ראה קראתי בשם בצלאל, "See, I have called by name Betzalel, etc." Perhaps the extra word בשם is intended to draw our attention not only to Betzalel's name but also to that of his father and grandfather and how those names reflected Betzalel's impact on his contemporaries. The name בצל־אל suggests that he was the man through whom a shelter was provided for G'd on earth. בן אורי suggests that Betzalel's father looked upon G'd as the source of his inspiration and enlightenment. בן חור is a reference to freedom, בן חורים. Betzalel helped free the Israelites from the remaining stigma of the golden calf by helping Israel to regain its good graces. Our sages in Shemot Rabbah 51,4 in connection with the words משכן העדות in Exodus 38,21 point out that the reason for that designation of the Tabernacle was that its existence was testimony, עדות, that G'd had forgiven the Jewish people for the sin of the golden calf. This very thought was also anchored in Betzalel's name and the name of his forebears. The allusions we just referred to would justify the conjunctive letter ו in front of the words ו־אמלא אותו רוח אלוקים בחכמה,"and I will fill him with a spirit of wisdom." This may also be the reason that the Torah speaks of בחכמה, instead of simply חכמה when describing G'd's input as additional to Betzalel's natural talents and virtues. Alternatively, the word בחכמה may reflect a statement of our sages in Berachot 55 based on Daniel 2,21 that G'd adds additional wisdom to people aleady possessed of a measure of wisdom. Accordingly, the words ואמלא…בחכמה, mean: "and I will add wisdom to Betzalel who already possesses wisdom."

בצלאל בו אורי בן חור, “Betzalel, son of Uri, son of Chur;” Betzalel’s ancestry is given for 3 generations, whereas that of his assistant Oholiov is only traced to his father. The reason is that Betzalel’s grandfather had become a martyr during the episode of the golden calf, when he tried to prevent the people from dancing around the golden calf. Seeing that the building of the Tabernacle was primarily in order to facilitate atonement for the sin of the golden calf, it is appropriate that the Torah mentions Chur’s name in this connection.

לוחות אבן, “Tablets of stone.” This word is used as meaning that the raw material that these Tablets were made of was indestructible, i.e. not subject to disintegration by natural wear and tear. An alternate interpretation: the word was used as a hint that most capital offences when committed deliberately are subject to the penalty of death by stoning.”[Seeing that the Tablets had been made in the celestial regions, the word “stone” had to be used as we are not familiar with the raw material used, and since Moses smashed them, no one even ever saw the Tablets. Ed.]

10 (Numb. 27:1) “Then came forward the daughters of Zelophehad”: In that generation the women were fencing that which the men were breaching. Accordingly you find that Aaron said to them (i.e., the men in Exod. 32:2), “Take off the gold rings that are in the ears of your wives”; but the women were unwilling and protested against their husbands. Thus it is stated (in vs. 3), “So all the people took off the gold rings that were in their ears.” Thus the women did not take part in making the [golden] calf. So also in the case of the spies who had spread slander (according to Numb. 14:36), “when they returned, they made [the whole congregation] murmur against him.” A decree was issued against them, because they had said (in Numb. 13:31), “We are unable to go up [against this people for they are stronger than us].” The women, however, were not with them in their counsel. What is written above the matter (in Numb. 26:65)? “Because the Lord had said to them, ‘They shall surely die in the wilderness,’ not a man of them remained […].” [Note that Scripture speaks of] “a man,” and not of "a woman.” Because they (i.e., the men) did not want to enter the land, but the women came forward to ask for an inheritance in the land. Therefore the parashah [about the death of that generation] was written next to this parashah, because what the men broke down the women fenced in.

Let not the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he delivered them, only to kill them off in the mountains and annihilate them from the face of the earth.’ Turn from Your blazing anger, and renounce the plan to punish Your people.

קול ענות אנכי שומע, “I can only hear a sound of distress.” Nachmanides writes that what Moses said was not based on factual evidence, -after all he had not yet seen what was going on with his eyes, and we do not judge on the basis of what our ears hear.- In fact, technically speaking, Moses was out of order in telling Joshua his conclusions which incriminated his people on the basis of not even having seen the evidence. We must therefore interpret what Moses is quoted as saying to mean that he voiced the opinion that what he heard sounded like revelry. In the Midrash Moses’ words are understood as a rebuke to Joshua, his mentor saying to him that someone who will one day become the ruler of this people cannot afford to make judgments based only on what he thought he had heard. (Midrash Rabbah Kohelet 9)

וישלך מידיו, “he hurled from his hands;” Moses’ physical strength left him when he saw with his own eyes the golden calf, and he was no longer able to hold on to the Tablets, and threw them a short distance from where he stood, just far enough so that they would not hurt his feet by falling on them.

THAT HE SAW THE CALF AND THE DANCING. The heh prefixed to the word egel (calf) also refers to the word u-mecholot (and the dancing). The verse should be understood as follows: that he saw the calf and the dancing around it. Moses was overcome by great jealousy. He therefore broke the tablets which were in his hands and served, as it were, as a document of witness Moses thus tore up the contract. As Scripture states, he did this in the sight of all of Israel.

