Thursday, March 8, 2012

"Shushan Sodot" on Aharon and the "Golden Calf"

B"H 

The kabbalistic book "Shushan Sodot" explains that those Israelites who didn't believe that Moshe is ever returning from Mount Sinai didn't ask Aharon to build a "Golden Calf" for them. What they did was demanding a new leader taking over Moshe's position. Thus Aharon concluded that the "Golden Calf" would not be an item of idol - worship but only symbolizing a new leader. Aharon would have never guessed that, suddenly, the "Golden Calf" was becoming a new "G - d" for some of the Israelites. 

Kabbalists such as the famous medieval Rabbi Yitzchak Luria teach that the Calf was a reincarnation and to bring about another reincarnation. Not only that but it also spoke to the people as soon as someone stuck a piece of paper into its mouth. One of the highest names of G - d was written on that piece of paper, formerly used by Moshe in order to lift up Joseph's coffin out of the Nile. 
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Sources:

"Shushan Sodot", ZOHAR and Rabbi Yitzchak Luria's Torah commentary

4 comments:

  1. Dear Miriam,

    I found your blog recently while I was searching for Jewish blogs.

    I was going to write you as soon as I get my Jewish blog started, but sometimes time has a way of getting ahead of me and I have not started that blog yet.

    I just wanted to tell you how much I am enjoying your blog. I am a Jew by birth, but really only over the last few years have been learning what that means.

    Anyway, thank you for creating a wonderful place to visit and learn.

    Sincerely,

    Hasya

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  2. Rashi from Parshas Ki Sisa

    "Others say that Micah was there, who had emerged from the layer of the building where he had been crushed in Egypt. (Sanh. 101b). In his hand was a plate upon which Moses had inscribed “Ascend, O ox; ascend, O ox,” to [miraculously] bring up Joseph’s coffin from the Nile. They cast it [the plate] into the crucible, and the calf emerged. -[from Midrash Tanchuma 19]"

    A Gut Shabbos

    ReplyDelete
  3. B"H

    It says that Micha picked up the note Moshe had dropped, and used it, later on, for the Egel HaZahav.

    ReplyDelete