(א) בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּ֒שָֽׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לַעֲסֹק בְּדִבְרֵי תוֹרָה:
(1) Blessed are You, Adonoy our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who sanctified us with commandments and commanded us to be engrossed in the words of Torah.
וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר יְהֹוָ֖ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֑ה לֶךְ־רֵ֕ד כִּ֚י שִׁחֵ֣ת עַמְּךָ֔ אֲשֶׁ֥ר הֶעֱלֵ֖יתָ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃
אלה אלוהיך ישראל "This is your god, O Israel", these will serve henceforth as your elohim, for you to address in your prayers for all your needs; you will serve them in order to obtain your needs.
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat, "The Other Side of the Story," https://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/2011/02/this-weeks-portion-a-poem-about-the-golden-calf.html
Already so many changes.
Our long column of refugees
snaking into the wilderness.
Through the sandal-sucking mud
where the waters had been.
Their men and horses consumed.
And then that Voice
speaking directly into us,
reverberating in our chests...!
But Moshe ascended by himself
into the sapphire sky
and he didn't come back.
Of course we asked Aharon
to make something to remind us
we weren't as alone as we felt.
ויבן מזבח לפניו, he erected an altar in front of it, etc. It is noteworthy that the Torah did not write: "he erected an alter for it". Had the Torah used the sequence of words we just mentioned this would have indicated that Aaron built the altar in the golden calf's honour. As it is the proximity of the golden calf to the altar Aaron built was purely incidental. Aaron's intention was totally Heaven-oriented.
(ג) רַבִּי בֶּרֶכְיָה בְּשֵׁם רַבִּי אַבָּא בַּר כַּהֲנָא פָּתַר קְרָיָא בְּאַהֲרֹן, בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁעָשׂוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל אוֹתוֹ מַעֲשֶׂה, בַּתְּחִלָּה הָלְכוּ אֵצֶל חוּר, אָמְרוּ לוֹ (שמות לב, א): קוּם עֲשֵׂה לָנוּ אֱלֹהִים, כֵּיוָן שֶׁלֹּא שָׁמַע לָהֶן עָמְדוּ עָלָיו וַהֲרָגוּהוּ, הֲדָא הוּא דִכְתִיב (ירמיה ב, לד): גַּם בִּכְנָפַיִךְ נִמְצְאוּ דַּם וגו', וְזֶהוּ דָּמוֹ שֶׁל חוּר, (ירמיה ב, לד): לֹא בַמַּחְתֶּרֶת מְצָאתִים כִּי עַל כָּל אֵלֶּה, עַל אֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ (שמות לב, ד): אֵלֶּה אֱלֹהֶיךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל. וְאַחַר כָּךְ הָלְכוּ אֵצֶל אַהֲרֹן, אָמְרוּ לוֹ: קוּם עֲשֵׂה לָנוּ אֱלֹהִים, כֵּיוָן שֶׁשָּׁמַע אַהֲרֹן כֵּן מִיָּד נִתְיָרֵא, הֲדָא הוּא דִּכְתִיב (שמות לב, ה): וַיַּרְא אַהֲרֹן וַיִּבֶן מִזְבֵּחַ לְפָנָיו, נִתְיָרֵא מֵהַזָּבוּחַ לְפָנָיו, אָמַר אַהֲרֹן מָה אֶעֱשֶׂה הֲרֵי הָרְגוּ אֶת חוּר שֶׁהָיָה נָבִיא, עַכְשָׁיו אִם הוֹרְגִים אוֹתִי שֶׁאֲנִי כֹּהֵן מִתְקַיֵּם עֲלֵיהֶם הַמִּקְרָא שֶׁכָּתוּב (איכה ב, כ): אִם יֵהָרֵג בְּמִקְדַּשׁ ה' כֹּהֵן וְנָבִיא, וּמִיָּד הֵם גּוֹלִין. דָּבָר אַחֵר, וַיַּרְא אַהֲרֹן, מָה רָאָה אִם בּוֹנִין הֵם אוֹתוֹ, זֶה מֵבִיא צְרוֹר וְזֶה אֶבֶן וְנִמְצֵאת מְלַאכְתָּם כָּלָה בְּבַת אַחַת, מִתּוֹךְ שֶׁאֲנִי בּוֹנֶה אוֹתוֹ, אֲנִי מִתְעַצֵּל בִּמְלַאכְתִּי וְרַבֵּינוּ משֶׁה יוֹרֵד וּמַעֲבִירָהּ לָעֲבוֹדָה זָרָה. וּמִתּוֹךְ שֶׁאֲנִי בּוֹנֶה אוֹתוֹ אֲנִי בּוֹנֶה אוֹתוֹ בִּשְׁמוֹ שֶׁל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא, הֲדָא הוּא דִּכְתִיב (שמות לב, ה):
(3) Rabbi Berachiyah said in the name of Rabbi Abbah Bar Kahana expounding on the verse about Aaron. At the time when the Israelites were about to commit the act [make the golden calf] they first came to Chur, and they said to him: "Make us a god!" Since he did not listen to them, they rose up and slew him. This is why it's later written in the prophets: "Also in your wings we find the blood of the souls of the innocent and the poor etc." This refers to the blood of Chur. . . . " Afterwards, they went to Aaron and said to him: "Make us a god." Aaaron had heard about what they did to Chur, and became afraid. It is therefore written: "Aaron was frightened and built an alter before them." Aaron was frightened that he might be the one who was going to be slaughtered. Aaron said, what should I do? They've already killed Chur, and he was was a prophet. Now if they kill me, the priest, they will fulfill the word later written in scripture: "Should priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of [Hashem] (Eicha 2:20)." If they kill me, they will all be exiled. Here is another interpretation (Davar Acher): Aaron saw this, and built an altar before it (Exodus 32:5). What did he see? He saw the situation playing out like this: If they build it, one will bring a pebble, another a larger stone, and they will finish the building of the idol in one day. If I build it, then I can delay and dally, and give time for our teacher Moses to come down the mountain and then destroy this idol worship. And if I build it, I can dedicate it to the name of the Holy one Blessed be God, therefore it is written: "Aaron called and said this shall be a festival for [Hashem]." It is not written a feast for the calf, but a feast to [Hashem].
