The Lord spoke to Moses, “Hurry down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have acted basely. They have been quick to turn aside from the way that I enjoined upon them. 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!’”
The Lord further said to Moses, “I see that this is a stiff-necked people. Now, let Me be, that My anger may blaze forth against them and that I may destroy them, and make of you a great nation.” But Moses implored the Lord his God, saying, “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. Let not the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that He delivered them, only to kill them off in the mountains and annihilate them from the face of the earth.’ Turn from Your blazing anger, and renounce the plan to punish Your people. Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, how You swore to them by Your Self and said to them: I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and I will give to your offspring this whole land of which I spoke, to possess forever.” And the Lord renounced the punishment He had planned to bring upon His people.
Thereupon Moses turned and went down from the mountain bearing the two tablets of the Pact, tablets inscribed on both their surfaces: they were inscribed on the one side and on the other. The tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing, inscribed upon the tablets. When Joshua heard the sound of the people in its boisterousness, he said to Moses, “There is a cry of war in the camp.” But he answered, “It is not the sound of the tune of triumph, or the sound of the tune of defeat; it is the sound of song that I hear!”
As soon as Moses came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he became enraged; and he hurled the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made and burned it; he ground it to powder and strewed it upon the water and so made the Israelites drink it.
Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such great sin upon them?” Aaron said, “Let not my lord be enraged. You know that this people is bent on evil. They said to me, ‘Make us a god to lead us; for that man Moses, who brought us from the land of Egypt—we do not know what has happened to him.’ So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, take it off!’ They gave it to me and I hurled it into the fire and out came this calf!”
Moses saw that the people were out of control—since Aaron had let them get out of control—so that they were a menace to any who might oppose them. Moses stood up in the gate of the camp and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come here!” And all the Levites rallied to him. He said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Each of you put sword on thigh, go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay brother, neighbor, and kin.’” The Levites did as Moses had bidden; and some three thousand of the people fell that day. And Moses said, “Dedicate yourselves to the Lord this day—for each of you has been against son and brother—that He may bestow a blessing upon you today.”
The next day Moses said to the people, “You have been guilty of a great sin. Yet I will now go up to the Lord; perhaps I may win forgiveness for your sin.” Moses went back to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people is guilty of a great sin in making for themselves a god of gold. Now, if You will forgive their sin well and good; but if not, erase me from the record that You have written!” But the Lord said to Moses, “He who has sinned against Me, him only will I erase from My record. Go now, lead the people where I told you. See, My angel shall go before you. But when I make an accounting, I will bring them to account for their sins.”
Then the Lord sent a plague upon the people, for what they did with the calf that Aaron made.
The faith of the Israelites was constantly being tested by difficult conditions and the people continually failed the tests. Here they revert to pagan worship, forcing Aaron to build a golden calf they can worship. Such idols were often worshipped in the ancient Near East. As a result, both God and Moses punish the people. This famous myth emphasizes how difficult it was for the people to abandon paganism for monotheism, and how they were tempted to revert to paganism at the very time that God was dictating the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai.
Sources:
Exodus 32
Studies:
“The Golden Calf” by Lloyd R. Bailey.
“The Worship of the Golden Calf: A Literary Analysis of a Fable on Idolatry” by Herbert Chanan Brichto.
595. STRANGE FIRE
Whenever Aaron officiated at a sacrifice, the fire of the Lord would descend to consume the burnt offering, and the Glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. When the people saw this, they fell upon their faces and sang a song of praise.
But Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, said to each other, “When our father and uncle Moses die, we shall be the chiefs of the people.” After that Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu each took his fire pan, put fire in it, and laid incense on it; and they offered before Yahweh alien fire, which He had not enjoined upon them. And fire came forth from Yahweh and consumed them; thus they died before Yahweh (Lev. 10:1-2). Thus their souls were burnt and they paid the price for their disrespect of God.
It is said that as long as Israel is in exile, and cannot sacrifice two goats on Yom Kippur, the two sons of Aaron may be a memorial of the sacrifice, and Israel may be atoned through them.
Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, were, like their father, priests. They had been anointed and were allowed to perform service in the Tabernacle. Their mysterious deaths occurred when they introduced “strange fire” into the Tabernacle. This incident is referred to twice, in Leviticus 10:1 and Numbers 3:4, the former explaining that they had lit incense and performed a service that they had not been commanded to perform. Since they entered the Tent of Meeting for an improper purpose, they were punished with death. The deaths are said to have been by a fire that came forth from heaven, the same fire referred to in Leviticus 9:24 that consumed the burnt offering.
