Shabbat Ki Tisa: God Appears

A Torah scroll. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The dominant theme of the Torah this Shabbat is the episode of the Golden Calf.

Moshe was up on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights. Nobody knew what had happened to him. The people down below started to panic. The two people that were left in charge in Moshe’s absence were Aaron and Chur (according to the Midrash, he was the son of Miriam and Caleb). The people said they wanted an idol to replace Moshe, and Aaron reluctantly agreed to make the Golden Calf.