However, the main part of the sedrah is devoted to the sin of the Golden Calf and its aftermath. Moses had been up on Mount Sinai for nearly forty days. During this time G-d taught him the Torah and the commandment to build the Tabernacle, as well as the instructions as to how to construct the various parts that made up the whole. Meanwhile, in the Israelite camp the spiritual ecstasy, which was experienced at the time of the giving of the Torah, had evaporated. Now, some of the people had despaired of Moses ever returning and they called on Aaron (Moses' brother) to take the gold earrings from the women and make a 'god' for them who would be their new leader.

The commentators discuss at length the many questions that can be asked on this: was their motive really idolatry? (Most say it was.) Was this instigated by the 'mixed multitude' who left Egypt with the Israelites? How many were directly involved? And the hardest question of all: how do we explain Aaron's behaviour? What is clear is that G-d would have destroyed the Jewish People, there and then, had Moses not intervened. He pleaded that the people had only just left Egypt and by implication the idolatrous ways of the Egyptians. He asked G-d to remember the merits of the forefathers to whom He had promised the Land of Israel to their offspring. Finally, Moses asked G-d to 'reflect' on what the Egyptians would say when they heard that the Israelites had perished in the desert.

When Moses saw the idol for himself, and the revelry surrounding it, he smashed the tablets of stone containing the Ten Commandments, ground the golden calf into dust, and made a clarion call: 'whoever is for G-d, let him come to me'. The only tribe, who gathered to him in its entirety, was the tribe of Levi, who then killed all those directly involved in the tragic sin.

Moses then went up the mountain for a further forty days and nights to plead forgiveness for the sin. And he went up for a final forty days to 'return Israel to grace' and to have the commandment to build the Tabernacle (a sign of G-d's favour), confirmed.

This Shabbat is also Shabbat Parah. We take out a second Sefer Torah and read from the first part of Chukat about the laws concerning the Red Heifer. In Temple times, if one came into contact with the dead and one wished to bring a sacrifice, one first had to purify oneself with the ashes of the Red Heifer. As all of Israel were involved in the Pascal Sacrifice, this portion always falls on the Shabbat before Shabbat Hachodesh on which we read about the laws of Pesach.

Points to Ponder
1. How was it possible for a people, who had witnessed Divine Revelation at Mount Sinai, to sink so low so soon afterwards?

2. How could Moses break the precious tablets of stone on which G-d himself had engraved the Ten Commandments?

3. Back to the earlier part of the Sedra: why did the many details of the Tabernacle conclude with the commandment of Shabbat, which we have already seen three times in the book of Shmot? And what does the Torah mean when it describes Shabbat as a sign between G-d and the Children of Israel?

Perhaps you will discuss these points around your dinner table on Shabbat, and e-mail me your answers after Shabbat!

Shabbat Shalom