[Avodah] Which Is It?

[Cantor Wolberg]

We are taught:
Following Mattan Torah, and before the sin of the egel hazahav, the  
Jewish people were on the level of tzaddikim. Then they committed the  
sin of the Golden Calf. My question is:
If they were truly righteous (which is what tzaddikim means), then how  
could they have even considered committing such an egregious sin? If  
you want to tell me that even tzaddikim sin, then we have a  
contradiction of terms. Either they were not tzaddikim or the egel  
hazahav was really not a sin in its context. And how can that be when  
the Torah depicts it as a sin
worthy of chayav missa.
ri
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20090226/9ab39f3e/attachment-0001.htm>