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Hur and the Elders Die Before the Golden Calf

Seventy elders refuse the calf and die for it. Hur is killed for hard words. Moses later kindles a new seventy from his spirit and loses not a spark.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. Where the First Seventy Went
  2. Blood on the Skirts
  3. A Lamp That Does Not Shrink
  4. Goads in the Furrow
  5. Light for the Light of the World
Hur and the Elders Die Before the Golden Calf Click for full size

Where the First Seventy Went

When the Holy One told Moses, "Gather Me seventy men of the elders of Israel," a corpse-shaped question hung in the air. Where had the first seventy gone? Scripture answers from Job. He breaks in pieces mighty men without inquiry, and sets others in their place. The command for a new council already smelled of blood.

These were no new names inventing themselves. Seventy elders had stood in Egypt, gone forth at the Exodus, climbed Sinai with Moses, Aaron, Nadav, and Avihu, and been told to wait below. When Moses tarried forty days and six hours more, and the people cried, "Arise, make us a god," all Israel turned to these elders. The mountain still smoked in memory. The people wanted a shape they could dance around.

Blood on the Skirts

The elders refused. "Why do you provoke the One who worked every miracle for you?" Hands that had seen plagues would not bless a calf. For that the people rose against them and killed them. Hur, who answered with harsh words, they killed too. Stones. Fists. A silence afterward that gold could not fill. Jeremiah later testifies to blood on Israel's skirts for all these things, because of the cry, "These are your gods, O Israel."

The calf did not rise only from melted gold. It rose over the bodies of men who would not bless a lie. After the Holy One forgave Israel, He commanded a new seventy, set in place of those who died sanctifying His name. The mighty ones were broken. Others were raised to stand in their stead. Forgiveness did not erase the graves. It filled the empty seats.

A Lamp That Does Not Shrink

When the new seventy received prophecy, they drew it from the spirit of Moses himself. Did Moses lose anything? Was his prophecy made poorer because seventy men now shared it? No. Not a thing. The fear of loss is a human ledger. Heaven keeps a different book.

Compare Moses to a single lamp burning bright in the dark. Come, all of you, and kindle your own lamps from its flame. Light one, light a hundred, light a thousand, and look. The first flame has not shrunk by so much as a breath. Its glow is whole, undiminished, exactly as it was before you came near. The prophets took freely from his prophecy, and still his prophecy lacked nothing. Heaven does not run dry when it gives. The wellspring is not emptied by those who drink. That is why Scripture seals him forever. There never again arose in Israel a prophet like Moses.

Goads in the Furrow

"Gather Me seventy," and the sages heard another verse humming under the command. The words of the wise are like goads. A farmer's goad prods the cow into the furrow, and from that plowed field rises living grain to feed the world. So the words of Torah bring life, for He is your life and the length of your days. Without the prod, the field stays hard. Without the field, the people starve.

As the goad keeps the cow plowing straight, so Torah keeps the student straight: to call the forbidden forbidden and the permitted permitted, and to draw true rulings from the verses. The goad has three names in the masters' mouth. Malmad, because it teaches. Mardea, because it teaches knowledge. Darban, because understanding dwells within it. Will Torah slip away like a tool that can be carried off? Scripture answers with implanted nails, and reads nails as guards. Fix the words in yourself like a driven nail, and they keep you even as you keep them.

Light for the Light of the World

When the command came to kindle the menorah, Israel once answered back. "Master of the Universe, You are the Light of the world. How can we light a lamp before the One in whom all light is hidden?" The Holy One answered, "I do not need your light. I ask you to light for Me so that I may lift you up before the nations." The lamp is honor, not supply.

Picture two travelers, one sighted, one blind. "Lean on me," said the sighted man, and he guided the blind into the city and the house. Then he said, "Kindle this lamp for me." The blind man protested. "You led me the whole way. Now you ask me to light your way?" "I asked only so you would not feel yourself forever in my debt," the sighted man said. So the pillar of cloud and fire led Israel, and when the Tabernacle rose, the menorah (the lampstand) was kindled not for Heaven's need but for Israel's standing.

The slain elders had already paid in blood for refusing a false light. The new seventy would carry a true one, drawn from a lamp that did not diminish when it gave. When the new seventy took their places, some in the camp still remembered the old ones' faces. Between a golden calf and a golden menorah stands a graveyard of men who would not call a lie a god, and a living flame that can be shared without loss.

HurEldersMosesGolden CalfProphecySinaiSeventySpirit
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From the tradition

Sources

4 sources

The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Beha'alotcha 24:1Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Beha'alotcha

Translation of the source text.Midrash Tanchuma (Buber), Public Domain, on Sefaria · CC-BY-SA

