When the Almighty revealed the Torah to hundreds of thousands of people at Mt. Sinai, it was the moment of greatest closeness between God and mankind. It was also, however, the moment of greatest betrayal. When Moses returned from his encounter with the Divine atop the mountain, he found a crowd below that was worshipping an image of their own making – a Golden Calf.

In response to this shocking development, God declares that He is ready, in one fell swoop, to wipe out the entire nation. At that one terrible moment, it seems the relationship between God and the Jewish People has come to a bitter end. In the end, though, things turn out differently. The people – and even more astoundingly, their relationship with the Almighty – somehow survive.

In these classes we will take a close look at the story of the Golden Calf and its aftermath. Along the way, we’ll be asking – what clues does our story hold for the searing, real-life question: When a cherished relationship is suddenly and severely damaged -- when and how might it still be saved?