As we read the Torah‘s account of the sin of the Golden Calf, we only wonder in amazement at the rapid transformation of the Jewish people. Having reached the awesome plateau of belief in Hashem which they experienced at Mount Sinai, for them to then fall to such depths of degradation, is astonishing. However, as the commentaries explain, it was the Eirev Rav (mixed multitude) who came with them from Egypt who were actually the perpetrators of this terrible transgression. Those individuals who were involved in the actual sin of making and serving this makeshift idol were punished either by…
