Ex. 30:11-34:35
Précis: The parasha begins with a census of the people, accomplished by the collection of a half shekel. We then return to a description of Tabernacle items, including the basin, anointing oil, and incense. The holy work of building the Tabernacle is to be interrupted by Shabbat. Then we return to the narrative. Moses is given the two tablets and he descends from Mount Sinai. There he sees the people worshipping the Golden Calf. He smashes the tablets and the evil doers are punished. Moses returns up the mountain, and we next have the articulation of the 13 Attributes of God. Moses carves a new set of tablets, and returns to the People, his face radiant.
Ex. 32:1 “When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, the people gathered against Aaron and said to him, ‘Come, make us a god who shall go before us from the land of Egypt - we do not know what has happened to him.’”
How is it possible that a People who witnessed the miracles of the plagues, the Exodus through the Reed Sea, and the Revelation at Sinai, could so quickly revert to idol worship? Perhaps it is because they retained a slave mentality, or because they felt that Moses was the only available intermediary with God. After all, our ancestors worshipped a panoply of Gods, and the idea of a single God was startlingly novel.
On the other hand, we should not dismiss the Israelites’ reaction so quickly. We, after all, share with them a belief that there are reasons for things, that the world is not just random. Surely someone or something provides control behind the curtain. We seek our own “intermediaries” to help us explain the world to us.
While natural, this can be dangerous, not only to ourselves as individuals, but to our society at large. When we are bombarded by “influencers” through social media, when we support those who seek to re-establish the “good old days” (which in reality never were quite that “good"), or when we allow our darkest emotions to color our conception of reality, are we so different from these Golden Calf worshippers?
In the coming months, may we Americans be granted the insight to avoid a new cultic form of idol worship.
