On yesterday’s daf, we saw a heated discussion about mediation, the process of trying to find a compromise solution to a conflict in order to avoid court. Rabbi Eliezer took a hard line against mediation as circumventing divine justice and therefore sinful. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korha, however, thought that even if mediation did not deliver strictly just results, it increased peace — a higher value.
On today’s daf, the rabbis continue the discussion by likening mediation to — of all things — Aaron’s decision to build the golden calf. Recall that when Moses fails to return expediently from Mount Sinai, the restless people demand Aaron make a god for them to worship. In the very next verse, Aaron instructs them to give him their gold jewelry.
The Torah continues: “This he took from them and cast in a mold, and made it into a molten calf. And they exclaimed: This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt! When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron announced: Tomorrow shall be a festival of the Lord!”
The Torah does not give us much reason to suspect that Aaron hesitated to build the golden calf, giving it the same name as Israel’s God and initiating an immediate idolatrous festival. He seems all too willing to go along with the iconic sin. But on today’s daf, the rabbis suggest that Aaron had good reason to do what he did:
As Rabbi Tanhum bar Hanilai says: … “When Aaron saw this, and he built (vayyiven) an altar (mizbe’ah) before it … and said: Tomorrow shall be a festival of the Lord!” (Exodus 32:5). What did Aaron see? Rabbi Binyamin bar Yefet says that Rabbi Elazar says: He saw Hur slaughtered before him.
When Moses went up the mountain, he actually left two people in charge: his brother Aaron and a man named Hur (see Exodus 24:14). But Hur is not mentioned in the incident of the golden calf as narrated in Exodus 32. From this omission, the rabbis infer that the people, in their anxiety and zealousness, murdered him. The midrashic reading is supported by a clever textual basis: With some tweaks to the vowels, the Hebrew for “he built” can be read as “he understood” (vayyaven), and “altar” can be read as “slaughter” (mizavuach), rendering the verse as: “Aaron understood the slaughter before him.”
Armed with this new understanding, we can read Aaron’s decision to build the golden calf differently. He isn’t simply acquiescing the minute the people demand a new god to worship. Rather, he’s making a difficult calculation of what to do in the face of a true emergency. He chooses idolatry to stem the tide of murder, as the rabbis explain:
Aaron said to himself: If I do not listen to them now, they will do to me as they did to Hur, and the verse: “Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?” (Lamentations 2:20) will be fulfilled through me, and they will never have a remedy for such a sin. It is better for them to worship the calf, as it is possible they will have a remedy through repentance.
According to this interpretation, it wasn’t just Aaron’s instinct for self-preservation that led him to orchestrate the building of the golden calf; he was legitimately concerned that, by murdering him next, the people would commit an unforgivable sin and put themselves beyond repentance. In contrast, he calculated, atonement could be made for constructing and worshiping the golden calf. Through this midrashic reading, the rabbis convert Aaron from villain to hero and make a persuasive argument for mediation and compromise as an alternative to heading to court for absolute justice.
Read all of Sanhedrin 7 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on December 24, 2024. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
Help us keep Jewish knowledge accessible to millions of people around the world.
Your donation to My Jewish Learning fuels endless journeys of Jewish discovery. With your help, My Jewish Learning can continue to provide nonstop opportunities for learning, connection and growth.
