Parashat Ki Tisa- Judging Favorably
A cursory reading of the story of the Egel Ha'zahav (golden calf) in Parashat Ki Tisa appears to present a harsh indictment against Aharon. As soon as he was approached by the people who demanded that he provide a substitute for Moshe (whom they thought would never return), he asked them to bring their gold jewelry. They complied, and he fashioned a golden calf. Seemingly, he bears full responsibility for this debacle, and was in fact the mastermind behind this entire episode.
In truth, however, this is most certainly not the case. The commentary Da'at Zekenim Mi'ba'ale Ha'Tosefot explains that Aharon was reluctant to oppose the people's demand because he saw what happened to Hur, another prominent leader and prophet, who vehemently opposed the idea to make a calf. The people responded to Hur's objections by killing him. Aharon, the Kohen Gadol (high priest), understood how grievous a crime it would be if Bene Yisrael were to execute both a prophet and a Kohen on the same day. He prophetically saw the severe punishment God visited upon the Jewish nation when they executed Zecharya, who was both a prophet and a Kohen, during the time of First Temple (Divre Hayamim II 24:21). Aharon therefore decided that rather than oppose the people, he would stall, knowing that Moshe would soon be returning. He ordered them to bring their wives' jewelry, suspecting that the women would be unwilling to part with their ornaments. Aharon thus hoped to avert this disaster by buying time, rather than standing in firm opposition against the people's adamant insistence that he make an image for them.
One lesson we should perhaps learn from this story is the importance of judging favorably, rather than jumping to immediate conclusions based on what we see. The story of Aharon provides a classic example of an incident where on the surface a person appears to have acted wrongly and committed a terrible offense, but upon further study and reflection we see very clearly that he acted with the purest of motives and sound judgment. First impressions are often misleading; before condemning a person's conduct in our minds, we ought to delay passing judgment until we have a thorough knowledge of what actually transpired and what went through that person's mind.
Rav Yishak Hutner (1906-1980) would often impress upon his students that all character traits – even those that generally should be suppressed – can and must be channeled toward positive goals. A student once asked whether this applies to people who habitually do not think straight, who twist and misinterpret information to reach all kinds of odd conclusions. Rav Hutner explained that this quality should be used for judging people favorably. When we see a person act in what appears as an improper manner, we should employ this faculty – skewed and imaginative thinking – to find a complimentary explanation for what we saw. In such contexts we should concoct whatever theories we can, and "twist" the facts to whatever extent possible, to arrive at a favorable impression, rather than immediately jumping to criticize and condemn.
