In answer to the video "The Lowing Calf: Mystical Background to Surah 20"
Moses had left his people hastily at the perspective of meeting the Almighty. He left them under the supervision of Aaron but warned his brother against their tendency to rebel, telling him to steadfastly maintain the position of truth in the face of potential opposition 7:142-3,20:83-4. As his 40 days of communion with God came to an end, he was told to go back to them to confront their rebellion Ex32:1,7-20,Quran2:51-2,7:148-156,20:85-97.
Upon seeing them, worshipping the idol, Moses was overtaken by anger and grief, threw down the tablets and, according to the Torah, broke them Ex32:19. In his rage, he grabbed his brother Aaron's head violently as if he was about to beat him, until Aaron pleaded with him and explained why he could not prevent them from rebelling 7:150,20:94.
Moses did not think that his brother, a prophet like him, had taken part in the sin, rather, on top of his moment of extreme anger, he was upset at what he assumed was his brother's lack of leadership and ability to abide by his prior warnings as regards the rebellious people. Once Moses heard Aaron's explanation, he sought Allah's covering/ghafr for him and his brother 7:150-2. No willful act of rebellion, or sin, is attributed to either Moses or Aaron in this passage. But Moses felt that as a leader, he and his brother may have come short in their responsibilities and thus asked to be forgiven for their potential shortcomings. God is described with the word "ghafur", stemming from Gh-F-R meaning covering something. That covering can be for the purpose of hiding, or protecting, as well as both. The implication is that God provides a covering upon the person to hide the sins of the past in case there were any 5:65 all the while providing a protection from the potential sins of the future, by increasing the person's spirituality. It is up to the believer to maintain that covering of protection throughout his life, elsewhere referred to as the garment of God-consciousness 7:26. If he loses it, he is again exposed to moral and spiritual failure. His past sins will remain hidden/forgiven but the future ones will have to be rectified
14:10"He calls you to forgive for you OF your sins".
This, as a side note, strikes at the notion of guaranteed salvation and forgiveness from sins -past and future- which is propounded by certain belief systems and more particularly Christianity.
The believers and prophets have always asked God to provide them with ghafr, the covering that hides and/or protects. It comes with merit as often repeated in the HB Ps23:1,85:3 but its implications far surpass in value the level of merit needed to obtain it. God only requires in exchange sincerity and resolve in walking aright. The correct mindframe, as exemplified with the prophets who constantly sought the ghafr from Allah, is to feel that one's righteous actions are defective, that they could always be improved since nobody can claim perfection of action besides God 47:19. As reported in the NT
Mk10:18"“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone".
By seeking the ghafr from Allah, the believer shows his humility so that Allah might accept one's imperfect deeds done with sincerity and to please Him, and cover their inherent shortcomings.
Following Moses' prayer, those guilty were pointed out by God as deserving of severe punishment, showing that Aaron and Moses had no direct responsibility in the incident 7:152.
The Torah blames the prophet Aaron whom Moses appointed over them during his absence Ex32, a prophet chosen by God per the Quran and the HB itself to assist Moses in his mission against Pharaoh and his oppressive tyrants, yet he supposedly does the exact opposite under the pressure of some Israelites. The Quran says the Israelites' own hidden love for idols that was ingrained in them during their captivity, was stirred and brought to light by a crafty and deceitful person whom it refers to as "the samiri", the true instigator of the incident.
In addition to hardening Pharaoh's heart so that he rejects the divine signs and is consequently destroyed and the enslaved Israelites set free, YHWH commands Moses to tell the Israelites to deceive every Egyptian they could reach, into "lending" them their precious belongings like silver, gold objects, as well as expensive garments, so that they "do not go empty handed". YHWH assures Moses that the Egyptians will not only be influenced into accepting the Israelites' request, but that they will also be eager to give out more than demanded "and you shall empty out Egypt" Ex3:21-22,11:2,12:35-36.
The Quran mentions the presence of ornaments in the Israelites' possession during their exile but doesnt give any credence to the story. One might ask why would God issue such an unpractical command and burden them with all sorts of unnecessary load as they set themselves out for a long and difficult journey in the desert? It is hard not to see yet again, the hand of the scribes giving a divine warrant to their own sinful decisions and actions. An interesting thing to note is that in some rabbinical commentaries of the Hebrew Bible, some see in Prov10:8 which says "The wise-hearted takes commandments, but he who talks foolishly will weary" an implicit reference to the incident, with Moses being the "wise-hearted", busy with the commandements while the rest of the Israelites were plundering their masters.
In the Quran, it precisely is that burdensome nature of all these belongings, that were actually loots, that is stated to have been among the factors that led to the golden calf incident. In Moses' absence, they felt
"loaded with the burdens of the [Egyptian] people's ornaments, so we cast them (in fire), and thus did the Samiri throw".Besides obviously being a physical burden, these possessions were more so of a spiritual and moral burden that gradually dawned upon the Israelites, and so they decided to get rid of those sinfully acquired ornaments. They therefore did not initially throw the ornaments with the purpose of moulding a golden calf out of them, until the Samiri entered the scene and placed that idea in their mind, convincing them he would build the calf idol for them
"So he brought forth for them a calf, a (mere) body, which had a mooing sound, so they said: This is your god and the god of Musa, but he forgot".
