.e., the golden calf in the wilderness).”

(1) Hear, O Israel! You are about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and more populous than you: great cities with walls sky-high; (2) a people great and tall, the Anakites, of whom you have knowledge; for you have heard it said, “Who can stand up to the children of Anak?” (3) Know then this day that none other than your God ה' is crossing at your head, a devouring fire; it is [God] who will wipe them out—subduing them before you, that you may quickly dispossess and destroy them, as ה' promised you. (4) And when your God ה' has thrust them from your path, say not to yourselves, “יהוה has enabled us to possess this land because of our virtues”; it is rather because of the wickedness of those nations that ה' is dispossessing them before you. (5) It is not because of your virtues and your rectitude that you will be able to possess their country; but it is because of their wickedness that your God ה' is dispossessing those nations before you, and in order to fulfill the oath that ה' made to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (6) Know, then, that it is not for any virtue of yours that your God ה' is giving you this good land to possess; for you are a stiffnecked people. (7) Remember, never forget, how you provoked your God ה' to anger in the wilderness: from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place, you have continued defiant toward ה'. (8) At Horeb you so provoked ה' that ה' was angry enough with you to have destroyed you. (9) I had ascended the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the Tablets of the Covenant that ה' had made with you, and I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, eating no bread and drinking no water. (10) And ה' gave me the two tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God, with the exact words that ה' had addressed to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the Assembly. (11) At the end of those forty days and forty nights, ה' gave me the two tablets of stone, the Tablets of the Covenant. (12) And ה' said to me, “Hurry, go down from here at once, for the people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted wickedly; they have been quick to stray from the path that I enjoined upon them; they have made themselves a molten image.” (13) ה' further said to me, “I see that this is a stiffnecked people. (14) Let Me alone and I will destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make you a nation far more numerous than they.” (15) I started down the mountain, a mountain ablaze with fire, the two Tablets of the Covenant in my two hands. (16) I saw how you had sinned against your God ה': you had made yourselves a molten calf; you had been quick to stray from the path that ה' had enjoined upon you. (17) Thereupon I gripped the two tablets and flung them away with both my hands, smashing them before your eyes. (18) I threw myself down before ה' —eating no bread and drinking no water forty days and forty nights, as before—because of the great wrong you had committed, doing what displeased and vexed ה'. (19) For I was in dread of the fierce anger against you which moved ה' to wipe you out. And that time, too, ה' gave heed to me.— (20) Moreover, ה' was angry enough with Aaron to have destroyed him; so I also interceded for Aaron at that time.— (21) As for that sinful thing you had made, the calf, I took it and put it to the fire; I broke it to bits and ground it thoroughly until it was fine as dust, and I threw its dust into the brook that comes down from the mountain. (22) Again you provoked ה' at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah. (23) And when ה' sent you on from Kadesh-barnea, saying, “Go up and take possession of the land that I am giving you,” you flouted the command of your God ה' —whom you did not put your trust in nor obey. (24) As long as I have known you, you have been defiant toward ה'. (25) When I lay prostrate before ה' those forty days and forty nights,*those forty days and forty nights Lit. “the forty days and forty nights that I lay prostrate.” because ה' was determined to destroy you, (26) I prayed to ה' and said, “O Lord ה', do not annihilate Your very own people, whom You redeemed in Your majesty and whom You freed from Egypt with a mighty hand. (27) Give thought to Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and pay no heed to the stubbornness of this people, its wickedness, and its sinfulness. (28) Else the country from which You freed us will say, ‘It was because ה' was powerless to bring them into the land promised to them, and because of having rejected them, that [their god] brought them out to have them die in the wilderness.’ (29) Yet they are Your very own people, whom You freed with Your great might and Your outstretched arm.”

(1) ואתנפל לפני ה׳ כראשנה ארבעים יום AND I FELL DOWN BEFORE THE LORD, AS AT THE FIRST, FORTY DAYS, as it is said (Exodus 32:30) “And now I will go up to the Lord, perhaps I may atone [for your sin]”. At that ascent, which was the second I made, I tarried there forty days — consequently these terminated on the twenty-ninth of Ab, since he had ascended on the eighteenth of Tammuz. On that same day in Ab He became reconciled with Israel and said to Moses (Exodus 34:1) “Hew thee out two tablets”. He stayed there another forty days; consequently these terminated on the Day of Atonement (the tenth of Tishri). On that same day, the Holy One, blessed be He, was gladly reconciled (i.e. completely reconciled) with Israel and said to Moses, I have forgiven according to thy word. On this account it was appointed for pardon and forgiveness.

(1) 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 fellow Moses—the man who brought us from the land of Egypt—we do not know what has happened to him.” (2) Aaron said to them, “[You men,] take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” (3) And all the people took off the gold rings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. (4) 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!” (5) When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron announced: “Tomorrow shall be a festival of יהוה!” (6) 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. (7) ה' spoke to Moses, “Hurry down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have acted basely. (8) 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!’” (9) ה' further said to Moses, “I see that this is a stiffnecked people. (10) 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.” (11) But Moses implored his God ה', saying, “Let not Your anger, ה', blaze forth against Your people, whom You delivered from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand. (12) 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. (13) 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 to your offspring this whole land of which I spoke, to possess forever.” (14) And ה' renounced the punishment planned for God’s people. (15) 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 the one side and on the other. (16) The tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing, incised upon the tablets. (17) When Joshua heard the sound of the people in its boisterousness, he said to Moses, “There is a cry of war in the camp.” (18) 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!” (19) 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. (20) 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. (21) Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such great sin upon them?” (22) Aaron said, “Let not my lord be enraged. You know that this people is bent on evil. (23) They said to me, ‘Make us a god to lead us; for that fellow Moses—the man who brought us from the land of Egypt—we do not know what has happened to him.’ (24) 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!” (25) 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. (26) Moses stood up in the gate of the camp and said, “Whoever is for ה', come here!” And all the men of Levi rallied to him. (27) He said to them, “Thus says ה', the God of Israel: Each of you put sword on thigh, go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay sibling, neighbor, and kin.” (28) The men of Levi did as Moses had bidden; and some three thousand of the people fell that day. (29) And Moses said, “Dedicate yourselves to ה' this day—for each of you has been against blood relations—that [God] may bestow a blessing upon you today.” (30) The next day Moses said to the people, “You have been guilty of a great sin. Yet I will now go up to ה'; perhaps I may win forgiveness for your sin.” (31) Moses went back to ה' and said, “Alas, this people is guilty of a great sin in making for themselves a god of gold. (32) Now, if You will forgive their sin [well and good]; but if not, erase me from the record which You have written!” (33) But ה' said to Moses, “Only one who has sinned against Me will I erase from My record. (34) Go now, lead the people where I told you. See, My messenger shall go before you. But when I make an accounting, I will bring them to account for their sins.” (35) Then ה' sent a plague upon the people, for what they did with the calf that Aaron made.