“Before Yeravam ben Nevat, the people of Israel nursed from a single calf. Thereafter, they nursed from three; the one of the Golden Calf and the two of Yeravam (Sanhedrin 102a).”

How could the person about whom the Talmud says, “The Torah knowledge of Yeravam was flawless (Sanhedrin 102a),” and that “the entire Torah was an open field to him, and he discovered new insights that no ear had ever heard (ibid.),” introduce such a idol worship to the people?

“He seated a wicked man beside a righteous man and asked them, ‘ Will you sign to everything I do?’

‘ Yes,’ they replied.

‘ I would like to be king over you,’ he said.

‘ Very well,’ they replied.

‘ Will you fulfill all that I command you?’

‘ Yes,’ they replied.

‘ Even if it be to worship idols?’

‘ Heaven forbid,’ said the righteous people.

The wicked men said to the righteous men, ‘ Do you think a man like Yeravam would worship idols? He merely wishes to test you and see if you will obey him.’

Even Achiah haShiloni erred and signed (Sanhedrin 101b).” There is danger in allowing a single person to hold such unlimited power. This was Yeravam’s argument.

This was his argument with King Solomon.

This was his fear of Jerusalem: “If this people goes up to offer sacrifices (I Kings 12:27).” Yeravam said, “It is a tradition that no one may sit in the inner courtyard of the Temple except for the kings of the House of Judah. When they see Rechavam sitting while I stand, they will think, ‘ This one is the true king; that one, the slave.’ If I too sit, I will be in rebellion against the kingdom. Then they will slay me and follow Rechavam.”

The people insist on breaking away from the House of Judah and yet they acknowledge that only a descendant of that House may sit in the inner courtyard of the Temple. The people who are insisting on breaking away into a separate kingdom, will perceive anyone else who sits in that place as rebelling against the kingdom! Even the people who are rejecting the King will still honor him! They do not know what they really want. There is nothing more dangerous than having a single human being with unlimited power “Tolstoy and the Golden Calf-Part Two”) leading people who are unsure of what they want; “Tolstoy and the Golden Calf”. Such a person is always in danger of becoming a Golden Calf himself.

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

I remember one day in the early spring when I was alone in the forest listening to the sounds of the woods. I listened and thought about the one thing that had constantly occupied me for the last three years. Again I was searching for God.

“Very well,” I said to myself. “So there is no God like the one I have imagined; the only reality is my life. There is no such God. And nothing, no miracle of any kind, can prove there is, because miracles exist only in my irrational imagination.”

“But where does my notion of God, of the one whom I seek, come from?” I asked myself. And again with this thought there arose in me joyous waves of life. Everything around me came to life, full of meaning.

But my joy did not last long. My mind continued its work. “The concept of God,” I told myself, “is not God. A concept is something that occurs within me; the concept of God is something I can conjure up inside myself at will. This is not what I seek. I am seeking that without which there could be no life. Once again everything within me and around me began to die; again I felt the long being to kill myself. (Leo Tolstoy, Confession)

We posited in “Tolstoy and the Golden Calf,” that the sin of the people was their inability to commit to a single choice. It was the sin of ambivalence. I read the above words of Tolstoy and do not sense ambivalence as much as I hear the voice of someone committed to a choice; the choice to have a meaningful relationship with God. Even the person who is completely committed to such a relationship will struggle with his human limitations. He will wonder how much of his conception of God is only a “concept.” But, as Tolstoy wrote, “a concept is something that occurs within me; the concept of God is something I can conjure up inside myself at will.”

I cannot read the words, “This is not what I seek. I am seeking that without which there could be no life,” without respect for his quest.

The people were so disturbed by just a delay of a few hours of Moses returning to them that they began to look inward and wonder how real was their a relationship with God. “How can I feel so destabilized by an extra few hours of Moses being absent if I choose to believe in the God I have experienced since the Exodus?” It was not ambivalence that lay at the core of their sin, not even doubt, but fear of their inability to maintain the relationship they had with God without Moses being constantly present.

