Комментарий к Шмот 32:8

סרו מהר, they have strayed very quickly, etc. I have not even been able to complete the gift of the Torah I had wanted to give to you. A reference to “the Torah and the Mitzvah” in Exodus 24,12.

סרו מהר מן הדרך, "they have quickly departed from the path, etc." The meaning of these words is clear in view of the statement in Chulin 4 that if someone acknowledges even passively that there is some substance to idolatry he is considered as having denied the entire Torah. This is why G'd said: "which I have commanded them," i.e. "all that I have commanded them."

V. 8. Auf מסכה steht אתנה, der Satz עשו להם וגו׳ ist somit von dem Folgenden getrennt und bildet mit dem Vorhergehenden einen einheitlichen Gedanken. Sie sind schon damit aus dem durch לא תעשון אתי vorgeschriebenen Wege gewichen, dass sie sich ein עגל מסכה gemacht, selbst indem sie darin nur einen anderen Mosche sich schaffen zu können vermeinten. Sie sind aber noch weiter gegangen, haben durch השתחויה und זביחה ihm göttliche Verehrung gezollt und damit bekundet, in welchem Grade der Verwerflichkeit sie ihren Ausspruch: אלה אלהיך וגו׳ verstanden.

סרו מהר, “they deviated quickly, etc.” they already elected a new leader for themselves instead of you whom I had appointed to be their leader. Not only that, but they also made a molten calf for themselves, contravening My command not to make themselves any cast images. My commandment included the prohibition to make such a cast image even if it was intended to symbolize Me. Although they had no idolatrous intention with what they did, they contravened My commandment.

It is also possible that the wording reflects- as I have written previously- that the Israelites retained their full faith in G'd and only saw in the golden calf one of His many manifestations. In view of all this G'd had to make clear that He had not ever commanded something of this nature, i.e. Israel was not allowed to employ intermediaries in their worship of Him and that what happened represented a complete departure from the way G'd had instructed them to relate to Him. This explains why G'd did not speak of Israel in terms of their having rebelled against Him or having denied Him. He was well aware that the Israelites had retained their belief in Him.

עשו להם עגל מסכה, "they made a molten calf for them(selves)." The words עשו להם mean that "others made for them." They had only handed over the gold whereas the calf appeared to have emerged of its own power. G'd informed Moses that the calf did not emerge by itself as we could have concluded from Aaron's words in verse 24, but that an action preceded its emergence as we have learned from Tanchuma that Yanus and Yambrus (legendary Egyptian sorcerers) made the calf.

ויאמרו אלה אלהיך ישראל, they said: "these are your gods O Israel." Why did G'd tell Moses about the Israelites sinning by speech, i.e. by acknowledging the deity of the calf with their lips, only after He had already told Moses that they had worshiped it by offering sacrifices to it? The order should have been the reverse! According to Shemot Rabbah 42,6 that it was the mixed multitude who made tha calf and that the Israelites had no share in this, the verse has to be interpreted as describing different stages of the sin committed by the Israelites, not by the mixed multitude. As to the first stage of what the Israelites themselves were guilty of G'd said: "the mixed multitude made the golden calf for themselves, but the Israelites did not protest. Next, the mixed multitude prostrated themselves before the calf and offered sacrifices to it, and the Israelites again did not protest. Failure to protest this time was already a sin of a much graver dimension than not having protested the mere making of the calf. When the mixed multitude declared (addressing Israel this time) "these are your gods O Israel," and the Israelites even now did not protest, this was the culmination of their sins.

According to the plain meaning of the verse there is a different reason. G'd did not tell Moses earlier about the Israelites having said: "these are your gods, etc," although sin by speech is not generally as severe as sin by deed because in this case the sin committed by their lips was exceptionally severe. It was reinforced by the words: "who have brought you out of Egypt." Crediting the inert calf with what G'd had done for Israel made the sin absolutely intolerable. The perversion of history for all future generations implied in this utterance made it worse than sacrificing to the calf and prostrating oneself in front of it.

Furthermore, inasmuch as the words were addressed by the mixed multitude to the Israelites and not by the Israelites themselves, they were relatively harmless as long as the Israelites did not respond to the invitation to worship the calf which was contained within these words. It had become clear only after the Israelites participated in the sacrifices to the calf that their active participation must have started already at an earlier stage, namely when they were invited to pay obeisance to the calf as their redeemer. G'd therefore told Moses that participation of the Israelites in the worshiping of the calf was the result of their agreeing with the people who had said: "these are your gods O Israel, etc."