[Avodah] Medrashim [was: Egel Zahav]

[T613K at aol.com]

From: Daas Books _info at daasbooks.com_ (mailto:info at daasbooks.com) 

I'm confused by  this thread.

The original question, and the replies to it, are based on  this premise:

> hence Bnai Yisroel insisted upon the golden  calf


This premise seems to be that the Bnai Yisroel people _chose_ to  construct 
a
cow to replace Moshe.

I had thought that the pashut pshat  of Ex 32:24 was that the cow was either
completely _not_ the specific  intention of the people or at the most the
intention of _one_ person (Micha  according to the Midrash), and that these
people, upon seeing this miraculous  cow, were able to embrace it as a
familiar symbol that they could  party -- er, rally -- around.

....The cow gave them something  physical that they
could relate to. And moreover, the "they" we're talking  about is the Eruv
Rav, not the Bnai Yisroel.

What the participants in  this thread seem to be saying is that they -- the
Bnai Yisroel -- were  looking for a leader and made a conscious choice to
create and follow an  aigel.

There you have it  I've exposed my ignorance. Will someone  please set me
straight.

- Alexander  Seinfeld


>>>>>


 
 
 
 
 
 
My own policy is not to ask questions about one medrash based on a  
different medrash or on contradictory divrei Chazal, but to keep them  separate.  I 
will give you an example of what I mean from P' Pinchas.  
 
According to one interpretation (I think Rashi says this), the "bris  
sholom" that Hashem gave Pinchas was that He made him a kohen.  When Aharon  and 
his sons were anointed as kohanim, no already-existing children of the sons  
were included in that anointing (only subsequently born children were  
automatically kohanim).  So Pinchas, who was already born when his father  was 
anointed, was not a kohen -- until he killed the sinners in P' Pinchas,  
whereupon he was separately anointed as a kohen as a reward (and  thereafter all 
his descendants were kohanim like the children of any  kohen).
 
OK but there's an obscure medrash that when Pinchas stabbed Zimri and  
Kosbi, a miracle happened and they did not die until after he left the tent --  
because otherwise he, being a kohen, would not have even been allowed to 
kill  them!  A kohen can't purposely make himself tamei meis.  
 
But that medrash depends on the assumption that Pinchas was /already/ a  
kohen when he stabbed Zimri and Kosbi -- because, if he wasn't already a 
kohen,  what did he need this miracle for?!
 
You can't combine those two medrashim -- that he was already a kohen when  
he killed Zimri and Kosbi, or that he was only made a kohen afterwards as a  
reward for doing this deed.
 
Well you could find a way to combine them if you were really determined --  
you could say something like, he prophetically knew that he was /going/ to 
be a  kohen so he conducted himself as a kohen and avoided acts that are  
forbidden to kohanim.
 
But as I started by saying, my policy is not to combine medrashim when they 
 contradict each other, but to take each on its own merits and use each one 
 separately to draw whatever lesson is to be drawn.  The very existence of  
contradictory medrashim BTW implies what to me seems obvious, that not  
every medrash is meant to be taken literally.
 
So, to be practical about it, one year the rabbi can give a drasha about  
how the Jews wanted an eigel because that's the god they were familiar with 
from  their stay in Egypt, and he can wind it up by saying that in every 
generation,  Jews are drawn to various idols, be it JC, Marx, Freud, Gaia or 
whatnot.
 
The next year the rabbi can give another drasha about how Aharon threw a  
lump of gold into the fire, hoping the Jews would say, "No, don't take our  
gold!" and delay things until Moshe returned -- but to his shock it came up 
as a  golden calf, due to black magic -- and the rabbi can talk about the  
unintended consequences of well-intended deeds.
 
He just can't mix up all the opinions into one tzimmes.  

--Toby Katz
=============
Romney -- good  values, good family, good  hair


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