Komentaryo sa Exodo 32:31: Rashi, Or HaChaim, Rabbeinu Bahya & Chizkuni

אלהי זהב GODS OF GOLD — Moses emphasized the word “gold” as some excuse for their sin: It is You who have caused them to do this, for You gave them gold in abundance and everything they wished; what else were they likely to do if not to sin? A parable: this may be compared to a king who provides his son with food and drink, attires him with beautiful garments and hangs a money-bag round his neck and then deliberately places him at the door of a house of ill-fame! What else is the son likely to do if not to sin!? (Berakhot 32a)

חטא העם הזה, "This nation has committed a very grave sin, etc." It is possible that with these words Moses alluded to something we have learned in Sotah 3, that no one commits a sin unless his brain had first malfunctioned, i.e. that he was out of his mind. This represents a defect in his spiritual life-force, his נפש. By saying חטא, Moses meant that the people's spiritual makeup had lacked an essential ingredient. This was the reason that they made a molten image for themselves. This is one of the arguments man will use after death when he faces His Maker and has to account for his sins in this life. He will claim that when he committed a sin he was not of sound mind. Although he will be punished, seeing he himself was the cause of being of unsound mind, his punishment will not be as severe as if he had been of perfectly sound mind at the time he comitted the sin.

אנא חטא העם הזה, “I implore!” This people has committed a grievous sin.” This is the source for the High Priest in the Yom Kippur service introducing the various confessionals with the word אנא. Our sages in Yuma 35 say that the prayer resulting in the granting of atonement was derived from Moses’ prayer at Mount Sinai when he said to the Jewish people (Exodus 32,30) “perhaps I can achieve atonement for your sin.” Hence it is fitting that the formula used by the High Priest on the Day of Atonement introducing the confession leading to atonement should be one that has proven effective in times past. Furthermore, the Talmud there queries the need to mention the holy name of G’d in the confessional. It concludes that seeing this is done in the case of the עגלה ערופה, the heifer that gets killed as atonement for the possible indirect involvement of the people in a town near which an unsolved murder occurred (Deut. 21,8), it is most certainly appropriate for the High Priest on the Day of Atonement to invoke the holy name of G’d for sins which most certainly have been committed by unknown parties and which require atonement.