Jewish Musings, Sunday March 3

[louise]

are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other spport on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.

Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:
Frieda (hopefully)?
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy

And for those of you who stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to, but you are also welcome to chime in. Don’t be shy!

[louise]

We just read about the golden calf thid past shabbat. I’m not looking at the text as I write this but I think I know the story well enough to make some points. This is read softly and I believe it is customary to call a levi for this aliyah even in synagogues that don’t follow that tradition for the second aliyah regularly because the levi’im did not participate in it. We refer to this as “that thing that happened” it being too awful a lapse to want to remember. But we always do remember it. Most of all I think rather than just a lack of faith it is about human frailty. In a time when there were physical “gods” to pray to the Israelites, having just left what was for better or worse “home”, felt abandoned and needed something. Aaron was a people person and there are other ways he could have reacted to help comfort the people. But he succumbed to their wishes and made what they wanted. And then lied to Moses about it. “They made me do it.” ‘I threw it into the fire and that’s what came out.” C’mon now – seriously?

Thinking maybe just take a moment. Can you imagine losing faith in this way? Feeling so guilty you can’t even take responsibility for it? And what do you make of Moses’s anger (breaking the tablets)?

For today I mostly take heart from the story. It’s ours and we need to own it. We have all had lapses. We probably react in different ways to that fact as time and space increase, but that too is telling. We probably change our memory of the event according to our changing ability to handle it.

What hits you hardest about this story? 

Have you been telling yourself or others any “stories”?

[hollygail]

Yesterday morning I went to the local Conservative shul where I daven during the week (a former adult student of mine was reading haftarah and I helped her during het learning process). The rabbi called the portion "When Jews Behave Badly." Same concept as "that thing that happened" put into different words. He brought opinions by Rashi and several other commentators. Only one of them said outright that Aaron lied; the others had other things to say.

I was never satisfied that Aaron shirked responsibility concerning his actions. One commentator suggested that maybe Aaron was trying to "buy time," always believing that Moses would show up at any moment. He did so by asking for all the jewelry of the women and children, since (and he said in advance that it was said from a perspective of sexism!) women and children loved their jewelry and would be less willing to part with it. (I thought even if the commentator were sexist, it was still pretty lame.) I wish now I had brought home the piece of paper with the various commentators' reasons...

At any rate, I agree with you, Louise, about Aaron's shortcomings in this department, although I'm not convinced he did it out of guilt.

And I have no trouble imagining Moses' frustration; I have wanted to pound (and on more than one occasion have pounded) my fist(s) on something out of my own frustration at something someone said (or did).

[lee058]

Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well and SAFE! Please pray for Israel.

Re today's topic: When I thought of the golden calf I thought of two things just now. One is the statue of the bull on Wall Street in NYC. The other is how I was treated by other Jewish children when we were young --- I was bullied to the point that I dropped out of Hebrew school at our temple.

It feels worse to me when other Jews treat Jews badly.

Nonetheless, it is still a beautiful world, and I feel good today.

Have a peaceful day, Lee

[peachymom1]

For me, it comes down to the fact that Moses grew up as a privileged person, secure in his superiority over other people, certainly slaves, while Aaron grew up as a slave among his own people, who were also slaves. It takes a long time for a person's identity to change, and a long time for people to accept that change in identity. The people who insisted on an idol were reverting back to the only identity they knew. Moses got angry and indignant, as in, "How could you do this after all I did/became/risked/changed for you?" Aaron did the only thing he felt he could do - fulfill the will of the people. We had to wander in the desert for 40 years so we could learn a different identity and actually make it stick.

The crowning achievement of the Jewish people is that we overcame the slave mentality and identity. That's why it's so very important that we tell the story every Passover and make it personal to ourselves and our families. But it didn't happen overnight, even for the people who saw the miracles and wonders. The fact that we kept going and working toward such an important change in identity is what we can all take pride in, then and now.