"Gather Me " and so forth (Numbers 11:16). And where were those former ones? This is what Scripture says: "He breaks in pieces mighty men without inquiry, and sets others in their place" (Job 34:24). When the princes were in Egypt, they had seventy elders, as it is said, "Go and gather the elders of Israel" (Exodus 3:16); and with them they went out of Egypt. And when Moses went up to receive the Torah, they were with him, as it is said, "Then Moses went up, and Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel" (Exodus 24:9), and to the elders he said, "Wait for us here" and so forth (Exodus 24:14). When Moses went up, he made a condition with Israel that he would come down at the end of forty days. When he tarried to come down, as it is said, "And the people saw that Moses delayed (boshesh)" (Exodus 32:1), and boshesh means nothing other than tarrying, as it is said, "Why is his chariot delayed (boshesh) in coming? Why tarry the wheels of his chariots?" (Judges 5:28), all Israel gathered to the elders. They said to them: Moses made a condition with us that he would come down within forty days, and behold, it is forty days and he has not come down, and six hours more, and we do not know what has become of him; rather, "Arise, make us a god" (Exodus 32:1). When they heard this, they said to them: Why do you provoke to anger the One who performed for you all the miracles and the wonders? They rose up against them and killed them. And because Hur stood up to them with harsh words, they rose up against him and killed him. From where do we know that they killed the elders and Hur? For thus said Jeremiah: "Also in your skirts is found the lifeblood of the innocent poor; you did not find them breaking in, but for all these things" (Jeremiah 2:34). What is "for all these things"? Because of "These are your gods, O Israel" (Exodus 32:4). After a time, when the Holy One forgiven them, He said to Moses, "Gather Me seventy men", in place of those who were killed for the sanctification of My name. This is what is written: "He breaks in pieces mighty men without inquiry, and sets others in their place" (Job 34:24).

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Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Beha'alotcha 22:3Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Beha'alotcha

Translation of the source text.Midrash Tanchuma (Buber), Public Domain, on Sefaria · CC-BY-SA

And if you should say: since the prophecy of the elders was from that of Moses, perhaps it diminished something of his prophecy, no. To what was Moses comparable? To a lamp that was burning, from which all kindle their own lamps, yet its light lacks nothing at all. So too Moses: even though the prophets took from his prophecy, the prophecy of Moses lacked nothing at all, [as it is said] (Deuteronomy 34:10): "And there never again arose in Israel a prophet like Moses."

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Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Beha'alotcha 25:1Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Beha'alotcha

Translation of the source text.Midrash Tanchuma (Buber), Public Domain, on Sefaria · CC-BY-SA

(Numbers 11:16:) GATHER ME [seventy men of the elders of Israel]. This is what Scripture says (Ecclesiastes 12:11): THE WORDS OF THE WISE ARE LIKE GOADS. Just as this goad brings living [creatures] into the world, so do the words of Torah bring life into the world, as it is written (Deuteronomy 30:20): FOR HE IS YOUR LIFE AND THE LENGTH OF YOUR DAYS.

[Another interpretation of LIKE GOADS:] Just as this goad directs the cow to plow, to make the furrows even, so do the words of Torah direct [those who study them] to declare the forbidden forbidden and the permitted permitted, and they show interpretations and rulings from the Torah.

THE WORDS OF THE WISE ARE LIKE GOADS. It is called by three names: darban, mardea, malmad. Why is it called malmad? Because it teaches (melammed) the cow to plow. Mardea, because it teaches knowledge (moreh deah) to the cow for plowing. Darban, because understanding (binah) dwells (dar) in it (bah). Therefore it is said: THE WORDS OF THE WISE ARE LIKE GOADS.

And should you say: just as the goad is movable, so the words of Torah are movable, the text teaches (Ecclesiastes 12:11, continued): AND LIKE IMPLANTED NAILS (masmerot). It is written [as] "like guards" (mishmarot): if you have fixed them like a nail, they are guarded, and they guard you.

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Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Beha'alotcha 5:1Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Beha'alotcha

Translation of the source text.Midrash Tanchuma (Buber), Public Domain, on Sefaria · CC-BY-SA

"When you set up the lamps" (Numbers 8:2). This is what Scripture says: "For You light my lamp, [the LORD my God brightens my darkness]" (Psalms 18:29). Israel said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the Universe, You say that we should give light before You? You are the Light of the world, and light dwells with You, as it is written: "He reveals the deep and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him" (Daniel 2:22). Yet You say, "Toward the face of the menorah shall the seven lamps give light" (Numbers 8:2)! Hence, "For You light my lamp."

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: It is not that I need your light, but that you should give light to Me just as I gave light to you, in order to exalt you before all the nations, so that they will say: See how Israel gives light to the One who gives light to all!

To what may the matter be compared? To a sighted man and a blind man who were walking along the road. The sighted man said to the blind man: Come, and I will support you. And he supported him and they walked. When they entered the city and came into the house, the sighted man said to the blind man: Go out and kindle this lamp for me and give me light. The blind man said to him: While I was on the road, you supported me until I entered the house, and you accompanied me; and now you say to me, "Go out and kindle this lamp for me and give me light"? The sighted man said to him: So that you should not feel beholden to me for having accompanied you on the road, therefore I told you, "Give light to Me."

So too, the sighted man is the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is said: "The eyes of the LORD, they range through all the earth" (Zechariah 4:10). And the blind man is Israel, as it is said: "We grope like the blind along a wall" (Isaiah 59:10). And the Holy One, blessed be He, was leading them and giving them light, as it is said: "And the LORD went before them by day [in a pillar of cloud]" (Exodus 13:21). When the Tabernacle was set up, the Holy One, blessed be He, called to Moses and said to him: Tell them that they should give light to Me, as it is said: "Speak to the children of Israel... when you set up [the lamps]." Israel said to the Holy One, blessed be He: "For You light my lamp", and You say that we should give light to You? The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: In order to exalt you I told you to give light to Me, just as I gave light to you. Therefore it is said: "When you set up."

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