Comentario sobre Exodo 32:35

ויגף ה' את העם AND THE LORD PLAGUED THE PEOPLE — This was death inflicted by the heavenly Judge on those to whose offence there had been witnesses but no legal caution (cf. Rashi on v. 20).

AND THE ETERNAL SMOTE THE PEOPLE. Scripture does not state how many died in this plague, as it stated the number of those that fell by the hand of the sons of Levi,⁴⁰⁷Above, Verse 28: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. and as it mentioned in the case of the plague about the matter of Korah,⁴⁰⁸Numbers 17:14: Now they that died by the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred. and in connection with the Baal of Peor,⁴⁰⁹Ibid., 25:9: And those that died by the plague were twenty and four thousand. the reason perhaps being that those here did not all die in one plague, but they were smitten and died prematurely, something like it said, but the Eternal shall smite him, or his day shall come to die.⁴¹⁰I Samuel 26:10. Perhaps Scripture did not bother to number them, for similarly it did not number those that died in the plague at Taberah,⁴¹¹Numbers 11:3. and at Kibroth-hattaavah, where it says, and the Eternal smote the people with a very great plague.⁴¹²Ibid., 33. Those that fell, however, through the sons of Levi He counted in their honor, thus saying that they slew many of the people but yet they did not fear them, for they trusted in the Eternal.

על אשר עשו את העגל אשר עשה אהרן, by Aaron’s agreeing, not protesting, he helped a potential sin become an actual sin, so that the person’s sin who fashioned the gold into the shape of a calf is attributable to Aaron. Aaron’s contribution in deed was his throwing the gold into the fire. He himself describes the “this calf emerged,” as a direct consequence of his throwing the gold into the fire (verse 24).