출애굽기 32:4의 주석

ויצר אתו בחרט — One can translate this in two ways. The one is: to take ויצר in the sense of “tying up” (Hiphil of צרר) and בחרט in the sense of “a garment”, similar to (Isaiah 3:22) “and the mantles and the scarfs (והחריטים)”; ‎(2 Kings 5:23) “and bound (ויצר) two talents of silver in two cloths (חריטים)”. The other way is: to take ויצר in the sense of “forming figures” (Hiphil of צור) and חרם as denoting goldsmiths’ tool with which they engrave and cut figures into gold, like a writer’s stylus that incises letters on boards and tablets, as we find it in, (Isaiah 8:1) ‘‘[Take a great roll] and write on it with a man’s pen (חרט)”. This (the second explanation) is what Onkelos means when he renders the passage by וצר יתיה בזיפא and he formed it with a “זיפא”, a term which is connected with the word זיוף “forgery”. It is a tool with which letters and modelled figures are engraved in gold — a kind of work which they term niel in old French (cf. Rashi and our Note on Exodus 25:33), and by means of which seals are forged (מזיפין)‎.

AND THEY SAID, THESE ARE THY GODS, O ISRAEL, WHICH BROUGHT THEE UP OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT. This verse also will teach you [that they had no intention of worshipping it as an idol], for there is no fool in the world who would think that this gold which was in their ears²⁹¹Verse 3. is that which brought them up out of the land of Egypt. Rather, they said that the power of that figure brought them up out of there. Thus you will find that in no place does it say of the calf, “which brought us ‘out’ of Egypt,” for they acknowledged Him Who said, I am the Eternal thy G-d, who brought thee ‘out’ of the land of Egypt,²⁹²Above, 20:2. and that it was by His Great Name that He delivered them from there. Instead, they said in many places who brought thee ‘up,’ for they took it to be in place of the great hand²⁹³Ibid., 14:31. — that dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; that made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over.²⁹⁴Isaiah 51:10. It is with this intention that Scripture says, Thus they exchanged their Glory for the likeness of an ox that eateth grass,²⁹⁵Psalms 106:20. and there it is said, They forgot G-d Who had delivered them, Who had done great things in Egypt; wondrous works in the land of Ham, terrible things by the Red Sea.²⁹⁶Ibid., Verses 21-22. They forgot His word which He commanded them. Thus they transgressed the prohibition, Thou shalt have no other gods before Me,²⁹⁷Above, 20:3. as I have hinted there, and you will understand this.

אלה אלוהיך ישראל, these will serve henceforth as your elohim, for you to address in your prayers for all your needs; you will serve them in order to obtain your needs.

ויעשהו עגל, "he made it into a calf." The calf is described as the work of Aaron not because he meant to make it but because he was the instrument which caused the calf to emerge. We hear about this clearly in verse 24 where Aaron describes what happened with the words: "this calf emerged (from the crucible)." It is also possible that the making of the calf was attributed to Aaron because he accepted the gold from the contributors in his hands without first depositing it on the ground which would have deprived it of the magical quality which resulted in it emerging in the shape of a calf (Zohar volume 2 page 192).

אלה אלוהיך ישראל אשר העלוך, “these are your leaders o Israel that have led you out of Egypt.” These words of the onlookers are further proof that the golden calf was not intended to serve as a deity, as there could not have been any person foolish enough to credit the gold from their earrings with having orchestrated the Exodus from Egypt. What the people meant was that the mystical power represented by gold in the present shape was the major factor which had enabled Moses to lead the people out of Egypt. Never, in connection with the golden calf, did any part of the people ever say the words אשר הוציאוך ממצרים, “who have initiated your departure from Egypt,” a formulation which would have credited the golden calf with divine powers. They only credited the power inherent in this gold as facilitating the auxiliary aspects of the Exodus, such as drying out the bed of the sea through which the Israelites walked when crossing the Sea of Reeds.

