Because they are a stiff-necked people.

[Fenris]

Some thoughts on this week's Torah portion by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks.

It is a moment of the very highest drama. The Israelites, a mere forty days after the greatest revelation in history, have made an idol: a Golden Calf. God threatens to destroy them. Moses, exemplifying to the fullest degree the character of Israel as one who “wrestles with God and man,” confronts both in turn. To God, he prays for mercy for the people. Coming down the mountain and facing Israel, he smashes the tablets, symbol of the covenant. He grinds the calf to dust, mixes it with water, and makes the Israelites drink it. He commands the Levites to punish the wrongdoers. Then he re-ascends the mountain in a prolonged attempt to repair the shattered relationship between God and the people.

God accepts his request and tells Moses to carve two new tablets of stone. At this point, however, Moses makes a strange appeal:

And Moses hurried and knelt to the ground and bowed, and he said, “If I have found favour in Your eyes, my Lord, may my Lord go among us, because [ki] it is a stiff-necked people, and forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”

The difficulty in the verse is self-evident. Moses cites as a reason for God remaining with the Israelites the very attribute that God had previously given for wishing to abandon them:

“I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave Me alone so that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

How can Moses invoke the people’s obstinacy as the very reason for God to maintain His presence among them? What is the meaning of Moses’ “because” – “may my Lord go among us, because it is a stiff- necked people”?
The commentators offer a variety of interpretations. Rashi reads the word ki as “if” – “If they are stiff-necked, then forgive them.” Ibn Ezra and Chizkuni read it as “although” or “despite the fact that” (af al pi).

Alternatively, suggests Ibn Ezra, the verse might be read, “[I admit that] it is a stiff-necked people – therefore forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.” These are straightforward readings, though they assign to the word ki a meaning it does not normally have.

There is, however, another and far more striking line of interpretation that can be traced across the centuries. In the twentieth century it was given expression by Rabbi Yitzchak Nissenbaum. The argument he attributed to Moses was this:

Almighty God, look upon this people with favour, because what is now their greatest vice will one day be their most heroic virtue. They are indeed an obstinate people. When they have everything to thank You for, they complain. Mere weeks after hearing Your voice they make a Golden Calf. But just as now they are stiff- necked in their disobedience, so one day they will be equally stiff-necked in their loyalty. Nations will call on them to assimilate, but they will refuse. Mightier religions will urge them to convert, but they will resist. They will suffer humiliation, persecution, even torture and death because of the name they bear and the faith they profess, but they will stay true to the covenant their ancestors made with You. They will go to their deaths saying Ani ma’amin, “I believe.” This is a people awesome in its obstinacy – and though now it is their failing, there will be times far into the future when it will be their noblest strength.

The fact that Rabbi Nissenbaum lived and died in the Warsaw ghetto gives added poignancy to his words.

“Forgive them because they are a stiff-necked people,” said Moses, because the time will come when that stubbornness will be not a tragic failing but a noble and defiant loyalty. And so it came to be.

[RandyPNW]

I really liked this. It just shows how broad a simple statement can apply. The Apostle Paul had his own explanation for this.

The "stubbornness" of the Jewish People became an opportunity for the rest of the stubborn world to apply for the same grace God was extending to the Jewish People through Moses.

Moses was just a mouthpiece for God. And his heart expressed the heart of God, which God had hoped to elicit from Moses. God was hoping to set a precedent that when applied to Israel could also be applied to the whole world. After all, Abraham was called to be father of nations, and not just father of one nation.

When Moses extended God's "grace" towards Israel, he was calling upon God's compassion for those bound by their own emotional conflicts and addictions. It produced a theme of "grace" that could later be applied world-wide, since Israel's defects were common and illustrative of the weaknesses of the whole world.

God longs to love and to forgive His people. Though He expressed condemnation in the strongest terms, it is only because He jealously guards His relationship with His people, not wanting to see them wander. Jealousy can destroy, but often, all it wants is restoration and repentance.

My own take on it? I think that the grittiness of the Jewish People is a facet of their character. And as you suggest, what often appears to be a weakness can actually show a strength.

I've often said this to others, that when you find a particular weakness in someone, it is actually their strong point showing itself as a failure. For example, one who argues incessantly and seems unable to stop is actually showing a commitment to see an argument seen all the way through. It is the opposite of being "flaky."

Someone who appears to be very jealous looks like a weakling, emotionally. But actually, it belies a great love that dies a thousand deaths to keep the romance alive. The person is writing a great "love story," and the "tragedy" part, when it fails, does not always reveal the true hope for love.

[Fenris]

The "stubbornness" of the Jewish People became an opportunity for the rest of the stubborn world to apply for the same grace God was extending to the Jewish People through Moses.

Or, the stubbornness could be good because it shows undying love and loyalty to God.

Unless you think that the Jews who died rather than convert were wrong, and actually died for nothing.

[Fenris]

The reading is in this week's Torah portion. I wanted to add a pertinent story.

