This week’s Parsha recounts the fateful error of the golden calf. Hashem’s wrath flared and Moshe garnered the resources of the Tribe of Levi as avengers, then pleaded with Hashem to forgive the Jews. He ended his words with an ultimatum: “Either forgive Your people, or erase me from Your book.” Why did Moshe use that expression? Why not say, “Forgive them or take my life” as others had similarly said?
When reading the Parsha, you may note that the first two portions read on Shabbos are much longer, and the remaining five rather short.
That is because the entire story of the calf and its resolution are included in the first two aliyos, read by the Kohain and Levi. This is so a Yisrael getting an Aliyah should not be embarrassed that an ancestor may have been involved in the sin. (No one from the Tribe of Levi participated, so no embarrassment.)
Moshe said, “I don’t want to remind anyone of their previous sins unnecessarily. Don’t read my name in any book that will recall them!”
That may not have been the only reason, but it’s one that teaches us great sensitivity to others, even when they have faltered.
