“Moses went back up to God and said, ‘The people have committed a terrible sin by making a golden idol. Now, if You would, please forgive their sin. If not, You can blot me out from the book that You have written.’ ” (Exodus 33:31)
The question arising from this is well known. If Moses was coming to plead for God’s forgiveness on behalf of the Jewish people, why did he exaggerate their sin?
My father, my teacher, R. Elimelech, of blessed memory, asks another question. (Divrei Elimelech, p. 175) Why is it that before the sin of the golden calf Moses does not demur when God says that He will send an angel to lead the people (Exodus 23:20), whereas after the sin Moses says, “If Your presence does not accompany us, do not make us leave this place” (Exodus 33:15)?
Perhaps with a teaching from the work of my holy father, of blessed memory, we can understand the text quoted above. My father teaches that a person who gives his life to save a fellow Jew is greater than a person who gives his life for the sake of God alone. The former person is like someone who gives his life to save the son of the king. His love for the king is so great that he is willing to give his life not only for the sake of the king, but also for the king’s son.
With this teaching, it is possible to understand the actions of our teacher Moses. When he saw that the Jewish people were in need of great mercy—needing forgiveness even for this terrible sin—there awoke within him such love for the Jews that he was prepared to give his life for them—and not just for the righteous among them, but also for the sinners who committed this grievous wrong. The Jewish people are the children of God, and Moses loved the Holy Blessed One so much, his love aroused in him the desire to give his life not only for God but also for His children. This arousal in turn awakened God’s great love—not just for Moses, but for the entire Jewish people.
Moses exaggerated the sin of the Jewish people, calling it “a terrible sin,” because he wanted to conclude by saying to God, on their behalf, “Despite all this, if You do not forgive them, then You can blot me out from Your book.”
Why was Moses able to refuse to accept the angel God wanted to send to accompany them? To understand the answer to this question, we must first answer the following: What did God mean when He said of the angel, “He will not bear your sins” (Exodus 23:21)? How can forgiveness depend upon an angel? Surely everything must depend solely upon the Holy Blessed One.
We learn in the sacred literature, in the verse “God bears iniquity,” (Exodus 34:7) that the Holy Blessed One carries, as it were, the sin upon Himself, as though to say, “I am responsible for this.” Similarly, we learn in the Talmud (Berachoth 31 b); R. Elazar said, “Elijah the prophet traduced calumny against the Almighty when he said ‘God, You have perverted their hearts and turned them against You.’ ” (I Kings 18:37) R. Shmuel b. Yitzchak said: “How do you know that God turned around and admitted as much to Elijah? It is written, ‘I will gather the lame and the halt and the outcast and those whom I have misled.’ ” (Micha 4:6)
When God says of the angel, “He will not bear your sins upon himself,” He means “He will not consider himself responsible when you sin.” On the contrary, angels act as accusers, even complaining when God shows special favor toward the Jewish people, as we learn in the Talmud (Berachoth 20a).
Therefore, after Moses has offered to die for the Jewish people, he is in a position to argue, saying, “I do not agree to being led by anyone who is unwilling to bear upon himself the sins of the Jewish people, even if he is an angel.” And so God answers, “My presence will go, and I will lead you.”