Oh yes, they appreciated Moses. Yes! They wanted Moses to be present. They did not want a relationship with God that was so dependent on a single human being.

To be continued…

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

This is what happened to me: in the course of a whole year, when almost every minute I was asking myself whether I should end it all with a rope or a bullet, my heart was tormented with an agonizing feeling. This feeling I can only describe as a search for God.

It was a feeling of dread, of loneliness, of the forlornness in the midst of all that was alien to me, and it was a feeling of hope for someone’s help.

“He sees and knows of my search, my despair, my struggle,” I would say to myself. “He exists.” And as soon as I acknowledged this for an instant, life immediately rose up within me, and I could sense the possibility and even the joy of being.

And again, isolated from me and from the world, God would melt away before my eyes like a piece of ice; again nothing remained, again the source of life withered away. I was overcome with despair and felt that there was nothing for me to do but kill myself. (Leo Tolstoy, Confession)

I hear echoes of Tolstoy in the story of the Golden Calf. I hear the voice of the people wondering whether they are alone, without Moses, without God. They are frightened.

The fact that just a short “delay” of the return of their leader can cause such a deep sense of dread, indicates that these are people who, despite their great spiritual achievements, have been living on the edge. They have witnessed what no one else in history has ever seen. They have experienced the most profound miracles. Yet, there is something deep inside of them that makes it almost impossible for them to feel secure.

The same people who had been willing to wait hours just to have a private meeting with Moses, couldn’t wait just a few more hours to see whether Moses would return.

The same people who willingly chose distance from Moses when they accepted a system of judges rather than a direct relationship with Moses, could not bear just a few more hours of waiting for Moses. They needed him. They were desperate for an immediate response.

They did get their immediate response:. The Golden Calf, but then, Aaron declared the following day a holiday. They immediately accepted Aaron’s decision to hold off their celebration till the morrow. The same people who could not wait just a few hours, where now willing to wait overnight. The same people who were demanding an immediate response were now willing to delay their celebrations till the next day. Part of them desires an immediate response. Part of them is willing to delay. Part of them is desperate for a direct relationship with Moses. Part of them wants anything but a direct relationship with Moses.

In other words, these are people who do not know what it is they truly desire. They too, as did Tolstoy, experienced dread and loneliness, and hoped for someone’s help. But, they were aware of their ambivalence, and were convinced that as long as they were not committed to a single choice, they were undeserving of God’s continued involvement in their lives.

The Golden Calf was a symbol of their not being committed to a choice.

To be continued…

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

Our Rosh Hashanah prayers describe how all our actions are recorded in a book. I was always taught that, not only our actions, but our thoughts and words are recoded as well. There are some books I would really like to read: “The Life of Moses in Action, Word and Thought as Recorded By Heaven,” is high on the list. I would love to know what he was thinking, what he said in private conversations with his brother Aaron, and how he acted on a daily basis. Abraham’s life is right up there on the list. King David’s life story would be at the very top.

The problem is that it would take more than a lifetime to read all the actions and words and all the thoughts of any one of them. I wonder how thick each book is. How many of those books could fit on our planet? I imagine a regular flow of space shuttles traveling to distant planets storing all the books.

Which books are stored on which planet? We can assume that the books of Moses and King David would be housed in a special library in Jerusalem. Perhaps there will be a special planet or galaxy where the books of the wicked would be stored. Those whose evil influenced history would be housed on a more accessible planet. The lives of the insignificant wicked could be shuttled to the farthest reaches of the universe.

The Book of Betzalel, the Mishkan’s chief architect, would be shuttled back to earth this time of year when we study the Torah portions describing the Mishkan’s construction. It would only be fair to have Oholiab’s book available as well. “Who?” you ask. Oholiab? The one who worked with Betzalel. The Torah mentions him, but not much else. I wonder what went through the mind of a man significant enough to be mentioned, but not sufficiently important to be described. I must admit that the Torah does not offer much more information about Betzalel. Still, I hope they bring both books so I can skip straight to the “Thoughts Section,” and learn what these two were thinking as they worked on God’s house.

