אָ֭דָם עָשֻׁ֣ק בְּדַם־נָפֶשׁ עַד־בּ֥וֹר יָ֝נ֗וּס אַל־יִתְמְכוּ־בֽוֹ׃
Un homme accablé sous le poids d’un meurtre arrive, dans sa fuite, au bord de la fosse; qu’on ne lui tende pas la main!
Zohar
When Moses broke the tablets “under the mountain” (Ex. XXXII, 16), the Ocean overflowed its borders and was on the point of inundating the whole world. When Moses saw how the waves were rising and threatening to overwhelm the universe, straightway he “took the calf which they had made and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water”.(Ex. 32, 20). Then he stationed himself before the waters of the Ocean and said: “Waters, waters, what would ye?” And they answered: “Was not the world established by and on the merit of the Holy Words engraved upon the tablets? And now, because the Israelites have denied the Torah by making the golden calf, we desire to overwhelm the world.”