credits:
Rabbi Shai Held, The Importance of Charactor Or: Why Stubborness is Worse than Idolatry; Hadar
Andrew Pepperstone, Aharon and The Golden Calf; Sefaria worksheet
Susan V. Meschel, Metallurgy in the Bible: Ironworking and the Disposal of the Golden Calf, Internet
Summary:
- Take a census of all men eligible for army service ("when you take a census") by all men paying a half-shekel regardless of their station or wealth
- Rules/rituals for Aaron and sons when they enter the mishkan
- Annointing Aaron and sons as priests
- Bezalel identified as the master artisan
- Restates commandment to keep the Sabbath
- The Golden Calf
- God wants to kill all the Israelites, but Moses talks him out of it (what will the Egyptians think?)
- God talks to Moses face-to-face
- Moses: Let me behold your presence. God lets him see his back
- Second set of tablets
The Sin of the Golden Calf:
(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.
Aaron's attempted cover-up:
The punishment:
A quick metallurgical aside:
Gold is too soft to make durable artifacts. A popular alloy in the Biblical period was electrum, 50% gold, 50% silver.
It's also very expensive, so amassing enought gold to cast a solid gold calf would be prohibitive.
Most likely it was a wooden sculpture, covered with hammered gold like many of the artifacts in the mishkan.
Gold doesn't burn; it melts.
Ibn Ezra says the gold was melted down and a chemical was added to blacken it. Then it was hammered into sheets and shreedded
If you strew gold dust on water, it will sink before you can drink it.
David Frankel: Typo in the Torah. It was the tablets that were ground to dust, not the Golden Calf. Limestone can be ground and will float on water (see ritual of the sotah.
The apologists:
(1) באזני נשיכם [BREAK OFF THE GOLDEN PENDANTS], WHICH ARE IN THE EARS OF YOUR WIVES — Aaron said to himself: women and children have a love for their ornaments; perhaps the matter will be delayed because they will hesitate to give their ornaments, and in the meantime Moses may arrive.
Ibn Ezra on Exodus 32
Our Sages deduced that Aharon, seeing that Hur had been killed, made the calf because he was afraid. Their evidence that Hur was killed is that he is never mentioned after this. But it is certainly implausible that Hur would have been more righteous that Aharon, refusing the make the calf when Aharon did not.
Ramban on Exodus 32:1
What they needed was a new "man of God." You can learn from Aharon's excuse to Moses that it is as I have explained: "They said to me, 'Make us a god to lead us' " - not a god to worship. He explained to Moshe, "As long as you were gone, they needed a guide. If you should return, they would leave him and follow you, as they had done at first." In fact, this is exactly what happened. As soon as the people saw Moshe, they abandoned the calf contemptuously, letting Moses burn it and grind it to powder without anyone intervening. In fact, they fled from the calf without Moshe's saying a word to them. If they had really worshipped the calf, they certainly would not have let Moshe burn it without stoning him to death!
Rashi
He built an altar. As a ploy to put them off.
"Tomorrow shall be a festival of the Lord!"He said, "tomorrow" rather than "today," assuming that Moshe would show up before they actually worshipped it. That is the straightforward interpretation of this verse.
Me: Aaron panicked.
Aaron's resume: Slave --> Mouthpiece for Moses
No experience with leadership. Did what he in the moment felt he should be as interim leader, then tried to cover it up.
Went on to become High Priest, a role which did not require leadership, but strict adherence to rules and regs.
God's response:
NB: The sin was not idolatry, but stubborness
R. Nosson Tzvi Finkel (the Alter of Slabodka 1849-1927), Rabbi Shai Held
The Israelites commit the crime of idolatry and yet God wants to punish them... for their stubborness?! If someone did something truly awful, why would we discipline her for a far smaller, seemingly insignificant offense? After the worst breach of the covenant imaginable, how can God want to punish the Israelites for something other than the sin itself? There is something deeply odd, he insists, about the Israelites committing idolatry and being condemned to death on account of their stiffneckedness.
Who you are is more important than what you do
What does it mean to walk in God's ways
Midrash Sifrei, Eikev 49:
As God is called merciful, so should you be merciful; as God is called gracious, so should you be g racious. As God is called righteous, so you too should be righteous...
BT, Sotah 14a
As God clothes the naked, so you, too, clothe the naked; the Blessed Holy One visited the sic, so lyou,m too, visit the sick...
Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Teshuvah 7:3)
Do not think that repentance is only necessary for those sins that involve a deed such as promiscuity, robbery, or theft. Rather, just as a person is obligated to repent from these, similarly, he must search after the bad character traits he has. He must repent from anger, hatred, envy, frivolity, the pursuit of money and honor, gluttony and the like. He must repent for all of these
Rabbi Held
God's surprising response to the idolatrous infidelity of the Israelites, then, teaches us a crucial lesson about Jewish ethics: As we make our away through the world, Judaism asks us to take careful stock not just of the things we do, but also of the kind of human beings we are. From a religious perspective, character really does matter.
Takeaway: Yes, Aaron erred when given the (temporary) mantel of leadership, a job for which he was totally unsuited. Rather than "firing" him God realized He had set up a no-win situation and saw the goodness and dedication of Aaron. Aaron went on to serve as the High Priest and was beloved by the people.
In our daily lives, let us resist the urge to "fire" someone when they fail to succeed, looking for the good in them and setting up situations in which they will shine. This applies to both professional and personal relationships.
About metallurgy: