Commentary for Exodus 32:21

מה עשה לך העם הזה WHAT DID THIS PEOPLE UNTO THEE How many pains must you have endured — it must be that they inflicted suffering on you, before you brought this sin upon them!

WHAT DID THIS PEOPLE UNTO THEE, THAT THOU HAST BROUGHT SO GREAT A SIN UPON THEM? “How many pains did you endure, and how much suffering did they inflict on you, before you brought this sin upon them?” This is Rashi’s language. But it does not appear to me to be correct. For this transgression [of idolatry] is of the kind for which one must sacrifice one’s life and submit to death rather than transgress it [and from Rashi’s words it would appear that if Aaron had suffered much it was permissible for him to make it]. Perhaps Moses told him so in order to magnify his guilt.
The correct interpretation appears to me to be that this is like the verse, What have I done? what is mine iniquity? and what is my sin before thy father, that he seeketh my life?³⁶⁴I Samuel 20:1. Moses is thus saying: “What hatred did you have for this people, that you have [almost] brought about their destruction and annihilation?” Moses told him this because Aaron had served them in the function of one who reproves³⁶⁵This is a reference to what the Rabbis have said that Aaron served as prophet while Israel was yet in Egypt. See commentaries to I Samuel 2:27. and atones for them, and he should have had compassion and mercy on them [and should have made them desist from their course of conduct]; thus the meaning is: “You conducted yourself towards them as an enemy who desires to see their calamity, when they had neither sinned nor transgressed against you.” Now the proper order would have been for Moses to blame him firstly for the sin which he himself had done, and then to charge him for the sin which he brought upon the people, saying: “how did you do this great sin against G-d, causing also many people to trespass, and bringing a great sin upon them?” Moses, however, in his humility showed respect towards his elder brother, and only mentioned to him the stumbling of the people. It is possible that Moses’ heart was steadfast, trusting³⁶⁶Psalms 112:7. in the righteousness of his brother [and he assumed] that his intention was not a bad one, [and therefore he did not reprove him for his own conduct]; but for the people’s guilt he did blame him, for he should have reproved them, and thus they stumbled because of him, — and Aaron replied that they deceived him with their words.

הבאת עליו חטאה גדולה, a reference to the display of merriment in serving the golden calf. Moses criticised Aaron for having proclaimed the feast which led to this rejoicing over the golden calf instead of instead of being a feast for G’d. On account of this he was forced to entreat G’d for an additional measure of mercy for His people. This is also what he meant when addressing the people saying: אתם חטאתם חטאה גדולה “you have committed an exceedingly great sin,” (verse 30) Also, when appealing to G’d, he commences by saying that the people had been guilty of an exceedingly serious sin (verse 31). This theme returns once more when G’d speaks of עון-פשע-וחטאה, sins of three different levels of seriousness in Exodus 34,7. In 34,9 Moses begs for forgiveness for two of these categories of sin, עון and חטא, not daring to ask for forgiveness for פשע, deliberate taunting of G’ by one’s sin. Moses. who had shown understanding for the fact that Aaron had been under great pressure in acceding to the making of the golden calf, cannot understand why he lent his hand to heaping additional sin on the people by having declared a public holiday. He had not been under pressure to do that and should have known that the people would understand this as an invitation to celebrate the new leader, replacing Moses.

מה עשה לך העם הזה? "What did this people do to you?" Moses recognised that the making of a cast idol for others is not one of the commandments for which one has to sacrifice one's life rather than to do so under duress. Compare Maimonides' treatise on the laws of idolatry chapter three in which he rules that a person who commits such a sin is punishable only by 39 lashes. If a person performs such a deed under duress he is not punishable at all. If he had not been forced to do what he did under threat of death he is punishable by 39 lashes even if he had not been warned of the consequences of his deed by witnesses acceptable in Jewish law (Makkot 6). Moses therefore wanted to know the circumstances which caused Aaron to make the calf.

מה עשה לך העם הזה? ”what have these people done to you?” Rashi understands this question as meaning: “how many tortures have these people inflicted upon you that you became instrumental in making this calf?” Nachmanides has difficulty in accepting this interpre-tation, as Moses implied that Aaron’s action was excusable, whereas when it comes to idolatry we have an ironclad rule that one must be prepared to sacrifice one’s life rather than lend a hand in such a nefarious scheme. He therefore prefers to understand Moses’ question to Aaron as: “how much did you hate this people that you were willing to become the instrument which would lead to their destruction?” He said this as it had been Aaron’s task to be their remonstrator, castigator, not their assistant and abettor when they were bent on committing a sin. Nachmanides adds that actually, Moses should first have accused Aaron of his sin, before mentioning the people’s sin. Only then should he have mentioned that Aaron had been guilty in causing them to commit this sin. He refrained from accusing Aaron to his face of causing the people to sin, out of respect for him. Alternatively, the reason why Moses did not reprimand Aaron was simply that he was one hundred per cent convinced that Aaron could not have harboured any thought that deserved criticizing from an halachic point of view, but that Moses’ words referred exclusively to the sin committed by the people, and that Aaron should have remonstrated with them. Aaron replied simply that the people had deliberately misled him.

How much pain did you endure. . . This is a rhetorical question: How much pain they must have caused you, that you were coerced into making them the Calf! Moshe said this to emphasize the point, that [in truth] they did not cause you any pain.

V. 21. Der Nichtigkeitsbeweis des Vergötterten durch dessen konkrete Vernichtung war das erste und dringendste. Es war damit der Weg zur wieder zu gewinnenden Besinnung angebahnt. Nun erst wendet Mosche sich zu Aaron. Der Mangel alles Widerstandes bei seinem Verfahren mit dem Götterkalbe hatte gezeigt, was Energie vermag, und um so eindringender war nunmehr die Frage an Aaron: Welche Gewalt hat denn das Volk gegen dich gebraucht, daß du es in seiner Verirrung gewähren lassen musstest? הבאת kann nicht heißen: du hast über es die Sünde gebracht, das setzte eine positive Tätigkeit Aarons bei Verübung des Verbrechens voraus, und davon wusste ja Mosche noch gar nichts. Der הפעיל kann hier nur in der Bedeutung des Geschehenlassens stehen, wie: ולא תותירו ממנו (Kap. 12,10). ולא תורד שיבתו וגו׳ (Kön. I. 2, 6).

Aaron replied: אתה ידעת את העם הזה כי בדע הוא, "you know from observing the people that they are bent on doing something corrupt." He added that as far as Moses' assumption that he, Aaron, had made the calf with his own hands was concerned, this was not so. All he had done was to throw the gold into the crucible. The calf emerged totally unassisted. This follows the description in the Tanchuma which we quoted earlier according to which the Egyptian sorcerers Yanus and Yambrus made the calf. Aaron explained that if not for this factor which was beyond his control, there would not have been a sin at all as he had made neither a form nor an image.

Another meaning of Moses asking: "what have the people done to you?" could be this: "Did they put you under sufficient pressure so that you could legally have agreed to comply?" Moses asked whether Aaron had correctly contrasted the enormity, חטאה גדולה, of the sin involved before deciding that he did not have to make a martyr of himself by agreeing to do whatever he did. Aaron replied by outlining the circumstances of what had transpired.