We must remember that at the time of the revelation at Mount Sinai any residual pollutant of the original serpent had been expunged from the people as we know from Shabbat 146. This is the reason G'd prepared for them legislation engraved i.e. charut on the Tablets. The word חרות which we read in the Torah with the vowel kametz under the first letter may also be read with the vowel tzeyreh instead; as a result of this change it means "freedom." The alternate spelling is an allusion to the freedom from the angel of death which the Jewish people had attained as a result of their ready acceptance of G'd's Torah. Mortality, after all, had only been due to the pollutants with which the original serpent had injected Eve through her eating of the tree of knowledge. The golden calf episode reversed this process and the Israelites became infected with something like the original pollutant once more, though not to the same degree as previously. As a result of their idolatry they became mortal once more and a set of laws designed for immortal people was no longer appropriate for them. This is why those Tablets had to be smashed. All of this is based on the opinions that Moses had not acted of his own accord when he smashed the Tablets.

ויחר אף משה וישלך מידיו את הלוחות, Moses became very angry and he threw the Tablets from his hands, etc. We need to understand why Moses took it upon himself to smash the Tablets ignoring the immeasurable damage this would cause to the Jewish people. Clearly he would not have destroyed something unless he was convinced that by the destruction of whatever it was he would perform something infinitely more useful than that which he destroyed. We are told in Avot de Rabbi Natan chapter 2 that Moses did not shatter the Tablets until told to do so by G'd. This view is confirmed by Rabbi Meir who cites Deut. 10,5 as support for this view. He derives this from Moses saying "they remained therein as G'd had commanded me." If so, we must understand why G'd withheld the good contained in the Tablets from His people. [the question is appropriate in view of the Torah having told us that G'd decided not to carry out His plan to destroy the people. Ed.]

Perhaps the lesson in these words is similar to the message of the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah, 2,19: "your wickedness itself has become your affliction;" i.e. the sin itself becomes the bane of the person who perpetrated it. By embracing evil, the sin itself destroys those who love it and who hate sanctity. When the Torah speaks of אשר עשו, it refers to the consequences of the act of making the calf. וישק את בני ישראל, he made the Israelites drink of it. This was designed to open the eyes of the blind and to teach them to hate evil and to love sanctity which implies a love for the good for goodness' own sake.

מה עשה לך העם הזה? "What did this people do to you?" Moses recognised that the making of a cast idol for others is not one of the commandments for which one has to sacrifice one's life rather than to do so under duress. Compare Maimonides' treatise on the laws of idolatry chapter three in which he rules that a person who commits such a sin is punishable only by 39 lashes. If a person performs such a deed under duress he is not punishable at all. If he had not been forced to do what he did under threat of death he is punishable by 39 lashes even if he had not been warned of the consequences of his deed by witnesses acceptable in Jewish law (Makkot 6). Moses therefore wanted to know the circumstances which caused Aaron to make the calf.

WHAT DID THIS PEOPLE UNTO THEE, THAT THOU HAST BROUGHT SO GREAT A SIN UPON THEM? “How many pains did you endure, and how much suffering did they inflict on you, before you brought this sin upon them?” This is Rashi’s language. But it does not appear to me to be correct. For this transgression [of idolatry] is of the kind for which one must sacrifice one’s life and submit to death rather than transgress it [and from Rashi’s words it would appear that if Aaron had suffered much it was permissible for him to make it]. Perhaps Moses told him so in order to magnify his guilt.
The correct interpretation appears to me to be that this is like the verse, What have I done? what is mine iniquity? and what is my sin before thy father, that he seeketh my life? Moses is thus saying: “What hatred did you have for this people, that you have [almost] brought about their destruction and annihilation?” Moses told him this because Aaron had served them in the function of one who reproves and atones for them, and he should have had compassion and mercy on them [and should have made them desist from their course of conduct]; thus the meaning is: “You conducted yourself towards them as an enemy who desires to see their calamity, when they had neither sinned nor transgressed against you.” Now the proper order would have been for Moses to blame him firstly for the sin which he himself had done, and then to charge him for the sin which he brought upon the people, saying: “how did you do this great sin against G-d, causing also many people to trespass, and bringing a great sin upon them?” Moses, however, in his humility showed respect towards his elder brother, and only mentioned to him the stumbling of the people. It is possible that Moses’ heart was steadfast, trusting in the righteousness of his brother [and he assumed] that his intention was not a bad one, [and therefore he did not reprove him for his own conduct]; but for the people’s guilt he did blame him, for he should have reproved them, and thus they stumbled because of him, — and Aaron replied that they deceived him with their words.

MISHNA: In the case of one who deposited coins with another, and that bailee bound it in a cloth and slung it behind him, or conveyed them to his minor son or daughter for safeguarding, or locked the door before them in an inappropriate, i.e., insufficient, manner to secure them, the bailee is liable to pay for the coins, as he did not safeguard the coins in the manner typical of bailees. But if he safeguarded the money in the manner that bailees safeguard items and it was nevertheless stolen, he is exempt.