Congregation B'nai Israel

Ki Tissa

 

The Golden Calf

 

The miracle had been needed to demonstrate the existence of such a God.  Whenever things went well, the people believed in God, Moses and his mission.  Whenever difficulties arose, they saw in this proof that there was no free God, no Personal Providence, only superior showmanship by Moses, presently revealed as inadequate…Their admiration of Moses was based on Moses being an outstanding man rather than Moses as an instrument of God…There were two groups of people in the desert.  Each group looked for confirmation of their respective beliefs in the events that had occurred during and after the Exodus.  Group A were the believers who saw corroboration of their beliefs in the events they had witnessed.  Group B were the diehards of the old school, who had at best learned to adopt an ambivalent attitude to all the miracles…they remained ever ready to expose even genuine miracles as works of deception

Yitzchak Arama (15^th Century)

 

What the Israelites demanded was a god who was immediately perceptible to them in a direct sensory way.  They were not “atheists” in the strict sense of the term.  They did acknowledge that there was a god who took them out of Egypt.  Except that this god was a calf whom they could see, touch and feel.  Their failure was their inability to get beyond their need for a naïve, sensory perception of God….This discussion also illuminates the story of Purim…It is a truism that God is nowhere explicitly mentioned in the biblical account of that episode…God is everywhere present in that event, depending on how we read the story…The central challenge facing mature believers is to resist the pretension of our symbols to replace the ultimately mysterious nature of God…

Neil Gillman (Contemporary).

 

The Jewish claim on God for survival is even more extraordinary in that it is not contingent on the virtue of the Jews.  Israel’s right to life, her claim on God to save her from death in the world, is to be exercised even when she has turned against God….The covenant is indelible, which means Israel is indestructible.  Thus, even when Israel is rightfully punished by God for her sins, that punishment is never to be permanent…All of this can be seen in the way Scripture and the Rabbis treat Moses’ reconfirmation of the covenant after Israel rejects God by worshiping the Golden Calf…This passage is based on the legal institution of vows and oaths, which is the closest ting to autonomy that is allowed by Jewish law…

David Novak (Contemporary)

 

The episode of the golden calf comes forty days after the events at Mount Sinai.  At Mount Sinai, we are told that the people exclaimed, “We will do and we will obey.”  Forty days later, they made the calf, exclaiming, “These are your gods, O Israel.”  From this we see that faith, the true recognition of the god of Israel, is not imparted to a person, nor even to a nation – neither to the individual nor to the community – by inspiration which comes from outside; even the revelation of God…was not sufficient…It was a temporary impression…faith must come from the person himself…faith is not acquired except through the individual’s personal decision; the acceptance of the Yoke of Heaven…

Yeshayahu Leibowitz (20^th Century)