The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce these vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.
Rabbi Frand began the vort by noting that although Aharon's role in the Egel was prominent, the Torah at the end of the story mentions in Shemos 32:35 that Hashem sent a plague because the people made the Egel that Aharon made. R' Frand asked - why is it that Aharon is mentioned at the end of the story. Clearly he is not being "kicked when he is down" so why the additional reference?
R' Frand gave four different answers to the question. The first came from the Ramban who explained that those who worshiped the Egel were the 3,000 people who were immediately killed by Moshe and the Levi'im. Meanwhile, the people who died in the plague were those who built the Egel. Why? Because these people came to Aharon and brought the gold that was used for the Egel. Only because they pushed Aharon with their insistence was there an Egel, thus the Torah is not critiquing Aharon. Instead it explains that the plague came because the people made (or caused the building of) the Egel that Aharon made.
The second answer that R' Frand gave was the answer of the Chassam Sofer. He explains that the mention of Aharon in connection with the plague had to do with the level of the Chillul Hashem created by these people. By pushing Aharon to be involved in the creation of the Egel it was a greater embarrassment, since the Kohain Gadol was being associated with this edifice.
The third answer that R' Frand gave was in the name of the Ksav Sofer. He explains that they were punished for using Aharon as a "hechsher." By getting Aharon involved with the Egel they gave people cover to say --if Aharon is doing it, it must be OK.
The fourth answer was said in the name of the Birkei Yosef, as quoted by R' Bukspan of Miami. He said that greater than committing a wrong is the coverup, or the attempted to explain away the action. He specifically referenced Watergate and the coverup being worse than the crime. Here - the people wanted to say - it was not us, or not our fault -it was Aharon. Since they attempted to use Aharon as a scapegoat, the Torah needed to straighten out history by stating that the plague came because the people made (or caused the building of) the Egel that Aharon made.
In connection with discussing Aharon's role, R' Frand also mentioned the Medrash that the people first came to Aharon's nephew Chur and asked him to be invoved. When he turned them down, he was killed. R' Frand asked - why is the Chur story not explicitly mentioned in the parsha? After all, since the story of the Egel was written in detail, why not include this as well?
R' Frand answered by quoting the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh - who explains that Hashem did not explicitly discuss the Chur incident because Hashem wanted to protect the Jews' honor, and not to explicitly write that in their zeal to create and worship the Egel they also committed murder.
But still - if the Egel is discussed why is this worse? R' Frand answered based on the Gemara in Avodah Zarah which states that the reason that the Egel story was written was to remind the Jews that even if many of the Jews stray - there is forgiveness which can be granted. When a person stands of Yom Kippur and wonders how he can be forgiven -Hashem says look at the sordid tale of the Egel and still I forgave them. The singular incident of killing Chur has not similar motivating factor, thus Hashem did not see a reason to explicitly mention it in the Parsha.
If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!
No comments:
Post a Comment