Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: The Golden Calf -- What was the Crime?

At the table where I generally sit for the morning prayer service recently there was a cohein and a levi. I joked, "Hey if R' Ploni were here we would have all of Klal Yisrael represented -- cohein, levi, yisrael, and me -- the eirev rav." (They weren't born as part of Klal Yisrael, I wasn't born as part of Klal Yisrael... get it?) 😁

I thought it was funny, but the cohein and levi both looked at me and said, "You are not eirev rav; don't talk like that!" It was parshas Ki Sisa, so "eirev rav" is a bit of a trigger, after all. I started thinking about the eirev rav, though, and -- as often happens -- the simple, superficial understanding of the situation started to unravel. How did they get there? They crossed though the Yam Suf with Klal Yisrael. What did the eirev rav eat? Presumably the mahn along with everyone else. Moreover, even though it certainly was (a relatively small number of ) individuals from the eirev rav who built and worshiped the golden calf (Shmos 32:4, and Rashi there), it was Klal Yisrael that was in danger of extermination by The Creator Himself.

To recap: Klal Yisrael did not worship nor build the golden calf; yet they were threatened with extermination and suffer to this day from those events. The members of the eirev rav who actively participated were summarily put to death, but on the whole didn't receive the curse for generations that Klal Yisrael suffered (and continues to suffer).

What was the grave sin of Klal Yisrael? At the receiving of the Torah, Klal Yisrael was asked if they wanted the Torah and they responded with two simple words: נעשה ונשמע -- we will do (whatever You, our Father, our King, our Creator) desires us to do; and we are ready to hear and learn what that is. Yet, when the situation got a little dicey, we were already looking for options.

Chazal compare the sin of Klal Yisrael to a bride having an affair under the wedding canopy. Imagine the new bride in the yichud room and her beloved chason excuses himself to freshen up. There is a knock on the door and the waiter brings in their first meal. Seeing that bride is alone, the waiter decides to flirt with her, even ask what she is doing later. Imagine her smiling demurely. Not accepting, but tacitly giving him permission to continue. Is there any greater betrayal of her new chason than that?

That's what Klal Yisrael did when the eirev rav built their golden calf and (Shmos 32:4) announced that this was their god who led them out of Mitzrayim. Why were they silent? Why didn't they rebuke and feel outrage? Is there any greater betrayal of HaShem than that? Is there a greater demonstration that נעשה ונשמע were just words?!

We are still paying for that mistake. Not in a punitive way, chas v'shalom, but in a remedial way. Whenever things go off the rails and we calm ourselves by remembering that HaShem runs the world and we are his kallah, then we heal that wound and strengthen our bond with our Father, our King, our Creator.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: אוושא מילתא Debases Yours Shabbos

My granddaughter came home with a list the girls and phone numbers in her first grade class.  It was cute because they had made it an arts and crafts project by pasting the list to piece of construction paper cut out to look like an old desk phone and a receiver attached by a pipe cleaner.  I realized, though, that the cuteness was entirely lost on her.  She, of course, has never seen a desk phone with a receiver.  When they pretend to talk on the phone, it is on any relatively flat, rectangular object they find.  (In fact, her 18 month old brother turns every  relatively flat, rectangular object into a phone and walks around babbling into it.  Not much different than the rest of us, except his train of thought is not interrupted by someone else babbling into his ear.) I was reminded of that when my chavrusa (who has children my grandchildrens age) and I were learning about אוושא מילתא.  It came up because of a quote from the Shulchan Aruch HaRav that referred to the noise of תקתוק
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: Love in the Time of Corona Virus/Anxiously Awaiting the Mashiach

Two scenarios: Scenario I: A young boy awakened in the middle of the night, placed in the back of vehicle, told not to make any noise, and the vehicle speeds off down the highway. Scenario II: Young boy playing in park goes to see firetruck, turns around to see scary man in angry pursuit, poised to attack. I experienced and lived through both of those scenarios. Terrifying, no? Actually, no; and my picture was never on a milk carton. Here's the context: Scenario I: We addressed both set of our grandparents as "grandma" and "grandpa". How did we distinguish? One set lived less than a half hour's drive; those were there "close grandma and grandpa". The other set lived five hour drive away; they were the "way far away grandma and grandpa". To make the trip the most pleasant for all of us, Dad would wake up my brother and I at 4:00AM, we'd groggily -- but with excitement! -- wander out and down to the garage where we'd crawl
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: What Category of Muktzeh are Our Candles?

As discussed in a recent TftD , a p'sak halacha quite surprising to many, that one may -- even לכתחילה -- decorate a birthday cake with (unlit, obviously) birthday candles on Shabbos. That p'sak is predicated on another p'sak halacha; namely, that our candles are muktzeh because they are a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not  מוקצה מחמת גופו/intrinsically set aside from any use on Shabbos. They point there was that using the candle as a decoration qualifies as a need that allows one to utilize a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור. Today we will discuss the issue of concluding that our candles are , in fact, a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not מוקצה מחמת גופו. Along the way we'll also (again) how important it is to have personal relationship with your rav/posek, the importance of precision in vocabulary, and how to interpret the Mishna Brura.  Buckle up. After reviewing siman 308 and the Mishna Brura there, I concluded that it should be permissible to use birthday candles to decorate a cake on Shabbo
Post a Comment
Read more