Ki Thisa: How you see it

Ki Thisa: How you see it

The Golden Calf is one of the climatic moments in the Torah.  Standing at the foot of Mount Sinai in the anticipation of the giving of the law is the event that unified the Israelite people. It is  amplified by the descent of the cloud onto the volcano of  mount Sinai.  This  is the setting  for the great treachery: the populist production of a molten idol. The people's bacchanal is halted by the smashing of the Tablets, Gd's handiwork.  The idol is cremated and ground into dust which is cast into the water supply, 3000 are killed for their treachery, and Moses ascends to ask for ... and obtain ...expiation from Gd, the Law Giver.  Moses hews new tablets and the laws are reproduced.  When Moses returns with the second set of tablets (a collaboration between Gd and Moses) Moses is no longer an ordinary human. He is luminous. 

The  Mt Sinai drama started  back in parshath Yithro, 31/2 parshaioth back. Jethro had recommended that the the law be publicly available and the system for justice be a hierarchy with Moshe at the top.  A description of a  spectacle with a smoking, trembling, very dangerous mountain,  and brave Moshe ascending toward  the trumpetting voice from heaven, follows the outline of the plan.  Presumably,  this was part of the Jethro plan to validate ( his son in law) Moses and the law he delivered to the people.  In  this week's parsha, after a detour into civil and religious laws and a description of the plan for the Tabernacle, we have the rebellion of the golden calf, the  second Tablets of collaboration,  and the separation of the shining Moses from the rest of humanity.  This chapter adds to the unapproachable and immutable nature of the Divine Law as transmitted by Moses. 

In the absence of Moshe. the people go beyond creating their own law. They knowingly create their own god(s).  They create a force behind their whim-driven sense of justice. They storm the capitol. 

There are some interesting aspects to the way the calf is referenced.

The creation of the calf is described

וַיִּקַּ֣ח מִיָּדָ֗ם וַיָּ֤צַר אֹתוֹ֙ בַּחֶ֔רֶט וַֽיַּעֲשֵׂ֖הוּ עֵ֣גֶל מַסֵּכָ֑ה וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ אֵ֤לֶּה אֱ    יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר הֶעֱל֖וּךָ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃

This ( the broken off  golden earrings) he (Aaron) took from them and cast in a mold, and made it into a molten calf. And they exclaimed, “These are your god(s), O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!”

Why do they refer to the calf as these, pleural? 

I think it relates to the nature of the idol.  It was מַסֵּכָ֑ה. molten... fluid.  The fundamental property of a liquid is that it retains its  substance (volume) but can assume  the shape of its container.  The idol has such a fluid nature.  It could mean what the observer imagined.   The accumulated riches was the force that brought the people out of Egypt.  The  unification of the people behind a single force brought the people out of Egypt. ...

The events described in this parsha are all about testimony.  The clouds and the voice emanating from the  fiery mountain were evidence of the Divine origin of the law.  The tablets were to be placed in the ark of testimony. 

 The people had worn jewels testifying to their engagement  with Gd, their עֶדְי֖וֹ,  The root of the word ayd  means witness.  They remove the  ornaments  when they are told that Gd will not personally accompany them to the Promised Land; and then Gd tells them to remove them.  The intimate relationship is broken, now it will be more distant, more formal. Moshe manages to repair the relationship. 

The Golden Calf was needed to establish the nature of the law as a bond between humans  and the Divine. It is an echo of the first interaction involving knowledge ( and its tree) in the Garden of Eden. There, the theft of the forbidden enlightenment is punished by death and exile.  Here the knowledge ( of the law) will be a source of rapprochement between Israel and Gd.  

  Had everything gone smoothly, the relationship between Gd and Israel would not have been tested, the law -set in stone - would be too rigid, its violation too lethal.  The second tablets are the paradigm of repentance.   The broken  relationship can be salvaged, but new tablets now must be provided by the work of the (best of) penitent, and the writing is dictated by Gd and transcribed by Moses. The law is cooperative, but it is not entirely fluid. 

Now we know that the "gift" of knowledge leads to the ability to destroy the world ( by nuclear holocaust or the irresponsible  management of carbon as fuel).   Can  another kind of knowledge, the law,  be a path to saving the world?