By Rabbi Moshe Pogrow
With the instructions to build the Mishkan and with the handing over of the Luchos, Matan Torah was completed. Now it was necessary to plant the nation’s soul, the Torah, in its midst. From the Mishkan, the Torah would radiate out to the entire nation, and its spirit would fill the heart of each individual, to realize the promise: V’asu li mikdash, veshachanti besocham.
But as all this was transpiring on Har Sinai, events were taking place in the camp below that attested only too realistically to the vast gulf between the reality of the people and the heights of the Torah they were to receive.
Hashem’s threat—“Achaleim, v’e’eseh oscha l’goy gadol,” that the nation that had been established to receive the Torah would be destroyed, while Moshe and the Torah were assured of a future—demonstrated the absoluteness of the Torah's destiny. It comes from Hashem, and like Him, it is timeless.
No one should ever imagine that the Torah should be adapted to changing times. On the contrary, each generation is entitled to a present and a future only while it accommodates itself to the Torah. The Torah is the absolute, ultimate goal of the Jewish nation. And the generation of Matan Torah was still infinitely far from it.
If, the Torah, with its unalterable ideals, nevertheless came down to that generation, the implication is this: the Torah was not given to the people to suit their convenience. Rather, it was given to klal Yisrael so that the nation should shape itself, elevate itself, to the moral and spiritual heights of the Torah.
As soon as the Torah came down to klal Yisrael, over whom it was meant to reign supreme, cheit ha’eigel presented it with its first challenge. The Torah was to demonstrate Divine power by training this people to accept it out of complete submission, and its resting place was to be first and foremost a place of education toward a better and purer future.
In Devarim 9:20, we are told that Aharon committed a serious sin in playing along with the cheit. He should have opposed the people, even at the risk of his own life. Aharon thought, however, that it would be prudent to yield. He reasoned that if he were to fall victim to the mob, they would lose all restraint. By taking control of the events, Aharon believed he would be able to stall until Moshe's return and limit the scale of the people’s sin.
In the aftermath, the man designated as the first kohen gadol learned, and taught all future generations, that a Jewish leader cannot try to be clever. The truths of the Torah are not his own to concede. He may not give up part of them to save the rest.
G-d's testimony is inscribed on granite rock. One can acknowledge it, or, at his own peril, reject it. But no one, not even the kohen gadol, can alter so much as one letter.
Based on the commentary of Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch zt”l on Chumash, with permission from the publisher.
