Parashat Ki Tisa (Naomi Rivin)

Shabbat Shalom.

In Parshat Ki Tisa, Aaron makes the Golden Calf, because the Israelites thought Moses died up on Mount Sinai and they stopped believing in God. When Moses comes down from Mount Sinai after forty days and forty nights and sees the Golden Calf, he break the two tablets on which the Ten Commandments are written.  The story we hear about the Golden Calf when it happens and the story that Aaron tells Moses about what happened are slightly different.

In Exodus 32 verses 1-2 it reads, “When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, the people gathered against Aaron and said to him, ‘Come, make us a god who shall go before us, for that man Moses who brought us from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’ Aaron said to them, ‘Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters, and bring them to me.’” In my perspective, Aaron basically gets confronted and told that he must build a new god because Moses hadn’t come down from Mount Sinai yet. Aaron clearly stated that he would do it, only if he got the gold from the wives and children, but the men gave Aaron their own gold and he did it anyway.  When Aaron was confronted by Moses, who was upset about the Golden Calf, Aaron tells him almost the true story, except for the fact that he had asked for the wife’s and children’s gold and that he took the men’s gold and “Hurled it into the fire and out came this calf.” I honestly do not understand why Moses believed this, because it is so unrealistic.

I was confused on why Aaron was so “okay” with making the Golden Calf. Why didn’t he say, “I’m not going against my brother, my religion and my God”? And why did Aaron end up lying to Moses about the reason of the Golden Calf?

In order to understand Aaron’s actions I was thinking about peer pressure. Imagine Miriam is a new child coming to 7^th grade and had moved from a different state. On her first day, a new friend tells her that they will be going to a store after school, and that she must steal an expensive bracelet in order to be friends with her group.  Although Miriam doesn’t want to steal a bracelet and get in trouble, she doesn’t want to lose all her new friends. She agrees, but demands that before she steals it her friends must buy her lunch. All her friends agree to this. At lunch, they do not buy her a lunch of her own, but they give her half of what they bought. Although this was not what Miriam had wanted from her friends, she still agrees to steal the bracelet because in a way her friends did come through with what they promised and she believes that her keeping these friends is more important than not getting in trouble in this moment. Miriam’s mother finds out that she had stolen the bracelet. In response to her mother, Miriam tells her mother a slightly different story than what happened. She tells her mother “I made a mistake by stealing it.” Miriam doesn’t mention her friends’ part in this act because she feels that their new friendship is more important and she doesn’t want her mother not to let her hang out with them. 

           

This relates to Aaron because he was put in a very awkward place when Moses confronted him and asked about the Golden Calf. Maybe Aaron had to choose between telling the truth and the slightly tweaked truth because he had to protect the Israelites from the wrath of God. More importantly, though, he needs them to continue trusting him after this disaster, no matter what the punishments are.

We learn from Aaron’s actions that no matter the size of our mistakes we always need to take responsibility for our actions rather than blaming everything on others.  May we this week take responsibility for our actions even when it may be difficult.

SHABBAT SHALOM!