This is one of my favorite stories. It describes the human condition so well that even though I am retelling the story now, it has not lost any of its magic for me.
It is a biblical story and it goes like this.
The Jews – some two and a half million of them – have left Egypt and are now at Mt Sinai. They see and hear God and they are so overwhelmed that their senses are scrambled: They hear sights and see sounds.
Moses now goes up the mountain to speak with God. He is gone far longer than the people expect, and they start to get nervous.
A minority make a small gold idol – a gold calf – so they can make contact with God. God has just told them that idols are forbidden – intermediaries of any kind are forbidden – so the idolaters are clearly in the wrong. But they are dancing their hearts out when Moses begins his descent from the mountain.
To place things in context, it is hard now in the 21st century to see the attraction of idolatry. But in those days it was a big thing – big enough that God had to command people not to do it.
So, back to the story – Joshua meanwhile starts up the mountain, intent on meeting Moses and placating him because he knows he will be angry.
They meet and Moses asks what the noise is that he can hear below. Joshua tells him it is only a vocal minority who have made an idol and that the mass of the people are opposed to it.
And Moses replies, no, that is not the sound of people opposed to what the minority have done. What I can hear is a lot of people sitting on the fence.
Heard from Rabbi Tatz, Jerusalem 1997
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