출애굽기 32:7의 주석

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."

כי שחת עמך אשר העלית, “for your people, the ones you brought up from Egypt, etc.” Seeing that after the crossing of the Sea of Reeds, the Torah described Moses as making the people take a turn toward the desert, [apparently without consulting G’d, Ed.] G’d now describes the calamity as having befallen “Moses’” people, as distinct from their being “G’d’s people,” seeing he had led them into the desert on his own authority. as distinct from their having remained “G’d’s” people. (compare Exodus 15,22) Alternatively, G’d took a leaf out of the people’s book, seeing they had described Moses as the man who had brought them out of Egypt. (verse 1) In Deuteronomy 9,12 Moses quotes G’d as having said to him: שחת עמך אשר הוצאת ממצרים, סרו מהר ,” your people, the ones you took out of Egypt have become corrupt and departed quickly from the path I commanded them.” Moses rejected this accusation, replying that G’d had taken the people out of Egypt. Compare Deut. He did not even agree that he had played any substantive part in the Exodus. [The Israelites had been expelled by Pharaoh, did not leave at Moses’ bidding. Ed.]

A term of harshness. . . However, וידבר ה' אל משה לאמר is not a term of harshness, because וידבר is followed with לאמר . Thus, וידבר is the general [act of speaking], and לאמר specifies [what is spoken]. But here לאמר does not follow afterward. And it is written וידבר instead of ויאמר . Perforce it is a term of harshness. (Re”m)

V. 7. שחת .כי שחת in sittlicher Beziehung kommt immer im Hiphil vor, השחית כל בשר את דרכו (Bereschit 6,12), והשחיתו מאבתם (Richter 2, 19). שחת im Piel heißt immer ein konkretes Verderben. Wir haben bereits (zu Bereschit 6, 11) bemerkt, wie שחת eigentlich: einem im gedeihlichen Fortgange Begriffenen eine Grube graben heiße. So auch hier: Geh' hinab, dein Hierverweilen hat seinen Zweck verloren dein Volk hat das begonnene Verhältnis vernichtet, die Ausführung unmöglich gemacht.

כי שחת עמך, “for your people have acted corruptly;” they are your people regardless if you chose them to be, just as you took them out of Egypt regardless if that had been done willingly or not. They acted corruptly by exchanging their leader without consulting you (or Me) Seeing that I had given you them as their leader, they were not at liberty to disown you. In addition to this, they violated My commandment of לא תעשה לך פסל, “do not make for yourself a graven image.” (Exodus 20,4) You are not allowed to do so, even if the image is to symbolise your G–d in heaven.

אשר העלית, “whom you (Moses, not G-d) have brought out of Egypt.” The vowel pattern of this word is slightly different from the vowel pattern of the same word in 33,1, so that the reading is slightly different too. The author does not offer a reason for the difference;[perhaps he means to suggest that the העם referred to in 33,1 are the true Israelites for whom the Exodus was a moral ethical elevation, whereas the העם that Moses had taken out of Egypt without consulting G-d had become a spiritual burden, instead. Ed.]

לך רד GO, GO DOWN from your high position; I have given you distinction only for their sake! (Berakhot 32a). At that moment Moses was excommunicated by a decree of the heavenly court (Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 22).

THAT THOU [i.e., Moses] BROUGHTEST UP OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT. This is to be understood in the light of the verse, And Moses led Israel onward from the Red Sea.³¹²Above, 15:22. Or it may be that G-d wanted to tell it to Moses in the same way as the people had said it — for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt.³¹³Verse 1. Similarly, in the Book of Deuteronomy, He said, thy people that thou hast brought forth out of Egypt,³¹⁴Deuteronomy 9:12. meaning that through you [Moses] they have gone out of Egypt, as they say. But in his prayer Moses said, that Thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand,³¹⁵Verse 11 here. meaning that You alone are the One Who took them out of Egypt, for Yours is the might and the power; for it was with great power that Thy right hand, O Eternal is glorious in power,³¹⁶Above, 15:6. and with a mighty hand Thy right hand, O Eternal dasheth in pieces the enemy.³¹⁶Above, 15:6. Similarly it is said, by Thy great power and by Thy outstretched arm,³¹⁷Deuteronomy 9:29. as I have hinted at³¹⁶Above, 15:6. in connection with the secret of the attribute of the Arm.