He had come out of the foundations. . . Explanation: when the Israelites were in Egypt, building Pisom and Ramseis, and they failed to complete the amount of work they were told to do, the Egyptians came and took their children, put them into the wall being built, and placed stones around them and on them — thereby completing the amount of work. Moshe said to Hashem: “Master of the World! Why should the children be punished by such a death?” Hashem answered: “These children will not end up good. They will go in evil ways when they mature. Better they die while they are worthy.” Moshe went and removed a child who was crushed (nimach) in a row being built. He was called Michah.

ויצר אותו בחרט. Aaron took the gold from someone else, tied it all together in a cloth where he squeezed it together until they made a mould such as used to shape wax or soft clay. The makers of the mould recessed the shape of a calf in the bottom of the mould. Afterwards, the gold was thrown into this mould. Once it had melted in the crucible into which the mould was placed, the gold had assumed the shape of a calf when retrieved from the crucible after it had cooled. (verse 24) A similar procedure is described in Kings II 5,23 [this interpretation of that verse by our author is most unusual. Ed.]

ויצר אותו, “he fashioned it with a graving tool.” He kept experimenting with different shapes, hoping all the time that Moses would come back. Everything he did was motivated by an attempt to preserve the glory of the Lord. This is clearly hinted at in the remarks of the last of the prophets, Malachi, who in Malachi 2,7 refers to Aaron in the following words: כי שפתי כהן ישמרו דעת ותורה יבקשו מפיהו כי מלאך ה' צבא-ות הוא, “for the lips of the priest guard knowledge, and men seek rulings from his mouth, for he is a Messenger of the Lord of Hosts.” It is also written there in verse 6: ורבים השיב מעון, “and he prevented many from becoming guilty of trespasses." [At the beginning of that chapter the prophet had referred to the person he was describing as the model Levite, clearly none other than Aaron who was appointed High priest seven months after the episode described in our portion. Ed.] If the Israelites had killed Aaron there would have been no possible way for them to become rehabilitated as they would have been guilty of what is described in Lamentations 2,20: אם יהרג במקדש כהן ונביא, ”alas priest and prophet are slain in the Sanctuary of the Lord.”

ויצר אותו, “he shaped it,” the expression יצר, used by the Torah here to describe what Aaron did with the golden jewelry he had received, is based on the word: צרר, “to make a bundle of something, to treat it indiscriminately, or to compress it.” The author uses Proverbs 7,20 and Kings II 5,23 as parallels and bases himself on the commentary of Rash’bam.

עגל מסכה A MOLTEN CALF — As soon as he (Aaron) had thrown it (the gold) into the fire in a melting pot the magicians amongst the mixed multitude who had come up with them from Egypt came and made it (the golden calf) by their magic art. There are some who say that Micah the idolator mentioned in Judges ch. 17, was there, who had been drawn forth from the foundations of a building in Egypt where he was nearly crushed. He had in his possession a “supernatural name” (שם) and a plate upon which Moses had written: “Come up, ox, come up, ox!” in order to raise the coffin of Joseph who is compared to an ox (cf. Deuteronomy 33:17) out of the Nile, and he cast it (the plate) into the melting pot and the calf (the young ox) came out (ויצא העגל הזה) (Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 19).

