על חיי משה, ספר ב ל״אOn the Life of Moses, Book II 31
א׳
1[159] Many sacrifices were necessarily brought every day, and particularly at general assemblies and feasts, on behalf both of individuals and all in common, and for a multitude of different reasons. This piety shewn by so populous a nation made it needful to have also a number of temple attendants to help in the sacred services.
ב׳
2[160] These, again, were chosen in a very novel and unusual manner. He selected and appointed one of the twelve tribes as the most meritorious, giving them the office as the prize and reward of a deed well pleasing to God.
ג׳
3[161] The story of that deed is as follows: When Moses had gone up into the mountain, and was there several days communing privately with God, the men of unstable nature, thinking his absence a suitable opportunity, rushed into impious practices unrestrainedly, as though authority had ceased to be, and, forgetting the reverence they owed to the Self-Existent, became zealous devotees of Egyptian fables.
ד׳
4[162] Then, having fashioned a golden bull, in imitation of the animal held most sacred in that country, they offered sacrifices which were no sacrifices, set up choirs which were no choirs, sang hymns which were very funeral chants, and, filled with strong drink, were overcome by the twofold intoxication of wine and folly. And so, revelling and carousing the livelong night, and unwary of the future, they lived wedded to their pleasant vices, while justice, the unseen watcher of them and the punishments they deserved, stood ready to strike.
ה׳
5[163] But, since the continuous shouting in the camp which arose from the great masses of men gathered together carried for a long distance, so that the echoes reached even to the mountain-top, Moses, as they smote upon his ear, was in a dilemma between God’s love for him and his love for man. He could not bear to leave his converse with God, in which he talked with Him as in private with none other present, nor yet to disregard the multitude, brimful of the miseries which anarchy creates.
ו׳
6[164] For, skilled as he was to divine in an inarticulate and meaningless noise the distinguishing marks of inward passions which to others were obscure and invisible, he recognized the tumult for what it was, saw that drunkenness caused the prevailing confusion, since intemperance begets satiety, and satiety riot.
ז׳
7[165] So, drawn backwards and forwards, hither and thither, by the two sides of his being, he was at a loss what he should do. And, as he considered, this divine message came. “Go quickly hence. Descend. The people have run after lawlessness. They have fashioned a god, the work of their hands, in the form of a bull, and to this god, who is no god, they offer worship and sacrifice, and have forgotten all the influences to piety which they have seen and heard.”
ח׳
8[166] Struck with dismay, and compelled to believe the incredible tale, he yet took the part of mediator and reconciler and did not hurry away at once, but first made prayers and supplications, begging that their sins might be forgiven. Then, when this protector and intercessor had softened the wrath of the Ruler, he wended his way back in mingled joy and dejection. He rejoiced that God accepted his prayers, yet was ready to burst with the dejection and heaviness that filled him at the transgression of the multitude.