Weekly Torah portion: Ki Tissa

Rabbi Avinoam Sharon|Published: 03.13.09 , 08:13

This Shabbat we read parashat Ki Tissa and the story of the Golden Calf. The Israelites turn to Aaron, saying: “Come, make us a god (elohim) who shall go before us, for that man Moses, who brought us from the land of Egypt — we do not know what has happened to him.” We commonly think of the Golden Calf as an instance of the Israelites falling into idolatry, making an idol to replace God. That, indeed, would seem to be the understanding of the English translations that refer to “a god” or “gods”, and that would appear to be the understanding of commentators like Rashi, who explained: “They yearned to have many gods.”

This approach focuses on the word “elohim”, which is usually employed to refer to God or a deity. But the term “elohim” can have other meanings (see, e.g., Genesis 30:8; Exodus 22:7; I Samuel 28:13; Psalms 68:16; Zechariah 12:8), and it is possible that the Israelites were merely asking for a new leadership figure to replace Moses, as Nahmanides explains: “They did not want the calf to serve as a god of life and death (i.e., a deity), for they accepted His lordship over them, but they wanted a guide to replace Moses.”

And as Nahmanides explains, that was the way Aaron presented the matter to Moses, “claiming that they only asked me to make an elohim that would go before them in your place, since they did not know what had become of you, and whether or not you would return, and therefore they needed someone who would direct them as long as you were absent, and if you were to return, they would abandon it and follow you as before.”

The Sages also seem to imply another view of the significance of the Golden Calf by tying it to the ritual of the Red Heifer, that we read about this Shabbat: “Why are males brought for all the other sacrifices, while this one is female? R. Ibo said: It is like when the son of a maidservant soils the king’s palace, and the king says: Let his mother come and clean up the mess. So said the Holy One, let the cow be brought to repent for the matter of the calf” (Pesikta Rabati, s.14 s.v. para).

1. How did Moses understand the significance of the Golden Calf? Did he perceive it to be another God or another Moses?

2. Can Aaron’s excuse and Nahmanides’ explanation be squared with the verse: “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”?

3. God warned Moses that the Israelites “made themselves a molten calf and bowed low to it and sacrificed to it, saying: This is your god.” Moses responded: “Let not Your anger, O Lord, blaze forth against Your people, whom You delivered from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand.” Why did Moses become so angry, and smash the Tablets, when he knew about the Golden Calf in advance, and even asked God to forgive the Israelites?

4. The Sages compare the Golden Calf to the Red Heifer that is used to remove the ritual impurity caused by contact with a corpse. What idea might they have wished to convey by this comparison? Were the Sages making a statement about the nature of human sin and defilement, about some conceptual similarity between the Calf and the Heifer, or perhaps about the essence and workings of magic and idolatry?

5. In response to the sin of the Golden Calf, Moses burned the calf “ground it to powder and strewed it upon the water and so made the Israelites drink it.” This act is reminiscent of the sotah ordeal in parashat Naso: “The priest shall put these curses down in writing and rub it off into the water of bitterness. He is to make the woman drink the water of bitterness that induces the spell, so that the spell-inducing water may enter into her to bring on bitterness” (Numbers 5:23-24). This similarity is hardly surprising bearing in mind that the Bible views idolatry as unfaithfulness to God. But if the Golden Calf was intended to serve as a surrogate for Moses, why did Moses choose to use this ritual response to infidelity as the symbolic response to the sin of the Golden Calf?

Iyunei Shabbat is published weekly by the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary, The Masorti Movement and The Rabbinical Assembly of Israel in conjunction with the Masorti Movement in Israel and Masorti Olami-World Council of Conservative Synagogues.