Musar do Wyjścia 32:1

And secondly, for this [too] is one who speaks evil speech considered as if he denied a fundamental principle: For he says in his heart that his lips are in his [own] control; and because they do not do an action and he is in charge of his tongue, he determined in his heart that he should not restrain the spirit of his lips from saying that which comes to his spirit; and that only all the other limbs are not in his control to sin with them - like the matter that is stated (Psalms 12:5), “They say, “with lips such as ours, who can be our master?” And they do not say, “Where is the God that made me, to whom all the movements of His creations are given - not one is lacking. They are all subjected to doing His will. Rather, it is no matter - the petitions about the lips are in our control.” The evildoers that sin with other sins are not like this. For they know that their leaving God is bad and bitter, however they were pulled after their desire and their overpowering [evil] impulse; yet they are pained by this. And our Rabbis said (Arakhin 15b), “Evil speech [...] corresponds to three transgressions [and these are them]: Idol worship, forbidden sexual relations and bloodshed. [...] With regard to idol worship, it is stated (Exodus 32:31), ‘Oh, this people have sinned a great sin.’ With regard to forbidden sexual relations, it is stated (Genesis 39:9), ‘How can I do this great wickedness.’ With regard to bloodshed it is stated (Genesis 4:13), ‘My punishment is greater than I can bear.’ [And with regard to evil speech,] it is stated (Psalms 12:4), “May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that speaks great things.”

As far as the half-shekel contribution was concerned every Jew being counted, i.e. every ראש was equal. Since the word תרומה appears three times in this paragraph, it is clear that the Torah alludes to three distinct contributions to be made. One of these contributions is a voluntary one, described by the Torah as given to G–d, i.e. לי, "for Me," such as when the Torah described the donations made for building the Tabernacle in 25,2. When you combine the word לי there, with the word ראש used by the Torah here, you have the word ישראל. When all the Jews have made both their mandatory and their voluntary contributions the result is שבת קודש לישראל, meaning that the 600,000 Israelites have each joined their mate, the holy Sabbath, i.e. the seventh day. Tragically, when the Israelites sinned by worshipping the golden calf, an episode introduced by the Torah (32,1) with the words וירא העם כי בשש משה, normally translated as "the people noticed that Moses was late," the word Boshesh can be read as ba-shesh that the people regressed to the spiritual level of six instead of seven. Our sages all refer to the word meaning that Moses was six hours overdue or something to this effect, as mentioned already by Rashi. Israel's conduct discredited both the name of G–d and His throne. Their action was the equivalent of unhitching one of the four animals pulling G–d's chariot. This is the meaning of ופני שור מן השמאל לארבעתן, "the face of an ox to the left of the four" (Ezekiel 1,10). The ox is one of the four חיות described in the vision as pulling the chariot. [You are aware that the connotation of "left" is one that symbolises the domain of Satan. Ed]

Our author demonstrates by means of a number of allusions based on numerical values that by serving the golden calf the common numerical factors in the words Israel-Moses and Sinai were invalidated. These allusions depended on the use of the number 10 derived from the Ten Commandments which Israel violated when making and serving the golden calf. This relationship had to be restored after Israel repented of its errors. Counting the half-shekels helped restore the numerical equation which signalled Israel's and Moses' profound connection with Sinai and Torah which were expressed in numerical equations.