[Avodah] Egel Zahav

[Daas Books]

I¹m confused by this thread.

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

> hence insisted upon the golden calf

(I¹ve quoted longer snippets below for anyone who missed them)

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 (³Micha² 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.

Therefore, until now I¹ve understood that their problem was that Moshe had
been a tangible way for them to relate to Hashem, and with him gone, they
had a really hard time relating to Hashem, because they were addicted as it
were to the physical world. The cow gave them something physical that they
could relate to. And moreover, the ³they² we¹re 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 ­ I¹ve exposed my ignorance. Will someone please set me
straight.

- Alexander Seinfeld


On Thu, Jul 12, 2012 at 1:01 AM, <cantorwolberg at cox.net> wrote:

> The question is that since the people thought Moshe Rabbeinu was dead,
> they were in a panic and needed something to take
> the place of Moshe. They said they needed a leader and hence insisted
> upon the golden calf. So why didn't they say to Aaron:
> Your brother Moshe is dead. We want YOU to lead us. That would have been
> the most logical choice. Why then, didn't that occur to them?

On 7/12/12 2:28 PM, Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org>wrote:

>> 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.