As stated, the Samiri in addition craftily designed it so that a lowing sound would come out of it, probably produced by wind effects entering the hollow body in order to delude the ignorant and simple people. Ancient people tried giving a semblant of life to their idols, sometimes in a naive manner, simply carving in them eyes or ears
7:197-8"And those whom you call upon other than Him can neither help you, nor help themselves. And if you call them to guidance, they do not hear; and you see them looking towards you, but they do not see".
At other times they were very crafty at animating their idols and the Israelites were no exception, including the "foreigners" that left Egypt with them and that counted among them, according to the Zohar, all the magicians that were impressed and could not replicate Moses' miracles. The Hebrew Bible itself speaks of non-Jews during the exodus, described with a word evoking a vast number, "the multitudes", Ex12:37-38,Numb11:4,15:15-16,Deut1:16. Archeology has shown traces of Egyptians in Canaan and their presence is mentioned at the beginning of Israel's invasion of that land Josh8:35. They most probably were the non-Israelites who are depicted as having heeded Moses' warnings before the exodus, and feared the true God whom Moses spoke of Ex9:20.
The Quran too passively alludes to these non Israelites that followed Moses, in accordance with his function as a liberator not only to the Israelites but also to anyone living in spiritual bondage under Pharao. Among those non-israelites that believed in Moses, the Quran mentions a courageous man from Pharao's close circle, most probably Egyptian, and who was able to escape 40:38-45, as well as the magicians who came from various cities of the kingdom 26:36-7. They are sentenced to death following their conversion, but given Pharao's immediate concern of chasing Moses and those that fled with him, as well as the Quran's silence on whether the sentence was carried out, whether fully, in part or not at all, one can conjecture that some of those repentent magicians were able to flee with Moses.
As regards the craftiness of ancient people in animating their idols, we read a passage in Ezekiel, where the prophet is transported to Jerusalem and made to see the pagan practices introduced into the Temple
Ezek8:14"And He brought me to the entrance of the gate of the house of the Lord that is to the north, and behold there the women were sitting, making the Tammuz weep".Rashi explains that "There was an image that they would heat up from the inside, and its eyes, which were of lead, would melt from the heat of the fire, and it would appear as though it was weeping, and they would say,
“It is asking for an offering.” “Tammuz” is an expression of heating...ie making the heated [god] weep".Similarly during the course of their history they had household gods called "teraphim" which were made to emit sounds that the diviners were able to decipher Ezek21:26,Zech10:2.
The samiri would later even claim divine authority, when confronted by Moses; he was visited by an unseen messenger and had sprinkled on the idol the dust collected from the ground on which he walked, a gesture which in his mind, and that of the mislead Israelites, gave divine sanction to the golden calf worship 20:95-6. IT is interesting noting that there is an old tradition among the Israelites ascribing special power to the dust in the footprints of a saintly individual
"a certain woman tried to take dust from beneath the feet of R. Hanina to cast a spell over him to kill him" (Rashi)Regarding the sound, the Quran of course isnt saying it was emited at the idol's own behest
7:148"Did they not see that it could neither speak unto them nor guide them in any way?" 20:89"Did they not see that it could not return to them any saying and that it could not possess for them any harm or benefit?".This however immediately seduced the Israelites whose
2:93"hearts were soaked with the calf because of their disbelief".
It is a well known fact even within their tradition, that the Egyptian religions (which included the worship of some bovines like the bull), superstitions, astrology and witchcraft had badly influenced them during their captivity. The adoption of these practices reflects in their writings and Talmudic tradition where for example they attribute Pharaoh's command to cast all newborn into the water the day Moses was born, to the Egyptian astrologers' statement that the savior of Israel has been born Ex1:22. In another oral tradition (believed to have been revealed at Sinai along with the Torah), astrologers are again credited for making a correct prediction following baby Moses' ripping a jewel off Pharaoh's crown; Moses will be a threat to the king's rule. Throughout their biblical history, many incidents are explained in their oral tradition, through the lens of witchcraft or sorcery, for example Rashi explains the reason for God's order to massacre the Amalekites as well as their "ox and sheep, camel and ass" because they were sorcerers with the ability to transform into the above mentioned animals.
Long after the exodus and in the times of king Saul down to Solomon and many generations later when the vast majority of them had reverted to polytheism, going as far as indulging in human sacrifice, the community was still involved in those kinds of occult sciences 1Sam28:3,2Kings17:15-17,Isa2:6,Ezek13:18 and the scriptures themselves give credence to some of those practices, like necromancy as in 1Sam28:14-20 where a witch is credited with the ability of summoning the souls of the dead, even the souls of prophets. Again the rabbinical commentaries state that during the time of Isaiah, the monthly prognosticators had a vision but not entirely clear of what was destined to come Isa47:13.
