In Defense of Aharon

See also this attempt at understanding Aharon

Defending His Role in Golden Calf Story (A portion of a sermon on Ki Sisa)

When we look at the story of the Golden Calf, the hero of the story is Moshe.

He destroys the luchos (see the Gemara (Yevamos 62, BB 14, Menachos 99) יישר כחך ששברת), destroys the Eigel and makes the people drink its dust, tells God that destroying the Jewish people is unacceptable, beseeches God to consider the repercussions of such an action visavis God's reputation amongst the nations of the world, and threatens to have himself removed from the Torah if his "demands" are not met.

In contrast, we have Aharon, who should have been the hero of the story.

They came to him seeking advice, looking for help; he should have said more forcefully that MOSHE WILL RETURN; he should not have given into the demands of the people; he should have taken a stronger stand.

As a result, Aharon seems to be the goat of the story on account of the things he does:

• He's the one who suggests they bring the gold earrings.
• He is credited with fashioning the calf with an engraving tool.
• He builds the Mizbeach, and then saya, חג לה' מחר – Tomorrow will be a festival to God
• He is yelled at by his brother Moshe "What did the people do to you that caused you to bring this great sin upon them?" You were weak, and this seems to be your fault. 

The Malbim suggests that when Moshe destroyed the Eigel and was not harmed by the people, this was the real moment when Aharon was deemed weakest. Because it proved that had Aharon done the same thing, they would have listened to him. [Of course, we can argue that Moshe did not yet know that Hur had been killed, and as the Eigel was meant to replace Moshe, his presence proved no need for the Eigel – which Aharon's presence clearly did not serve to remind the Israelites.]

And later on in the book of Devarim, chapter 9:20, when Moshe recounts the story, he says God really wanted to destroy Aharon – which many commentaries say, quoting Amos 2:9, refers to all of Aharon's sons dying – but he was saved because of Moshe's prayer, or only two instead of four sons died.

Even in his response to Moshe, though, he almost sounds like a spineless bumbling fool. (see verses 22-24)

And yet.

• The fact remains that Aharon does not die at this time.
• He does not lose his Kehunah status – and neither is it stripped from his family. He even merits to see Elazar don his Kohen Gadol clothes right before he dies.
• Though he eventually loses two sons, there are a number of ways to look at what caused their deaths. It may have been half the punishment for his role here, but others say it was Nadav and Avihu who brought their own deaths upon themselves. 

On the second pasuk in Shmini, when Aharon is instructed to take an Eigel, a calf, as a sin offering, [and even though Ibn Ezra rejects the notion] Rashi does say that this Eigel offering indicates that God forgave him for the sin of the Golden Calf.

So despite all the negatives and the personal involvement, if Aharon is not punished, it stands to reason that he did something, or perhaps many things right.

Before we look at the positives, I think it is important to note the negative activities he could have engaged in but chose not to:

• He did not contribute his own money or gold towards the effort
• He did not worship the calf
• He did not participate in declaring אלה אלהיך ישראל
• He did not participate in any of the celebrations

So what did he do? And how can we view it positively?

• Aharon first gave a challenging task: go home and get your wives' and daughters' earrings that they are currently wearing. That's a great stall tactic! They won't give up their earrings, which will cause the men to come to Aharon emptyhanded, awaiting his next instruction for them.
• Once he had the gold which they ultimately gave of their own stashes, Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch says he fashioned the calf using a writing tool for engraving: a weak instrument which would do the job in the slowest manner [think of Andy Dufresne taking twenty years to tunnel through a wall with a rock hammer in "the Shawshank Redemption." On a relative scale of course.]
• Aharon builds a Mizbeach before himself, seemingly to indicate that he would be in charge of whatever "service" of God that might take place there,
• … as he declares חג לה' מחר. Not a חג לעגל, but a celebration for Hashem. Aharon keeps the focus where it should be, hoping people will heed the lesson, and follow their God.
• Ibn Ezra even suggests that the חג לה' would be that "Moshe would return and punish all those who were responsible for the unrest" – which he also describes as being the ערב רב – hinted to when Aharon says אתה ידעת את העם כי ברע הוא – the word ברע being a reversal of the word ערב.

But the commentaries go even further in defending Aharon.

• Ralbag and others suggest Aharon had one goal in mind. To stall as long as he could. He made a calf to delay acquiescing to the people. They never asked for a calf!
• Building a Mizbeach and not using it until "tomorrow" is a further delay.
• Abravanel points out that we don't even know when they first approached Aharon. The whole process could have taken weeks!
• To those who are critical of Aharon for capitulating to Avodah Zara because it's one of the big 3! עבודה זרה! יהרג ואל יעבר...! Ibn Ezra points out that the group that participated was less than half a percent of the adult male population! This is hardly capitulation.

