ויקהל העם על אהרן ויאמרו אליו קום עשה לנו אלהים"
“The people gathered around Aharon and said to him, ‘Get up and make us a god.’” (לב:א)
Question: Avodah zarah is one of the three transgressions for which there is a rule that you should be killed rather than commit the sin.
Why didn’t Aharon let himself be killed rather than make the golden calf?
The Ramban explains that Aharon's excuse to Moshe is that B'Y said to him 'Make us a god to lead us' " - not a god to worship. He explained to Moshe,that they needed a guide.When B"Y saw Moshe, they abandoned the calf. In fact, they fled from the calf without Moshe saying a word to them. If they had really worshipped the calf, they certainly would not have let Moshe burn it.
ReplyDeleteI like this approach but I also dont. I think that Aharon did make a mistake and this is an excuse for him, but I like that it shows that BY were loyal to Moshe and maybe they werent worshiping the calf.
According to Chizkuni it is clear that Aaron’s thoughts behind helping them were perfectly pure. By asking them to get jewelry and not allowing an actual person to take Moshe’s place, he insured that a possible candidate for becoming the new leader would not be able to try and resist giving up that role when Moshe were to come down the next day. But Aaron knew if he didn’t get involved somehow they would just choose someone to lead themselves. He also couldn’t say that he would take over because he knew the next day Moshe would return. That is why he tried stalling with the golden calf because he assumed no one (especially the women) would give up their jewelry to make this replacement. I like this idea a lot because it really explains the rational of why Aaron would get involved in this situation. It is obvious that Aaron knew Moshe was going to come down the next day, so his involvement in the golden calf would only make sense to say that he was stalling time.
ReplyDeleteDaat Zkenim comments on
ReplyDeleteעשה לנו אלוהים, “make a new Judge for us!” He says that the people saying this to Aaron did not mean for that symbol to be an idol, but to be a supreme judge instead of Moshe, who they thought had died on the Mountain. This is quite clear from how they justified their request when they said: כי לא כי זה האיש משה אשר העלנו מארץ מצרים לא ידענו מה היה לו, “for we do not know what has happened to the man Moses, who has brought us out of Egypt.” Daat thinks that the golden calf is a substitute for Moshe, not for Hashem, and that it is not to be understood as idol worship. I understand this opinion, and I think it is quite interesting being that it is different from any other opinion I have ever learned before. When talking about Idol worshiping, specifically in the scenario with the calf, I have almost never heard an opinion that actually tried to justify the actions of the people. I think it’s pretty cool, just not so sure I agree with it.
The Ibn Ezra says the calf was a representation of Hashem, so technically Aharon does not deserve to be killed because it was not pure idolatry. Aharon’s sin was causing a few people to actually do idolatry because of the way he went about making the calf.
ReplyDeleteI like this approach because it explains why Aharon did what he did, it also says that only the people who believed the calf was a god other than Hashem were punished.
The אמרי שפר writes that he Law is that if somebody says: do avodah Zara or I will kill you, they must die. But bnei Yisroel only asked him to MAKE a God for them to worship. They didn’t say he had to do it with them.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Baruch S Davidson Aaron went through a weak moment in his own faith. He committed the sin because he lost his way and judgement. The fact that Aaron is still considered so great and is remembered as an important figure shows that everyone can make mistakes as Hashem still forgives.
ReplyDeleteI really like this idea because it is human nature to make mistakes but you can still do Teshuva and be remembered greatly.
The Torah Temima says that aharon saw that Chur had been killed and he realized that if he too was killed, it would be the fulfilment of a prophecy that once a Kohen and a Navi are killed, there can never be Teshuva for Bnei Yisrael so he made the Egel thinking that he could do Teshuva for that.
ReplyDeleteI like this idea because it explains what Moshe had in mind while doing the Egel
I like this idea because it points out what Moshe did and what he had in mind for doing the Egel.
Mimi
Eden Schechter
ReplyDeleteHerschel Raysman
Aharon didn't get punished for making the golden calf because:
1. He wasn't punished now but would be in the future
2. He was already chosen as high priest of Israel. His leadership role would serve an important role in the future.
3. Aharon will repent for his sin. Aharon is one of the sons of Levi that repent and receive atonement from Hashem
אהרון wasn’t actually asked to commit the sin of עבודה זרה, rather he was just asked to BUILD it for בני ישראל. The actual law is that you should be killed rather than worshipping another g-d based on what the אמרי שפר says. But in this case, אהרון wasn’t actually worshipping the golden calf, he was just making it for them. I personally still think that making it for them is still really wrong. Yes, he was not worshipping the calf, but he did provide the actual item of עבודה זרה which caused the rest of בני ישראל to sin.
ReplyDelete