Prophet Moses/Musa (peace be upon him) is a supposedly highly revered figure within the Jewish tradition. He is often hailed by them as being the most important and most respected of all prophets, mainly for having delivered them from Egypt and the revelation of the Torah being ascribed to him. Out of respect, traditional Jews in particular almost always refer to him as “Moshe Rabbeinu” (Hebrew) or “Moses our teacher.”
In the Qur’an too, he is given significant importance, and many of you have probably heard about how his name is the most frequently mentioned of all the prophets in the Qur’an.
A famous incident involving him is that of the “golden calf,” an idol that the Israelites manufactured and then started to worship while Moses (peace be upon him) was not present among them. When he returned, he was particularly disappointed and angry, as we read in both the Torah (Exodus 32:19) and the Qur’an:
So Moses returned to his people wrathful and sorrowful. He said: O my people! Did your Lord not promise you an excellent promise? Was the duration [of my absence] too long for you? Or did you desire for the great wrath of your Lord to befall you, such that you failed [your] promise to me [to worship Allah alone]? (Qur’an, 20:86)
This reaction is not unexpected, especially seeing as he returned to find that his people had plummeted from Tawhid (pure monotheism) to Shirk (polytheism) despite having been touched directly by revelation and prophecy, with the inclusion of divine promises.
Yet, in the Talmud, we see an outrageously blasphemous rewriting of the entire ordeal, to the extent that, in order to try and salvage the image of the Jews and depict them in a positive light, the rabbis go as far as claiming that this noble prophet debated with God and emerged victorious. And Allah’s refuge is sought from such sacrilegious falsehood.
Highly exalted is He — [far] above what they say! — and most high with the greatest sublimity. (Qur’an, 17:43)
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We read in the Talmud, Berakhot 32a:
The Sages of the school of Rabbi Yannai said that Moses said the following before the Holy One, Blessed be He, to atone for Israel after the sin of the Golden Calf: Master of the Universe, because of the gold and silver that you lavished upon Israel during the exodus from Egypt until they said enough [dai]; it was this wealth that caused Israel to make the Golden Calf.
[…]
The Gemara offers another analogy: Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: This is comparable to a person who had a son; he bathed him and anointed him with oil, fed him and gave him drink, and hung a purse of money around his neck. Then, he brought his son to the entrance of a brothel. What could the son do to avoid sinning?
[…]
Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said that Rabbi Yonatan said: From where in the Torah is it derived that the Holy One, Blessed be He, ultimately conceded to Moses that the reason for the sin of the Golden Calf was indeed the riches lavished upon Israel? As it is stated: “And I gave them an abundance of silver and gold, which they used for the Ba’al” (Hosea 2:10).
And thus, Moses (peace be upon him) is depicted by these rabbis as having a greater affinity and loyalty towards petty tribalism over and above pure monotheism. He is painted as someone who justifies and defends even crass idolatry and displays arrogance towards God merely for the sake of defending the honor of “his people.” The stupid argument being forced upon his tongue by these rabbis is that the Jews could not stop themselves from worshipping an idol of a cow made of gold simply because it was God who had given them this gold to begin with. Then, among other dubious analogies, God is compared to someone who takes his son to a brothel and expects him to not be tempted. Finally, according to the rabbis, God apparently ended up “losing” this debate. And Allah’s refuge is sought from such sacrilegious falsehood.
In the rabbinical imagination, Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) is thus transformed from a loyal and devoted servant and slave of his Lord, someone who holds pure monotheism and complete submission to God to be the greatest of values, into an arrogant and impertinent man who possesses a greater sense of love, affinity, and loyalty towards his tribe than he does to his Creator, as well as being someone who justifies and defends polytheism. And Allah’s refuge is sought from such sacrilegious falsehood.
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Among the contemporary rabbinical figures who have parroted and peddled this blasphemous false narrative, we find the likes of Rabbi Allen Maller, who also writes for some extremely problematic Islam-focused websites (he even has a book on intra-faith dialogue, Judaism and Islam as Synergistic Monotheisms, published in 2017).
In 2020, Rabbi Allen Maller had a blog post published on The Times of Israel with a very suggestive and socially manipulative title, “Is God limited because God cannot commit suicide?,” in which he wrote the following bunch of nonsensical drivel:
When Israel made the golden calf God was so angry he wanted to destroy them (Exodus 32:10) but Moses pleaded with God “like a man who seizes his fellow by his garment and says ‘I will not let go till you forgive them’ (Rabbi Abbahu).
Rabbi Yohanan says, “in the end God conceded Moses was right as it says, ‘I have pardoned according to your word.’ (Deuteronomy. 9:14)
Rabbi Isaac adds, “This teaches God said to Moses ‘your words have vitalized me.’” (Brachot 32a)
Thus, not only did God admit that Moses’ arguments are right and change his/her mind, but God also finds the interaction stimulating.
Indeed, our Sages even taught that God learned from Moses. When God tells Moses to destroy Canaanite cities (Deuteronoomy 20:17) Moses did not do it because he refused to smite the innocent together with the sinners. Instead Moses sent negotiators as he had to Sihon, king of Heshbon. (Deuteronomy 2:26)
Only when Sihon preferred war did Moses fight. Then God says to Moses, “I told you to destroy them and you didn’t do it. By your life, because you did this, I will do this ‘When you advance on a city to attack, make it an offer of peace’.” (Deuteronomy 20:10)
Midrash Tanhumah teaches that God added to the Torah because of Moses’ moral concerns.
The Rabbis even assert that one time when a majority of the Rabbis voted to support the interpretation of Rabbi Joshua even though God had indicated 3 times that Rabbi Eliezer was correct, God then laughed and said (proudly), “My children have defeated me.” (Talmud: Baba Metzia 59b)
A good parent or teacher does not want children or students that always follow orders like robots.
God’s mind changes because change is part of life in general, and a good and faithful relationship in particular.
The idea that God is perfect and thus cannot change is an error of Greek philosophy. Perfection is static. A circle is perfect.
And Allah’s refuge is sought from such sacrilegious falsehood.
Moses (peace be upon him) is, of course, innocent of all of these fictional rabbinical stories. As has been made glaringly evident, the rabbis are willing to insult and diminish not only prophets but even God Himself in their desperate attempts to try and make Jews look good.
These rabbis have loyalty their people than Allah and his prophets and messengers.
Jazak Allahu kheyr for your research and exposing the wrongdoers and liars.