Had Aharon been guilty of anything of the Avodah Zara nature, would Moshe have hesitated in punishing him? I don't think so.

• Ibn Ezra says that Aharon felt the need to avoid losing his life – as perhaps Hur had – in order to save as many people as possible. Were he to die, things would go out of control quickly.
• Abravanel says Aharon made a small version of the calf, indicating this was just a model for the much larger version, which would take days to fashion. And, frankly, Aharon indicated that such an "important" item could not be completed without the stamp of Moshe! This would further cause them to wait.
• That "he wanted everything to be done right" would also play into why he insisted on building the mizbe'ach himself and in front of himself!  He was hoping that in all the delayed efforts, the people would take a step back and realize they were pursuing a worthless goal of a meaningless symbol to replace Moshe as the leader.

Rav Hirsch argues that Aharon's choice of a calf was meant to show that it was not intended to represent anything resembling the sacred bull Apis.

"No other figure would have been as well suited as that of a bovine animal which does not represent a ruling power, but only a servile tool. Also, by choosing from this category not a bull but only a calf, Aharon gave expression to this servile tool in its weakest aspect"

Most importantly, Aharon is bypassed when the people take matters into their own hands. Verse 6 – They get up, they bring the sacrifices, they eat and drink, and they get up to revel wantonly. And then God says to Moshe to go down because "Your nation" – some people of your nation, not Kol Amcha, all of your nation – "has become corrupt." God did not say, "Your brother messed up." Aharon is absent from all of this.

Rav Hirsch even suggests that Aharon's response in verses 22-24 reveals his greatness. He doesn't defend himself, says nothing of the mob (essentially presents the mob as a simple respectful proposal), or his attempts at delaying. He accepts most of the blame and faults himself in displaying weakness.

Rashi on the Parah Adumah (Bamidbar 19:22) suggests that the Parah atones for the Eigel. This seems to be Rashi's MO in this matter, as we saw before in his ascribing the Eigel Lchatas as something which provides atonement for Aharon.

No matter how we look at it, the idea of an animal serving as a sort of atonement speaks to its being a response to human weakness.

Aharon was quite heroic, under the circumstances. He was confronting a mob in the manner he felt best, under tremendous pressure, and were it not for their taking the last step of their own initiative, it is possible that his delay tactics would have been successful, had the people only continued to seek his counsel.

Human weakness. The perpetual state we find ourselves in. We fall to pressure, we fall to desire, we fall to our yetzer hara. We all make mistakes. No one is perfect. This flaw was forst demonstrated in the Garden of Eden, when the humans could not even follow a sinlge restriction - Not to eat the Forbidden Fruit.

But when we look at Aharon, we see how even under tremendous pressure to do something wrong he remained steadfast. He didn't cave, didn't sacrifice his principles and what he believed. And even when confronted by Moshe over the enormity of what had transpired, he says, "You know these people and what they can do." He blames himself and human nature. He doesn't rip into them and say it either like it is or how he sees it.

Even though he's right. He did what he could under the circumstances.

We can learn from Aharon. How to respond under pressure. With dignity. How to make it look like you're with the people with whom you disagree, even though you really aren't with them at all. How, sometimes, to pretend to do the wrong thing, when you personally are really, at most, doing something which looks wrong, but is really innocuous. Building a model calf, with a pen knife, and building a mizbeach FOR GOD. All Aharon needed was a little more time for everything to set itself right. And hopefully through mentshlichkeit, or through Moshe intervening, the other side will come around to realize their errors.

But Aharon ran out of time. And after the fact, he was able to stand tall and say I did my best. It was me against everyone else. And I almost stopped them. That they brought themselves down is a shame – Moshe, you know their nature – but I will not blame them and I will blame myself that I couldn't do more. And if I have to suffer as a result, that's something I am willing to bear.And while Aharon later suffered the loss of two of his children, in the long run, unlike the first borns who lost their chance serve in the Mishkan, to be replaced by Leviim, Aharon does not suffer. Because until this day we call all Kohanim "Bnei Aharon." And our kohanim are blessed to bear the name of their original ancestor, who remained true to himself and to his beliefs while trying to stall, delay and prevent the disaster that transpired.

This is leadership. This is responsibility. Doing your best, giving the people the opportunity to recognize their flaws on their own. Taking responsibility for what goes wrong. But coming out on top nonetheless, because when we sit back and judge you, in our 20-20 hindsight, we see how much you shined in every way.

May we all merit to be judged favorably in hindsight, as was Aharon, because we conducted ourselves properly in all of our endeavors.