[Avodah] Egel Zahav

[Micha Berger]

In previous years I gave a middle theory (based on the Kusari 1:97):
They asked Aharon to "make for us gods that will go before us, for the
man Moshe..." They wanted to replace man, being fallible (having not
returned when he was supposed to) with a messenger God. A minor deity
who would carry their prayers up to the heavens, and blessings down to
them. Much like Mercury.

Recall that bulls in those days were harnessed. Agalos / eigel.

This then grew into a whole theory about the Egyptian cult of Apis,
with its Temple with bull in front on either end of the country,
Yerav'am's two Temples with bulls, the similarity between Aharon's
"eileh elohekha yisrael" with Yerav'am's "zos elohekha yisrael", between
Apis and Yerav'am's religion both having their main holiday on the full
moon of Marcheshvan, the Chaldeab messanger-god Kirub, who was a bull,
lehavdil the keruvim, the chayos -- one of their faces is described
by Yechezqel in one place as being that of an ox, and in another,
a keruv... and finally the whole ball of wax became:

AZ is often the worship of angels (as per the Rambam's Hil AZ 1:1), and
the eigel was an attempt to make for themselves a keruv as a holdover from
Egyptian religion. An idea that never died through bayis rishon. The idea
that the BHMQ wasn't a place where one is elevated toward G-d, but a
place of ritual where one can get messages to Him and blessings from Him
without personal sanctity. A proxy and a middleman, rather than trying to
acheive personal closeness.

See http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2007/06/angels-and-idols.shtml

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A person lives with himself for seventy years,
micha at aishdas.org        and after it is all over, he still does not
http://www.aishdas.org   know himself.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter