[Avodah] bnei israel between matan torah and chet haegel

[Shlomo Pick]

Cantor Wolber wrote the following
>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.

Following the Ramban, jewish history is cyclical starting with adam harishon
who was a zaddik and free will, but sinned with the eitz hada'at. At matan
torah, the bnei yisrael returned to the matzav of adam harishon before the
cheit.  With the egel they returned to the situation of after the cheit.
With the messianic age, we will return again to the matzav of adam harishon
before the chet.

Concerning another thread mentioned earlier, I heard from my rebbe, Rav
Yerucham Gorelik zt"l, that malachim have free will, but they know to choose
well, but theoretically they can choose not well also, and that accounts for
"fallen angels" at the end of parashat breishis, or the angels by Lot who
had to stay on earth until jacob's dream.  Accordingly, Adam haRishon before
the cheit was like an angel in that sense. Once he sinned, he became more
human than angel like.  
One should note that according to the midrashim quoted by rashi on parashat
breishis, the earth had free choice in producing fruit tasting bark, or type
of grasses, or even accepting the blood of Hevel (Abel).  So free will is
something more complex vis a vis the subject/object having it.
Shlomo Pick