"And He gave unto Moses, upon ending to speak with him upon Mt. Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony... (Shmot 31.18)
"And He gave unto Moses..." Our Rabbis said: Had Israel committed that deed before the giving of the tablets to Moses, they would not have been thrown from his hand. (Shmot Rabbah 41.5)
Let us track the chain of events describing the story of the golden calf as it appears in this portion. The Almighty gave the tablets to Moses, as it says (Shmot 31.18), "And He gave unto Moses, upon ending to speak with him upon Mt. Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God." Meanwhile, the nation, along with Aaron the High Priest, worshipped the golden calf (Shmot 32.6): "And they rose up early on the morrow, and they offered burnt offerings, and they brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and they rose up to be merry."
At the very same time, Moses descends the mountain toward them, carrying the tablets. The Torah then describes what followed (Shmot 32.15-19): "And Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand; tablets that were written on both their sides, on the one [side] and on the other they were written... And when he came near the camp and he saw the calf and the dancing, and Moses was angered, and he cast out of his hands the tablets and he broke them beneath the mountain."
The people's sin was catastrophic, so much so that Moses broke the tablets, tablets that were "the writing of God." Needless to say, Moses was not a hot-headed nor impulsive person, but the enormity of the sin he had witnessed compelled him to shatter the tablets. Our Rabbis explain exactly what made this sin so great. The Midrash states: "Had Israel committed that deed before the giving of the tablets to Moses, the tablets would not have been thrown from his hand."
Had the people worshipped the calf before having received the Torah, their sin would not have been so deplorable. In fact, however, the sin of the golden calf took place after the receiving the Torah, after having heard the ten commandments in the voice of God. The disgraceful timing of their turning to the golden calf, after just having been elevated to such spiritual heights, is what gave this sin its horrific proportions, causing Moses to cast the tablets and shatter them.
The higher one's spiritual level, the more the Almighty expects of him. God views a righteous man's sins differently than those of an ignorant, uncivilized person. The behavior of the uneducated man is not expected to be comparable to that of a learned man. Moreover, the righteous, educated person, bu virtue of the expectation for him to have known better, causes even greater harm by his evil deeds, since others look to him as an example, a moral yardstick. This, his sin constitutes no only a personal transgression, but a social disservice.
A nation designated by God as His chosen people carries the expectation of special behavior. They are expected to know better.
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Let us track the chain of events describing the story of the golden calf as it appears in this portion. The Almighty gave the tablets to Moses, as it says (Shmot 31.18), "And He gave unto Moses, upon ending to speak with him upon Mt. Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God." Meanwhile, the nation, along with Aaron the High Priest, worshipped the golden calf (Shmot 32.6): "And they rose up early on the morrow, and they offered burnt offerings, and they brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and they rose up to be merry."
