{"id":43334,"date":"2018-11-04T19:09:56","date_gmt":"2018-11-04T17:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=43334"},"modified":"2022-05-29T18:26:55","modified_gmt":"2022-05-29T15:26:55","slug":"character-counts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/character-counts\/","title":{"rendered":"Character Counts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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God\u2019s response to the sin of the golden calf is perplexing. God is so angry with the Israelites\u2019 unfaithfulness that God wants to wipe them out. But the explanation God gives for why God wants to destroy them is baffling. And yet God\u2019s anomalous response is actually a crucial window into the world of Jewish ethics.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the Israelites worship the calf, God bids Moses to go witness their appalling behavior: \u201cThe Lord spoke to Moses, \u2018Hurry down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have acted basely… They have made themselves a molten calf and bowed low to it and sacrificed to it, saying: <\/span>This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt<\/span><\/em>!\u2019\u201d (Exodus 32:7-8).<\/span><\/p>\n

The Israelites are guilty of the ultimate theological transgression: They have engaged in the crudest form of idol worship. And yet God\u2019s desire to smite them is rooted in something else. God says: \u201cI see that this is a stiffnecked people. Now, let Me be, that My anger my blaze for against them and that I may destroy them, and make of you a great nation\u201d (32:9-10). <\/span><\/p>\n

R. Nosson Tzvi Finkle (1849-1927) insists that there is something odd about the Israelites committing idolatry and being condemned to death on account of their stiffneckedness. \u201cFrom here we see,\u201d Finkel argues, \u201cthat a defect in character is even worse than a defect in action\u2014more serious even,\u201d he adds, \u201cthan a grave sin like idolatry.\u201d A transgression, Finkel explains, is at bottom just a mistake, and the reality of human free will means that one who sins today can choose to behave differently tomorrow. But a character flaw is far more insidious: It alters who we are at the deepest level, and the divine image in us is damaged in the process. <\/span><\/p>\n

What Finkel is suggesting\u2014in the most dramatic possible terms\u2014is that Judaism is concerned not just with <\/span>what we do<\/span><\/em>, but also with <\/span>who we are<\/span><\/em>. Jewish ethics is focused not just on conduct but also on character, and the cultivation of good character lies at the heart of the religious life. <\/span><\/p>\n

God\u2019s surprising response to the idolatrous infidelity of the Israelites, then, teaches us a crucial lesson about Jewish ethics: As we make our way through the world, Judaism asks us to take careful stock not just of the things we do, but also of the kind of human beings we are. From a religious perspective, character really does matter.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Character Counts","main_caption":"As we make our way through the world, we must take careful stock not just of the things we do, but also of the kind of human beings we are","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"old_create_date":"","links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43334"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50634"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43334"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105237,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43334\/revisions\/105237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}