Jewish Tradition maintains that the sin of Golden Calf, which we read in today’s portion, is a recurring sin of which most generations are to some extent guilty. It is important, therefore, to understand it and its causes, and thereby see whether it is germane to this generation’s problems. The Golden Calf is usually thought of as a symbol of Greed. This contention is not true, since its creation was volunteered by Israelites who donated their own personal effects for it. If anything, the sin was not Greed, but a lopsided scale of values where Gold is given first priority – in our estimation of others, in our hopes and dreams and aspirations and prayer – in other words, in our Religion. What caused this? The Torah merely tells us that Israel thought Moses was unduly late in coming down Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments (ki boshesh Moshe), and so directed Aaron to make for them a god to lead them through the wilderness.
The comments of our Rabbis are of great interest and extremely pertinent here. They say that a rumor spread through the camp that Moshe meis – Moses is dead! In our context, the relevant claim would be: Judaism is done for, it has no future, it is a thing of the past. In almost the same words, Nietzsche had Zarathustra clamor, “The gods are dead,” and in almost the same tone modern deviationists from the Torah maintain that, for all practical purposes, Judaism as we’ve known it throughout ages is – dead. Moshe meis.
What gave cause to these expressions of hopelessness in Judaism, to this death-knell sounded for Torah? Why are people convinced that Orthodoxy cannot survive? The causes are the same as those that gave rise in the desert camp of the Children of Israel that Moshe meis, the ugly premature obituary of Moses.
One reason for the birth of this rumor was the fact that Satan had cast a pall of black darkness all about the mountain. Lost was all its primitive beauty, the glory of the Mountain which only a short while ago was the breath-taking scene of Matan Torah… there was only the dark, dimly lit, poorly lighted little Mountain. One of the reasons people cheerfully sound the death-knell of Torah is therefore the social-esthetic one. “The ‘shul’ is not bright enough, not as pretty as the gilded Temples,” such people contend. “It must have something more attractive… it must glitter and glisten, so we can show our non-Jewish neighbors the beauty of our Temples, what we can accomplish, and attract the socially prominent our own people. A religion which is not pretty is not vital. It is too dark and unhandsome.”
The second reason was a personal one. Satan had projected an image of Moses on his death-bed floating high above the people. In the contemporary context, this reflects those who say, “Religion is too far above us, that it has no relation with us, that Torah is irrelevant in modern times. Religion has what to say about such impersonal things as Sabbath and Prayer and Love of G-d and Love of Neighbor and Prayer… but it doesn’t hold solutions for my daily problems… it’s floating in the stratosphere; we need something to come down to our level. When Torah is that high above, that unconnected with our dances and card-parties and social aspirations and business worries, then Moshe meis, it’s gone, done for.”
The third reason is an intellectual one. Ki Boshesh, the Rabbis said, means ba-shesh, Moshe was already six hours late… The modern man would say, “Orthodox Judaism has ‘missed the boat’ – it’s outmoded. It’s ‘behind the times,’ isn’t up-to-date with the latest intellectual currents, and wants to turn the clock backward… Moshe meis – if it’s not up to date, then it’s as good as dead.”
Imagine the chagrin and embarrassment of the hasty obituary writers when Moses reappeared, and they saw him standing there at the foot of the mountain: out of the darkness, on earth, and on time. And there, by his very presence, he answers their questions and belies his reported death:
As his face shines with karnei ha’hod, he seems to say to them, “The outer glitter is nothing; it is rather the inner light which counts. And if you think Torah is not clothed beautifully enough, then it is your task to do so, to build beautiful, well-lit ‘shuls,’ not to build pagan gold-gods.
“If you think Religion too high, too beyond you, too impersonal… then try to reach up, try to grasp for it, lift yourself up to it; don’t bring it down to your low level. Second, look closely at that image, and you’ll realize that its height and distance is only a foolish mirage; it is actually close to you, near to you… Sabbath is the essence of your relationship with Nature – organic and mute… Prayer is the yearning of your innermost self, which sometimes you don’t even know… Kashruth is there to teach you to be a man, self-controlled and disciplined, not an overgrown boy.
“Finally, don’t foolishly think I’m late, that the Torah is ‘behind the times.’ It is beyond the times, and so can never grow old. With Torah, Time is … eternity.” If you hitch your Religion to the latest intellectual fads, it will destroy itself within a few years… Reform latched itself to Neo-Kantianism; now that is outmoded, so is Reform. It teamed up with 19th century Progressivism… now both are “behind the times”… Conservatism, particularly in its leftist expression called Reconstructionism, is based exclusively on Dewey and Instrumentalism, and is now slipping into the backwash of intellectual history. It cannot survive, and will soon be completely out of vogue. Orthodoxy… or better: Torah Judaism, can absorb all these trends, use them and even strengthen them… but it never base itself on them to the detriment of Torah itself. Torah is “up-to-date” only with G-d, who is above Time, and therefore Torah has eternal validity, and is not subject to Time’s ravaging effects on ideas which are only temporal.
When the obituaries are announced, and the people say kum asei lanu elohim, make us a god, let us fashion out a Religion with our own hands, let us bow to our own images, let’s get ourselves a man-made god instead of believing in G-d-made man, then it is a danger-sign that a people is on the brink of great destruction and strife.
Today as then, the Golden Calves will be ground to dust
Today as then, Moses will reappear in the form of a revitalized Torah Judaism. The hasty arguments against Torah will be seen in all their ludicrous falseness, and with the disintegration of the gods of gold, a grateful Jewry will dutifully return to G-d, away from Immature Religion based on premature obituaries.
May that day come soon, and G-d-willing it will. For already we have begun to witness the first signs of a serious and sincere return from the gilded gods to the G-d of Torah; already, we’ve seen Orthodoxy presented in Beauty – inner and outer; we have seen people understand it in their most personal aspects; we have seen those closest to contemporary science and philosophical thought remain loyal to Torah. And may G-d willingly reaccept His children – without strife, without plague, but with love and with blessing.
