The Golden Calf: Israel's Abandonment and Divine Disappointment Parshat Ki Tissa March 11th, 2023/18th of Adar 5783

(12) יהוה said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and wait there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the teachings and commandments which I have inscribed to instruct them.” (13) So Moses and his attendant Joshua arose, and Moses ascended the mountain of God. (14) To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us until we return to you. You have Aaron and Hur with you; let anyone who has a legal matter approach them.” (15) When Moses had ascended the mountain, the cloud covered the mountain. (16) The Presence of יהוה abode on Mount Sinai, and the cloud hid it for six days. On the seventh day [God] called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. (17) Now the Presence of יהוה appeared in the sight of the Israelites as a consuming fire on the top of the mountain. (18) Moses went inside the cloud and ascended the mountain; and Moses remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

(1) Now the people saw that Moshe was shamefully-late in coming down from the mountain,
so the people assembled against Aharon
and said to him:
Arise, make us a god who will go before us,
for this Moshe, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
we do not know what has become of him!

(2) Aharon said to them:
Break off the gold rings that are in the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters,
and bring [them] to me!

(3) All the people broke off the gold rings that were in their ears, and brought (them) to Aharon. He took (them) from their hand, fashioned it with a graving-tool, and made it into a molten calf. Then they said: This is your God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt! When Aharon saw (this), he built a slaughter-site before it, and Aharon called out and said: Tomorrow is a festival to YHVH! They (started) early on the morrow, offered offerings-up and brought shalom-offerings; the people sat down to eat and drink and proceeded to revel. (Translation: Everett Fox, Shocken Bible)

We must clarify: What is the meaning of and Di Zahav? The Sages of the school of Rabbi Yannai said that Moses said the following before the Holy One, Blessed be He, to atone for Israel after the sin of the Golden Calf: Master of the Universe, because of the gold and silver that you lavished upon Israel during the exodus from Egypt until they said enough [dai]; it was this wealth [or possibly "He"] that caused Israel to make the Golden Calf.

(7)YHWH said to Moshe:
Go, get down!
for your people
whom you brought up from the land of Egypt
has wrought ruin!

(8)

י ( (9) יהוה further said to Moses, “I see that this is a stiffnecked people. (10) 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.” (11) But Moses implored his God יהוה, saying, “Let not Your anger, יהוה, blaze forth against Your people, whom You delivered from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand. (12) 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. (13) Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, 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.” (14) And יהוה renounced the punishment planned for God’s people.

(15) 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. (16) The tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing, incised upon the tablets. (17) When Joshua heard the sound of the people in its boisterousness, he said to Moses, “There is a cry of war in the camp.” (18) 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!” (19) 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. (20) 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.

(18) ‎Genesis 7,1 ‎“For I have seen you ‎being righteous before Me in this generation;” these words ‎must be understood according to the Zohar I, 67. The ‎author of the Zohar contrasts Moses’ reaction to G’d’s ‎threat to annihilate the Jewish people and to substitute him for ‎the Jewish people (Exodus 32,10) with Noach’s silence. Moses, had ‎immediately responded to this threat by saying: “erase me from ‎Your Book, rather than make me the founder of a new Jewish ‎people. Moses was willing to give up his life if he could thereby ‎save his people”. When G’d (7,4) used the same expression ‎ומחיתי ‏את כל היקום‎, “I will erase all breathing living creatures,” He ‎elicited no response from Noach, just as He had not elicited a ‎response from him in 6,13, or in 6,17. Moses, by offering his own ‎life on behalf of his people during the episode of the golden calf, ‎atoned for Noach’s insensitivity at this time. Moses is viewed by ‎the Zohar as possessing a soul composed of all the souls destroyed ‎in the deluge. This is why our prophets refer to the deluge as ‎מי ‏נח‎, “the waters of Noach,” since Noach had not intervened on ‎behalf of his contemporaries. (Isaiah 54,9). The prophet appears ‎to imply that Noach had been remiss by associating the deluge ‎with Noach (himself) instead of with the sinners.‎
It is known that Moses was considered a tzaddik, ‎righteous person. When our sages state that all the prophets’ ‎prophecies began with the word ‎כה‎, whereas Moses’ prophecy on ‎occasion commenced with the word ‎זה‎, “this,” they meant to ‎compare Moses to Noach of whom G’d had said ‎אותך ראיתי צדיק ‏לפני בדור הזה‎, “I have seen you that you are a tzaddik before ‎Me in this generation”. G’d implied that Noach would be restored ‎posthumously to this stature when Moses, a reincarnation of his ‎soul, would make up for his omission at this time. The words ‎בדור ‏הזה‎, are understood as a hint that in Moses’ time another ‎‎tzaddik would compensate for the sin of omission in Noach’s ‎generation. ‎

(1) יהוה said to Moses: “Carve two tablets of stone like the first, and I will inscribe upon the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you shattered. (2) Be ready by morning, and in the morning come up to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to Me, on the top of the mountain. (3) No one else shall come up with you, and no one else shall be seen anywhere on the mountain; neither shall the flocks and the herds graze at the foot of this mountain.” (4) So Moses carved two tablets of stone, like the first, and early in the morning he went up on Mount Sinai, as יהוה had commanded him, taking the two stone tablets with him. (5) יהוה came down in a cloud—and stood with him there, proclaiming the name יהוה. (6) יהוה passed before him and proclaimed: “יהוה ! יהוה ! a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, (7) extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin—yet not remitting all punishment, but visiting the iniquity of parents upon children and children’s children, upon the third and fourth generations.” (8) Moses hastened to bow low to the ground in homage, (9) and said, “If I have gained Your favor, O my lord, pray, let my lord go in our midst, even though this is a stiffnecked people. Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your own!”