The most shocking, surprising, baffling, and unexpected event in the Torah – and perhaps in all of human history – happens in this week’s Parsha. A nation fresh off the greatest experience ever experienced by any Nation, a nation fed by manna and drinking water out of a rock, a nation purported to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, a nation that was extracted one nation from another Nation, committed the most grievous, inexplicable, indefensible sin of all: the Jews make the Golden Calf. In this very special edition of the Parsha Podcast, we explore the rationale of this decision. Why did they make the golden calf? Why do they choose that their idol be a bovine? What was their calculus, and why was it flawed? The answer, we propose, relates to the very interesting difference between the sediment-free oil used to kindle the Menorah and the sediment-laden spices and herbs used to make the incense. There’s a way up the mountain blazed by Moshe, but if you try to take a shortcut you may fall on your face.

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