While I was looking through the rooms to find Betzalel’s records, I noticed an empty room between Moshe’s wing of the library and Aaron’s. It was directly opposite the room with Chur’s records. There were no signs on the door or walls; just blank plaques. I asked one of the ushers about the room. “That’s the guy who started the whole Golden Calf story. I don’t recommend that you enter,” he said.

I was confused. “Who? The Torah doesn’t mention a specific person, or even refer to one person as beginning the sin. Who was he?”

“The idea had to start with someone,” he answered. “Why do you think the room is empty? The Torah doesn’t mention him.”

“So why have a room at all?” I asked. “After all, even Menashe’s record has a room ever since he was mentioned on The Foundation Stone Blog! There are records of the most evil people; why not this guy who started the Golden Calf?”

Now, if you think there is high security in the Vatican archives, you should check out this library. You need very special credentials to access the Thoughts Sections of the VIPs. I began to suspect that this person’s records were actually there, just well hidden. I began to argue with the usher, “I’ve been granted access to some important records. Why can I not be allowed to view these records?”

The usher smiled in pride. “Everyone has access to all the rooms. All you need is to open a Torah.” He began to walk away, then turned back towards me and said, “You choose your level of access.” Then, he was gone.

I stood just before the empty room and began to imagine “picture the scene” of the first moments of the Golden Calf episode…

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In Part One we quoted the Talmud: “Menashe made an image as heavy as a thousand men, and every day it slew all of them.” He insisted that the Sages carry it around Jerusalem all day and its enormous weight crushed such a number every day. (Rashi)

I’m trying to picture the scene of Menashe’s weighted idol that crushed a thousand people each day: It must have been huge if it took a thousand people to carry it. Let’s say that people were forced to carry the massive burden under the threat of death. What exactly happened? Did it crush those carrying it all at once? Perhaps people collapsed from the heavy burden. Even if so, that means that people were falling away as the idol was being carried through Jerusalem’s streets. Did it fall every time that a few people collapsed? If all the people carrying it died, how did it make it back to its base?

Was this the same idol that Menashe erected in the Temple? It would have had to fit into the Temple, so it could not have been too large for the Temple gates. That would mean that it was not huge, just very heavy. So, how did a thousand people get under it to lift it? If there were massive bars to carry it; the people would not have been crushed.

Even if we accept that the Talmud is, as is often the case, using hyperbole, what point is the Talmud making?

We then quoted another Talmudic teaching: “R. Yochanan said: At first he made it with one face, but subsequently he made it with four faces, that the Shechinah might see it, and be angry.” If Menashe was attempting to provoke the Shechina we can assume that he believed in the Shechina. Why would someone who believes in the Divine Presence believe that a four-faced idol was necessary to be seen? Could not the Shechina see a single-faced image?

Someone so set on provoking the Shechina’s ire, may be very angry with and resentful of the Shechina, but an angry and resentful person usually believes in the Shechina enough to be angry and resentful. Is the Talmud hinting that Menashe believed?

Our final quote from the Talmud certainly indicates Menashe as a believer: Menashe, when imprisoned, first called upon many deities, and only eventually called upon the God of his fathers. (Sanhedrin 101b) “And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God,” implying that he had prayed to other deities before. ‘If You will not hearken to my prayer,’ he pleaded, ‘of what profit was my turning to You?’ (Yerushalmi Sanhedrin 10:9)

We have Menashe, an angry and resentful believer, attempting to provoke God with an image that he also used to murder his enemies.

