ציטירנדיקער פּירוש אויף ויקרא 3:8

ויצא העגל הזה. This happened spontaneously, without my having done anything once I had thrown the gold into the crucible. The people did not wait until I had performed any action on my own. When we read in verse four ויעשהו עגל מסכה, the Torah did not refer to Aaron having made the cast calf, but it referred to whoever it was who interfered and shaped the gold. We have a similar construction in Leviticus 3,8 וסמך את ידו, “he will place his hand firmly,” where the subject is not Aaron but whoever owns the animal that is about to be slaughtered as a sacrifice. The same applies to the word ושחט in that same context. It is not a specific person, but the priest who performs the duty in the Temple on that particular day. When we read in verse 35 אשר עשו את העגל אשר עשה אהרן, the meaning of this line is “the people made the calf in which Aaron had participated to some extent.” They had shaped it, whereas Aaron had only taken raw gold and thrown it into the fire. [When reading our author’s commentary it becomes clear why the Talmud in Kidushin 49 forbade translating these parts of the Torah into Aramaic during public readings, as the people who need the translation due to their failure to understand the original Hebrew would be apt to misunderstand Aaron’s part in this disaster. Ed.]