<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">“And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf<br>and the dancing; and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tablets out of his <br>hands and broke them beneath the mountain” (32:19).<br><br>Moses’ reaction to the news that the Israelites had fashioned a golden calf and were<br>worshipping it was a curious one. When Gd informed him initially, he keeps the tablets <br>but only when he sees the act for himself, does he hurl the tablets to the ground. Why<br>didn’t he react when Gd told him. Surely he didn’t doubt the word of Gd.<br><br>A careful reading of the text gives an insightful answer. Eleven verses earlier, in verse 8,<br>Gd told Moses only that: “They have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it,<br>and have sacrificed unto it and said, ’This is thy god…’ “; whereas what Moses saw was<br>was not merely the confirmation of this, but “the DANCING” — he saw them actually <br>rejoicing in their defection. <br><br>Several parallels came to mind: If you recall, when 911 occurred, the enemy countries <br>showed their citizens dancing in the streets over our tragic attacks. It was one thing to<br>see the planes crash but to see them dancing just poured salt on the wound.<br><br>In learning this subtlety in the text, I had two flashbacks. When I was a youngster, my <br>uncle was driving my cousin and I to shul on Shabbos. We, like 50% of the congregation,<br>had an orthodox affiliation but were not shomer Shabbos. People would always park a <br>couple blocks away and then walk from their parked car to shul. My uncle was driving and also <br>smoking a cigarette. As we got close to the shul, we saw the rabbi and his family walking<br>ahead. So I’ll never forget what happened next. My uncle took the cigarette out of his mouth<br>and immediately put it out in the ashtray and said: “It’s bad enough that we’re driving on Shabbos<br>but the rabbi doesn’t have to see me smoking, too!” <br>It is amazing how that stuck out in my mind as if it happened last Shabbos. <br><br>The second flashback I had is when I was 15 in the Yeshiva in New York. We were all sitting<br>around the Shabbos table and one of the students (last name Klein) smuggled in some Schnapps<br>and apparently the Rosh Yeshiva (Rabbi Yehuda London) got wind of it. He quietly came over to <br>our table and took the glass from Klein, containing the schnapps, and violently spilled it out on him<br>and threw the glass on the floor breaking it into numerous pieces. I’ll never forget that and thought<br>of Moshe Rabbeinu throwing the tablets on the ground.<br><br>I guess nature never really changes.<br></span><br></body></html>