I suggest that Menashe was addressing issues outstanding since the sin of the Golden Calf: He was convinced that the sin of the Golden Calf continued to crush Israel almost a thousand years later. The participants in the sin were punished. Israel was given an outlet for the drives that led to the Golden Calf in the Mitzvah to construct the Mishkan. There was punishment. There was redirection. Menashe was convinced that the core issue remain unresolved. He saw that issue, whatever it was, as the cause of all the fluctuations in Israel’s relationship with God, and the suffering that ensued. (The Sages do teach that he was correct; at least to a degree: All of Israel’s suffering over the ages is increased because of the Golden Calf.) The issue that led to the Golden Calf continued to “crush” Israel, as did an issue that followed: How did Israel understand God’s contained anger? Hence, Menashe’s drive to provoke the Shechina’s anger.

Is there a part of God that looks away? (Four faces to the image – all directions) If God indicates that He will look away, how can Israel know when the Shechina will react to their sins?

If Israel’s response to Moshe’s “delay” on Sinai was to make the Golden Calf, how would they react to feeling that God was distancing Himself, His Shechina, from the nation and the land? If the people were so unstable because of their fear of distance, how could they survive when they lived so distant from the Beit Hamikdash?

If the House of God was a redirection of the drives that led to the Golden Calf; did their shame at the sin affect their perception of the Temple? Did it represent failure?

Menashe wanted absolute clarity for the people: “If You will not hearken to my prayer,’ he pleaded, ‘of what profit was my turning to You?” Menashe was explaining, or justifying his drive for idol worship, as the Talmud (Sanhedrin 102b) teaches:

In the college of R. Ashi the lecture [one day] terminated at ‘Three Kings, who do not have a portion in the World To Come.

‘To-morrow, said the Rabbi, ‘we will commence with our colleagues.’

[That night] Menashe came and appeared to Rav Ashi in a dream. ‘You called us your colleagues and the colleagues of your father; now, from what part [of the bread] is [the piece for reciting] the ‘ha-mozi’ to be taken?’

‘I do not know,’ he answered.

‘You have not learned this,’ Menashe jibed, ‘yet you call us your colleagues!’

‘Teach it me,’ he begged, ‘and tomorrow I will teach it in your name at the session.’

He answered, ‘From the part that is baked into a crust.‘

The Rabbi then questioned Menashe, ‘Since you are so wise, why did you worship idols?’

He replied, ‘Were you there, you would have caught up the skirt of your garment and sped after me.’

The next day the Rabbi observed to the students: We will commence with our “teachers” [so referring to the Three Kings].

To Be Continued…

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Golden Calves are complicated:

What do you do with a Golden Calf in middle of the desert? You can only party for so long. Eventually, you have to travel and find a place to settle. How do you travel with a Golden Calf?

“Menashe made an image as heavy as a thousand men, and every day it slew all of them.” He insisted that the Sages carry it around Jerusalem all day and its enormous weight crushed such a number every day. (Rashi)

Who was going to carry the Golden Calf? How would they move it around in the hot desert?

Even if they would have figured out a system with which to transport their idol, would they have stopped with the Golden Calf? Menashe didn’t:

R. Yochanan said: At first he made it with one face, but subsequently he made it with four faces, that the Shechinah might see it, and be angry.

Menashe wanted God to respond, even if in anger. Would the Children of Israel have done the same? Was that part of what they desired”

Menashe placed it in the Temple, as it is written, “And he set up a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house, of which the Lord said to David, and to Solomon his son, ‘In this house, and in Jerusalem which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel will I put my name forever.’” (Sanhedrin 103b)

Menashe, when imprisoned, first called upon many deities, and only eventually called upon the God of his fathers. (Sanhedrin 101b) “And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God,” implying that he had prayed to other deities before. ‘If You will not hearken to my prayer,’ he pleaded, ‘of what profit was my turning to You?’ (Yerushalmi Sanhedrin 10:9)

Even Menashe eventually returned to God. Would the Children of Israel have done the same upon realizing that their new deity could not protect them in the desert?