Elie Weisel, Holocaust survivor and humanitarian, was collecting stories from other survivors of the death camps for his records. What follows is one such.

...An officer tried to convince one of the Jewish inmates to repudiate God.  He said, "I will give you bread," and the man said no. He said, "Repudiate your God, curse your God, and I will give you happiness, joy." He said no. "I will give you life". He said no. So the officer shot him. And the man went on saying no. He shot him with five bullets. In his agony the man kept saying "ה֙ ה֣וּא הָאֱלֹהִ֔ים" the ancient call of our martyrs "The Lord is God!" (1 Kings 18:39). And then he died. His son, who was there, told me this story. The son said "You know, my father was not a believer."

“Forgive them because they are a stiff-necked people,” said Moses, because the time will come when that stubbornness will be not a tragic failing but a noble and defiant loyalty. And so it came to be.

[Sojourner]

Not to detract from the point of the OP, but on a related note, I always got a chuckle out of Aaron's lame excuse for making the calf: "I collected gold from the people, threw it into the fire, and out came this calf." I can almost picture Moses' face palm.

[Athanasius]

Not to detract from the point of the OP, but on a related note, I always got a chuckle out of Aaron's lame excuse for making the calf: "I collected gold from the people, threw it into the fire, and out came this calf." I can almost picture Moses' face palm.

He must have got a real Mike Ehrmantraut stare.

[Fenris]

Not to detract from the point of the OP, but on a related note, I always got a chuckle out of Aaron's lame excuse for making the calf: "I collected gold from the people, threw it into the fire, and out came this calf." I can almost picture Moses' face palm.

I mean, the chapter is pretty murky on some details.

Verse 1 says "Make us gods that will go before us, because this man Moses, who brought us up from the land of Egypt we don't know what has become of him."" The idol is a replacement for Moses, not God.

Verse 4 says ""These are your gods, O Israel". Which begs the question, why not "our gods"? "who have brought you up from the land of Egypt!" not "brought us from the land of Egypt."  It suggests that the speakers may be the mixed multitude (Ex 12:38) and not Israelites.

Next verse  Aaron proclaimed and said: "Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord." "Lord in this case being YHVH, not an idol.

Which doesn't mean that something terrible didn't happen, obviously. But perhaps more than meets the eye.

[Fenris]

It has also been pointed out to me that Verse 32:1 is the longest verse in the Pentateuch. Perhaps as a way of suggesting how long the people felt they had been waiting for Moses to return?

[Fenris]

Zachariah 8:19 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah. "

Those fasts, which mourn events surrounding the Temple's destruction and the Jewish diaspora, are still observed today.

Fourth month: 17th Tamuz. This is the day when the Babylonians broke through the city wall of Jerusalem after two years of siege.

Fifth month: Tisha B’av, the worst day on the Jewish calendar, when both Temples were destroyed, first in 586BCE, second in the year 70. 

Seventh month: The fast of Gedaliah. The sad tale is told in 2 Kings 25 and also Jeremiah 41 and Josephus goes into detail in his book "Antiquities of the Jews". After the Babylonian destruction, they allowed a Jewish governor to rule the now impoverished land. Although he was warned of the danger, he met for a holiday feast with some Jews who murdered him. After his death the Babylonians removed all autonomy from the land and so it was the culmination of the destruction.

Tenth month: 10 Teves. The beginning of the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and so "the beginning of the end".

The portion mentioned above in the first post is part of what is read on these fast days.

Beginning at Exodus 32:11 But Moses implored the LORD his God, saying, “Let not Your anger, O Lord, blaze forth against Your people, whom You delivered from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand. Let not the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that He delivered them, only to kill them off in the mountains and annihilate them from the face of the earth.’ Turn from Your blazing anger, and renounce the plan to punish Your people. Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, how You swore to them by Your Self and said to them: I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and I will give to your offspring this whole land of which I spoke, to possess forever.” And the LORD renounced the punishment He had planned to bring upon His people.

Then continuing in Exodus 34: The LORD said to Moses: “Carve two tablets of stone like the first, and I will inscribe upon the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you shattered. Be ready by morning, and in the morning come up to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to Me, on the top of the mountain. No one else shall come up with you, and no one else shall be seen anywhere on the mountain; neither shall the flocks and the herds graze at the foot of this mountain.” So Moses carved two tablets of stone, like the first, and early in the morning he went up on Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, taking the two stone tablets with him.  The LORD came down in a cloud; He stood with him there, and proclaimed the name LORD. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed: “The LORD! the LORD! a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet He does not remit all punishment, but visits the iniquity of parents upon children and children’s children, upon the third and fourth generations.” Moses hastened to bow low to the ground in homage, and said, “If I have gained Your favor, O Lord, pray, let the Lord go in our midst, because/even though this is a stiffnecked people. Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your own!” He said: I hereby make a covenant. Before all your people I will work such wonders as have not been wrought on all the earth or in any nation; and all the people who are with you shall see how awesome are the LORD’s deeds which I will perform for you."