Why the Bull Heads the Sacrifices and the Golden Calf Slander

Another interpretation of (Leviticus 22:27): "A bull or a sheep or a goat." This is what Scripture says (Hosea 7:3): "With their evil they make a king glad." And what did He see in the bull, to make it first among the sacrifices? Rabbi Levi said: It is comparable to a matron against whom an evil report went forth concerning one of the great ones of the kingdom. The king examined the matters and found no substance in them. What did the king do? He made a great banquet and seated her at the head of those reclining, in order to make known that the king had examined the matters and found no substance in them. So too, because the nations of the world were saying to Israel, "You made the calf," the Holy One, blessed be He, examined the matters and found no substance in them. Therefore the bull was made first among the sacrifices. Thus it is written (Leviticus 22:27): "A bull or a sheep or a goat."