פירוש על שמות 32:7

וידבר AND [THE LORD] SAID — This term דבר when not followed by a word of the root אמר implies censorious speech, as (Genesis 42:7) “And he spake (וידבר) roughly (קשות) unto them”.

FOR THY PEOPLE HAVE DEALT CORRUPTLY. G-d said to Moses that they have committed two evils.³⁰⁵Jeremiah 2:13. One is that thy people have dealt corruptly. The meaning of the term hashchathah (corruption) is destruction of a structure, similar to that which is said, every man with his weapon of ‘mashchetho’ (destruction) in his hand;³⁰⁶Ezekiel 9:1. behold, I am against thee, ‘hamashchith’ (O destroying) mountain³⁰⁷Jeremiah 51:25. — Babylon — which destroyed every wall and tower [of the fortified cities]. And the meaning of “the destruction” here is that which our Rabbis have called³⁰⁸Chagigah 14b. See Vol. I, p. 155. — The “mutilating of the shoots” consists of separating any of the Ten Emanations and worshipping it independently (see Ha’emunah Vehabitachon, Chapter 3, in my Kithvei Haramban, Vol. II, p. 362). “mutilating the shoots,” [of faith, by seeking to undermine the principle of the Unity]. Secondly, they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed unto it.³⁰¹Verse 8. Now as regards the first transgression it was known only to G-d, for it is He Who knoweth the secrets of the heart,³⁰⁹Psalms 44:22. but the second one, [the open disregard of the Law] was by the sinners amongst them, as I have explained, [in bringing sacrifices to the golden calf; and that was a matter known to all]. Now most of the people shared in the sin of the incident of the calf, for so it is written, And all the people pulled off the golden pendants.²⁹¹Verse 3. And were it not for this [participation of theirs in the incident], the anger [of G-d] would not have been directed against them to destroy them all. For even though the numbers of those who were killed for this sin³¹⁰Verse 28: there fell of the people that day about three thousand. and those smitten by G-d³¹¹Verse 35. were few [in comparison to the total number of the people, this was because] most of them shared in the sin only in their evil thought [and not in action], as I have explained.

לך רד כי שחת עמך, "go and descend for your people have become corrupt, etc." G'd repeated Himself, saying both "go," and "descend!" He first told Moses that the time had come for him to leave the Mountain; He added that his departure would be in the nature of a "descent" from the lofty spiritual heights he had so recently attained. If G'd had only said to Moses: "Descend," we would have understood this as nothing out of the ordinary, seeing he had been on the Mountain and there was no way to go but down, just as when the Torah described Moses' previous descent from the Mountain in Exodus 19,14. G'd wanted Moses to understand that his "descent" had a metaphysical dimension. Perhaps G'd used this method to inform Moses that his entire spiritual progress had been due to the nature of the people of whom he was in charge. Now that the people of Israel had sinned, Moses, their leader, could no longer attain the level of prophetic insights he had achieved formerly. It is also possible that what G'd meant was that inasmuch as the Jewish people were Moses' "helper" and that helper had now become deficient, he, Moses could no longer maintain himself on the lofty plateau he had reached. This is what is implied by the words רד כי שחת עמך, "do not remain on this level seeing you attained it only with the help of your people."