OVERARCHING PHILOSOPHICAL THEMES IN THE TORAH AND MIDRASH
26 FEBRUARY 2011
Drinking the Golden Calf
And it came to pass, as soon as he came near to the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing; and Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets from his hands, and broke them beneath the mount. And he took the calf which they had made, and burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it upon the water, and made the people of Israel drink of it. [Ex 32:19-20]
Why does Moshe make the people drink the ground-up golden calf (Egel)?
It is a most peculiar punishment. After all, the people are punished anyway for this great sin through much more conventional ways – by sword and plague. Why does Moshe make them drink the calf as well?
The possibility exists that drinking the calf was not a punishment at all!
Consider that the calf came into this world in an almost-unique way: Aharon says that he put the gold in the fire, and it emerged, fully formed and finished.
There is only one other thing in the Torah that is made by throwing gold into a fire, and having the product come out, perfect and complete. The Midrash tells us that Moshe was unable to make the Menorah correctly, and Hashem told him to throw it into the fire, and it would be completed. And so it was.
This, of course, speaks to Moshe’s very high level of spiritualism. His spiritual fire was able to interact with that of the physical fire, to shape the Menorah merely through his desire that it be created.
The Egel was made in the same way! Aharon threw in the gold, but the desire to create the Egel came from the passion of the nation of Israel. While the end-result was wrong, there is no denying the desire of the nation of Israel to create something in the flame. In that act, they had invested their own spiritual energies into the Egel. As misguided as it was, the creation of the Egel remained an act of singular national greatness, a feat that has never yet been reproduced by the Jewish people.
And so when the Egel was destroyed, Moshe recognized the great energies that had been invested in it. Rather than simply destroy the calf, he grinds it up, and returns it to its makers. They are then able to tap that energy for equally spiritual – but hopefully more positive – ends.
Why does Moshe make the people drink the ground-up golden calf (Egel)?
It is a most peculiar punishment. After all, the people are punished anyway for this great sin through much more conventional ways – by sword and plague. Why does Moshe make them drink the calf as well?
The possibility exists that drinking the calf was not a punishment at all!
Consider that the calf came into this world in an almost-unique way: Aharon says that he put the gold in the fire, and it emerged, fully formed and finished.
There is only one other thing in the Torah that is made by throwing gold into a fire, and having the product come out, perfect and complete. The Midrash tells us that Moshe was unable to make the Menorah correctly, and Hashem told him to throw it into the fire, and it would be completed. And so it was.
This, of course, speaks to Moshe’s very high level of spiritualism. His spiritual fire was able to interact with that of the physical fire, to shape the Menorah merely through his desire that it be created.
The Egel was made in the same way! Aharon threw in the gold, but the desire to create the Egel came from the passion of the nation of Israel. While the end-result was wrong, there is no denying the desire of the nation of Israel to create something in the flame. In that act, they had invested their own spiritual energies into the Egel. As misguided as it was, the creation of the Egel remained an act of singular national greatness, a feat that has never yet been reproduced by the Jewish people.
And so when the Egel was destroyed, Moshe recognized the great energies that had been invested in it. Rather than simply destroy the calf, he grinds it up, and returns it to its makers. They are then able to tap that energy for equally spiritual – but hopefully more positive – ends.
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