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I receive complimentary issues of all sorts of magazines every week and I usually end up feeling as if I live on a different planet. Are there really enough people who buy a $200,000 watch to merit an advertisement? What about $2,000 pants? Private jets? Who are the people who stay in hotels that advertise rates of $2,500 a night? They live on a different planet.

My wife makes fun of me when she refers to the Jewish Press as my favorite newspaper. Laugh all you want, but all the ads for classes, Tzedaka (Charity), Jewish books, and requests for prayers, reflect a readership with whom I share more than with those who want ads for $5,000 suits. The fact that there are so many columns on the weekly parsha and Halacha, whether I enjoy them or not, or agree at all with their messages, represents an insatiable desire to learn. I share more with the Jewish Press readers than I do with those who read Prestige.

There are some bible stories that strike me like Forbes and others more like the Jewish Press. I can relate to the people’s hesitation at Sinai. But, I must admit, that the Golden Calf story strikes me as a science fiction story.

I accept that I do not understand the passionate desire for idol worship. But, I must tell you that when people who were slaves just three months earlier start spending all their gold, even giving up all their personal jewelry to make a spectacular idol, I wonder whether they are the ones who buy the six figure watches.

They clearly lived on a different planet. They experienced the Exodus, the splitting of the Sea, Manna, water from a rock and Sinai. They were stuck in middle of the desert wondering whether their fearless leader, Moshe, would ever return. I can’t even begin to appreciate what they were feeling. How could they take everything they owned and toss into a fire hoping that a magical idol would mysteriously appear? Even aliens must have their logic.

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What might things be like when we are not looking at them? This question, which seems less absurd to me every day, is one that I asked often as a child, but only asked myself, not my parents or my teachers, because I guessed that they would smile at my naïveté, or at my stupidity, according to a more radical opinion, and would give me the only answer that would never convince me: “when we are not looking at them, things look just the same as when we are looking at them.” I always thought that things, whenever they were alone, were other things.

When I think of the Golden Calf, or in Hebrew; “Eigel,” which can be read “Ayin Gal,” ‘open my eyes,’ it seems as if the people of Israel were seeking to see that which they believed they could not. They were wondering what was the reality they could not see. For example, was Moses still there if they could not see him? Had he disappeared on top of Mount Sinai? What is there when we are not looking?

If they so wondered about Moses would they not wonder about God’s presence? They had “seen” God at the Revelation at Sinai but would they always see God with such clarity? Would God be there even when they could not see just as He was when they could? What is there when we are not looking?

At one time I thought that if you were to set up a camera in such a way that it would shoot a picture automatically in a room where there were no human presences, you would be able to catch things unawares, and in this way learn their true appearance. I forgot that things are smarter than they seem and don’t allow themselves to be tricked quite so easily: they know perfectly well that inside each camera there is a human being hidden.

Besides, even if the equipment had cunningly been able to capture of the image of the same face, its other side would have remained beyond the reach of the optical, mechanical, chemical, or digital system of the photographic record. And it would have been toward that hidden inside that at the last moment, ironically, the photographed thing would have turned its secret aspect, that twin sister of darkness.

When we enter a room that is immersed in absolute darkness and turn on a light, the darkness disappears. So it is not strange that we should ask ourselves, “Where has it gone?” And if there can only be one reply: “It didn’t go anywhere; darkness is simply the other side of like, its secret aspect.”

It is a pity that nobody told me earlier, when I was a child. Today I would know all about darkness and light, about light and darkness.

Did the people of Israel know that God was present even when they were not looking? Did they suspect, as do I, that there is always the secret aspect question, hidden from us, that we cannot perceive or understand? These people had received the greatest clarity possible for a physical human being. But they wanted more. They suspected that once Moses went up Sinai he saw so much that he did not want to come down. There was more. So much more that there was no desire on Moses’ part to return. They too wanted to see this secret aspect. If they could not go up Sinai themselves, they would bring that secret aspect down so that they too could see what Moses saw.

