Have a Cow! (Ki Sisa)

How can it be that the entire Jewish people could have spat back the Torah and Mount Sinai in the face of God by worshiping the Golden Calf just minutes after a commitment and revelation unparalleled in all of creation? Because we didn’t. That’s right, the whole mutinous golden-calf thing, the way we’ve been force-fed it, didn’t happen like that. Come on, we’ve been accused of many things in our illustrious history – fifth-columnists, shylocks, dual-nationalists, stingy, power-hungry, ugly, vermin-like – but never, never stupid. A serious reading of this week’s Torah portion reveals it all. The entire episode begins by relating the source of all the problems – “When Moses delayed on the mountain…” using a very unique word for delay: Boshaish. Our Sages quickly point out that the word really means “on the sixth” and that Moses had told the Jews he would return from his executive meeting with You-Know-Who after 40 days on the sixth hour. Well, their calculations got a bit unsynchronized and their nerves a bit frayed and within moments of realizing that He may not be coming back down (with no less than helpful pyrotechnics by the free-will-balancing-powers-that-be turning day into night and night into day and giving the Jews glimpses of what could have been Moses’ casket), the Jews quickly searched for his replacement. That’s right, not God’s replacement, but rather Moses’. You see, they had never known this plague-wielding, Torah-giving, nation-birthing relationship with God without the intermediary services of Moses (which they all verified with complete prophetic clarity at Mt. Sinai). He was not the prophet, but rather the prophesy itself (think about the difference). Perhaps their entire salvation and future was predicated on such a relationship. Perhaps “nationhood”, which was only so recently introduced into the world, was only viable with this connection (nationhood being a real existence outside of the individual where each individual makes up a part of the greater whole which has its own parameters and dimensions and destiny and deal with God). What were they to do?

On the verge of world collapse, starvation and every ill that could be imagined in a God-world gone bad, the Jews sought the proper replacement through which to re-boot. A cow was not a substitute for God. The calf was actually a humble choice of middle-man based on the vision recorded in Ezekiel when the Jews crossed the Red Sea. Of the four visions that God presented them – those things which represent His intermediary interaction with the world – they chose the most benign herbivore and a humble version as well, a calf. In fact, they really chose nothing, just threw a lump of gold into the cauldron and the calf appeared! They were looking for a leader, not a new God. Check the text for verification – the Jews cry to create “gods” (a choice of words which can mean many things, including “judges”) to go before them because Moses has not returned, Aaron declares the calf-festivities a festival for God (the right one, no mistaking it), Moses beseeches God against annihilation (and idol worship would clearly be grounds for it with Moses’ full acquiescence), and Moses only smashed the tablets when he witnessed the extent of the rejoicing. It should be mentioned, however, that none of the women, nor the tribe of levi (those of the priestly kind and the one’s devoted to full-time Torah study) participated one iota. Yeah! (I’m a levi and my wife is a woman – collectively we’re thrilled). So to set the matter straight, the Jews did not create a new god, nor really rebelled against God other than following a unstable faithfulness away from their Creator and rushing to do that which was not in their jurisdiction. They created an intermediary where one was not necessary. And theirs, as opposed to Moses himself, would ultimately distance the Jewish nation from their God, not bring them closer. In a sense, they created Christianity. Moses was a different story altogether (the prophesy, not the prophet remember). The intimacy between Jew and God could not, should not and would not be compromised. Yes, they failed the test. Just let’s be sure which one. Got it?

Good Shabbos.