- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Ki Tisa
203
Nevertheless, I cannot resist making a point about what led up to Israel's tragic error in creating and worshiping the Golden Calf. The Torah itself emphasizes that perhaps the prime cause for the building of the Golden Calf by then Jewish society was the absence of Moshe. While Moshe is up in heaven, freed of all human and bodily needs and restraints, the Jewish people are in effect leaderless. It is true that Aharon and Chur and the seventy elders are there in the midst of the encampment but they do not have the gravitons of leadership that can guide and govern an otherwise unruly, stiff-necked people. Successful nation building is always dependent upon wise, patient, strong and demanding leadership. The leader has to be able not only to blaze the trail ahead for his people but he also must be able to stand up to his people in a manner that may be temporarily unpopular. The failures of both Aharon as recorded for us in this week's Torah reading and of King Saul as described for us in the Book of Samuel are attributed to their inability to withstand the popular pressure of the moment. Moshe, the paragon for all Jewish leadership throughout the ages, is cognizant of the wishes and wants of the people but he does not succumb to that pressure. The Torah describes Moshe as one whose "eye never dimmed." He always sees past the present with a penetrating view and vision of the future. The absence of such a person and leader can easily lead to the creation and worshiping of a Golden Calf.

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