Confusing? Perhaps. Were they mistaken? Surely. However, the desire to see more and more, this secret aspect, is inherent in everything we do, in every word of Torah we study, in every word of prayer we recite, in every mitzvah we observe. We need to want to see more.

We can make the same mistake as those who built the Golden Calf and hide a secret camera so we can capture images no one else could see. But there would always be that secret aspect. They had to learn that their power to see, to perceive, was within them. They did not need something external, they did not need a hidden camera, they did not need a Golden Calf.

They needed to use what they had already experienced and learned to use it as a new form of vision. They could have, had they looked, found the secret aspect that is still there just before us waiting for us to use this special vision of Sinai to see it on our own without any magical tools or cameras, but to see it with the power that is with in.

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What did they say just before they constructed the Golden Calf?

For this Moshe, the man, we do not know what happened to him.

It does not say that we do not know what happened to Moshe, but rather, Moshe, the Man. They did not wonder if Moshe survived, but if he continued to live as a man, as a human being, after spending 40 days and nights with God in the Highest Heavens. Would Moshe return as a Man or an Angel?

The people assumed that a human being would lose his being a human being with such a connection with God. They forgot that the only way to be a real human being is to live with that level of awareness.

We are often frightened by the intensity and awareness demanded by the Mitzvot. How can anyone live as a human being with such a heightened sense of awareness? How can I function as a regular human being if I use each blessing, each prayer, each Mitzvah, each word of Torah as I should and could. We too ask the same question as they asked before the sin of the Golden Calf.

Moshe became a full human being while living with such awareness and closeness with God.

May we all become such human beings.

And there’s more…

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God was furious. Although Moses successfully argued that God not destroy the Children of Israel, and God reconsidered what He intended to do, God was still angry. The intense debate ended. There was a moment of silence. Moses did not know what to expect next. Would Moses be allowed to hold on to the Tablets for the Children of Israel who violated their covenant with God by building the Golden Calf? God does not say another word. He doesn’t provide any instruction. He does not speak of the forty days and nights that He and Moses spent studying together. He does not say goodbye. Moshe turned away and descended the mountain with the precious Tablets still in his hand.

God was angry, but God continued to love these difficult people.

Moses wanted the people to see the Tablets and understand that God was presenting them with the most significant physical expression of His love for them despite being angry. He stood above the camp with the Tablets held high in his hands even as he watched them dance with abandon around their Golden Calf. He waited until they noticed his return, the one they questioned. He waited until they could see the Divine gift he held in his hands.

The people stopped what they were doing and watched in silence. Some were busy mentally justifying their behavior. Others, who refused to take a stand against the dancers, were ashamed. The people who were not directly involved were confused. They all looked from the Tablets to the Golden Calf and back to the Tablets. They understood that the two could not coexist. The Tablets represented relationship. The idol was an expression of self-involvement.

At that moment, Moses came down the mountain with the Tablets in his hands, causing that people to wonder if they would be permitted to keep the gift even after all they had done, but then, Moses shattered the Tablets at the foot of the mountain.

The relationship with God was damaged but not broken. “Moses would take the tent and pitch it outside the camp.  Whoever it was that sought God would go out to the Tent of Meeting, which was outside the camp.” (Exodus 33:7) God’s Presence was outside the camp, but was not inaccessible. This was a real relationship with anger and shame, distance and pain, and also love and reconciliation. They could go out to the Tent of Meeting and pick up the broken pieces and begin the process of healing.

The Broken Tablets served a great purpose. They taught us that our relationship with God is real, demands work, and survives hurtful behaviors. This is not a relationship of all or nothing, but one of give and take, of distance and reconnection, a powerful mix of anger and intense love. In a way, the Broken Tablets are more important than the Second Tablets. They are the key to an intense relationship that continues to thrive.

The pieces are still there waiting for us to pick them up one by one as we continue to work on this very real relationship.

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.