While the underlying cause of the
sin of the golden calf is left to conjecture, the immediate cause is described
in the Torah: “The people saw that Moshe was delayed in coming down from Mount
Sinai.” The word used here for delayed, “boshesh” is an unusual one and used to
learn a number of lessons. One suggestion is that Boshesh is a contraction of
the words “ba shesh” ie that Moshe told the people that he would be back at
noon and the people panicked when he was late by their calculations. Another
suggestion is that Boshesh is related to the Hebrew word busha which means
shame. The source of the people’s concern stemmed from their lack of confidence
in themselves and their worthiness for Moshe’s leadership and God’s protection.
I
think an important lesson for us to learn from the sin of the golden calf is
that life does not always occur based on our schedule. Just because the people
wanted/ needed/ expected Moshe to return at a certain time does not mean that
it has to be. Humans are by nature self-centered and we easily forget that the
world does not revolve around our time frames. The golden calf episode should
serve as a reminder for us to work on our humility and our perspective to
navigate and thrive during those times in life when things don’t happen
according to our time table.
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