[Avodah] Egel Zahav

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Jul 12, 2012 at 12:55:49PM -0400, cantorwolberg at cox.net wrote:
:> Ahron was already a leader, but he was the wrong kind of leader.

: And the COW was the RIGHT type of leader??

They thought it was. The cow was Apis, the deity in the Egyptian pantheon
that delivered people's petitions to the other gods. Moshe had an air
of remoteness and loftiness, and they therefore replaced him with a
messenger who was closer to divinity than humanity.

Aharon (oheiv shalom verodeif shalom) they saw as someone who brought
G-d to the people. The preacher in their midst.

(You might want to see
http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2007/06/angels-and-idols.shtml on the cult
of Apis, Rechov'am's religion, Keruvim and Bulls, and how the Rambam's
theory that idolatry was the worship of G-d's entourage that eventually
lost sight of G-d is born out.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where
micha at aishdas.org        you are,  or what you are doing,  that makes you
http://www.aishdas.org   happy or unhappy. It's what you think about.
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