Exodus 30:11–34:35 and Ezekiel 36:16-38
In this week’s Torah portion we learn about the Children of Israel’s gravest sin: Worship of the Golden Calf.
They were impatient and simply couldn’t wait for Moses to return from Mt. Sinai. At a time without a leader, the Israelites looked for quick and easy solutions instead of waiting for the eternal spiritual promises.
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God forewarned Moses before coming down the mountain with the Law. He used the wordsh’ehitut – corruption “ki shihet ha-am” (because the people are corrupt), when describing the situation. Israel also suffers today from spiritual corruption, resulting from the lack of a godly leader. By Michael Schneider