The Golden Calf is alive and kicking

• Date: 11 March 2021
• Published date: 11 March 2021
• Author: Kenneth Abramowitz

When Moses ascended Mount Sinai to receive G-d's Ten Commandments, he left his people camped below for 40 days. In his absence, the people grew restless and anxious, fearing that their great leader, Moses, would not return. Evoking the pagan Egyptian culture from which they had escaped only a short year earlier, they demanded that Moses's brother and High Priest, Aaron, create a Golden Calf for them to worship. Aaron stalled as long as he could, but finally relented, collecting golden jewelry from the willing people, and melting it to create the blasphemous Golden Calf. When Moses descended from the mountain with the tablets, and saw the golden calf and the abominations surrounding it, he ordered the idol to be pulverized and poured into the well. He then ordered the entire multitude to drink the water in disgrace and shame.

Why is that event relevant today? What is its significance for us today? The Torah does not greatly elaborate. So we at Save The West (STW) offer this analysis of what happened 3,300 years ago and the important lessons that we must learn from it.

1) People expect to be led by competent and legitimate leaders and can become distraught and even unmanageable when there is a sudden leadership vacuum.

2) Unscrupulous lower-level political officials can take advantage of vulnerable times to gain power from a legitimate but absent political leader.

3) Unscrupulous powerful religious leaders can take advantage of perilous times and replace the religious leadership. They can even disrupt the people's ideology by seeking to redefine G-d and the divine rule of law, as summarized in the Ten Commandments, and fully expressed in the Torah.

So, what is the significance and relevance of this occurrence for today? Judeo-Christian America is held together by the laws and wisdom of the Torah or Old Testament and the Christian New Testament. Their profound influences, together with important classical philosophical writings, brought about the creation of the U. S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. These documents and...