אלה אלוהיך ישראל אשר העלוך, were the Israelites all idiots that they would accept such a statement? Had they not all experienced the miracles performed by the G’d of Israel only less than 3 months ago?The declaration is to be understood as based on the premise subscribed to by most idolaters that while it is true that there is a G’d in heaven Who had created the universe, the teraphim were held to possess divine powers, exercising same just as did the prophets who performed miracles. The former were agents of spiritually negative forces, known in our parlance as רוח הטומאה, the prophets performed their miracles by invoking the spiritually positive forces, G’d in heaven. The people who had made the golden calf, or who had seen it emerge from the mould, proclaimed that the same force which had produced the golden calf had also been instrumental in freeing the Jewish people from the enslavement by the Egyptians. They implied that such teraphim may sometimes be the embodiment of holy spirit, other times of Satan’s spirit. They insisted that seeing that the calf had materialised at the time when the Jewish people were in need of a replacement for Moses, this was proof that it was a replacement for Moses, and if they would now carry the golden calf in front of them, or have it walk in front of them, this would be equivalent having the holy spirit walking ahead of them. [I fleshed out the author’s words. Ed.] We know that Lavan (Genesis 31,30) accused Yaakov of having stolen his “gods” which was the description he gave to his “teraphim.” He himself had admitted that Yaakov’s G’d had enriched him, and yet for himself he paid heed to these teraphim. If G’d allowed the spiritually negative forces to appear as possessing divine powers, He did so in order to test the loyalty of the Jewish people who had been warned not to have any truck with witchcraft or those who practiced this art. Moses spells all this out in Deuteronomy 13,4. The prohibition against אוב, ידעוני, and a variety of different demonic and other sorcery performing spirits has been repeated in the Torah several times. Loyalty of the people to their G’d can be proven only when alternative sources of what one desires are offered or appear as being offered.

And he threw it into the melting pot and out came the Calf. Since “Arise ox” was written on it, the Calf arose, for it was a [young] ox.

ויאמרו אלה אלוהיך ישראל אשר העלוך מארץ מצרים, They said: "these are your gods Israel which brought you up from the land of Egypt." At first glance the foolishness of this statement is so colossal that one cannot perceive of anyone taking it seriously. How can our sages who characterised this generation of Israelites as the דור דעה, "the generation endowed with superior knowledge," reconcile such a characterisation with the statement in front of us? Even if we accept a comment in Tanchuma according to which the calf was perceived as able to speak through some magic formula employed by the sorcerers amongst the mixed multitude, how could anyone fall for such a blatant lie as "these are the gods which have brought you up out of Egypt?"

ויעשהו, “he made it into the shape of a calf.” He did not select a different creature, seeing that the mixed multitude that had joined the Jewish bandwagon at the Exodus had been the first to gang up on him, demanding a replacement for Moses. They had heard Moses sing after the splitting of the sea: זה אלי ואנוהו, “this is My G-d and I will enshrine Him!” They had only seen the feet of the angels surrounding G-d’s throne, feet which looked like the feet of a calf. They had mistakenly assumed that what they had seen were the footprints of G-d which had the appearance of calves’ feet. This is also why the psalmist in Psalms 77,20 writes: “Your way was through the sea, Your path through the mighty waters; Your tracks could be seen.” They had mistaken the footprints of the angels for the footprints of G-d Himself.

מסכה MOLTEN is a term connected with מתכת, molten metal (ס and ת being interchanged in these words). Another explanation is: there were used in it (for making the golden calf) 125 talents of gold, corresponding to the numerical value of מסכה, which is 125 (Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 19).

And afterwards misled. . . Therefore it says: “These, Yisrael, are your gods who brought you up.” I.e., the riffraff said this to the Israelites.

We are therefore forced to conclude that the makers (initiators) of this golden calf did not mean for the Israelites to worship and prostrate themselves to anyone but the one who had truly taken them out of Egypt; the statement reported here only prepared the ground for making a deity out of the calf. The initiators indicated that they worshiped an all-embracing G'd and that the calf was merely part of that greater "whole." It was the part which would "walk in front of them," i.e. be the visible reminder of the Power which had delivered them from bondage. They did not consider making an inert golden calf into such a symbol as anything strange at all. On the contrary, inasmuch as even the "ideal" intermediary Moses had proved to be transient, mortal (according to their perception at the time), they decided to use the most precious and enduring symbol in the future, i.e. the golden calf. According to their reasoning every human being is composed of both matter and spirit, the spirit returning to its Maker at some time or other. In order not to risk losing such a go-between once more, they thought that the golden calf was a superior intermediary between them and their G'd. They actually believed that by means of the enduring nature of gold they could attract G'd's Presence on a permanent and enduring basis. The last thing they had on their minds was to uproot the first of the Ten Commandments in which the G'd in Heaven proclaimed Himself as their G'd and Redeemer. When they spoke about אלה, "These," they made sure that they did not exclude G'd in Heaven. Possibly, they used the expression העלוך "they brought you up," to hint that there was a Power on earth which equals the Power in the Heavens, G'd forbid; by making such a statement they insulted G'd in many different ways and this is why G'd reacted so violently. Please examine my comment on verse eight: "they have departed quickly from the path I have commanded them, etc."