There are several explanations given for their deaths. In Exodus Rabbah it is said that they behaved in a brazen manner, uncovering their heads and eating and drinking in the presence of God, as it is said, They beheld God and ate and drank (Exod. 24:11). This is contrasted with the respectful behavior of Moses at the burning bush, when Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God (Exod. 3:6). Leviticus Rabbah 12:1 suggests that they might have been drunk. Leviticus Rabbah 20:10 suggests that Nadab and Abihu were impatient to replace Moses and Aaron, and wished them an early death. God, in turn, brought Nadab and Abihu an early death. Still other reasons are given in Leviticus Rabbah 20:8-10—some say they penetrated to the inmost portion of the sanctuary, or that they brought an offering they were not commanded to bring, or entered the sanctuary without washing their hands and feet, or they did not wear the required number of garments, or they brought alien fire, that is, not from the sacrificial altar. The most serious accusation is that they “fed their eyes on the Shekhinah.” This implies that they did not take their great responsibility seriously or show the proper respect before God. Thus the tale of Nadab and Abihu became a warning tale about the great care that the priest must take in preparing an offering to God.
Zohar 1:73a asserts that Aaron’s sons drank wine in the Holy of Holies, the same wine that intoxicated Noah. One commentary on the Zohar, Ziv ha-Zohar, identifies this destructive wine with secular knowledge.
The linkage between the deaths of Aaron’s sons and the biblical ritual of sacrificing the two goats on Yom Kippur grows out of the fact that the chapter beginning Yahweh spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron (Lev. 16:1) prescribes the Yom Kippur ritual. For a description of the ritual of sacrificing the goats, see “A Scapegoat for Azazel,” p. 295.
Sources:
B. Sanhedrin 52; Exodus Rabbah 45:5; Zohar 1:73a, 3:56b.
596. THE SPIRIT O
F IDOLATRY
When the Israelites returned from the Babylonian exile, they found the Temple in Jerusalem destroyed and cried in a loud voice to Yahweh their God (Neh. 9:4). They said: “Woe, woe, it is the evil spirit of idolatry that has destroyed the Sanctuary, burnt the Temple, killed all the righteous, and driven Israel into exile. And behold, he is still dancing among us.” And they prayed to the Lord: “You, who brought this evil spirit into being so that we could receive a reward through resisting him—we want neither him, nor the reward!” Thereupon a tablet fell from heaven among them, on which the word “Truth” (emet) was inscribed.
After this miracle had taken place, the people fasted for three days and nights, and at the end of that time the spirit of idolatry was delivered into their hands, and he came forth out of the Holy of Holies in the form of a fiery lion. But they approached him and plucked out one of his hairs, causing the lion to raise his voice and roar so loudly it could be heard for four hundred parasangs. And when the people heard this, they said among themselves: “Let us hope that heaven does not have mercy upon him.” Then they cast the lion into a huge leaden pot, and sealed its only opening with lead, because lead absorbs sound.
They imprisoned the evil spirit for three days, then they discovered that there was not a fresh egg in all of the land. From this they realized that if they killed him, the whole world would end. So they blinded him and let him go.
Here a paradox about the nature of sexuality and creation is presented, since this myth clearly indicates that they both spring from evil. The spirit that is captured in this talmudic tale is the incarnation of the Yetzer ha-Ra, the Evil Inclination. (There also is a Good Inclination, the Yetzer ha-Tov.) Rabbinic literature shows considerable ambiguity on this subject. While always urging that this impulse be resisted, the rabbis also recognized its essential role in the world, as this tale makes clear. Here the spirit of idolatry is overcome and captured. It is only then, however, that the people discover its role in the divine scheme—for without the Evil Impulse, the Yetzer ha-Ra, sexual desire in all creatures ceased, causing all procreation to stop. And not only fertility, but creativity was also lost. Had this continued, all animal life would have died out. In this way the rabbis acknowledge a necessary and perhaps even positive role for the Evil Inclination. Note the strongly mythical aspects of this tale, in which the Evil Impulse is personified as a fiery lion. It has strong echoes of the rabbinic legends about the golden calf, which was said to have come alive and charged around out of control (Midrash Shir ha-Shirim 13a-13b and Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 45). The roaring of the lion in this tale is reminiscent of that in the well-known talmudic tale, “The Lion of the Forest Ilai.” See “The Lion of the Forest Ilai,” p. 149.
The blinding of the spirit of idolatry is intended to indicate that the Jews curbed the unbridled passion of the Yetzer ha-Ra. Since they could not destroy the impulse—all earthly propagation depended on it—they attempted to curb it instead.
Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav regarded the spirit of Idolatry as the evil angel who causes sexual lust. He identifies the blinding with the self-restraint of those who find it difficult to control their natural impulse to look at women.
A variant of this myth about the Yetzer ha-Ra is found in B. Kiddushin 81a. Here Rabbi Amram was exposed to a strong sexual temptation, which he resisted. Then he forced the Evil Inclination out of his body, and it shot out of his body in a flame.
Sources:
B. Yoma 69b.
597. THE FIERY SERPENTS
The Israelites set out from Mount Hor by way of the Red Sea to skirt the land of Edom. But the people grew restive on the journey, and the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why did you make us leave Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread and no water, and we have come to loathe this miserable food.” The Lord sent fiery serpents against the people. They bit the people and many of the Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Intercede with the Lord to take away the serpents from us!” And Moses interceded for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery figure and mount it on a standard. And if anyone who is bitten looks at it, he shall recover.” Moses made a copper serpent and mounted it on a standard; and when anyone was bitten by a serpent, he would look at the copper serpent and recover.
