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RSRH's commentary on Parshas Ki Sisa on the Chait Ha Egel gives brilliant
insight into this event. On <br><br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=6><b>32</font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=4>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>1. When the people saw
that Moshe did not fulfill their expectation that he would come down from
the mountain, the people gathered<br>
against Aharon, and they said to him: Arise, make us gods who shall go
before us; for this man Moshe,who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
we do not know what has happened to him.<br><br>
</i></b>Rav Hirsch writes<br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>In their view, the eternal
bond with God was not formed by the<br>
Divine Torah given to them through Moshe. The eternal guarantee of<br>
God’s protection and of the intimacy with God attainable by each
individual,<br>
without an intermediary, was not the Divine rules for life —<br>
i.e., the <i>Mishpatim</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>— which would remain with
them even when the temporary<br>
transmitter had departed. Rather, they considered the personality<br>
of Moshe, a man who was close to God, as the vital link in their
connection<br>
with God. Only as long as he was alive could they be certain<br>
of God’s protection.<br><br>
They believed that Moshe’s relationship with God had been initiated<br>
not by God but by Moshe; hence, they reasoned, if Moshe was no
longer<br>
alive they could, and indeed must, take some action on their own in<br>
order to force God’s hand. They had not yet completely absorbed the<br>
Jewish conception that man has direct access to God, without the
need<br>
for any intermediary, as long as he conducts himself in accordance
with<br>
God’s Will. Or perhaps the fear that henceforth they would have to<br>
wander through the wilderness without a leader to guide them caused<br>
them to doubt this truth.<br><br>
This is merely a small selection of the commentary on this event. If you
have the Hirsch Chumash, then I suggest you have a look at all the RSRH
wrote about this. I am sure that you will find it of great interest and
most enlightening.<br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
Yitzchok Levine</font></body>
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