Komentarz do Wyjścia 32:26

מי לה' אלי means, WHOEVER IS FOR THE LORD let him come TO ME.

AND MOSES STOOD IN THE GATE OF THE CAMP. This is connected with what is said in the preceding verse, thus stating that when Moses saw that the people would be a source of derision and disgrace amongst their enemies, and would thereby profane the Name of G-d, he stood in the gate of the camp and called out loudly, Whoso is on the Eternal’s side, let him come unto me; and they killed publicly all those who worshipped the calf, so that the matter be heard about amongst their enemies, and G-d’s Name would thus be sanctified, in place of the profanation that they had caused.

Whoever is for Ad-noy [come] to me. Moshe could not have been referring to everyone who did not worship the calf, for that would have included the majority of the people. Rather, he was calling upon those whose intentions were pure and who would give all they owned for God’s honor.

ויעמוד משה בשער המחנה, “Moses stood at the entrance gate to the camp.” Seeing that Moses had seen that the people’s conduct had resulted in their disgracing themselves, and being guilty of a public desecration of the name of the Lord, Moses took up position at the gateway to the camp and called out in a loud voice that all those loyal to Hashem should come forward and publicly execute all those guilty of acts of idolatry, in order that this would become common knowledge and no one would be able to use the fact that idolatry had been tolerated among the Israelites as a weapon against their reputation of being G’d’s nation. The public execution was an act of sanctification of the Lord’s name that would even the score.

“Come to me.” Meaning: he who is for Hashem, i.e., he who fears Him, should come to me. The word “come” is missing [from the verse, but implied. Rashi knows it means this] because otherwise it would be saying: he who is for Hashem and fears Him is [already] close to Me. Why would it then say, “All the sons of Leivi gathered to him”?

V. 26. Das nächste, was Not tat, war somit, dem Gesetze wieder aus der Mitte des Volkes heraus Achtung und Vertreter zu schaffen, den קמים, der gesetzesfeindlichen Minorität, eine gesetzestreue, ja für die Herrschaft des Gesetzes eintretende und einstehende Minorität gegenüber zu stellen, und das wurden die Leviten.

!מי לה' אלי, “anyone who is on G–d’s side to me!” Moses called on all the Israelites who had not become involved with the golden calf in any way to join him. He was immediately joined by all the members of the tribe of Levi. The entire male population of the tribe, none of whom had been counted, joined him. No other tribe, of those that had been numbered, was loyal in its entirety. This is reflected in Deuteronomy 33,9 (Moses’ blessings of the people) where the Torah writes concerning the tribe of Levi: האומר לאביו ולאמו לא ראיתיו ואת אחיו לא הכיר ואת בניו לא ידע---כי (כולם) שמרו אמרתך, “who can say of his father and his mother: “I have not seen him,” (take part in the sin of the golden calf) nor did he see his brother (do so) nor did his son have any knowledge (of that sin) for they all were loyal to Your word.” Moses was not able to compliment any other tribe similarly. It appears that one reason for this great loyalty was the fact that Moses was their tribe’s leader, and they did not wish to trade him for a leader from a different tribe. Maimonides, in his treatise on idolatry chapter 1, near the end, states that Avraham had already handed the Torah in oral form to his son Yitzchok, who transmitted it to Yaakov, who in turn transmitted it to his son Levi. The latter’s sons already founded a Torah study academy, so that knowledge of the Torah’s laws never was interrupted even during the many years of bondage in Egypt. It appears that the attitude to the golden calf by the different sections of the people was divided into three different groups; one group accepted the golden calf by promising to follow it to wherever it would lead the people, אשר ילכו לפנינו; they only wished for the golden calf to be leader on their journeys. The second group accepted the golden calf as a symbol of idolatry; this group made up the three thousand Israelites who were killed by the Levites. The third group was the entire tribe of Levi which completely rejected the golden calf in all its aspects, remaining completely loyal to Hashem.

ויאספו אליו כל בני לוי, “all the members of the tribe of Levi rallied around him.” According to the plain meaning of the text, the relatives of Moses, members of his tribe would not allow someone from another tribe to usurp Moses’ authority.

כל בני לוי ALL THE SONS OF LEVI — All the sons — from this we may gather that all the tribe of Levi remained worthy men (consequently “slay every man his brother” in the next verse can refer only to one who was his brother from the same mother, as explained by Rashi there) (Yoma 66b).