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This week’s parshah speaks of many things, one of which is the story of the Jewish nation’s sin of the golden calf. It wasn’t even two months ago that the Jews received the Torah and underwent the ultimate spiritual experience at Mount Sinai. How can it be that the nation had now stooped so low, when just 7 weeks ago they practically saw God face to face!?

In the midst of their corrupted actions, the sinners called out:

“…make for us gods (Elohim) that will go before us, for this man Moses…we do not know what became of him” [Exodus: 32: 1]

At first, it seems that the verse implies that the Jews expressed their desire to replace God with a statue, and that the reason behind this desire was that they didn’t know where Moshe was. But how does this reasoning make sense? If they were looking to create a substitute deity for God, why is Moshe’s location so important?

The RaMBaN (Rabbi Moshe son of Nahman, 1194-1270, a philosopher, physician, kabbalist, and biblical commentator) says that what the Jews were after wasn’t a replacement of God, but the replacement of a leader. The word “Elohim” in our verse (which we thought meant “gods”) is very often translated as “Judge” or as somebody with a high level of authority.

According to this explanation, it seems that the Jews wanted Moshe out of the picture; this would explain how the second half of the verse matches up with the first. But can the reason really be because they didn‘t know where he was!? (*See first footnote*) This was the same Moshe who took them out of Egypt through ten plagues and by parting the sea of Reeds! This was the same Moshe who had been leading them through the uncomfortable and dangerous desert up until this point! How can they negate everything he had done for them for such an apparently little reason? So what’s really going on?

If we look closer at the above verse, perhaps we can truly understand what was going through their minds before the sin of the golden calf.

The verse tells us that the Jews specifically wanted their new leader to be someone who “will go before us”. This can mean that they needed someone who they can really relate to, rather than someone whose tremendous spiritual level causes a great distance between himself and his nation. This is what they meant when they said “for this man Moses…we do not know what became of him”; Moses was on such a lofty and holy level that the Jews couldn’t comprehend his character and just didn’t know how to connect to him.

The first words that God instructs to Moshe after seeing the nation’s sin is:

“…’Go, descend - for your people…has become corrupt‘ ” [Exodus: 32: 7]

The Meshech Chochma (a commentary on the Torah by Rabbi Meir Simcha Hakohen of Dvinsk) explains that the word “descend” is understood as something more than merely going down from the mountain. He explains that God was telling Moshe to “descend” from his great level of holiness, because he couldn‘t have an effect on the nation otherwise.

Towards the end of the parshah, when Moshe finally comes back down from the mountain, the verses describe that his face had become radiant. Because of this he had to wear a mask when speaking to the people because the light rays from his face frightened them (See chapter 34: 29-35). Here we see clearly that Moshe had to conceal his true self in order to communicate with the Jewish people and teach them the ways of God.

This idea teaches us not be afraid to bring ourselves to a lower level if it’s in order to bring someone else up. Some may often think that Judaism is only about getting as close to God as possible, regardless of how the people around us are affected by it. This parshah teaches us that at times we must compromise on certain aspects of our connection to God (**See second footnote**) in order to lead others to a higher level of their own.

Good Shabbos,

NZL

* The Rabbis explain that Moshe told the nation he was going up on the mountain to converse with God for 40 days. Somehow they miscalculated and thought that the 40 days had passed, (falsely) causing them to say “we do not know what became of him”. According to this explanation, why is being (not even) one day late such a terrible thing that caused them to request a new leader?

** In most cases, this should be done only to a certain degree. One must always be cognizant of the fact that, although he is bringing someone else closer to God, he himself has to try his best to still follow the Jewish code of law. However, there are unfortunate instances when one is commanded to even transgress Shabbos (Sabbath) to prevent another Jew from falling to an extremely low spiritual level. For more details, please email me at natelight@gmail.com and I will do my best to explain it more.