This passage grapples with the aftermath of the Golden Calf. Moses is up on Mount Sinai, receiving the Torah, while the Israelites down below are, well, not exactly holding the faith. When God tells Moses to "Go descend," (Exodus 32:7) it's loaded with implications.
Rabbi Meir, in Shemot Rabbah 42, sees those words, "Go descend," as a hidden message. "They require discipline," he says. Mardut, in Hebrew. Discipline. How does he know? Because God follows up with, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people" (Exodus 32:9). Think about it: you don't call someone "stiff-necked" unless they need a good dose of…correction.
The Rabbis agree with Rabbi Meir, pointing to Moses’s actions upon descending. He doesn’t exactly come down with a hug and a "welcome back." Instead, he calls out, "Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!" (Exodus 32:26). And then, the unthinkable: "Each man, place his sword upon his thigh…and each man slay his brother" (Exodus 32:27). Harsh, right? But according to this interpretation, it's a direct consequence of God's command to "Go descend." The descent meant discipline.
But there's another layer. Rabbi Avin offers a different perspective. He suggests that God’s saying "Go descend" to Moses wasn't a rebuke, but almost…an invitation to empathy. "Don't consider it grave," God says, "that I said to you 'go descend' from here, as two, three times I descended, as it were, from Heaven to earth in order to see the corruption of the people."
Think about the Tower of Babel ("The Lord descended to see the city and the tower," Genesis 11:5), or Sodom ("I will descend and see," Genesis 18:21). God, in a sense, is saying, "Moses, you're not above this. I've done it myself. It is sufficient for a servant to be equal to his Maker."
But here’s the really tough part. Moses, upon hearing this comparison, despairs. He thinks, "There is no forgiveness!" He believes the Israelites are as irredeemable as the builders of Babel or the citizens of Sodom.
But God, knowing Moses’s heart, reminds him of their first encounter at the burning bush. "Did I not already say to you…what they are destined to do?" God says, referencing Exodus 3:7: "The Lord said: I have seen [rao ra’iti]."
The phrase rao ra’iti – "I have seen, I have seen" – is key. God explains to Moses that He sees more than Moses does. Moses sees one "seeing," but God sees two. God sees them receiving the Torah at Sinai, and He sees them, later on, creating the Golden Calf, taking inspiration (of all things!) from God's own celestial chariot described by the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:10). "They exchanged their Glory for the form of a bull" (Psalms 106:20).
In other words, God knew all along. God knew they would mess up. And yet, He still chose them. He still redeemed them from Egypt. As the Midrash Rabbah connects it: Rao ra’iti – God saw their affliction in Egypt, and rao ra’iti – God saw their future sin with the calf. The point? God’s redemption wasn't contingent on their perfection.
So, what do we take away from all this? It's easy to focus on the sin, on the harsh discipline. But perhaps the deeper message is about God's unwavering commitment. About seeing the potential for good even when the present is…well, less than ideal. It's a reminder that even when we stumble, when we build our own "golden calves," there's still a chance for redemption. Because sometimes, the descent is just the first step on the path back up.