Ki Tisa(Exodus 30:11-34:35) "And Out Came This Calf ..." Despite
the popular adage, the sin of the Golden Calf was no orphan:
like other tragedies and failures, there were many contributors
to this debacle. Various components and antecedents, as well as
a unique mixture of circumstances, are often the fertile soil in
which the seeds of disaster are sown, and the sin of the Golden
Calf is no exception; a host of people and events contributed to
the nation's downfall. * * * MOSHE THE MAN The people begin to
fear that Moshe has been up on the mountain for too long, and
they panic: And when the people saw that Moshe delayed to come
down from the mount, the people gathered around Aharon, and said
to him, 'Arise, make us gods to lead us; and as for this Moshe,
the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know
what became of him.' (Shmot 32:1) The word which is clearly
stressed is "man": Moshe the man. The people expressed their
most primal fears of abandonment and betrayal: Moshe is a man -
nothing mo