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Shemos 32:1<br><br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><b><i>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<br>
Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.<br><br>
</i></b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>No one should ever
imagine that the Torah should be adapted to<br>
changing times; on the contrary, each generation is entitled to a
present<br>
and a future only inasmuch as it accommodates itself to the Torah.<br>
The Torah is the absolute ultimate goal of the Jewish nation, and
the<br>
generation of the Lawgiving was still infinitely remote from that
goal.<br>
If, nevertheless, the Torah, with its unalterable ideal
requirements,<br>
came down to that generation, the implication is clearly this: The<br>
Torah was not given to Israel so that the people should adapt it to<br>
the changing times or to suit the people’s convenience. Rather, the<br>
Torah was given to Israel so that this nation should shape and adapt<br>
itself until it has elevated itself to the moral and spiritual heights
of<br>
this Torah.<br><br>
In short, as soon as the Torah came down to Israel, over whom it<br>
was meant to reign supreme, the golden calf incident presented it
with<br>
its first challenge: The Torah is to demonstrate its Divine power by<br>
training this people to accept it out of complete submission, and
the<br>
Sanctuary of the Torah is to be first and foremost a place of
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>kaparah</i></font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>, a<br>
place of unceasing education toward a better and purer future.<br><br>
It is a delusion to think that man
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>needs to
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>make for himself a
god<br>
— i.e., that, to ensure his future, he should set before himself
things<br>
of his own choosing and of his own making as the embodiment of
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>his<br>
own </i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>highest ideal, in
respect to the Highest Power Who rules the world,<br>
of Whom he has a vague perception. The heathen imagines that through<br>
these things he shows his homage to this Highest Power, wins His
grace,<br>
and fulfills his duty by acknowledging his dependence on Him. It is<br>
nonsense and a delusion to think of man’s basic dependence on God<br>
— or on the power that he regards as his god — in terms of fate and<br>
in the passive terms of human relationships.<br><br>
All these are delusions which from time immemorial have dominated<br>
the highest aspirations of the members of the non-Jewish world,<br>
and which have produced both crude and spiritual fetishism.<br>
In opposition to these delusions stands the truth of Judaism, which<br>
is meant to put an end to all the delusions of subjective idolatry,
no<br>
matter what form it takes.<br><br>
Man cannot make for himself a god; he need not do so and he may<br>
not do so. Man cannot draw God near to himself by representing the<br>
godly in a corporeal form; rather, man should draw
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>himself
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>near to God<br>
in every aspect of his life by filling his whole being with spiritual
and<br>
moral content and by subordinating all his activities to God’s
commandments.<br><br>
In order to attain closeness to God and to secure for himself God’s<br>
protection and guidance, it is not God that man must influence, but<br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>himself</i></font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>. He should be preoccupied not with
shaping his fate, but with<br>
shaping his deeds; the only way in which he can also influence his
fate<br>
is by suiting his way of life to God’s Will.<br><br>
First of all, however, man must recognize that God has no physical<br>
quality on which a coercive influence could be exerted through some<br>
subjective action, in order to harness that quality to man’s own
subjective<br>
will. Rather, He </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Baruch
Hu</i> </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>is a personal Being
possessed of absolute<br>
freedom, free will, and unlimited power, a Being Who rules the world<br>
in freedom and Who has revealed to man His Will as the absolute<br>
measure of all things and as the absolute norm for the free will of
man.<br>
To God’s Will man must surrender his whole being — joyfully,<br>
freely, and with all the strength of his personality. Only then will
the<br>
blessings of Providence shower down upon him and bring success to<br>
the work of his hands. Obedience to God out of free will is always
and<br>
everywhere all that is necessary to bring blessing to man — to the<br>
community and to the individual; and there is absolutely nothing
that<br>
can take its place.<br><br>
All subjective caprice is like heathenism and idolatry, for it is
based<br>
on the delusion that man can arbitrarily exert a controlling
influence<br>
on the shaping of his future, which is equivalent to the belief that
man<br>
can bend the Will of the Divine. <br>
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