The difficulty with this approach is that G'd should have told Moses this as soon as the calf had emerged and the people had said: "these are your gods Israel, etc." Moses should have lost some of his spiritual stature the moment the people had become guilty of idol worship. We must assume that there was a good reason for G'd to delay informing Moses about the sin his people had committed. The Talmud Sanhedrin 43 raises the question why G'd did not inform Joshua of Achan's theft of valuables from the city of Jericho before the defeat of the Israelites at the hands of the people of Ai which prompted Joshua to ask G'd why they had suffered such a humiliating defeat (Joshua 7,6). The Talmud answers that G'd did not want to become known as an "informer," a "snitcher." If that argument were applicable here, G'd should not have told Moses about the people's sin until the latter had found out by himself a few hours later. After all, Moses' time on the Mountain was just about completed. Actually, the situation of Achan and the sin of the golden calf cannot be compared. Achan's sin was unknown except to a few people who kept it as their secret. The Jewish people's dancing around the golden calf and offering sacrifices to it was already public knowledge and Moses would have found out about it within hours even if G'd had not told him. Nonetheless, seeing G'd is the epitome of piety why did He tell Moses before the latter commenced his descent?

עמך אשר העלית ist aus dem Sinne des verirrten Volkes gesprochen, und spricht eben den Kern der Verirrung aus, der ja eben darin bestand, dass sie sich nicht rein als Gottes Volk, sondern auch als Mosches Volk, und Mosche als notwendigen und bedingenden Vermittler der Erlösung begriffen.

שחת עמך THY PEOPLE HAVE CORRUPTED THEMSELVES — It does not say the people have corrupted but “thy” people — the mixed multitude whom you received of your own accord and accepted as proselytes without consulting Me. You thought it a good thing that proselytes should be attached to the Shechina — now they have corrupted themselves and have corrupted others (Exodus Rabbah 42:6).

G'd's reasoning must therefore have been the very reverse of that applied by an informer. The informer delights in implicating people in sin, whereas G'd delights in justifying Himself if per chance He is forced to pronounce sentence over the sinners. Seeing G'd had told Moses to descend from his lofty spiritual niveau, He had to tell him the reason for this, and once having told him that the people had become corrupted, G'd had to add particulars about the form this corruption had taken. G'd listed three sins: 1) "they made a golden calf for themselves;" 2) "they prostrated themselves before it and they offered sacrifices to it;" 3) they proclaimed: "these are your gods O Israel, who have brought you out of Egypt." Israel had therefore sinned in (1) thought, (2) in speech and (3) in deed. G'd first told Moses about Israel having sinned in thought when He said: "they have made for themselves, etc." This was a sin in thought as long as they had not hailed the calf or sacrificed to it. The critical word is להם, "for themselves." Please compare what I have written on Exodus 20,3 on the meaning of the second of the Ten Commandments: לא יהיה לך אלהים אחרים. Concerning the Israelites' sin in deed, G'd told Moses that the people had "offered sacrifices to it." There is no greater act of idol worship than the offering of sacrifices to an idol. Concerning the Israelites having sinned in speech, G'd cited their having said: "these are your gods O Israel, etc." In view of all this Moses suffered a threefold weakening of his spiritual powers. Moses suffered a weakening of both נפש, רוח, and נשמה, and as a result he could not remain in the domain he had previously attained. This proves that unless the people had committed all three parts of this sin, Moses could have maintained his lofty posture. Had this not been so G'd would have already had to command him to descend after the Israelites had committed the first or second stage of that sin. G'd would then have had to reveal to Moses the reason He had asked him to descend at an earlier stage of these developments. At any rate, our question of why G'd did not tell Moses to descend sooner is answered satisfactorily.