One of the lowest points (if not the lowest point) in the history of the Jewish people occurred shortly after the Revelation at Sinai. Without Moses' leadership and guidance, the people sunk into depraved idolatry, worshipping a golden calf. Divine justice demanded that this terrible betrayal be punished severely, but Moses vigorously "pleaded before God his Lord" on their behalf. (Ex. 32:11)

The word for 'pleaded' — vayechal — is not the usual expression for prayer. The Sages gave several explanations why the Torah used this particular word to describe Moses' prayer. Rabbi Elazar noted that vayechal shares the same root as choleh (sick). Moses prayed for the sake of Israel so strenuously that he became ill from the effort.

According to Rabbi Eliezer the Great, the word vayechal even indicates the specific illness that afflicted Moses. Moses became sick with achilu, a fire (or fever) in the bones. (Berachot 32a)

Why should Moses' efforts for the sake of the Jewish people make him ill? What is the significance of a fever in the bones?

Abnormal Intensity of Prayer

The gravity of the sin of the Golden Calf should not be underestimated. God's forgiveness was not a foregone conclusion. Divine justice decreed that the Jewish nation deserved to be destroyed for this calamitous breach of faith.

Moses' prayer in their defense could not be just any prayer. Their ruinous fall was beyond the normal efforts of a great leader to rectify. In order to restore their spiritual standing, Moses needed to pray with an intensity that transcended all of his natural powers. This effort was so great that Moses became ill. That is one implication of the word vayechal — a pleading so extraordinary that it disrupted the normal functioning of the body.

Awakening the Fire in the Bones

Rabbi Eliezer the Great taught an additional aspect of Moses' defense. Bones, although not very sensitive, contain a condensed essence of life. (The word etzem in Hebrew means both 'bone' and 'essence'). When the life-forces have left all other parts of the body, they still remain in the bones. A starved individual, just barely alive, will appear to be a walking skeleton. The bones are a metaphor for the inner essence of life, hidden deeply inside the body. This life-force is not normally felt, unless awakened by a very powerful force. Thus, Ezekiel described the national revival of Israel with his prophetic vision of dry bones coming back to life.

Moses was unable to plead the case of the Jewish people using only his natural powers. He needed to awaken all of his powers of life, even those hidden deeply within. His extraordinary effort was in like measure to the moral collapse of the people. The nation's fall due to the Golden Calf could not be corrected by the regular, revealed powers of ethical life alone. It was necessary that hidden powers from the essence of the soul — the people's inner inclinations towards good and holiness that remained deep in their bones — be awakened.

Since these aspects of life are ordinarily hidden, their revelation is unnatural, an extreme measure. So too, Moses' pleas for the sake of Israel at that critical time needed to be based on an unusual fire — a fire of holiness smoldering unseen in the very bones of the people.

(adapted from Ein Eyah vol. I, pp. 144, 146)

Copyright © 2006 by Chanan Morrison