The Golden Calf is one of the most famous episodes in (religious) history. We carry mental images of the players; Aaron as idol maker-in-chief, absent Moses still up on the mountain, the statue itself, the rabble clamoring for a tangible god. It is a fascinating episode and every year it takes hold of us once again. Time and again we replay the captivating story with the same actors. The drama never ends- fire, smoke, betrayal, accusations, denial of responsibility- all the makings of a good soap opera. But, every year, we fail to include one essential player as we mentally recast the scene.
This year we need to add one more player to the mix. This year we will include the mountain itself. Bring to your mind Mt. Sinai. It’s a familiar term but we rarely consider it. The Hebrew term is HAR SINAI. Unfortunately, we English speakers are at a disadvantage when we hear HAR SINAI. HAR can literally mean ‘mountain’ or ‘mountain of’. The Hebrew term HAR SINAI can mean a mountain named Sinai or mountain of the Sinai region. If it is a specific name then we may feel that we can specifically identify it and the mountain comes close to us, at least in our imagination. If, on the other hand, we follow the grammatical lead of the Hebrew, we are left with an unknown mountain located somewhere in a desert. Har Sinai easily yields a vague sense of anonymity. It’s just a mountain somewhere and we are left wondering where it is and what it looks like.
Intriguingly, a train of thought within Jewish commentary focuses on this anonymity. A number of Midrashim describe the mountain as small; even trivial. More importantly, is the well-developed attitude within Jewish lore that the location of the mountain is either intentionally withheld from us or just irrelevant. Much more important are the experiences at the mountain. At the outset was to be the sharing of God’s greatest knowledge with humanity. Because our ancestors were impatient and they trivialized religion by calling for a statue to replace the L-RD they lost out on the grandest experience of all time.
Historians struggle to fill in the missing pieces of life. There are two well-known mountains which are suggested as being Sinai along with other possible candidates. It is noteworthy that the best-known Mt. Sinai (Jebel Musa) is identified by Christian tradition 1,500 years after Moses’s descent described in this week’s Parshah. Jewish tradition, on the other hand, has not emphasized an exact location of Mt. Sinai. The focus best lies on the heavenly opportunity to interact with the Owner of the universe and the consequences of that interaction. Har Sinai bears greater impact by its being a locus of connection between people and God than it does by being identified with specific map coordinates.
May we each find our own spiritual connection to God and may we leave behind the need for having a tangible god or representation of 'that' place.
Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi Steve Silberman
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