Aaron's Defense - They Are the Children of the Just

Midrash Aggadah Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 32:22 View source

Curated by The Jewish Mythology Team · Published January 10, 2025

When Moses confronted his brother at the foot of Sinai, Aaron did not hide behind excuses or blame the mob. He answered with a kind of anguished theology.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, renders his words this way. "Let not my lord's anger be strong. You know the people, that they are the bnei tzaddikim - the children of the just. But evil concupiscence has made them to err" (Exodus 32:22). Aaron is pleading for his people by reminding Moses of their pedigree. These are Abraham's descendants. These are Sarah's grandchildren. Whatever they did, they did not do from a poisoned root.

Then comes the second half of his defense: the yetzer hara, the evil inclination, pulled them sideways. Aaron knows the rabbinic truth that will only be spelled out centuries later in the Talmud - that a good person can fail, and a holy people can stumble, because inside every soul lives a drive toward destruction that must be wrestled, not denied.

Aaron does not say they are innocent. He says they are not evil. The distinction matters. One requires punishment. The other calls for repair.

Takeaway: The ancestors you came from do not erase the inclination you carry. But they remind Heaven - and yourself - that ruin is not your destiny.

Themes

Sin Patriarchs Repentance Ethics

Biblical References

Exodus 32:22

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