With the episode of the Golden Calf and the smashing of the first set of tablets, Parashat Ki Tissa reaches a pinnacle of biblical drama. Today, I want to focus on one of the less well-known aspects of this story. After Moses shatters the tablets at the foot of the mountain we read, in Exodus chapter 32 verse 20:

וַיִּקַּח אֶת ־הָעֵגֶל אֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ וַיִּשְׂרֹף בָּאֵשׁ וַיִּטְחַן עַד אֲשֶׁר ־דָּק וַיִּזֶר עַל ־פְּנֵי הַמַּיִם וַיַּשְׁק אֶת ־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵֽל:

“He took the calf that they had made and burned it; he ground it to powder and strewed it upon the water and so made the Israelites drink it.”

To me as a former scientist, this verse raised an immediate question: How can gold be burned and ground to powder? Abraham ibn Ezra tries to answer this question: “some say the word וַיִּשְׂרֹף (he burnt it) means that he melted it in fire, but there is no need (for such an explanation), for there is something which can be placed in a fire with gold so that the gold will immediately burn and be black and never turn back to gold. This matter is tried and true.” While I applaud Ibn Ezra’s scientific ingenuity, I remain doubtful whether Moses, in the desert at the foot of Mount Sinai, had the chemical in question to hand. As a cynical critic I am in good company with a number of scholars who were not satisfied by this answer.

When trying to answer biblical riddles such as this one, it is often useful to try and understand a story against the background of similar depictions in Ugaritic literature. Samuel Loewenstamm, late professor of Bible at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, was the first to point out the parallels between the destruction of the god of death, Mot, and the destruction of the golden calf. A Ugaritic text states that Anat burnt Mot in fire, ground him and strewed him in the field where Mot’s flesh was eaten by the birds. In both instances we find the elements of burning, grinding, scattering and consumption; and in both instances we find a disregard for realistic considerations – for how could Mot be eaten by birds after having been burnt? Did the biblical author simply adopt an ancient literary stereotype used to depict total annihilation? I am not satisfied with the answer that the procedure of burning, grinding, scattering and drinking of the golden calf is simply a depiction of the total destruction of Israel’s idolatrous sin.

Assuming this to be the solution to the riddle would ignore a striking parallel that was already noted by the חכמים, our sages. In the Babylonian Talmud Avodah Zarah 44a they state that Moses had no other intention than to test the Israelites like sotahs, wives suspected of adultery. The connection is a relatively obvious one, especially if we consider the many parallels between the sin of adultery and idolatry. However, it is difficult to understand why the Israelites would be tested specifically with water mixed with the burnt and ground calf. In the case of the sotah, the procedure described in Numbers chapter 5 requires the woman to be tested by waters mixed with the words of a curse against her. The curse would take effect if the woman had committed the sin. What could be the significance of testing the Israelites by giving them the burnt and crushed calf to drink?

Rabbi Dr. David Frankel, who teaches Bible at the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem, suggests rearranging the words of verse 20 to clarify the significance of the drinking of the water. Beginning with verse 19, the passage would then read: “As soon as Moses came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing he became enraged; he hurled the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain. He ground them to powder and strew it upon the water and so made the Israelites drink. He took the calf that they had made and burnt it.” According to this reading, the Israelites were not tested with the golden calf but rather with the words of the covenant. Just as in the case of the sotah, the drinking of the ground-up tablets mixed into water can bring down the curses upon those who violated the covenant’s stipulations.

Rabbi Israel Salanter recommends: “Before you open your mouth, be silent and reflect: What benefit will my speech bring to me or others? ... If you are tempted to say something frivolous, condition yourself to swallow your words.” It is a good piece of advice to swallow those words that can cause harm to others. But there are other situations where the words we swallow can poison us from the inside, like the poisonous drink of the sotah and the Israelites. To know when it is appropriate to swallow our words and when to let them out – that is one of the challenges of our human existence.