Arthur Green, Kol Haneshamah: Shabbat Vehagim, pg. 69
The traditional second paragraph of the Shema offers an account of the natural process by which the blessings of God themselves lead to pride, self-satisfaction, and ingratitude on the part of those who receive them. Ironically, the more we are blessed, so it seems, the less grateful and aware of blessing we become. It is when we are most sated, Scripture warns us, that we should be most careful. Fullness can lead to ingratitude, and ingratitude to idolatry - primarily in the form of worship of our own accomplishments. Then, indeed, "the heavens might close up and no rain fall." For, once we begin to worship our achievements, we will never find satisfaction.
Prof. Rachel Adelman, "Atoning for the Golden Calf with the Kapporet," https://www.thetorah.com/article/atoning-for-the-golden-calf-with-the-kapporet
The proximity of the story about the golden calf to the account of the creation of the golden cherubim gave the rabbis pause. How is the kappōret, this container of God’s immanence framed by golden cherubim, really any different from a calf made of gold? Both are golden statues designed for a cultic purpose. Moreover, even the way the gold was gathered—collected from the people’s jewelry—is similar. And yet, the creation of one was considered a terrible sin while the creation of the other an important mitzvah (commandment).
Temples in the ancient Near East were furnished with the statue of a god at its center, whereas the Israelite sanctuary, at least according to the Bible, had none. The rabbis here understand the building of the calf as an expression for the need to have a golden image of the deity at the Temple’s center.
Rather than ignoring this need entirely, God commands the making of cherubim as a sublimation and transformation of the gold, from a fixed molten form to a frame for empty space, a tokh, through which God speaks. As Avivah Zornberg observes,
“[T]he gold… frames the sacred space, the hollow out of which God will speak. The heart of the Mishkan is the space between the wings of the cherubim which, from an unbridgeable distance, at opposite ends of the golden Kapporeth (the Cover of the Ark), gaze towards each other, even as they gaze downwards at the Ark. That oblique gaze frames the space between the cherub figures.”
Thus the cherubim are the antithesis of the calf, which was made of solid molten gold, not only an effigy of a god (or gods), but a visual, external object upon which the Israelites fixate their desire. By contrast, the cherubim frame an elusive presence that cannot be fixed and are themselves, rarely if ever seen.
Rabbi Shefa Gold, "Ki Tisa," https://www.rabbishefagold.com/ki-tisa/
I’ve wondered sometimes… what was so bad? After forty days of waiting, the people grew restless and afraid. Moses was, after all, the exclusive mediator between God and Israel. His absence left an unbearable void and so the people cried out to fill that emptiness with an image that would comfort them.
The only way to understand the Golden Calf is to compare it to the Mishkan, for the building of the Mishkan is the context for this story. The Mishkan exists for the space within it. It is a structure that is built to send us to that holy inner-ness. All of its beauty, color and design are dedicated as a nexus point between the Human and Divine, between Heaven and Earth. The important part is not the outer form, but what is inside, for that is where God speaks to us. The further within you get, the more holy is the space.
In contrast, the Golden Calf is solid, existing of and for itself. We supply the gold, but then the Calf seems to take on a life of its own. Aaron describes the process saying, “I cast the gold into the fire and out came this Calf!” The Calf has no interior space. It glorifies itself. It is “full of itself.” It represents the most dangerous hindrance in the life of spiritual practice: that of worshiping and staying attached to the forms, rather than allowing those forms to send us inward to the essence, as is their purpose.
This is the spiritual challenge of Ki Tisa. How can I dedicate my life to spiritual practice without turning the forms of my practice into an idol? The difference between building a Mishkan or a Golden Calf is sometimes very subtle.