ויאמרו אלה אלוהיך ישראל, they said: “these are your gods o Israel;” is it conceivable that these fellow travelers were so foolish as to credit a newly cast golden calf as having orchestrated the Exodus which had occurred 3 months before that calf had been cast in gold? The sorcerers among the mixed multitude were able to create the illusion that some deity is speaking from their mouth. They now created the illusion that this calf had addressed them from its mouth, and that it was far superior to any Egyptian deity as it was made of pure gold, so that what came forth from such a mouth must be sacred. The fact that they did not say: “these are our gods who have taken us out of Egypt, is evidence that the Israelites had never become guilty of worshipping the calf with words such as these. Nonetheless, the whole people at this point were being tested by G-d as to their sincere belief in a G-d Who is and remains unseen and devoid of tangible dimensions. In the Book of Deuteronomy, 40 years later, Moses still warns the people of such tests by G-d when he refers to prophets who try to legitimize themselves by working miracles and predicting matters which will come true though no one else had even dreamt of such things. (Deut. 13,26)

אלה אלהיך THESE ARE THY GODS, [O ISRAEL] — It does not state that they said “these are our gods, [O Israel]”; hence we may learn that it was the mixed multitude which came up from Egypt that gathered themselves together against Aaron, and it was they who made it and afterwards led Israel astray after it (Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 19).

I am convinced that not all of the Jewish people committed this error and that is why they did not all die. Among those who did not agree with the philosphy espoused by the enthusiastic followers of the golden calf some protested whereas some were powerless to counter the new philosophy. From the fact that the leaders of the new cult addressed the people saying: "these are your gods," instead of saying: "these are our gods," it is clear that they were in a minority. They also did not say "who have brought us out of Egypt," but they said "who have brought you up from Egypt;" all of this proves that the people who said this were a small minority at that time. Some of the people accepted this line of reasoning, others did not. Our sages in Shemot Rabbah 42,6 state that the whole episode of the golden calf was initiated by members of the mixed multitude, and that the Israelites did not agree with them at all. Had they agreed with the mixed multitude they would all have been guilty of the death penalty as G'd holds one responsible even for idolatrous thoughts not merely for idolatrous actions. The Israelites' sin consisted in their failure to protest what was going on and that is why the people were punished en masse except for a few whose hearts were tested by G'd and the Levites who had remained opposed and whom G'd charged with the task of executing Jews who actively worshiped the golden calf. Once the calf had been made, at least some of the natural-born Israelites erred and believed it possessed some divine powers, and that is why the Torah reported in verse 28 that about "three thousand of the people 'fell' on that day." Seeing that in verse 27 the Levites had been instructed not to spare family members when executing these idol worshipers, we must accept that natural-born Jews were amongst those who worshiped the calf and who were executed, seeing they did not desist in spite of warnings and witnesses.

אלה אלוהיך ישראל, “these are your gods O Israel” Our sages in Sanhedrin 63 derive from this that these Israelites strove to have many deities. They derive this from the word אלה “these,” instead of זה, “this,” if they had referred only to the golden calf. We do indeed find the latter expression in Nechemyah 9,18: זה אלוהיך אשר העלוך ממצרים, “this is your god who took you out of Egypt.”