Ki Tissa

Moshe, the Theologian

"Why, O G-d, should Your wrath burn against Your people?"(Exodus/Shemot 32:11)

The sages whose voices speak to us through rabbinic midrash wondered, if God is all-powerful and all-knowing, why would God be upset by our sins? Couldn't God control circumstances or at least predict our actions? In their commentary on the Golden Calf incident, they put this question into Moshe's mouth:

Moshe arose to appease G-d's anger and said, "Master of the Universe! They have given You a helper, and You are annoyed with them? Why, this Calf which they have made will be Your assistant: You will cause the sun to rise while it will cause the moon to rise . . .You will make the rains come down, while it will be responsible for the growth of plants." Said G-d to him: "Moshe! You err as they do! There is nothing real in it." Said Moshe: "If this be the case, why should Your wrath burn against Your people?"

Moshe said: "Master of the Universe! I asked You what their merit was that You should redeem them, since they are idolaters. You said, 'You see them only now as idolaters, but I can foresee them departing from Egypt, Me dividing the Red Sea for them, bringing them into the wilderness, giving them the Torah and revealing Myself to them face to face, and them accepting My kingship -- yet denying Me at the end of forty days by making the Calf!' Master of the Universe, since You told me of their making a Golden Calf long ago, why do You seek to slay them now that they have made it?"

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