Just as the Quran in the context of the story, eloquently speaks of their hearts being soaked with the love of an idol, Aaron in the HB is aware of that pre-disposition
Ex32:22"Let not my lord's anger grow hot! You know the people, that they are disposed toward evil".God Himself later on through the prophet Ezekiel would remind them of their ingratitude during the exodus when, despite the downpouring of divine favors after another
Ezek20:16"their heart went constantly after their idols".
The Quranic expression of their hearts being "soaked with the calf" becomes all the more appropriate when one considers how they quickly and eagerly abandoned, in great majority, their pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem and preferred bowing down to the golden calves built by Jeroboam, the king of Israel, who built them in 2 different temples away from the Jerusalem Temple of the kingdom of Judah with which he was in competition 1Kings12. Jeroboam originally used the crafty argument that the Jerusalem Temple was too far to many of them, yet their "soaking" with the love of the calf gave them enough courage to even travel till the furthest boundaries of the land, in Dan, to worship the golden calf built there, and perpetuated the practice for many generations after Jeroboam's death. The prophet Hosea would thus lament in that period, in reference to the heavy inclination of their hearts for idolatry
Hos8:4-5"..[with] their silver and their gold they made themselves idols..how long will they be unable to cleanse themselves?"
The Quran relates how their eagerness to bow down before false gods manifested itself prior to the golden calf incident, at the beginning of their exodus, even while Moses was in their midst and before his 40 nights/days absence 7:138-148. This is in stark contrast to the Egyptian sorcerers summoned by Pharao to defeat Moses, who instantly declared their faith and persisted despite the cruel torments they were threatened with 7:120-6. They hadnt seen anything in terms of miracles, besides the staff into snake, as compared to the ungrateful Israelites.
When the Israelite nation had reached total spiritual collapse, prompting divine destruction through the hands of the Assyrians, the Hebrew Bible describes in very telling terms their spiritual condition; not only had they abandoned the straight path but they "despised" it and anything associated with it, going as far as doing 2Kings17
"what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, to anger Him"The prophet Micah was among those sent to warn them of their impending doom, but he could not but lament over te spiritual state of his nation thus
Micah7:1-2"Woe is to me, for I am as the last of the figs,
like the gleanings of the vintage; there is no cluster to eat; the first ripe fig my soul desires. The pious have perished from the land, and there is no upright among men".
In many other places it speaks of them acting "against" God or "provoking" Him knowingly Isa1:4,3:8-9,Jer7:18etc. The prophet Jeremiah used another imagery, just as strong as the Quran's "soaking of their hearts" to refer to their deep love for idolatry and all kinds of polytheistic practices
Jer17:1-2"The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with a diamond point, engraved on the tablet of their heart. As they remember their children, [so do they remember] their altars, and their asherim by the green trees upon the high hillocks".
As an interesting parallel, while the Quran speaks of their hearts, their innermost selves being figuratively filled or soaked with attraction for idolatry, and more precisely the calf, the HB narrates how following his confrontation with them, Moses, in his disgust of them made them to be physically filled with that very calf
Ex32:20"Then he took the calf they had made, burned it in fire, ground it to fine powder, scattered [it] upon the surface of the water, and gave [it to] the children of Israel to drink".
No matter the miracles God performed for the Israelites, they still never truly believed. They could hardly cleanse themselves from their inclination for idolatry as seen in Joshua's address to them as reported in the Hebrew Bible, long after Moses' death Joshua24. Jeremiah later confirmed this fact Jer2:8,8:8,7:18 and history proves their constant straying from monotheism, almost complete disregard for their covenant and scriptures, which started very early on and apparently continued up to the times of Hosea, long after Moses Hos8:5,10:5. The Quran in 5:78 echoed their scolding by their prophets, from Moses to David Ps78 down to Jesus Matt12,23.
In his lifetime, this tendency caused Moses immense frustration
Deut29:4"You have seen all that the LORD did in the land of Egypt before your very eyes to Pharaoh and all his servants and to all his land; the great testings your own eyes have seen, and those great signs and wonders. But not even at the present day has the LORD yet given you a mind to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear"and God addresses them in a similar tone
Numb14:11"The LORD said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?".Moses is reported to have said that despite witnessing all these signs
"But not even at the present day has the LORD yet given you a mind to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear".
"The Mosaic religion was initially a monolatrous religion; while the Hebrews are enjoined to worship no deity but YHWH, there is no evidence that the earliest Mosaic religion denied the existence of other gods. In fact, the account of the migration contains numerous references by the historical characters to other gods, and the first law of the Decalogue is, after all, that no gods be put before YHWH, not that no other gods exist. While controversial among many people, most scholars have concluded that the initial Mosaic religion for about two hundred years was a monolatrous religion. For there is ample evidence in the Hebrew account of the settlement of Palestine, that the Hebrews frequently changed religions, often several times in a single lifetime." (jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Monolatry.html).
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