Greatly frustrated with the constant complaints of the Israelites, God punishes them with “fiery serpents.” Exactly what these serpents are is not explained, but their bite was often fatal, and the people begged Moses to protect them from them. Moses does so in a strange way—he sets up a copper serpent on a pole for the people to look at when they have been bitten. This seems to have every earmark of idol worship (cf. 2 Kings 18:4), yet Moses sets up the copper serpent at God’s direction. Numbers Rabbah 19:22 suggests they were called fiery serpents because they burned the soul.
According to the Midrash Rabbenu Bahya, the Torah commentary of Rabbi Bachya ben Asher on Numbers 21:6, the fiery serpents were offshoots of the primeval serpent in the Garden of Eden. He quotes B. Bava Batra 16a, which identifies the fiery serpents with the Yetzer ha-Ra, the evil inclination, stating that “the serpent, Satan, the yetzer hara, and the Angel of Death are one and the same.”
Sources:
Numbers 21:4-9.
598. THE DESERT SHUR
The children of Israel journeyed through the desert Shur, a wilderness full of serpents, lizards, and scorpions. So deadly are the serpents that dwell in this desert that if one of them merely glides over the shadow of a flying bird, the bird falls dead in that place.
As terrible as was the desert wanderings of the Israelites, rabbinic myths make it even worse, presenting the desert Shur as the worst of the deserts the people crossed. It is supernaturally bad, as illustrated by what happens when a reptile glides over the shadow of a bird.
Sources:
Exodus Rabbah 24-25.
599. THE DEAD OF THE DESERT
A mysterious Bedouin led the sage Rabbah bar Bar Hannah to the bodies of those who died during the forty years of wandering in the desert. When they reached them, they found that all of them were lying on their backs and their bodies were intact. The knee of one of them was raised, and the Bedouin was able to pass under it, riding on a camel, holding his spear upright.
Rabbah cut off the blue thread from the corner of one of their prayer shawls. But as soon as he did, he found that he and the Bedouin were frozen in place. The Bedouin told him that if he had taken anything from them, to return it, for anyone who takes anything from them will not be able to move away. Rabbah put it back and they were able to move freely again.
Here the wandering sage Rabbah bar Bar Hannah is led to the Dead of the Desert—those Israelites who died during the 40 years of wandering in the desert in the time of Moses. Rabbah finds they have been miraculously preserved, and that they are the size of giants, demonstrated when the Bedouin rides a camel under one of their upraised knees.
These bodies lying in the desert are thus evidence of the truth of the Torah about the wandering of the Israelites in the desert. By implication, then, all of the Torah is true.
Rabbi Samuel Eliezer Edels, known as the Maharsha, interpreted the giant size of the bodies to symbolize that they were spiritual giants. Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, on the other hand, views these figures as wicked people, receiving their life-force from the Sitra Ahra, the Other Side, the side of evil. He concludes that they died in the desert because they did not tie themselves wholly to Moses.
Rabbah cuts off the blue corner thread of the prayer shawl (tallit) of one of the dead of the desert because it has been dyed with the tekhelet dye, which is required by one of the 613 commandments (mitzvot) of the Torah, as stated in Numbers 15:38-39: Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe at each corner. That shall be your fringe; look at it and recall all the commandments of Yahweh
and observe them. But Rabbah finds himself unable to move after this attempted theft, and he is not released until he returns what he has taken.
Rabbah is so desperate to preserve this relic of the time of Moses because even in the time of Rabbah, around the end of the third century, no one knew how to produce this dye, nor exactly what color tekhelet was. For this reason the ancient rabbis decided not to dye the thread of the tallit that was supposed to be the color of tekhelet, but to leave it white. With a few exceptions of groups that claim to have discovered the secret of how to make tekhelet, the thread has been left white till this day. The reasoning is that rather than fulfill one of the commandments of the Torah incorrectly, it is better not to fulfill it at all.
Numbers Rabbah 14:3 explains that God required the use of tekhelet because the blue of tekhelet resembles the sea, the sea resembles the sky, the sky resembles a rainbow, a rainbow resembles a cloud, a cloud resembles the heavenly throne, and the throne resembles the divine glory.
For other examples of the tall tales of Rabbah bar Bar Hannah, see “The Punishment of Korah,” p. 235, and “Where Heaven and Earth Meet,” p. 194.
Sources:
B. Bava Batra 73b.
600. THE EXILE OF ISRAEL
From the first, God intended that there would be many exiles for the people of Israel, for reasons known only to Him.
Some say that the reason for all the exiles was to release the holy sparks. The Egyptian exile was the root of all exiles, and a multitude of holy sparks awaited redemption. Ever since, the people of Israel have sifted the holy sparks from the four corners of the earth.
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