[Avodah] Egel Zahav

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Jul 12, 2012 at 04:16:08PM -0400, hankman wrote:
: If I recall correctly, the Ramban learns that the Shor was the choice
: as an alternate face of the Merkovo from the pnai adam represented by MR
: that they thought they had just lost...

I built a whole theory based on the following pieces:

- The eigel has strong similarity to Yerav'am's religion.
    + Aharon: Eileh elohekha Yisrael, asher he'elukha meiEretz Mitzrayim!
              (Or: Eilah E-lokekha Yisrael... ?!)
      Yerav'am: Hinei elokekha Yisrael, asher he'elukha meiEretz Mitzrayim!

    + Eigel vs two parim -- at least their both cows
      Note also that Aharon says "eileh" about one eigel, Yerav'am says
      "hinei" about two. Although the two were on opposite ends of his
      malkhus, so maybe he was just referring to the one in front of him.

- Yerav'am's religion bears strong resemblence to the cult of Apis
    + The Egyptians also had two temples with golden bulls in front
      on opposite ends of the country

    + Yerav'am moved Sukkos to the middle of the 8th month -- when the
      Egyptian cult had its holiday.

- Keruvim have much to do with cows

    + In Yechezqeil 1:10 the chayos have 4 faces: man, lion, ox, eagle
      In 10:15, it's keruv, man, lion and eagle
      The ox in one vision is a keruv in the other.

    + Apis was a god who was a bull (or a man with a bull head) who pulled
      the cart of prayers up to the other gods, and their blessings back to
      man.
      The Chalean messenger god had the body of a bull with a human face
      -- and was called Kiruv.
      Lehavdil, the keruvim are also a conduit -- the amud ha'eish appears
      between them.

So I suggested that Kirub and Apis worship are actually the worship of the
keruvim. As per Hilkhos Avodah 1:1 -- all AZ started out by worshipping
Hashem's ministers. Yeravam revived the old religion, the one the eirev
rav taught the masses in the maaseh eigel. This served his purpose, he
was able to tell his subjects they didn't need to go to Y-m. You don't
need to go to approach the amud ha'anan above the aron when your entire
homeland is bein hakeruvim. How very democratic -- Qorach would be proud.

They misunderstood Moshe's role. Rather than thinking of him as Moshe
Rabbeinu, someone who could teach us how to serve Hashem ourselves, they
saw him as a middleman. In the role of a keruv. So they made themselves
a keruv, the eigel hazahav, to be their conduit to HQBH.

Longer explanation at
http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2007/06/angels-and-idols.shtml

Which is why my first suggestion in answer to Cantor Wolberg's question
was that Aharon, being a man of the people, wasn't what they're looking
for. Even though they probably associated Moshe's mouthpiece and the
vehicle for a couple of the makkos with leadership, it was the wrong
kind of leadership. They didn't someone from within.

On Thu, Jul 12, 2012 at 11:28:14PM +0300, Akiva Blum wrote:
:  Rashi (shemos 34:1) says they really wanted many gods. So MR was great as
: a leader. But now they had a opportunity for leadership change, and as good
: as Aharon may have been, well, there was only one of him.

Many gods -- like Yerav'am's gold bulls and Aharon's "eileh"?

I'm not sure you have that citation right. Maybe you mean 32:1, "asheir
yeilekhu lefaneinu"?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Time flies...
micha at aishdas.org                    ... but you're the pilot.
http://www.aishdas.org                       - R' Zelig Pliskin
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