The story of the Golden Calf that appears in Parashat Ki Tissa closes with punishment and some level of forgiveness, but God includes a warning: “But on the day I make an accounting, I will bring them to account for their sins.” Rabbi Hanina in the Midrash Tanhuma explains: “Whoever says the Lord is lax in dispensing justice, may his bowels become loose. He is simply long-suffering.” According to this approach we are talking about a value and a principle: God does not “forgive and forget”; justice must be done. Appropriate punishment will be meted out at the right time.
This cloud hangs over the Children of Israel even after the Mishkan is erected. According to the midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah Naso, 32), Moshe enters the Mishkan bent over like an outcast:
“Although God had forgiven the people, the verse ‘But on the day I make an accounting, I will bring them to account for their sins’ shows that He still planned to punish them. Rabbi Yehuda b’Rabbi Simon taught: Once the Mishkan was built, Moshe went and listened closely, saying: ‘In His heart, God still plans to punish the nation of Israel.’”
The punishment for the Sin of the Golden Calf hangs over the people every single day. The person who has not fully paid his debt always feels the fear of judgment hovering – especially when they encounter the person to whom they owe the debt. Every time Moshe enters the Mishkan he feels uncomfortable, as if he has stepped into the middle of an unresolved conflict. The tension that is never discussed out loud remains with him with every step he takes.
This description of Moshe walking in the Mishkan expresses the turmoil that has entered the relationship between God and the people of Israel. Since the Sin of the Golden Calf, Israel’s loyalty is under constant suspicion; the badge of betrayal burns on their foreheads. God’s willingness to be long-suffering has become unbearable to the people.
It turns out that God’s statement: “But on the day I make an accounting, I will bring them to account for their sins” is, in itself, a difficult punishment. This statement creates a sense of insecurity in the relationship between God and the people, establishing a desire to constantly try and prove something that can no longer be proven.
Rashi (Yirmiyahu 2:22) suggests that every punishment suffered by the people of Israel throughout the generations includes an element of punishment of the Sin of the Golden Calf. The verse means that God promises: “But on the day I make an accounting, I will bring them to account for their sins” and include the punishment for the Golden Calf as part of the current punishment that the people deserve. Perhaps every sin includes something of the Sin of the Golden Calf – a loss of confidence, recklessness, being carried away and stupidity. The Sin of the Golden Calf represents the “original sin” of the Jewish people. Every sin is a reminder that in each of us there resides a small element of that sin – it is never entirely erased. Indeed, it can never be erased so long as it remains in our hearts.
A radically different approach argues that there was a moment in history when the Sin of the Golden Calf was erased entirely, removing the burden of guilt from the Jewish people.
Rabbi Yossi suggests that “on the day I make an accounting” refers to a specific day – to the day of Tisha bAv. That day, on which the Sin of the Golden Calf took place, becomes the day when God pours out His wrath on His people. Tractate Ta’anit lists the different events that befell the Jewish people on Tisha bAv. From a kabbalistic perspective, every day has a specific nature, and the nation of Israel determined the nature of Tisha bAv with the sinful act that they did on that day. This is why that date has been established on our calendar as a day of introspection and mourning.
In Midrash Eikhah Rabbah, Rabbi Shmuel ben Nahman quotes Rabbi Yonatan as teaching: “…Until the destruction of the Temple, as it is said: “Approach, you men in charge (pequddot) of the city, each bearing his weapons of destruction!” And it is written: “But on the day I make an accounting, I will bring them to account (paqdi ufaqadti) for their sins.” The day of accounting has come and gone. The destruction of the Temple on Tisha bAv erases the divisions between Israel and their God. We have received our just punishment, and now the relationship can begin, anew.
According to this approach, the Sin of the Golden Calf and the Destruction of the Temple do not just serve as symbols of the distance that exists between the Jewish people and God, they also serve as testament to God’s intervention in our lives, and ultimately to the possibility of new beginnings.
These diverse approaches differ as to whether to view a lack of immediate punishment as an eternal break in the relationship between God and Israel or as part of an historical process connecting the Sin of the Golden Calf with the destruction of the Temple. On some level, these suggestions all impact on the question raised by both Jewish and non-Jewish thinkers as to the legality of collective punishment, the attempt to explain the feeling that sometimes the gap between sin and punishment appears too large, and our desire to understand Divine rage in clearer and more predictable patterns.