The sin of the
Golden Calf presents us with difficulties on two levels. How was a people
inspired by the events of the Red Sea and Sinai capable of becoming idol
worshippers? What is perhaps more puzzling, however, is the manner and the speed
of the transformation which overwhelmed them. “They have turned aside quickly
from the way which I commanded them.” [Shemot 32,8] Temptation was no
sooner presented than they succumbed. Not for them the slippery slide into
wrongdoing which befalls most who are ensnared by the “evil inclination”.
Ibn Ezra [1089
-1164] answers the first question by suggesting that the “calf” was nothing more
than a figurehead substitute for their leader Moshe whom they believed had died
on Sinai. It was the mixed multitude who later subverted the calf to be an
object of idol-worship. Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi [1075 – 1141], on the other hand,
in his Sefer HaKuzary accepts that idolatry may have been its original purpose.
However, he reminds us that to expect the Jews to disengage themselves
completely from the cumulative effect of centuries of exposure to a society
which only saw deities in tangible form, was to demand the impossible.
Disengage they
did, however, at least sufficiently for the Torah to emphasise surprise at the
speed of their fall. Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz [1901 – 1978] explains that
transformation or change for an individual or a people can only be sustained if
inspirational moments are allowed to be pondered and internalised over an
extensive period. The maidservants who were inspired by the spectacle of the Red
Sea to surpass the prophetic powers of Ezekiel, allowed those delectable moments
to pass without being absorbed and retained. The maidservants thus remained
maidservants and not prophetesses.
It was thus
possible for Micah the idolater to clutch his “graven image” whilst joining the
chorus at the Red Sea or witnessing the Revelation at Sinai, because
inspirational moments will remain just moments unless they are converted to a
legacy of permanent influence through sustained spiritual growth.
